Marshall B. Ketchum University

In the CASPA Program Materials section, you will compose a personal statement for the general application and also answer MBKU’s supplemental application questions. Once an applicant submits these essays, no further essays are required by our program.

Pro tip: Because some word processor characters will not translate to text correctly, applicants are strongly encouraged to compose their statement in a text-only word processor (e.g., Notepad, not Word), cut and paste the final version into the text box, and then do a final review for errors.

CASPA’s PERSONAL STATEMENT

A personal statement essay is required as part of the CASPA centralized application. Typically, applicants use the same essay for all schools, and only if necessary, slightly personalize the message for each school.

CASPA has basic, short-answer questions not listed below. The following questions are long-answer essays that applicants typically need more time to work on. While questions generally stay the same, they may change from one cycle to the next, so we recommend checking back each year once the cycle opens before working on your essays.

CASPA QUESTIONS

Personal Statement

A personal statement essay is required as part of the CASPA centralized application. Typically, applicants use the same essay for all schools and only, if necessary, slightly personalize the message for each school. The personal statement prompt is: “Please explain why you are interested in being a PA.”

5000-word limit

COVID-19 Question

Please describe how COVID-19 has impacted your pathway to becoming a Physician Assistant. The questions below will help you get started, but do not limit your responses to only these considerations. Academic: Did your school move to an online-only curriculum? Were you able to interact with your professors? Did you have to leave an academic program stateside or abroad? Did your school require you to move to the Pass/Fail grading system? Did your original standardized admission exam get canceled or delayed? Were there other academic barriers? Professional: Did you hold a job? Did you have to go out and seek new job opportunities? Did you lose a job? Were there other financial or professional barriers that you faced? Personal: Did you have to move out of a house or dorm? Did you have to cancel travel plans? Did you modify your planned experiences related to healthcare or volunteer opportunities? Did you seek out volunteer opportunities that arose from the crisis?

2500 character limit

Life Experiences Essay Question (required)

Explain how your life experiences could help advance the goal of having healthcare providers who can empathize with the patient communities they serve. This question provides an opportunity to describe impactful life experiences, especially challenges or hardships that may not be easily presented in other parts of the application. The experiences described can be from any point in your timeline and do not need to be directly related to the field of medicine or health care.

2500 character limit

MBKU SUPPLEMENTAL QUESTIONS INCLUDED WITHIN CASPA

1. Discuss the three most important priorities in your life, and how they apply to your interest in our PA program.

2. What do you expect to contribute to this University and community?

3. Choose one of the following topics to write about:

a) Tell us about a person from history or the present day who has influenced your life, and how.

b) Tell us about a talent or interest you have outside of medicine.

c) Tell us about a book you read in the last year that had a big impact on you, and why.

d) Where do you see yourself in five years?

4. AP credits for the prerequisite will be accepted ONLY for Statistics and General Psychology as long as the appropriate number of credit hours was received. If you wish to use AP credits to fulfill Statistics and General Psychology, please select the appropriate option from the menu below.

5. If you previously applied to the PA Program at Marshall B. Ketchum University, in which cycle(s) did you do so?

6. If you previously interviewed at Marshall B. Ketchum University, in which cycle(s) did you do so?

7. If you are a re-applicant to Marshall B. Ketchum University, what have you done to improve your application since then? If you are not a re-applicant, please enter "N/A."

8. If you are a Marshall B. Ketchum University Pre-PA Mentorship mentee, in which year were you a mentee?