PA school interviews

Taking part in an interview for PA school is quite an adventure in and of itself - I should know: I did it twice.  The day begins as any other with an alarm clock blaring.  The first difference is that the candidate is most likely already awake and just waiting for the alarm clock to go off.  The morning routine progresses with more intensity, more enthusiasm, more attention to detail, and often more quickly than usual.  The trip to the interview site goes more quickly than ever before, too.  It is filled with thoughts about how to answer the questions, about what the future might hold, and often about how much the interview itself means to the candidate.  One question that comes up often is, "Why do I want to be a PA, anyway?"  Everyone's answer is different, but this is the central question that interviewers want to get at.  The interviewers want an answer and then they have to judge whether a person's motives are adequate.  This is the tricky part. 

It is this last part that I want to comment on today.  I have now had the experience of interviewing the next round of candidates to come through my school's PA program.  It was my task to assess whether or not the candidate's motives are right, whether they are at the right depth and maturity, and whether or not the candidate really knows what lies ahead - what a PA is and does, what it means to be in PA school, and what taking sips from a firehose is all about.  In the end, it comes down to one decision: accept or reject.  This was the hardest part for me.  Having been in their shoes so recently, I could see the future they were hoping for and that this interview was their first step.  I could still see it from their perspective very freshly.  Thus it was difficult to weed out those who just didn't have it - I wanted them all to succeed because they all brought some sort of promising characteristics to the table.  Some not as much, and these were the ones that I could not decide upon.  But weighing these things - desire, motivation, knowledge, maturity, motives - was done well and a good class is coming up for next year. 

I was honored to help select them and humbled by those that I did not select.  Afterall, I did not get selected once and I remember how it feels.  My hope is that all those who didn't make it will show their true character by keeping their chins up, setting goals to improve themselves over the coming year, meeting those goals and re-applying next year.  If they do these things, they will shine brighter among a group of bright young people next year and will, in the end, make a fine PA someday.