 What's up you guys it's Adana I am super excited because this is the beginning of PA application cycle and so if you want to get into PA school and you don't know what CASPA is this video is for you if you want to get into PA school and you do know what CASPA is this video is also for you because in this video I'm going to be running through everything you need to know about CASPA and I'm going to try to do this as efficiently and as concise as I possibly can to help you be more comfortable and more confident going into this application cycle so let's get into this video right now. What's up you guys it's Adana welcome back to my channel okay so like I said it is May 1st CASPA's application like cycle has been open for the past three days it opened up April 28th and so you are still fresh in this you can still apply early um no worries there and I always tell you guys to apply early but let's start with the basics right so if you don't know what CASPA is CASPA is the centralized application service for physician assistants so shortly and like simply put this is our general application website that you go to to apply to all of the various different PA schools that you're trying to apply to. Now not every program actually participates with CASPA but the majority of the like 300 PA schools that are in existence do okay so this is a site that you have to be very familiar with if you're trying to apply to PA school so that is first things first as I said it opened April 28th and then if you're not like trying to apply to PA school this year it's okay because uh you just kind of need to know exactly when it opens each year and it's around the same time like from the 27th to the 30th of April is typically it's typically the last Wednesday I would say of April okay so that is something that you should definitely be aware of and definitely know about because you know you're trying to apply to PA school. With that being said there are typically four sections of CASPA and in these sections you're going to enter out anything from all of your personal information you're going to enter in all of your coursework that you have taken thus far you'll enter in your transcripts and GPA and those courses uh now CASPA does allow you to like have them do it but it is four fees so just keep that in mind but these are all things that you're going to have to pay for. Also you are going to be entering your personal statement uh information and then any of the standardized exams that you've taken as well as your evaluations so lots of different sections mainly four and they have like subsections in them but that will be how CASPA is laid out you'll have four general sections and in those general sections there are going to be subsections that you're going to have to run through. I think the first thing that you need to know when going to CASPA is what schools you're applying to and when their deadlines are so you can always go to the main page of CASPA and then off on the side there's going to be like a dark blue box that says participating programs when you click on that it will show you a list in alphabetical order of all of the schools that participate with CASPA and then off to the side it will show you all of their deadlines for the application now it's going to be in different colors because different colors mean different things there are certain colors that mean you have to have all of your material in by this particular date there are other colors that mean that you only need to have like some of your material in and I will list that out for you right here so that you can see exactly what the various different colors mean but you need to keep in mind and pay close attention to that because that is pivotal when it when it comes to applying to PA school because you don't want to miss any of these deadlines and you don't want to apply a school with material that you don't need right so those are things to keep in mind all right so let's talk about transcripts so with respect to transcripts when you are applying to PA school through CASPA there is a transcript form that you actually have to print out so you will print that transcript form out for the particular school that you are interested in and so you would add the school to your list of schools that you're trying to apply to you will print out the transcript request form it has a little bar code on it that is specific to the program that you're applying to and then when you print that out you will then send that or bring it to your school the program that you're currently at your undergraduate program they will print out your transcript they will have to full they have to do this okay remind them that they have to put this form in with your transcript so that CASPA when they receive it they can scan it and then they can they know exactly that it's coming from the school they know that everything is appropriate and and all together and that information can easily be transferred off from the CASPA team into your CASPA application now when it comes to transcripts transcripts can take a little while to actually get verified and go through the process about two weeks and that is the same thing for your CASPA application as well so when you are thinking about when you're applying to these different programs make sure that you give yourself at least at least three or so weeks I would even say four weeks to make sure that your application is verified and you have enough time to have that application sent in so that all of the information that you're trying to get into your CASPA application is there before you actually hit submit to apply to a program okay all right and so like I said with respect to submission of your application give yourself time your application has to be CASPA verified and so again on CASPA site it says that it takes anywhere from like it can take up to four weeks but um give itself give yourself like two weeks for the application to be verified so when you hit verify that is essentially submitting to your first program okay so you submit you hit verify you submit to your first program and that is it let's say you apply to three programs initially like you have one school that is essentially your first program and then you've applied to two other programs in that same moment of hitting submit it's okay no worries because you can still apply to other programs so you can still apply after your application has been verified to three or four more programs or how many of your programs you're willing to apply to but what you have to keep in mind is that a verified application cannot be changed and so you cannot add new information in terms of like adding a letter of recommendation or sending um a transcript that was not sent before it is not going to be verified by CASPA and so whatever your GPA says with your verified application that is what it is um and that can be hard for some people because essentially your GPA is kind of what's opening that door for the schools to kind of see you let you in and be like okay let me see what this person is about