Actual Questions I Was Asked at My PA School Interviews

Congratulations on being offered an interview for physician assistant (PA) school! The first step is complete and now you just need to win the faculty over with your bubbly personality. If you are anything like me you are planning on studying a lot for your interview. I remember researching common questions asked at PA school interviews and the best way to respond to them. While I encourage preparing for your interview, it can be difficult or impossible to prepare for the random questions you will likely be asked. Unfortunately, no amount of reading or studying can prepare you for off-the-wall questions. Fortunately, I only encountered a few of those over the course of 3 PA school interviews. I am going to share some of the questions I remember from my interviews which occurred around 6 years ago.

Common questions I was told to expect at PA school interviews that I was actually asked

Q: Tell me about yourself.

A: If I remember correctly I spoke about my personality more than what was on my resume. They already know where you went to school and what you majored in. Repeating all of that is only wasting time when you could be selling yourself. I spoke about how I considered myself to be type A, and how my favorite part of working in medicine is patient care and connecting with patients. Then I discussed how I have been able to do that in different medical settings. This led to me talking about working as both an EMT and as a dermatology medical assistant. I also remember giving examples about how working in EMS taught me how to handle stress well. While, working as a dermatology MA taught me how when working in medicine you have to be delicate and sensitive to patient’s needs.

Q: Why do you want to become a PA?

A: I talked about how abnormal psychology was my favorite class I took in college, and how I love the process of combining the science of medicine with the art of medicine. I also spoke on how I was eager to learn and take on the responsibility of being a medical provider. I wanted to start making an impact in patient’s lives and do that sooner rather than later

Q: What is the difference between a nurse practitioner (NP) and a PA?

A: I reviewed that a NP and a PA are both medical providers. They can examine patients, order tests, diagnose and treat. The main difference between the two paths is in how each is trained. A PA is trained under a similar model to that of physicians with an emphasis on general medicine. Whereas, a nurse practitioner is trained on the nursing model. An NP has to become a nurse before they can attend NP school. PA schools generally require a certain amount of patient care experience before someone can be accepted into PA school.

Q: If you could choose your specialty now what would you choose?

A: I responded by saying I was undecided on my specialty. I love emergency medicine, dermatology, and pediatrics which is what I had experience in and I was excited to learn about all of the specialties before making a decision. The school I ended up attending was very focused on rural medicine. I did say during that interview that I thought I wanted to work in general practice prior to specializing.

Q: Do you have any questions for me?

A: I asked questions specific to the individual program I was interviewing at. I came prepared with a list of questions and I recommend you do the same. Please see my post, Questions to Ask During Your PA School Interview.

Questions I was asked at my PA school interviews that I was not anticipating

Q: Why did you include nannying under job experience?

A: I talked about how nannying helped me feel confident with more responsibility. I wore many hats during that job, and I also learned that I enjoy working with kids. I told the faculty an anecdote about how after nannying I would go to my EMT class and then the next day I would practice taking the kid’s vitals which they absolutely loved.

Q: Tell me something about yourself that I can’t find in your application.

A: I took this question as an opportunity to showcase my personality. I talked about how I was a big UNC basketball fan. This was after doing a lot of research and learning that the faculty member I was speaking to went to Duke. This led to them joking with me saying I wasn’t going to be offered a spot because I cheered for their rival (spoiler alert I got an acceptance letter a week later).

Q: Do you prefer to study by yourself or in a group, and why?

A: I remember being asked this question and I wasn’t sure how to respond. I think I said I liked to study alone because I could focus better instead of allowing for distractions and well… at the time that was the truth so that’s what I went with. Looking back I would have answered a little differently because studying in groups definitely has its advantages. It shows you work well with others, you know how to work in a team setting which is what health care is all about and you are skilled at tuning out distractions. Fortunately for me, this question/answer did not negatively impact my acceptance into this program.

Q: Why did you not take a second semester of organic chemistry?

A: Obviously this question is very specific to me as an individual applicant, but I wanted to share an example of a question about your application that may not be anticipated. I think the point of this question was to ask me if I thought second-semester organic chemistry would be too difficult (which yes, that is exactly why I didn’t take it), but of course, I didn’t say that to the faculty member. I said something along the lines of I took biochemistry instead of second-semester organic chemistry because I was deciding between the two and found the course material to be much more interesting.

Q: If you caught a classmate cheating what would you do?

A: I feel I answered the question fairly well. I said I would privately confront the individual and tell them what I saw and give them the opportunity to come clean to the faculty on their own accord, and simply said if they didn’t then I would be obligated to do so.

Q: You have a patient diagnosed with genital warts, please explain the diagnosis to the patient and how you would treat it.

A: This question was asked during an interview where the faculty member pretended to be the patient after I read the prompt. It actually made me laugh after because as you know I worked in dermatology as a medical assistant and so I actually knew how to answer this question! (I diagnosed the patient, told them it was sexually transmitted, and then did an overview of treatment options.)

Obviously, there’s no way the faculty expected everyone to actually be able to complete this question appropriately. If I had been asked how to treat some random neurologic condition I don’t know how I would have answered. In retrospect, I think the point of the question was to see how the interviewee handled giving “bad news”. Always remember to speak in an empathetic tone and make direct eye contact. If you get asked a question similar to this one and don’t know the answer then just start with the information you have been provided. Diagnose and then allow the staff member to speak. How the interviewer responds may clue you in on what sort of response they are looking for.

Are you a practicing PA who would like to share questions they were asked during their PA school interviews? Please comment below to help pre-PA students prepare for this overwhelming and stressful time. If you are in the process of applying to PA school and would like some additional guidance please feel free to send me an email at jessdermpa@gmail.com. I would love to chat with you about the application process and help answer any questions that you may have.