pa school autobiographical essay example

CASPA Personal Statement Examples for Your PA School Application

September 9, 2024
Physician Assistant , Pre-PA/PA-CAT

In this post we review two CASPA personal statement examples.

The Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) personal statement is your opportunity to explain the “why” behind your decision to become a PA. Talking about yourself can be challenging and uncomfortable, but this is your chance to be your own best advocate!

To help you get started, I recommend first checking out our other post, The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing an Impactful PA School Personal Statement which walks you through everything you need to know about how to write your CASPA personal statement.

Now, if you’re still wondering what a CASPA personal statement looks like, you’ve come to the right place! In this post, you’ll find two CASPA personal statement examples. As you read through them, put yourself in the mindset of the review committee. Do you know why this applicant wants to become a PA? Do you get a sense of who they are from what they’ve written? Would you invite them for an interview to learn more about them?

So with your review committee member hat on, take a close look at the following CASPA personal statement examples. We’ll review each, so you can see what they got right and wrong.

Let’s get started!

CASPA Personal Statement Example #1

(Spoiler alert: Here’s what not to do!)

I would like to become a Physician’s Assistant because I believe it will provide an exciting opportunity to challenge myself further as a clinician. PAs are important members of the healthcare team that are able to expand access to healthcare. PAs work in many specialties and care for patients of different populations. PAs are able to work in both medical and surgical specialties and provide high quality care to patients.

I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in athletic training to combine my love of sports with my interest in medicine upon graduating from college. After completing my degree, I accepted a position at the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children where I have held positions in both the Department of Therapeutic Services as well as most recently as a physician extender in the Department of Orthopaedics. Over the past too years I have worked alongside of Physician’s Assistants across many specialties. I decided I would like to purse a degree in physician assistant studies to expand my knowledge base, enhance my clinical skills, and take on a more advanced role in the care of patients as a PA in Orthopedic Surgery.

As an athletic trainer, I have developed my skills in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of sports related injuries and general orthopedic conditions. I plan to become a PA in Orthopedic Surgery after graduation. Orthopedic surgery is an exciting field that utilizes PAs in many ways. I look forward to completing elective rotations in orthopedic surgery. The diverse opportunities within ortho, including the OR, the outpatient clinic, and the inpatient setting, particularly excites me about this speciality. I believe my education and experience has well-prepared me for a career as a Physician’s Assistant.

How did this student do?

The sample above is weak and highlights some of the “don’ts” to avoid when writing your CASPA personal statement. For example, “physician’s assistant” is not the appropriate title and should not be used. The proper title is physician assistant (or physician associate), and it usually isn’t capitalized. Be sure to use physician assistant or PA to demonstrate to the committee that you’re familiar with the proper title of the profession.

Additionally, there are a couple of missed opportunities with the first paragraph. It’s dedicated to discussing what a PA does, rather than why the applicant wants to become one. Your CASPA personal statement is an opportunity to highlight why you would be a great PA, not to educate the review committee on what a PA does. Focus on you and your attributes rather than the role of PAs.

Additionally, there’s no hook. Your opening paragraph is the chance to get the reader’s attention and encourage them to continue reading. The first paragraph in this example fails to do that, and instead begins with a sentence about why the applicant wants to become a PA, then launches into a generic discussion about what PAs do.

This personal statement also focuses too much on one specialty . A PA education is broad and comprehensive. You want to demonstrate to the committee that you’re excited to learn about various aspects of medicine and that you appreciate the flexibility that comes with being a PA. While you might love orthopedic surgery, you need to show you’ll be interested and engaged throughout the program, not just on your elective rotation!

Finally, there are grammatical and spelling errors throughout the essay. The personal statement is a chance to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively and clearly. Always proofread for any errors, and it never hurts to have another set of eyes look over it as well!

In summary, this wasn’t a very good CASPA personal statement, as it fell short in several important respects. Let’s try again!

