First PA School Interview -- Bary University

My first PA school interview went well! It was at Barry University which is located in sunny Miami, Florida. After our St. Maarten vacation, my mother and I stayed in Miami for the next day interview at Barry University. The interview started at 8AM with a brief introduction to the school’s PA program and their faculty, then proceeded onto the group interview section. It was interesting to learn how others were attracted to the PA profession and some of their experiences that lead them to applying for PA school. Many of them always new they wanted to be in the healthcare profession while others just stumbled across the idea through certain life experiences like me.

In case your curious, here are some of the questions that were asked during our group interview:

1. Share with us a little about where you’re from, where you graduated from, if you have a higher degree than a bachelors, and your clinical experience.
2. “Oh, you’ve volunteered at the free clinic? Name some of the people you’ve worked with. Do you know Dr. X? Do you know Dr. Y? Do you know Dr. Z?” Man, these are some serious put-you-on-the-spot questions!
3. Why do you want to become a PA?
4. What do you want to attend Barry University?

We proceeded onto joining a 3rd semester PA student’s class called Thanatology which is the study of a human’s death. This class was extremely enjoyable to me because it was a different approach to learning bed side manners. The class introduced us to how a patient’s family members may be feeling if they just found out that their loved one is terminally ill and will be dying soon, they had a sudden death or they had a violent death. It allowed me to be more aware of my bed side manners while approaching this subject to others and to be more sensitive to their feelings. Well, obviously I know not to say something like, “Your son is going to live!!! Just kidding!!” – very unprofessional and just down right wrong.

After the class, we were shown the anatomy labs and diagnosis simulators. The rooms replicated a hospital or clinical setting. We were also introduced to some of the other facilities for the students such as the lunch lounge and the administrative part which is located in the upstairs portion of the medical complex. BTW, the PA school shares the newly built $8 million medical complex with the school of podiatry.

We journeyed to the school’s cafeteria and got stuck at the student center for a while because of a small transportation glitch but no worries, we just walked a short distance and we were back at the PA school to proceed onto finishing the day with the last portion which was the individual interviews. For my individual interview, I met with Associate Program Directed, Mr. Moore who interestingly also has a law degree in addition to his Masters in Physician Assistant studies. During our portion of the interview, he asked laid back questions such as:

1. Why do you want to become a PA?
2. Why do you choose Barry?
3. Where do you see yourself in the field of medicine 10 years from now?
4. Out of all the PAs you came in contact with, which one was the happiest? (that was my favorite interview question)
5. If you were accepted into Barry’s PA program, what would be one of your weaknesses?

All great questions and what’s awesome is that he was so laid back and easy to talk to. Best of all was that he did most of the talking about Barry’s program during our interview! Can’t be bad, right?

Overall, I think the interview went well. I got to learn more about the program, check out its facilities, ask their students more questions about the program, meet some other fellow applicants (which seemed well over qualified for the program!) and have a glimpse of what a PA class is like. All wonderful experiences that left me with a great impression of Barry.

What’s more is that as soon as my interview was done, I was told that I could go and enjoy South beach now! hahaha