The Pre-PA Club

Avery Tinsley, PA-S and former Teach For America recruiter, has sat on both sides of the interview table. In this workshop she walks through exactly how to prepare for a PA school interview: the formats you will see, the mistakes that sink strong applicants, and her recipes for the questions you will definitely get.

In this episode:

• Traditional, MMI, group, and writing stations, and why PA programs put their own twist on the MMI
• The four pitfalls: no mock practice, rehearsed stories instead of real reflection, filler words and wandering eyes, and the missing humble brag
• Interview day basics: you are on from the minute you leave the house, wear your power color, research your interviewers, take notes, send the thank-you
• The journaling prompts to run on every CASPA experience so you can answer anything, not just the questions you rehearsed
• Why info sessions and 15-minute calls with alumni beat "I read your website"
• Tell me about yourself: the traditional and the non-traditional version
• Why PA and why this program without repeating your personal statement
• The one question Avery always asks at the end of an interview
• STAR answers with the full-circle bow, and how to show up in a group interview as leader, secretary, or timekeeper
• Listener Q&A: switching from pre-med, explaining a failed grade, how long answers should be, and asking a program about probation

Mentioned in this episode:

• Book a mock interview with a PA Platform coach: portal.thepaplatform.com/checkout
• Avery's MMI workshop is on The PA Platform YouTube channel
• Savanna's PA school interview book and interview worksheet: thepaplatform.com/newsletter
• Pre-PA Club Community - prepaclub.thepaplatform.com

A waitlist is a yes. Go get ready.

Grad PLUS loans are gone for new students, and the rules for what replaces them are still being decided in court. So how do you actually pay for PA school in 2026? Savanna sits down with Leah Young, Head of Student Success at Juno, to walk through federal vs. private loans, what your credit score needs to look like before you borrow, how compound interest sneaks up on you, and the questions to ask before you sign anything.

In this episode:

• What happened to Grad PLUS and what the new federal limits ($20,500 vs. $50,000 per year) mean for PA students
• The federal loan rate this year is 8.07% plus an origination fee. Juno's average private rate for PA students on a 10-year term is about 7.5%
• Why your own credit score and history (not your parents') decide your rate, and the 640 to 670 FICO floor most lenders look for
• 83% of PA students who apply through Juno without a cosigner get approved
• In-school payment options and how program length changes your total cost
• Why nobody should pressure you into a loan, and how to compare offers without hurting your credit

Links from the episode:

• Check your rates with Juno (no credit impact): joinjuno.com/p/thepaplatform
• Paying for PA school hub: thepaplatform.com/junopage
• Watch the full interview on YouTube: youtu.be/_bxrjsTe9IQ

Leah Young is Head of Student Success at Juno, with a background in financial aid administration and nonprofit financial education.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Juno.

I'm back, and I brought two people I really wanted you to meet.

Brittani and Cameron are married PAs. She's in gynecology, he's in interventional radiology - two specialties that could not look more different from each other. They also became foster parents, which is its own enormous thing to take on while building careers in medicine.

We talk about what it's like going through PA education as a couple. Studying next to someone who's just as exhausted as you are helps. It also means nobody is holding down the rest of your life while you're gone.

Interventional radiology is a specialty almost no pre-PA has heard of, so Cameron explaining what he actually does is worth the listen on its own.

And they're honest about the emotional side of fostering while working demanding jobs. It's not a tidy story, and I appreciate that they didn't make it one.

What we cover:

• Two PAs, two very different specialties
• What a gynecology PA does day to day
• What interventional radiology actually involves
• Going through PA school as a couple
• Becoming foster parents alongside medical careers
• Building a life around two demanding schedules

Resources:

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free Resume Download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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2.99. One hundredth of a point under the number everybody says is the cutoff.

Sarah Matthews applied with that GPA and got in. She's now practicing in OB-GYN and urogynecology.

I want to be careful here, because this is not me telling you GPA doesn't matter. It does, and a 2.99 makes everything harder. What Sarah's story shows is that programs read whole applications, and the rest of yours has to be strong enough to carry the number.

So we get into what she did - how she handled the GPA question head on, what she built around it, and how she chose where to apply. Being strategic about your program list matters enormously when you're below a threshold.

If you've been told a low GPA disqualifies you, this is the counterexample. Just don't mistake it for permission to stop working on your grades.

What we cover:

• Applying with a 2.99 CASPA GPA and what that felt like
• Building the rest of an application strong enough to carry it
• Addressing a low GPA without making excuses
• Choosing programs realistically
• Life as an OB-GYN and urogynecology PA
• What she'd tell someone sitting just under a cutoff

Resources:

CASPA GPA Calculator: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-caspa-gpa-calculator

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

Mentioned in this episode:

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Dermatology is one of the hardest PA jobs to get with no derm experience. Amanda Lark got one anyway.

And she didn't do it by applying to postings and waiting. She got creative about how she reached out, which is the part of this episode I'd rewind if I were you. Most good first jobs are not filled off a job board.

Her road to PA school wasn't smooth either. She hit obstacles and kept going, and she's clear that stubbornness is an underrated qualification for this whole process.

We also talk about what a derm PA actually does all day, because it's a specialty people picture completely wrong - it's not all cosmetics, and skin cancer is a serious part of the job.

