ISSUE 16

By Jim Pearson and Dr. Scott Massey

Welcome back to PA Admissions Corner. In the previous Issue, we began this two-part series on meeting your enrollment goals with our 72-Hour Rule and 80/20 Rule. Now, we conclude by answering the questions PA educators ask us most often about the difficulties they face in meeting their enrollment goals.

As you know, meeting your PA program’s enrollment goals is more than placing ads, interviewing applicants, and matriculating selected students. You need a dedicated and focused approach to ensure that your PA program is structured to recruit, screen, and enroll highly qualified students. Depending on the structure and management of their admissions departments, PA programs may be competing on a lopsided playing field. Fortunately, PA programs everywhere struggle with similar issues in ensuring that their class rosters are full at the beginning of the cohort and all the way through to successful graduation.

Question: Why do some PA programs struggle to enroll 24 or 36 students per cohort, while others can always hit their numbers?

Make sure that you have aligned the timing of your admissions cycle to enable your admissions department to communicate with the largest percentage of applicants, alongside most other PA programs. This can be achieved by:

• Running an admissions cycle from April to October
• Using a rolling admissions cycle
• Interviewing early in the admissions cycle
• Sending acceptance letters early in the admissions cycle

For more detailed information on all of these strategies, look back to PA Admissions Corner Issue 3: Controlling the Admissions Cycle.

Your admissions department must always target the applicants who fit your program’s unique characteristics. Doing so is a significant factor in ensuring your PA program’s admissions enrollment goals are met.

Question: Why is it so hard to achieve enrollment goals even with abundant applicants?

Successful applicant enrollment results from a series of relationship-building steps, from the moment a prospective student submits their application until the day of matriculation.

How can this relationship be fostered?

• Early and sustained communication is paramount. Evaluate your communication process from the time of application submission through the interview process to foster a strong connection with the prospective student.
• Provide opportunities for interaction between the program director and prospective students.
• Include current students in the process. Their inside viewpoint can be invaluable to applicants.

Every applicant has an affinity group—support systems, friends, and family —who play a role in their decision, and it is naive to assume the opinions of the affinity group won’t matter. Without moving the focus away from the applicant, include the affinity group in the communication process.

• Offer resources to support relocation to the area.
• Promote a family-friendly atmosphere in your program by welcoming the affinity group into the selection process.
• Add a step in the interview process that allows the affinity group to speak with a faculty member, a financial representative, or even the program director.

Question: Why does our conversion rate from offer to matriculation seem lower each year?

Conversion rate is the percentage of applicants offered seats in your program who eventually matriculate. This percentage fluctuates considerably among programs, and there are strategies that can mitigate this variable.

By the end of their interview with your program, an applicant has most likely made up their mind whether or not they will enroll. You are going to need to ask yourself some hard questions about whether your interview process was disorganized or left the applicant feeling unwelcome. It will require some deep self-assessment. Here are some strategies that can help with this issue:

• Evaluate your interview process. It is strongly suggested that applicants get the opportunity to meet with the program director in person or virtually, depending on the circumstances. Create a segment in the interview process called, “Q&A with the Program Director.”
• Evaluate the length of time between the interview and the acceptance offer. Allowing too much time to pass will result in competitive applicants receiving competing offers.
• Consider offering the most competitive applicants an immediate seat in the program. Their application and interview are so impressive that accepting the applicant is practically assumed. Why wait? Ensure that the applicant receives correspondence via email within 72 hours. These applicants are likely to have multiple options. Don’t lose them to other programs!
• Consider whether the applicant feels informed and feels like they have been heard throughout your interview process. Or, did they leave the interview process with an uncomfortable feeling that they were put under a microscope or rushed out the door? If applicants perceive that you are indifferent to them, they will decide that your program is not the right fit. Find ways to make applicants feel welcome and able to ask questions about the program in an open and relaxed setting. Always remember that an applicant is interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them.

Question: Why can’t we fill our cohort, even though we are getting hundreds of applicants?

Programs that find themselves unable to fill their cohort despite receiving hundreds of applications most likely haven’t figured out how to manage the required human resources to operationalize an effective admissions process.