let me get to know them by looking through the rest of their application and so if you need a GP if you need a transcript that will boost your GPA up to like a 3.5 but right now your GPA is like a 3.3 or 3.2 um and you've already hit verify that that is that's it okay and so that is something that you need to remember that is a lesson that I learned the hard way um so I'm just kind of sharing these pearls with you because it is important to make sure that every information that you want is in the application before you hit submit for the verification process okay let's talk about letters of evaluation or your letters of recommendation so there is a section where you're going to put in all of your evaluations and that will be your LORs as well as the various different standardized exams that you've taken now there are different schools that accept different standardized exams and that is like part of the difficult part of applying to ph school and I've said this over and over and over again that there's nothing truly standardized across the board there may be programs that accept the MCAT and there are programs that don't accept the MCAT there may be programs that require the GRE um and the CASPER exam and there are going to be programs that don't accept the GRE or it's not even recommended but they do want the CASPER and so uh when you are applying you need to know exactly what programs you're trying to apply to and what the various different requirements are for those programs and so you have to go to their website figure that out and then once you have that information make sure that you've already taken those various different exams now you'll enter in your letters of recommendation it is again a form that you will fill out with your recommender's information like their name and their email address so that CASPER can send over the evaluation through email for them to fill out and complete online and then it will electronically be sent right back to CASPER so you're kind of just the middleman in this you don't really have to like go like in the old days and like hand over a request to your teacher and say hey can you fill this out for me and then they write a letter and then you take it back and then you send it to the one school this is a centralized application site so one letter of recommendation could go to like 50 different programs and that is the beauty of this okay for your letters of recommendation you'll need a minimum of three okay three letters of recommendation you can have a maximum of five so choose wisely obviously in terms of your three make sure that one of those is from a PA when it comes to your GRE and your CASPER exam so just like with your SAT or with your MCAT if you've ever taken those there are school codes that you can put in and so with your GRE after you've taken it you put in the school code that you are interested in applying to so it's really important for you to have those with you if you don't it's okay you can wait for ETS to process your GRE scores and then when you go into the ETS website which is the GRE website okay or you would have gone it's ETS.org you would have gone there to apply you know to fill out the application to actually sit for your GRE so once you've gone there you've you go in and you see your scores and then you will take those scores and you'll choose what schools you want to apply to and so you would just go to the school and find out what their GRE code is and then enter it there but that's something that you should keep in mind as well so let's talk about how much it costs to apply to these schools and apply through CASPER so CASPER does have a fee but you can also apply for fee waivers so the CASPER fee for your first program is $179 and for each subsequent program is $56 now this has been upped a little from the previous years it was like $175 and then $55 up a little bit more but not significantly so but it is something that you should keep in mind the fee waiver is essentially on a first come first serve basis and so if you need assistance in applying to your first and second school this fee waiver will do that so you will have to go to CASPER's website apply for the fee waiver there are various different qualifications and requirements that you're going to have to meet to actually like qualify for the fee waiver but if you do get awarded the fee waiver it will give you $235 that you can apply to your first program and then $56 for the subsequent program that you're applying to it has to be done like in conjunction it's a one-time thing and there is an expiration date on this fee waiver so just keep that in mind when you are applying through CASPER and entering all of your experiences and your shadowing experiences your volunteer experiences all of the things that you've ever done any program that you have been involved all of those things are important kind of shows you know your give back feels and and what it is that you want to do in terms of volunteering how you want to help your community use the space that is allotted there so that you don't have to come and try to put all of that information in your personal statement as I stated there are going to be sections where you're going to be entering the schools that you're interested in and then each of those schools may have subsequent supplemental application questions through CASPER now this is not a supplemental application that the school will send you that you'll have to pay extra for because that is something that you need to keep in mind as well however when it comes to CASPER there are some programs that have built in application questions like one to five or so questions that you'll have to answer so when you're putting in those programs make sure that you're keeping that in mind make sure that you're keeping in mind that your essay like a personal statement has to be 5000 characters or less and then each supplemental application will have application questions as they call it on CASPER will have their own requirements as well so just be concise when you are answering it but also make sure that you're answering the question so that is it this is everything that you need to know about CASPER if you think that there is something else like if you know like you've already started your application and there are some questions that you may want about CASPER you know please leave them in the comment section below but I think these are like the key points the key things that you really need to know about CASPER which is what it is when it opened which was three days ago essentially how much it costs to apply and then the various different sections that you may have to go through and the information that you're going to need to apply to all of these schools okay thank you guys so much for watching if you haven't already done so subscribe and like this video follow me on instagram and down the pa and on instagram at get that's the university if you have any other questions for me leave them in the comment section below thank you guys I will talk to you guys next time bye