CASPA Personal Statement Example #2

As you read this sample, think about what’s improved from example #1!

We often wait for that one, big, impactful moment—that occasion of divine inspiration where the future is clear and everything suddenly makes sense. I never had an “aha” moment when I decided I wanted to become a physician assistant. Instead, while working alongside PAs in my current role, I have had the opportunity to witness the millions of little impacts they have on patients, families, coworkers, and colleagues. Moments in time that often seem like routine parts of their day—moments of knowledge and problem-solving, moments of comfort and compassion, and moments of strength and understanding—that can impact someone’s life forever. It was these moments, added up over time, that inspired me to become a PA.

And I believe it’s as a PA that I’ll reach my full potential, as it will provide an exciting opportunity to challenge myself further as a clinician. As an athletic trainer in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children for the past two years, I have been able to witness firsthand how PAs are integrated into the healthcare system, and the important role they play in a healthcare team. It was through this work that I realized I would like to pursue a degree in physician assistant studies to expand my knowledge base, enhance my clinical skills, and take on a more advanced role in the care of patients.

As an athletic trainer, I have been given a great deal of independence in terms of patient care, clinical decision-making, and interactions with other healthcare professionals. I pride myself on my ability to effectively communicate with patients, parents, and other members of the healthcare team. In my work, no two days are ever the same, and I am easily able to adapt to different situations. I believe the clinical skills I’ve acquired as an athletic trainer are critical to the successful care and treatment of patients and are not easily taught in a classroom setting. I developed them through the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of sports injuries and general orthopedic conditions. These conditions often require the attention of an entire medical team, and through coordination of care with other specialties I have been exposed to many other aspects of medicine. I have truly enjoyed being part of a team and gaining exposure to other branches of medicine, and becoming a PA will allow me to further explore other opportunities beyond the areas of sports medicine and orthopedics.

Finally, I also have a passion for clinical research and am interested in continuing to pursue this as a PA. I have collaborated with our physicians on multiple projects, asking clinical questions and developing studies to find answers to them. I believe research provides an avenue to further one’s clinical practice and actively learn more about how to optimize patient care.

In summary, my education and experience has well-prepared me for a career as a physician assistant. I am excited by the prospect of making my own impacts on the lives of patients, families, coworkers, and colleagues. I believe that becoming a PA will lead me to many “aha” moments, and give me the chance to inspire these moments in others.

Of the two CASPA personal statement examples, this one is much stronger and highlights more of the “do’s” to include when writing yours. It focuses more on the applicant’s strengths, including both experiences and “soft skills,”such as communication and adaptability, rather than what a PA does.

It also includes an interesting opening that honestly explains why this applicant has decided to become a PA. The theme in the opening is then tied back into the closing paragraph, providing a sense of coherence and completion to the narrative. Finally, it uses the proper title of the profession and is free of grammar and spelling errors. This demonstrates attention to detail and professionalism, two qualities that are crucial to success in a PA program!

Main Takeaways: Communicate Your “Why!”

While writing the CASPA personal statement can seem like a daunting task, it provides an opportunity for you to reflect on why you’re applying to PA school. Why are you taking this next step in your education, career, and life? Why are you going to invest the time, energy, and financial resources to pursue this degree? Why will you be great at this? Embrace the chance to communicate your “why” to the committee, and you’re more likely to be accepted!

I hope you found these CASPA personal statement examples helpful. Good luck with your applications, and reach out to Blueprint if you need any assistance. 💙

🩺 Want to make sure you’re prepped for PA school? Try out our Pre-PA practice questions from anatomy and physiology to medical terminology, professional practice, and more!