Primarily, your program must have the necessary human resources to cope with the volume of applications. For more information, see Issues 12 through 14 of PA Admissions Corner, where we discuss ways to solve the troubles of an overworked or understaffed admissions team.

You might also be wasting time interviewing applicants who have no intention of attending your program. Properly identifying the best applicants for your program from the outset can save much of this wasted time.

Question: By the time we reach out to interview applicants, they already have been selected elsewhere. How can we reach out to them first?

Fine-tune the steps in your admissions process and improve your image. Poor public relations or a disorganized interview process can adversely affect applicant perception of your program. A streamlined, student-centered admissions process will reduce the likelihood that another program will appear more attractive.

Question: How can we fill empty seats at the last minute without sacrificing applicant quality?

To fill empty seats in the last weeks before matriculating, scour the existing applicant pool for any quality applicants who can still be fast-tracked into the system. Consider a truncated admission cycle in the weeks leading up to matriculation while maintaining your standards of admission, then arrange a virtual interview.

Once a student has accepted a seat in the program, your University Financial Aid Department has to expedite their financial aid package at a moment’s notice if you’re already in the home stretch. Spare no expense to avoid an angry Dean who asks why your seats are not filled on the first day of class.

Question: How do we fill a cohort with a shallow applicant pool?

Some programs find themselves with a smaller number of applicants than the national average, especially new or developing programs accepting their first or second cohort.

You can still manage, but you have to max out on applicant outreach and incorporate all of the strategies we have discussed so far. These applicants need to be fostered and convinced that your program is the best solution. It’s especially necessary in this situation to move to a rolling admissions process so you can communicate and work with all your qualified applicants early and often.

Conclusion

Every empty seat in your cohort is a lost tuition revenue for one student, which can seriously impact your PA program’s budget. There are more than 11,000 seats nationally available for PA programs every year, and more than 36,000 applicants. With these numbers, no PA program should have empty seats on day one.

By promoting a focused mission for your admissions team, improved communication with applicants, prompt acceptance, fast-tracking ideal applicants, and increased outreach when necessary, you are doing the utmost to fill your cohort with students who are happy to be a part of it.

NEXT TIME…
In Issue 17 of PA Admissions Corner, we’ll begin a five-part series on Successful PA Admissions, covering several topics on filling your cohorts with students who match your program’s mission and vision. forget an in-depth look at finding your ideal applicants, behavioral and group interviewing, and expanding the diversity and inclusiveness of your program.

To your admissions and program success,

Jim Pearson, CEO
Exam Master

Dr. Scott Massey Ph.D., PA-C
Scott Massey LLC

ISSUE 15

By Jim Pearson and Dr. Scott Massey

Welcome back to PA Admissions Corner. Let’s continue making the most of your PA program’s admissions with time-tested and proven knowledge on meeting enrollment goals.

Your Conversion Ratio and the Funnel

When a completed application reaches your PA program, it joins many others. Then they enter a funneling system en masse where the numbers steadily decrease as selections are made. It would be great if all the funneling were done by your program, but your applicants are funneling, too. Both ends of the funnel have a say in who’s going where.

The steps of the funnel and who is in control of them goes something like this:

1. How many applications your program receives (applicant’s choice)
2. How many individual interviews are offered (program’s choice)
3. How many of those offered interviews are accepted (applicant’s choice)
4. How many acceptance letters are sent (program’s choice)
5. How many acceptance letters are accepted (applicant’s choice)
6. How many accepted acceptance letters result in a seated student (applicant’s choice)

Two-thirds of those funneling steps are not in your control. It turns out that what you do with the applications isn’t as important as what you do with the applicants. Applicants seeking a PA education apply to an average of seven programs besides yours. Going strictly by the numbers, those odds aren’t in your favor. We want to make sure that you spend time on the students who truly want to be a part of your PA program, not the ones who have other goals in mind. Once you find the truly interested applicants, you can’t let yourself lose them to a program that moved faster or made a better impression.

