You worked hard, you applied, and you did it! You got an interview!
A weight is lifted off your shoulder, you can relax.
The important thing to keep in mind here is that the admissions committee already likes you and just wants to get to know you better! Prepare right, appear confident and your goal is in sight!
There are a few things you can do to prepare for your interview:
First, make sure you have all of your travel arrangements lined up. If you don't have to fly or take a train, make sure you have directions to the building and have made arrangements for a parking pass. Always plan to get there half an hour before the interview starts. If anything, you can just sit in the parking lot because the worst thing you would want is to be rushing to get to the interview because of traffic and get there all flustered and nervous before your interview.
If you don't already, make sure you have the appropriate attire for an interview. Everyone has different styles, but I think that the best and most professional way to dress for an interview is a suit in a neutral color. If you don't have a suit you can wear a professional blazer with matching dress pants. I wore a navy suit from Anne Taylor (I went to the outlet and they had amaaazing prices) and a white shirt underneath. I styled it with a simple necklace and a non-blingy ring that I wear everyday. I kept my nails either a light neutral color or with no nail polish at all. I'm pretty tall as it is and I knew I would be more comfortable walking around in flats than heels, so I opted for nude flats. For you guys, I imagine the same rules apply. For healthcare compared to other careers, I think its important to wear neutral colors and toned down accessories. The book "The Ultimate Guide to Getting Into Physician Assistant School" By Andrew J. Rodican helped me finalize my outfit.
Some schools I applied to required me to bring a wallet sized photo of myself to the interview. I took a picture of myself in my interview attire (to help them remember me better) and sent it to CVS to print a few.
To prepare for the actual interview, I did some research on the program. I made a word doc with the program's mission statement, program goals and values, 5 year PANCE rate, and other unique aspects about the program. I also farmiliarized myself with the curriculum, the start date, program length, and other program overview information. I used this information to help me answer the interview questions and to also think of aspects of myself that I wanted to discuss in the interview.
Be sure you are very farmiliar with your resume/CV and CASPA application as some schools will do open application interviews, meaning that they will have your app right in front of them and will asked you questions based off of it.
Based off the research I just did, I came up with 3 questions to ask the interviewer. I think this is extremely important because it allows you to have more face-time, but also shows how well you know the program and shows how interested you are. With one interview I went on, I asked 4-5 questions and the interviewers and I wound up talking about more than just those 4-5 questions which I think gave me a leg up.
To prepare for the interview questions, I used the book I discussed above and also googled the most common PA school interview questions and prepared for those. I'll be making a later blog post about those so look out for that! I also recommend doing a mock interview with either someone who has been accepted to PA school, is in PA school, or an advisor/faculty teacher. If you can, I would considering having the mock interview be with a faculty member of advisor because it will be more formal than just interviewing with you friend. If you have the resources for both, do it! It's important to not memorize your questions word-for-word at the risk of not sounding like a robot. You want to appear to the admissions comittee as confident and someone who is able to talk and think through things on the spot, while still appearing genuine.
Talk to the other applicants! I found that talking to other students made me less nervous and it was also super exciting to me to meet other people who shared the same passion for being a PA as I did! At the program I will be attending, I wound up sharing an uber home with one of the other interviewees and we both got accepted and will be attending together :)
Within 24 hours of your interview, send a thank you email (or handwritten card- way more formal, but the downside is that a decision may be made before your card gets to admissions). I was able to find almost all of my interviewers' emails on the pa program website, but if I could not find them, I sent the thank you email to whoever I was in contat with about the interview and asked them to pass it on. Some schools really put an emphasis on professionalism, and in these cases, I believe sending a thank you email is crucial. I've written a template below of what mine looked like:
" Hello [insert name],
I would like to thank you for taking the time to interview with me today. Our conversation only reinforced my desire to attend [insert pa program name]. [Then I talked about specific things the interviewer and I discussed such as The Standardized Patient Labs would be such a helpful tool in learning to focus on patient communication skills.]. Through [x,y,z, traits about yourself], I hope to contribute to the growth of physician assistants and uphold the prestigious reputation of [insert program name]. I look forward to hearing from the program.
Best,
Brittany"
Lastly, just smile and be yourself! You know yourself better than anyone else and you know what you're capable of.