Or maybe you’re looking for more tips for PA school applications? We’ve got you covered! Check out these other posts on the Blueprint PA blog:

Understanding PA School Acceptance Rates & Admissions
Questions to Ask PA Programs During PA School Interviews
How to Write Standout PA School Supplemental Essays

Sign up for our monthly blog roundup! hbspt.forms.create({ region: "na1", portalId: "7934320", formId: "76d90181-2895-4b89-b815-d291b0212c60" });

Didactic vs Clinical Year: How to Transition from Books to Patients in PA School

November 18, 2024

Here’s what to include in your CASPA experiences section.

How to Make the Most of the CASPA Experiences Section

November 11, 2024

Here’s a breakdown of the PA school application timeline.

PA School Application Timeline: The Ultimate Guide

November 4, 2024

PA STATEMENTS RESOURCES

Pa school personal statement examples that got accepted.

When you submit your PA school application, you’ll need to include a great personal statement inside your CASPA (The Central Application Service for Physician Assistants) application. Writing the perfect PA personal statement to get an interview for your dream PA program is not an easy task and it might be the toughest part of the application process for many students. We’ll go over a specific PA school personal statement example both before and after we offered our expert insights to demonstrate what makes a good personal statement for PA schools. A key component in writing your personal statement is going over certain experiences you had that qualifies you to get into a great school. Reading other PA school personal statement examples written by other physician assistants helps you better understand what you should be writing and become a physician assistant.

Provided is an example PA personal statement submitted to us by one of our clients who wanted to work in the medical field as a primary care provider. This client is applying to physician assistant school for the first time and ordered our Advanced Revision package. The first PA personal statement essay is what he initially submitted to us. The final draft of the PA personal statement essay is what he has submitted to CASPA. Identifying information has been removed from the PA school essay (with permission from the applicant) to respect their anonymity.

His experience with us was fantastic. He ended up getting into his dream program by writing a stellar essay explaining his college career and experiences in his own words, even though his high school grades and college grades weren’t the greatest. In this article, we go over an excellent example of a PA personal statement that got our client into PA school.

What’s the Purpose of a PA Personal Statement?

In order to write the best PA personal statement, you should understand the purpose of writing a personal statement in the first place. The purpose of writing a physician assistant personal statement is show to admissions committees why you chose to pursue medicine, why you want to become a physician assistant and why you’re qualified to work in a doctor’s office.

These admissions committee members want to understand why you became interested in becoming a physician assistant, and what work/healthcare experience and personal experiences you’ve had that have prepared you to become a PA. This allows the admission committee members to see what kind of student you are and your academic background. By answering these important questions, you make your application much more likely to get accepted to your dream PA program.

Before you begin writing your PA personal statement, remember, you have a 5,000 character limit, which works out to be around 800 words. Keep your audience in mind as you research, outline, and write the rough drafts and final draft of your application essay. Read as many PA school application essays written by other applicants as you can to get a better understanding of the structure and make sure to review it for potential grammatical errors or spelling errors before submission.

Want to get into PA school?

Pa personal statement outline.

You want impress the committee members with your strong personal statement? When writing your PA personal statement, you must understand how you should structure the content of your entire essay. Any good PA school personal essay includes an opening statement, a body, and a compelling summary or strong conclusion of your personal essay. You should also make sure your essay has no grammatical mistakes as well as no awkward phrasing and everything is correct. As a future PA student determined to offer quality care to your own patients, you must prove that you are concise, detail oriented and well organized.

Opening Statement

Something to think about when writing your PA personal statement is how you’re going to grab your reader’s attention and make them want to continue reading. It essentially sets the tone for the remainder of your essay. Some PA colleges would rather have you write a more straightforward essay, while others in the academic community would rather have you write a personal anecdote or work experience in the healthcare field, that sets you apart from the rest of the personal statements admissions boards are reviewing.

You should include a personal experience for the admissions committee, making the case that you possess desired personality traits and are a good match for the school. These can include your volunteer experiences i.e. in a nursing home or shelter, anything you learned during your medical experiences, or if you were ever taken care of by a physician assistant, nurse practitioners or other medical professionals.