Two Rules for Improving Your Conversion Ratio

PA program admissions directors and faculty play a key role in whether students decide to deposit after being selected for a seat in the program. The way communication occurs and the timing of that communication can make the difference between converting those applicants best aligned to your PA program’s mission and vision or losing them to other programs due to ineffective and inefficient communication.

Keeping these excellent applicants “warm” is essential. This requires thoughtful and ongoing communication with your ideal applicants throughout the admissions process. Most applicants report that their most preferred PA program to attend is based on the perception of responsiveness and excellent communications from the PA program’s key personnel, not just support staff.

Here are a couple of vital rules to follow to ensure you will enroll a higher proportion of the ideal applicants that fit your PA program’s mission and vision.

The 72-Hour Close

Coffee is for closers. You’ve done interviews, and some of those applicants were impressive. Everything clicked. They love the program, and the program loves them. Send an acceptance letter within 72 hours! Failing to keep applicants interested in your PA program after the interview is why so many PA programs lose those applicants to competing programs. Prospective applicants will not spend the money and time to come to an interview if they are not at least somewhat interested in attending your institution. A lack of communication from your program will be interpreted as a rejection or non-caring attitude, however, and that applicant’s interest might drift away.

Have a backup plan. Sometimes it’s just not possible to offer applicants seats after the interview and final selection within 72 hours. This may be due to holidays, weekends, and other workflow that can all place burdens on timing and proper follow-up. If this happens, make sure that you reach out to the applicant to tell them that the decision is coming very soon. Continue to show to the applicant your program’s commitment. Keep in touch with them and keep them informed that they are still in strong consideration.

Don’t forget the waitlist. It is also wise to foster a strong and consistent positive relationship with applicants on your waitlist to ensure that they are poised and ready to enter your program, even at the last minute. As statistics have shown, many programs experience last-minute withdrawals, and without a strong waitlist, those programs cannot fill their seats—revenue loss that must be avoided.

Your relationships with your qualified applicants and waitlist throughout the applicant and interview process is a reliable insurance policy that your class will be full on the first day of orientation.

The 80/20 Rule

If you want to be a successful PA program admissions director, understand this rule: 80% of your matriculating students each year come from only 20% of your prospects.

Up to 35% of your applicants, even including pre-enrolled students, may be using your program as a backup plan if their first or second choices fall through, which makes identifying the correct 20% of your ideal applicants so imperative. These prospective applicants are just as interested in staying in the funnel as you are in having them stay. Find these applicants and devote your energy to them: don’t waste time chasing those who have little intention of following through.

Who are your ideal applicants? We mention these unicorns often, so let’s break down exactly who they are:

• Most likely, these are the applicants within 100 miles of your campus.
• They have some connection to your university or attended undergraduate programs at your institution.
• They fit your average GPA and other base requirements.
• They have reached out to you at some point expressing significant interest in your school, and they continue to express interest as time passes—another reason why early and dedicated communication is so valuable.
• They are familiar with your program—a strong indicator of potential conversion.
• They respond promptly to your communications.

It’s mostly a matter of your program’s time resources. PA admissions personnel who chase down prospects that won’t make a clear early commitment are wasting 50-70% of their time and the time your program has to allot to the process. They’re trying to convince students who are not sold on the idea of joining your program, and no matter how savvy the salesperson, most of those applicants never will be sold on it.

Instead, devote your resources to the prospects who show their conviction. That’s the measure of how serious they are. Recognizing those applicants early in the recruiting process will give you more time to locate and work with them. They have the highest chance of enrolling and matriculating in your PA program, so they are worth the time spent.

The bottom line of the 80/20 rule is simple; work with the prospects who work with you

Conclusion

The PA admissions paradigm will transform in coming years, requiring more of a recruiting mindset than ever before. You will need to foster relationships and identify your ideal applicants. Through successful selection and a 72-hour communication turnaround, you exponentially increase the likelihood of these applicants depositing and matriculating at your program.

In future Issues, we’ll cover handy techniques that can help determine who your ideal applicants are, like the applicant pre-enrollment risk scoring program. We teach entire seminars on this stuff! We’ll show you how to efficiently separate the good prospects from the bad.