A weight is lifted off your shoulder, you can relax.
The important thing to keep in mind here is that the admissions committee already likes you and just wants to get to know you better! Prepare right, appear confident and your goal is in sight!
There are a few things you can do to prepare for your interview:
First, make sure you have all of your travel arrangements lined up. If you don't have to fly or take a train, make sure you have directions to the building and have made arrangements for a parking pass. Always plan to get there half an hour before the interview starts. If anything, you can just sit in the parking lot because the worst thing you would want is to be rushing to get to the interview because of traffic and get there all flustered and nervous before your interview.
If you don't already, make sure you have the appropriate attire for an interview. Everyone has different styles, but I think that the best and most professional way to dress for an interview is a suit in a neutral color. If you don't have a suit you can wear a professional blazer with matching dress pants. I wore a navy suit from Anne Taylor (I went to the outlet and they had amaaazing prices) and a white shirt underneath. I styled it with a simple necklace and a non-blingy ring that I wear everyday. I kept my nails either a light neutral color or with no nail polish at all. I'm pretty tall as it is and I knew I would be more comfortable walking around in flats than heels, so I opted for nude flats. For you guys, I imagine the same rules apply. For healthcare compared to other careers, I think its important to wear neutral colors and toned down accessories. The book "The Ultimate Guide to Getting Into Physician Assistant School" By Andrew J. Rodican helped me finalize my outfit.
Some schools I applied to required me to bring a wallet sized photo of myself to the interview. I took a picture of myself in my interview attire (to help them remember me better) and sent it to CVS to print a few.
To prepare for the actual interview, I did some research on the program. I made a word doc with the program's mission statement, program goals and values, 5 year PANCE rate, and other unique aspects about the program. I also farmiliarized myself with the curriculum, the start date, program length, and other program overview information. I used this information to help me answer the interview questions and to also think of aspects of myself that I wanted to discuss in the interview.
Be sure you are very farmiliar with your resume/CV and CASPA application as some schools will do open application interviews, meaning that they will have your app right in front of them and will asked you questions based off of it.
Based off the research I just did, I came up with 3 questions to ask the interviewer. I think this is extremely important because it allows you to have more face-time, but also shows how well you know the program and shows how interested you are. With one interview I went on, I asked 4-5 questions and the interviewers and I wound up talking about more than just those 4-5 questions which I think gave me a leg up.
To prepare for the interview questions, I used the book I discussed above and also googled the most common PA school interview questions and prepared for those. I'll be making a later blog post about those so look out for that! I also recommend doing a mock interview with either someone who has been accepted to PA school, is in PA school, or an advisor/faculty teacher. If you can, I would considering having the mock interview be with a faculty member of advisor because it will be more formal than just interviewing with you friend. If you have the resources for both, do it! It's important to not memorize your questions word-for-word at the risk of not sounding like a robot. You want to appear to the admissions comittee as confident and someone who is able to talk and think through things on the spot, while still appearing genuine.
Talk to the other applicants! I found that talking to other students made me less nervous and it was also super exciting to me to meet other people who shared the same passion for being a PA as I did! At the program I will be attending, I wound up sharing an uber home with one of the other interviewees and we both got accepted and will be attending together :)
Within 24 hours of your interview, send a thank you email (or handwritten card- way more formal, but the downside is that a decision may be made before your card gets to admissions). I was able to find almost all of my interviewers' emails on the pa program website, but if I could not find them, I sent the thank you email to whoever I was in contat with about the interview and asked them to pass it on. Some schools really put an emphasis on professionalism, and in these cases, I believe sending a thank you email is crucial. I've written a template below of what mine looked like:
" Hello [insert name],
I would like to thank you for taking the time to interview with me today. Our conversation only reinforced my desire to attend [insert pa program name]. [Then I talked about specific things the interviewer and I discussed such as The Standardized Patient Labs would be such a helpful tool in learning to focus on patient communication skills.]. Through [x,y,z, traits about yourself], I hope to contribute to the growth of physician assistants and uphold the prestigious reputation of [insert program name]. I look forward to hearing from the program.
Best,
Brittany"
Lastly, just smile and be yourself! You know yourself better than anyone else and you know what you're capable of.
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