 Hey good morning guys. It's been a while since I've made a video about getting into PA school, but here we go. Here's a video about getting into PA school. And by the way, if you're new here, my name is Boris. I'm a board certified physician assistant. I've been out of PA school for about six months. I've been working, practicing as a physician assistant for about three months. And if you look back on my channel, you can see my whole story, how it took me 14 years from the time that I decided I wanted to practice medicine until I finally graduated with my PA license and actually started practicing medicine. So it was a really long road, really long journey, lots of mistakes, lots of ups and downs, lots of learning. And that's why I feel qualified to teach people how to get into PA school, especially if they're not the most competitive applicants. Okay. So just in case you're new here, that's what this channel used to be about. Kind of changing course right now. But anyway, I digress. The point is, this video is about getting into PA school. And what motivated me to make this video is a pre PA counseling session that I just did with a, I'd say probably middle of the road, pretty competitive applicant, definitely not someone with like a low GPA who really needs a lot of help, but definitely not like someone who's just a total shoe in to any school that they want to go to, someone kind of middle of the road. I would expect that this person would get in on their first try if they apply to enough schools. And if they apply to the right schools, so schools that are right for them, and maybe schools that they've made a personal connection with, like I've talked about in countless videos on my channel. So the title of today's video, the topic is focus on your strengths and focus on what makes you unique as an applicant when you're applying to PA school. So that means when you're answering questions in your interview, if you get an interview, when you're writing your essay, and when you're just crafting your Casper and choosing what to emphasize, what experiences to talk about, and what to talk about in those experiences. So for example, without giving too much detail away, this patient, this patient, I'm so used to talking about patients now and not students because I'm actually practicing, and I'm not in school anymore, so sorry, this student, this pre-PA student, this PA school applicant had a pretty good GPA definitely within the range that you would expect to get into PA school. They had a good amount of hours, patient care experience hours, and they were high quality, definitely in the thousands. And what was cool is that these hours were actually gotten doing something that the person was passionate about, not just some random medical job to get hours like scribing or CNA, unless you're really passionate about scribing or CNA, it wasn't something run-of-the-mill, it was something actually pretty unique and consistent with this person's interests, clinical interests. And so I thought that was very cool and actually pretty unique about this person. So the point is, this person had a good GPA, lots of hours. Those are like the twin pillars of getting into PA school, the main things. Now, a lot of the people that you compete with, most of the people actually that you compete with, are going to have those two things in check. They're going to have high GPAs, they're going to have plenty of high quality hours. So how do you stand out? How do you set yourself apart from all those people? Because not every single person with a high GPA and with a lot of patient care hours gets in. So how do you set yourself apart? Well, in this person's case, this person spoke like three or four languages, I forget, but more than two and like fluently. So three or four languages fluently, which is amazing. And then there was the thing that I just mentioned, where basically all of their hours or most of their hours were gotten, working in a field that they were actually very passionate about, and it was actually a very unique field of medicine. It was pretty niche. So you might think like, oh, a broad experience working at the ER, working in primary care might be the best. And you know, I could see the merits of that argument, but at the same time, working in something very unique and then wanting to practice in that area as a physician assistant, once you get certified, I think it's very interesting. And I think it's pretty rare in an applicant. So I thought those two things, the fact that they were trilingual or quadrilingual, like more than two fluently, and that they got a lot of experience in this very niche, very unique field. And they're very passionate about it. And they actually have experience in it going into school. And the fact that they actually want to work in this field after school, I thought those two things were very unique, definitely very cool. And something that this person can speak about very passionately in their interview, in their essay, and just all over their castbook. And one thing that I thought was kind of weird, actually, was this person didn't really talk about this a whole lot in their essay. And what this applicant actually told me was I didn't think it was important. I didn't think that it was that unique that I speak three or four languages. I didn't think it was very unique or very interesting that I actually want to focus. And I know what I want to specialize it before I even go to school. Now, true, that might change. But the fact that this person is so set on this one field, I thought was really unique, was really cool. And at this point, since I've been doing these pre-PA counselings and editing people's essays and doing mock interviews and basically helping probably well over 100 people get into PA school at this point, I've seen a lot of applications. And I told her from my experience, and also just from talking to my classmates in school and just seeing lots and lots of practicing PAs and people going to PA school and people in PA school, I told her those two things were very unique and very, very, very, very valuable as a practicing physician assistant. So I told this person to absolutely focus their essay and if they get an interview to focus their interview answers on those two things. So what is the topic of this video? Focus on your strengths. Focus on what makes you unique. Those two things are extremely important. And if you are like this person and you have something like that that makes you stand out, that if you think critically about it, you know not every PA school applicant is going to have and most will not, those are things that you need to focus on. Does that mean that you don't also need a high GPA and plenty of high quality hours? No, no, those are like prerequisites, their minimums, everyone who gets in has to have those two things. But how do you set yourself apart and make yourself interesting and make yourself valuable to a PA school and eventually to an employer? Those are the things that make you unique. So think about those things and absolutely do not be afraid to emphasize them. In fact, emphasize them as much as possible. Okay, guys, that's all I have for today. If you want my help getting into PA school, I do still do that. I do still edit essays, do pre-PA counsellings, do mock interviews, just not very often anymore since I'm practicing and I just don't have a lot of time. So I do maybe one or two a week at most. So if you want me to help you, go to my website boristhepa.com, see how to book one of those services. If you have any simple questions you think I can just answer that you think people can get a benefit from, besides just you, leave it in a comment. I'll answer that and that way everybody gets the benefit of my answer. All right, guys, I'll see you in the next video. Thank you for watching.