NEXT TIME…
In Issue 16 of PA Admissions Corner, we’ll finish this two-parter on meeting your program’s enrollment goals. We’ll provide answers to some of the most common questions PA program directors have asked us about meeting enrollment goals, such as what to do if—
• applicants are scarce.
• applicants are plentiful, but goals are still being missed.
• conversion rates seem to fall lower each year.
• there are unexpected empty seats at the eleventh hour.

To your admissions and program success,

Jim Pearson, CEO
Exam Master

Dr. Scott Massey Ph.D., PA-C
Scott Massey LLC

ISSUE 14

By Jim Pearson and Dr. Scott Massey

Welcome back to PA Admissions Corner. Last time, you evaluated your admissions staff to ensure that you have the right people in the right place at the right time to make the most of your admissions cycle. Today we’ll conclude this three-Issue series on Managing PA Admissions Personnel by responding to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding admissions personnel.

Every PA program has unique approaches to personal mission and vision, faculty involvement with students, and student recognition for achieving certain milestones and graduation. On the other hand, many of the specific challenges and problems that your PA program might face within your admissions department are not very different from the PA program located across town or the PA program located 1000 miles away. But don’t worry! We’ve conducted enough seminars on PA program management to hear them all, and we want to share the answers with you.

Question: How can we modify our admission processes to better select the right students?

Conduct a quality assurance process focusing on who is involved with the admissions process from the first moment that prospective applicants reach out to your program all the way to matriculation.

Perception can significantly impact an applicant’s decision to select your program over your competition. Providing focused and caring customer service throughout the admissions process will pay significant dividends, but it will require allocating specific workload and staff time. Rather than a team approach with multiple individuals working with each applicant, it’s best to split up your applicant pool and assign a specific individual from your admissions personnel to each group. Each applicant will be able to build a relationship with someone who has taken the time to listen, care, and get to know their individual situation. That specific admissions personnel can keep an ear to the ground for applicants who are particularly excited about your program.

Dividing up the applicants and establishing a consistent personnel member each segment of the pool allows for careful review of which applicants are the best fit. Shepherding prospective applicants all the way through the admissions process with a familiar face gives all applicants the opportunity to develop an affinity for your program, including the yet-to-be-determined ideal applicants. That affinity will result in matriculation for more of your ideal applicants than if they were passed back and forth between multiple personnel.

When you have properly focused applicant admission data, your admissions personnel will be much better equipped to make decisions, which facilitates appropriate selection for interviews. And as we all know, the selection process for interviews is crucial to provide your PA program with the highest conversion rate from interview to matriculation.

Question: How can we modify our admission processes to better screen and process our applicant pool for ideal applicants?

PA programs receive hundreds or thousands of applicants per year. Sorting through that many applications and deciding which applicants to invite for interviews is daunting. You need a workable strategy starting with specific guidelines and qualifications for your applicants to be eligible for consideration. Here are some suggestions to begin the process:

1. Minimum GPA – Screen for minimum GPA levels. Applicants who do not meet your minimum levels can be eliminated from the pool. The designated staff member who manages the CASPA portal can begin the sorting process using these predetermined criteria. If applicants do not meet your minimum GPA, but they meet the other requirements related to your program’s mission, you may reconsider case-by-case whether to interview them.
2. Basic Metrics – Compile basic metrics on students who meet your criteria. Using a standardized screening form for the pre-interview process, your staff member can compile some basic statistics on each applicant, enabling you to rank remaining applicants who qualify for interviews.
3. Demographic Screening – Conduct a screening process for demographics, backgrounds, and other characteristics that you desire for your program. This crucial step in the process ensures that you are enhancing diversity within your program. In some programs this step never occurs because of the prescreening process. You can capture applicants who may not be as highly competitive using the basic metrics described.
4. Interview Pool – Pare down the numbers and select applicants for interviews. The number of applicants you interview is directly proportional to your class size. Considering the typical conversion rate from interview to matriculation, interview a minimum of three applicants per seat. This density of interviewees ensures that you have competitive waitlist of applicants beyond initially filling your seats.