Body Of The PA School application Essay

When writing this section of your PA application essay, you go over why you make the decision to apply to their PA school, as well as why you want to be a professional physician assistant.

You should also include in the PA personal statement how you accumulated knowledge on medicine, whether by going over your experience with shadowing healthcare professionals and patient interactions, educating yourself by reading, a related class that you took at the graduate school, or personal experience and learnings from a friend or family member. (for instance, for a few weeks you’ve had the opportunity to shadow a nurse practitioner in a medically underserved area, and even though you’ve been directly involved in stressful situations, you’ve had positive patient outcomes).

Be sure to articulate what skills you have that would prove that you’d be a great PA, such as your passion for working as a healthcare provider, compassion, or teamwork.

It would also be wise to bring up any obstacles during your prior schooling. Conveying these experiences and your story makes your PA personal statement more relatable.

Strong, Compelling Conclusion

This last paragraph may be the most memorable aspect of your PA personal statement. In your final thoughts, drive the point home on why you want to become a physician assistant, and why you want to be an alumni of that specific PA program.

PA PERSONAL STATEMENT FIRST DRAFT:

Pa personal statement essay.

Imagine a person can live healthy from the day he/she born until they die. How great it would be if they can go after the passion they have and help the world with their unique abilities. For instance, Late Mr. Steve Jobs, who doesn’t know him, a cofounder and CEO of Apple,Inc, who gave the technology a new direction that we all use it now in the form of smartphone and many more. He diagnosed of pancreas neuroendocrine tumor in 2003 and died in 2011. Now, it is a fact that we all will die when time comes but until that experience, we have a choice to be healthy so that we can help the world by our unique abilities and follow our passion. My passion is that I want to increase all of my patient’s healthy years in their lives and that is why I would like to get into a physician Assistant school.

I was born and raised in _______, located in west coast of India. I came to the United States with my family in 2001. My uncle was a respected physician in Indian which influenced me and I decided to fulfill my career in the field of medicine. I spend my four years at _______ University in biology major. As I was about to start my last semester, I got admission into ________ Medical University, ________ where I earned my medical degree.

Financial situation plays a major role in one’s life so does mine. Everyone knows about lowest economy in 2008 and it hit so many people including me. I stopped getting loan during my fifth semester of my medical school. At same time my parents lost their jobs and situation came down for our survival. Because of financial stress, I just could not work hard which is the reason for my low performance in United States Medical Licensing Examination and I could not get into medical residency. I have cleared USMLE step 1, step 2 and even step 3 which is usually be taken after medical residency but I have cleared it which proves not only that I will excel the physician assistant school but also physician assistant as a career wise.

While at ________ Medical Center in New York, I saw a patient who was suffering from kidney failure due to complications from diabetes. His treatment was successful, but I realized he harbored a deeper and far more dangerous condition: ignorance. Whether he hadn’t listened, hadn’t comprehended, or wasn’t fully informed during his initial diagnosis, he had no clue of the effects of his disease. After informing him his kidneys had just failed, and that next time he could suffer from neurological problems, ulcers, infections, and even the loss of a leg or his life, he agreed to start taking his medication on a regular basis, without fail. The majority of these complications are preventable. Most patients are simply uneducated. They neglect their regular checkups, forget to take their meds, and end up with severe cases of otherwise treatable diseases. I want to offer them proper education; I want to work with them on their overall health; I want to work from the start with my patients. Having a disease is one thing. Understanding and treating its expression is another.

I am working hard to achieve my goals and dreams, but somehow I sense it is not enough. I seek a physician assistant school that will direct me to be the best I can be, push me beyond my perceived limits, expand my knowledge, and help me to become a competent Physician Assistant worthy of his esteemed profession.

As a contributor on a multidisciplinary team of health care providers, I pledge to strengthen my clinical skill set, broaden my knowledge base, and help my patients achieve an optimum state of health. I want to use my abilities to build a better healthy world by increasing healthy years in my patients’ lives and offer my passion, my strong work ethic, my dedication and perseverance, my current skills and knowledge, and my unbending commitment to becoming a PA.

