Here's a short excerpt from my Pre-PA coaching program on writing your personal statement for PA school:
Ultimately, the goal of the personal statement is to one, show PA programs you WANT to be a PA, and two, that you SHOULD be a PA.
How do you do this?
Firstly, you need to identify your “why.” What was the turning point that made you decide you want to be a PA?
Secondly, you need to identify characteristics and experiences in yourself that portray you would be a good PA.
We’ll get into both of these in this lecture, but for now, recognize your goal with a personal statement is to ALLOW THE PROGRAM TO PICTURE YOU AS AN ACTIVE PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT.
Identifying your "why" - You might have to do some deep thinking to figure this out.
Think back to the earliest point in your life you realized or thought about being a PA. When was the first time you heard of the PA profession or interacted with a PA? Was it this interaction that made you want to be a PA? Was their emotion attached to it? Was there a problem that was solved by a PA?
This should be a powerful reason, not simply that a PA treated you once and you thought their job was cool. You want something that resonates with the admissions committee and shows your passion.
For me, my “why” was experiencing medical inequity as I grew up in a medically underserved community, I felt unheard, helpless, and hopeless. I grew dissent for the medical profession.
I was not aware of the PA profession at this point. Still holding this unhappiness with the medical profession, and unsure of what to do with my life, I enrolled in Physical Therapist Assistant school and began working with patients. I found a visceral passion I had never experienced before, and for the first time - a sense of hope that I could impact the world. However, I recognized I wanted to do more for patients - I wanted to practice medicine. I wanted to provide to patients what I saw PAs providing patients in the ICU. I wanted to provide that level of care, especially during emergencies. Once I further researched the PA profession, I recognized the mission matched my own, expanding healthcare to more people - particularly underserved communities, such as the one I grew up in. I yearned to be the change in medicine I so desperately wanted all those years I felt hopeless for my health.
Look at that previous slide again, I outlined my entire personal statement, aside from what I did to improve my capacity to be a PA.
I outlined from my where my passion/experience with medicine began, how it progressed, and my initial “why PA” breakthrough moment or my “epiphany.”
Next, I would add my “why I SHOULD be a PA,” from gaining experience as a PTA, shadowing multiple specialties, serving in several organizations in underserved communities, advocating for patients in numerous organizations, and interacting with an array of Pre-PAs, PA-S, and PA-Cs.