Once you have the basic steps established as described above, you can establish protocols to keep the process running smoothly and effectively:

1. Screening Rubrics – Develop your screening rubrics with the end goal in mind. Ensure that your rubrics clearly state the minimum academic requirements and the ideal student characteristics you seek. Remember that dedicating labor to applicants unlikely to ultimately convert decreases your efficiency. This first step can eliminate applicants that you decide are not worth pursuing despite their highly competitive academic records.
2. Mathematical Point System – Establish an appropriate mathematical point system for your desired characteristics. For example, determine the number of points applicants receive for stratification of GPA, admissions exam, disadvantaged population status, special considerations, and articulations that exist with your program. Some programs have admission agreements with specific institutions that will necessitate identifying these applicants early in the process.

You need to evaluate your current personnel’s skill sets to ensure you are only assigning skilled personnel to each key admissions duty. You will also need to evaluate your personnel’s ongoing duties to ensure you are not overloading them with too much additional work, which will lead to subpar outcomes.

Question: How can we establish sufficient labor to achieve our goals?

Here are some possible solutions to the problem of a small overworked staff.

1. University Support from Parent University – Negotiate staff time from your university/college admissions office. This will require training to ensure that this individual is following the protocols that you have set forth and will require budgetary allocation for a staff member outside of your cost center.
2. Multiple Roles – Hire a staff member within the program to assume multiple roles within the admissions process. Many programs now have dedicated admissions staff personnel. This individual can ensure that quality assurance is maintained throughout the process.
3. Part-Time Support – Hire a seasonal staff member to assume this role during specific points during the year. Remember that graduate assistants can be an option, but FERPA would likely prohibit them from reviewing prospective students.
4. Lay Down the Law. ARC-PA, the organization in charge of protecting the interests of the public and the PAs-in-training, sets labor standards . Standards A1.06 and A1.07 require your program’s sponsoring institution to provide you with sufficient staff and resources to keep your program ARC-PA-compliant. If you are struggling with the lack of labor to achieve your admissions goals, these standards can provide important leverage when addressing senior administration.

Summary

As we conclude this series on Managing PA Admissions Personnel, let’s summarize with a few key points and considerations.

• The structure of your admissions cycle, the realignment of your admissions workflow, and the reassignment of your admissions duties to your admissions personnel will have a significant impact on the overall success of your PA program’s admissions outcomes.
• 50% of all PA program applicants are seated before September. Is your current admissions cycle in line with the national trends and with your competition?
• Ensuring that your admissions personnel are aligned properly with their skill sets in their current roles will enable them to better screen, evaluate, and select ideal applicants for your program.

NEXT TIME…
In the next Issue of PA Admissions Corner, we begin a two-part installment on meeting your enrollment goals by improving conversation rates with our 72-Hour Rule and 80/20 Rule.

To your admissions and program success,

Jim Pearson, CEO
Exam Master

Dr. Scott Massey Ph.D., PA-C
Scott Massey LLC

ISSUE 13

By Jim Pearson and Dr. Scott Massey

Welcome back to PA Admissions Corner, as we continue our series on Managing PA Admissions Personnel. In the previous Issue, you compared your program’s admission duties timeline to the national average, and we suggested what can be done to stay competitive and focus your staff on the areas that need the most effort.

Now that you know when your program’s admissions duties should take place, let’s talk about getting that work done. Opening interviews two months earlier is a great idea, but it won’t happen if you don’t have the staff necessary to review the applications, make the contacts, send the letters, and set up the appointments. How you assign your admissions department’s key duties is extremely important, but first, you need a clear understanding of who your key admission personnel are— of their duties and skill sets.

The Roles of Admissions Personnel

Each member of an efficient admissions team knows their role in the process. Adopt simple descriptions of process roles to cut right to the chase.