FINAL DRAFT :

I was born in ______, ______, India. My uncle was a respected physician in India and, following his lead, I decided to fulfill my career in the field of medicine. When I was 17, my family moved to the United States, and I faced the difficulty of learning a new language and immersing myself in a foreign culture. I spent my four years of undergraduate study at _______ University as a biology major. As I was about to start my last semester, I got accepted into ________ Medical University where I later earned my medical degree. During the first semester of medical school, I found that many of my colleagues quit due to the heavy workload but I am not a quitter. I am dedicated, goal oriented, and do not give up until I achieve what I set out to do.

Despite my determination, as a student I realized how big of a role finances play in one’s life. I stopped receiving student loans during my fifth semester of medical school. Next, both of my parents lost their jobs. I saw many of my peers withdraw under the same financial burden. “A task accomplished without challenges was never a task to begin with,” my father would say to me; his constant reminder to never give up. Fueled with these words, my faith, my own determination, and an overwhelming desire to practice medicine, I carried on. Due to the financial stress, I had to take multiple leaves of absence. Despite the circumstances I have completed USMLE step 1, step 2 and even step 3, which is usually taken after medical residency, which I believe shows I have the medical knowledge needed to excel at physician assistant school.

Because of the multiple leaves of absence, I have been unable to get into medical residency and unable to pursue my career as a physician. But my determination and passion won’t allow me to quit. My sister is a Physician Assistant and after she introduced me to the role, I immersed myself in research. During my clinical rotations, I worked with many Physician Assistants and admired their significant level of patient interaction and their ability to work along with physicians and other staff members. One thing I really like is that Physician Assistants can work in a variety of specialties to help facilitate patient care in underserved areas

I know that the PA profession is a growing and demanding career but also know that the future of the profession very secure. PA’s will help bridge the physician shortage gap, particularly in underserved areas, something that appeals to me as someone who wants to practice primary care. As a PA, I will be able to achieve my goal to increase the healthy years in all patients. I have no doubt that I want to pursue my career as a Physician Assistant and am eager to fulfill my dreams and earn respect from my patients as well as my colleagues.

While working as a medical student at ___________ Medical Center in New York, I saw a patient who was suffering from kidney failure due to complications from diabetes. His treatment was successful, but I realized he harbored a deeper and far more dangerous condition: ignorance. I have had a great experience about establishing and maintaining relationship with patients and using that, I was able to educate this patient about his conditions, complications, and how to improve. Having a skill for communication and building a good rapport with not only patients, but also with my colleagues is just one tool I hope to utilize in my practice as a future PA.

My passion toward medicine has been growing since my clinical rotations in medical school. I was fascinated learning about patient interaction, diagnosing patients and how to come up with treatment plans. Whenever a colleague was sick, I always was ready to cover for them, because I knew the more time I spent in training, the better practitioner I would become. Therefore, I worked very hard for my patients, my residents, and my attending physicians to make the whole team look good.

During my gastroenterology elective, I was chief student and team leader, making sure that every task had been done properly. I excel in leadership roles and can multitask successfully. I also have great experience in research publications. I worked as a research assistant at University of ________ in the Neurology Department and have published four articles in the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting 2014.

As a contributor on a multidisciplinary team of health care providers, I pledge to strengthen my clinical skill set, broaden my knowledge base, and help my patients achieve an optimum state of health. Having clinical knowledge, communication skills, the ability and experience to multitask and lead the team, as well as dedication toward my profession, I do believe that I would be an excellent Physician Assistant candidate. I offer my passion for the Physician Assistant profession, my strong work ethic, my dedication and perseverance, my current skills and knowledge, and my unbending commitment to never give up.

Adding {{itemName}} to cart

Added {{itemName}} to cart