If you already know you want a competitive specialty out of school, start building toward it now.

What we cover:

• Landing a derm job without derm experience
• How she approached practices instead of waiting on job postings
• What a dermatology PA does day to day
• Obstacles on her path to PA school and how she got past them
• Why hands-on patient care shaped her more than anything else
• Advice for anyone targeting a competitive specialty

Resources:

Free Resume Download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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We recorded this right around Alyssa's first day as an ENT PA. You can hear the nerves.

You might know her as @lyssllo on TikTok. She's a brand-new grad, and this is that specific window where you've passed the boards, you have the credential, and you still feel like someone's going to figure out you don't know anything.

Everybody feels that. It passes. The people who do well in it are the ones who stay curious and keep asking questions instead of performing confidence they don't have.

She also talks about how shadowing and working different roles in healthcare shaped her, and about how much of this job is teamwork. Nobody practices alone, and being easy to work with is an actual clinical skill.

ENT wasn't on her radar at first, which is its own good lesson. Stay open. The specialty you end up loving might be one you've never thought about.

What we cover:

• Day one as a new grad ENT PA
• The gap between graduating and feeling competent
• Shadowing and different healthcare roles before PA school
• What PA school was hardest at
• Teamwork and collaboration in a real clinic
• Ending up in a specialty you didn't plan on

Resources:

Free Resume Download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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"I want to help people." That sentence has never gotten anyone into PA school.

Peter Alfano is a family medicine PA and one of our coaches, and he's back to talk about the two places applicants lose the most ground: the personal statement and the interview.

The pattern he sees over and over is vagueness. Vague reasons for choosing PA. Vague descriptions of experiences. Vague answers in interviews that could apply to literally anyone. Specificity is the fix for all of it - one real moment, described in detail, beats three paragraphs of general enthusiasm.

In interviews, the same rule holds. Don't tell them you're a hard worker. Tell them about the shift where you stayed late and what you did.

Peter reads a lot of these and sits on the other side of a lot of practice interviews, so this is what he's actually seeing go wrong.

What we cover:

• The most common personal statement mistakes
• Why "I want to help people" isn't a reason
• Turning an experience into a story with a point
• Being specific under pressure in an interview
• Answers that sound rehearsed versus answers that land
• How coaching changes what you can see in your own writing

Resources:

Free Personal Statement Worksheet: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-personal-statement-worksheet-download

Pre-PA Essay Review: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-essay-review

PA School Interview Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/physician-assistant-school-interview-guide

Mock Interview: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/mock-interview

Mentioned in this episode:

CapYear Training

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Nobody teaches you money in PA school. Then you graduate with six figures of debt and a real salary for the first time.

Kristin Burton is a PA who runs Strive with Kristin, and she came on to talk about the stuff we all avoid. Student debt and how to think about paying it down. Investing when you're starting late because you spent your twenties in school. And salary transparency, which is still weirdly taboo in medicine.

That last one matters most for new grads. If you don't know what the job is worth, you will accept less than it's worth. Talk to people. Ask numbers out loud.

Standard disclaimer, and I mean it: I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice. Kristin shares her approach and her experience. Talk to a professional about your specific situation before you make big decisions.

What we cover:

• Why financial literacy is missing from PA education
• Approaches to paying down student loans
• Starting to invest when you feel behind
• Salary transparency and knowing your worth as a new grad
• Negotiating a first PA contract
• Building habits now that matter later

Resources:

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free Resume Download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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A PA degree and a public health degree at the same time. That's Touro University California.

Joy Moverley directs the joint MSPAS/MPH program, and I wanted to understand who this is actually for. Because it's not for everyone, and that's fine.

The idea is that a lot of what makes your patients sick isn't happening in your exam room. Housing, food access, transportation, income. A PA who's trained in public health walks in already thinking about those things instead of learning it the hard way ten years in.

Joy talks about how their curriculum builds that in, including lifestyle coaching for diabetes prevention - teaching students to actually change patient behavior rather than just prescribe and hope.

The program is built around community engagement and serving diverse populations. If that's the medicine you want to practice, look at this one carefully.

What we cover:

• What a joint MSPAS/MPH program covers and how long it takes
• Social determinants of health in a PA curriculum
• Lifestyle coaching and diabetes prevention training
• Who this dual-degree path fits and who it doesn't
• Touro's approach to community engagement and inclusivity
• What Joy looks for in an applicant

Resources:

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA School Interview Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/physician-assistant-school-interview-guide

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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2023 was a big year over here, and a lot of you don't know half of what we added.

So this is the recap. Quick, useful, and mostly a list of things that might solve a problem you currently have.

We added PA school tutoring through partnerships with Rosh Review and Blueprint, which is for people already in a program who are drowning in a class and need actual help instead of another study playlist.

We launched the Pre-PA AI, which is free and answers your application questions any time of day using my own material.

And Pre-PA Academy, which is the structured version of everything I teach - the whole path in one place instead of scattered across a hundred podcast episodes.

Thank you for listening this year. Genuinely. Let's go get 2024.

What I cover:

• Everything that changed at The PA Platform in 2023
• PA school tutoring through Rosh Review and Blueprint
• What the free Pre-PA AI does
• Pre-PA Academy and who it's for
• Which resource to use for which problem
• What's coming next

Resources:

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

Free PA School Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

CapYear Training

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