1. Public Relations (PR)—Makes prospective students feel welcome and fosters excitement about your program. Appoint one person as the face of your program: phone inquiries, town halls, and communications through CASPA once an applicant has applied to the program.
2. CASPA Monitoring—Monitors CASPA to facilitate frequent communication with applicants.
3. Application Data Analysis—Reviews the data on the application and transfers it to the appropriate rubrics.
4. Pre-Interview Outreach—Reaches out with invitations for interviews and ensures that applicants have the right information at the right time.
5. Interview Logistics—Facilitating logistics for the interview process can be highly complex with multiple moving parts. You don’t want applicants to suspect any chaos or disorganization within your program; a department that scrambles to organize interviews probably isn’t a great choice for an education.
6. Post-Interview Follow-up—Reaches out after interviews and offers applicants seats.
7. Post-Acceptance Letter Management—Communicates with applicants between the time of deposit and the date of matriculation, providing updates about the program and keeping them excited about their career choice.
8. Troubleshooting Management—Monitors last-minute melt in the system. We have seen applicants withdraw their seats on the day of orientation, usually after receiving an offer at their most preferred program. Communicating with applicants high on the waitlist and facilitating their rapid enrollment is essential to avoid empty seats.

Your personnel handling key admission duties will have a significant impact on how successfully your program reaches its goals. A self-assessment on key personnel skill sets will provide a snapshot of areas needing further evaluation or adjustments.

You will need to list all key admissions personnel in relation to the key admission duties listed in the Key Admissions Duty Timelines table and rate their skill set (competency).

Key Admissions Personnel and Skill Set Rating

List and rate your current admissions staff (download & print table below) in relation to your PA program’s key admissions workflow duties:

• All data requested in this table is only for your PA program’s current application cycle and your current admissions staff.
• Some PA programs have revolving non-staff who help with admissions interviews from other graduate medical programs. For those non-staff, list who currently is helping your program from other graduate medical programs and rate their competency.
• When rating individual competency, the rating should only reflect the single duty/task being evaluated. If you have an assistant admissions director who is extremely competent in their overall tasks, rate that skill set highly; if they are not very competent in data management, however, rate that skill set lower.
• Employees often fall into responsibilities for certain duties (including important admissions tasks) regardless of their individual competence.
• Later, you will use these ratings to help determine adjustments in your admissions staffing duties to boost the outcomes of your admissions department.

It’s not always easy to evaluate and rate colleagues’ abilities, especially when they are not as skilled in certain areas as we’d like. Be as fair and honest in your evaluations as possible; when appropriate, have someone else rate your colleagues with you and compare the results. The more honest you are in these evaluations, the easier it will be to make the necessary changes to strengthen your personnel, which will improve admissions outcomes.

After reviewing the evaluations and ratings of key admissions duties personnel, do you have the right employee(s) assigned to each key task? If not, how can you better align your employees in their admissions duties? What additional training might be needed?

NEXT TIME…
In the third and final installment on Managing PA Admissions Personnel, we’ll outline and answer questions commonly asked by PA admissions programs. How can you handle large applicant pools? Or supplement your staff? Are there ways to streamline your admissions process to select the best applicants for your program?

To your admissions and program success,

Jim Pearson, CEO
Exam Master

Dr. Scott Massey Ph.D., PA-C
Scott Massey LLC

ISSUE 12

By Jim Pearson and Dr. Scott Massey

Welcome back to PA Admissions Corner. In our last issue, we covered the basics of helping your applicants to get to know, like, and trust your program through a transactional lens with the applicant as a customer. But the troubling truth is that even if applicants are clamoring for admission, without a good staff to organize, review, and manage admissions data, meeting goals and filling seats will be challenging.

The next few Issues of PA Admissions Corner will revolve around your personnel and how to manage and develop their workflow. Can they handle the duties within your admissions cycle that have the highest impact on your admissions outcome?

Many PA programs understandably feel that they do not have enough time to review, evaluate, process, and properly select interview applicants from their total applicant pool, whether it’s 400 or 1400 applicants. They often end up choosing the wrong applicants for interviews and acceptance offers; many of whom back out and enroll elsewhere. The program then scrolls further down the waitlist to fill the incoming cohort with applicants who may not be fully qualified.

The first task is to restructure your admissions department’s workflow to overcome the logistical issues with the greatest potential to affect your admissions outcomes.

List Your PA Program Key Admissions Duties

All admissions departments develop patterns for their duties, timelines, and procedures. Many patterns are necessary and beneficial to your admissions department’s outcomes, but others ultimately become counterproductive to ongoing admissions goals.

A key self-discovery question we’ve asked hundreds of admissions directors while working with them to strengthen their program’s outcomes is, “Why are you doing this specific task or duty this way?” As the director,  answer this question for all practices and procedures, then determine if adjustments are needed.

The Key Admissions Duty Timelines table we put together will help you with this task. Read the instructions below, then complete the exercises in the table.

1. All data requested in this table is only for your PA program’s current application cycle and does not have any connection to when CASPA opens and closes if you are using that application processing portal.
2. If specific duties are performed during the year before your cycle opens, list the previous year’s month ( “previous Nov”). If specific duties are performed during the year after your cycle opens, list the following year’s month ( “following Jan”).
3. Some admissions duties will vary by a few days or weeks each calendar year, so list these dates in a 15-day range (for example, “CASPA opens April 15-30,” or “First Interview scheduled July 15-30”).

Key Admissions Duty Timeline
In the table below (download & print), list your PA program’s dates for the following key admissions workflow duties:

What Dates Do You Control?

As you review your PA program’s Key Admissions Duty Timeline, you will notice certain dates that you have limited or no control over; ARC-PA controls your matriculation date, and you must follow CASPA’s due dates, for example.

Many key admissions duty dates you can control, however, like the start and end of your admissions cycle, your interview cycle, and when acceptance letters are sent.

Why is this control important? Timelines used by most PA programs have changed drastically over the last five to seven years. PA program application cycles generally used to open in April and close in October. They would screen all their applicants, run two to four interview sessions in October and November, then select the students to fill the next matriculation’s cohort. There was no concern about diving deep into the wait list or having open seats on the start date.

Today, that kind of schedule will leave you far behind the competition; you may be inadvertently denying yourself access to 50% or more of your total applicant pool.

How Do Your Admission Duty Dates Compare?

Based on extensive discussions with over 150 PA programs about their admissions processes, here are some admissions trends we have observed:

1. Over 80% of all PA programs start their admissions cycle to mirror the opening of CASPA each spring (late April, early May) and end it by October.
2. Over 70% of all PA programs now use a rolling admissions process, leading most PA Programs to front-load their student selection decision-making. Everyone is moving to the front and condensing their decision-making timeline.
3. Most PA programs who start their admissions cycle with the opening of CASPA and use a rolling admissions process start their initial interviews in June or no later than July.
4. By the end of August each year, most PA programs using a rolling process have filled close to 90% of their next cohort’s seats.
5. By the end of August, over 50% of the nationally available seats have been filled. Within certain competitive geographical areas, that percentage can be much higher.
6. Many PA programs now fill all upcoming cohort seats before closing their current admissions cycle.
7. Most of the higher-qualified applicants will have been selected by another PA program before those applicants would even have a chance to speak with programs that wait until early fall to start interviewing.

If your current admissions duty timelines aren’t keeping up with your main competitors, your program is at a distinct disadvantage. Consider what adjustments can realign your admissions processes to be more competitive.

Further Uses for Admissions Duty Timelines

The data you entered in your chart can also be helpful to—

• have a good snapshot of your whole admissions cycle from start to finish.
• determine specific times during the calendar year when certain stresses will be placed on faculty and staff; you can modify duties and responsibilities to facilitate better performance.
• determine how some of your key admissions cycle duties compare to your competition and to national trends, urging other potential adjustments.

NEXT TIME…
As we continue this series on Managing PA Admissions Personnel in Issue 13, we’ll help you conduct an employee ranking survey to determine if you have the right people in the right roles.

To your admissions and program success,

Jim Pearson, CEO
Exam Master

Dr. Scott Massey Ph.D., PA-C
Scott Massey LLC