Anyone apply to the ELMPA this year? I just had a panel interview. I think it went well, but I have to say that knowing their accreditation is now on probation does concern me. Anyone else?
My S24 applied for BS/DPT. We were debating between ELMPA and BS/DPT before submitting application. But we ended up choosing BS/DPT to apply. I saw the news about accreditation of PA program and they explained it’s mainly due to the turnover rate of faculty during COVID. But it still a concern. What happens if accreditation gets removed while students are still in the program?
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I did hear their explanation that it had to do with faculty turnover from COVID, and I wondered if that was true, or if the turnover had to do with the recent lawsuit, where a PA student claimed unfair treatment due to her mental health issues. I’m sure it didn’t help. I would think the probation would get the program to really work hard to reverse the trend, but knowing its one step away from having accreditation revoked entirely is probably too big a risk to take, like you said, especially if it happens while a student is attending. Really sad because I love everything else about the school.
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Does anyone know if all applicants to the ELMPA Program are offered interviews?
I believe I read that last year, they had 600 applications for the ELMPA program and conducted 100 interviews. Not sure if it’ll be the same this year.
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According to the panel that my daughter interviewed with, they received several hundred applications and selected 100 to interview. They planned to accept 40 of those who interview. We just heard this morning that she was accepted!
My son was accepted to DPT with merits. So far it’s the most generous merits he received.
Congrats!!!
My daughter is a year behind yours, planning to apply to the ELMPA program next fall. Would you be willing to share why you think your daughter was accepted and offer any advice on things my daughter can be doing now as a HS junior to increase her odds? Please feel free to DM if you don’t want to post publicly.
My daughter was also accepted to the ELMPA Program and will likely be attending. Demonstrated interest is a significant factor for Quinnipiac. The Quinnipiac admissions officer who visited her high school strongly advised a visit. Quinnipiac was hosting an open house that weekend, so we attended. We are so grateful for the advice because we both fell in love with the school and the program. During the presentations it was reiterated that taking the time to spend a day on campus would be considered in the admissions decision. They are very transparent about this. Shadowing and patient related experiences are also factors. Based on her interview experience, my daughter feels that being the VP of her high school’s community service club helped. The interviewers talked with her a bunch about this. Good luck to your daughter.
By “spending a day on campus” do you mean attending the open house or did she do another visit?
I think the biggest factor for my daughter was her direct patient care experience working as a CNA in a nursing home. She is in the Health Pathway at her high school and received her CNA license in her junior year. My advice would be to start shadowing since most high school students are not in the position to get licensed for CNA or EMT. Our pediatric PA offered to have my daughter shadow without us even asking. I have found that most are willing to share their experiences if you ask. Good luck!
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Interesting. We haven’t visited yet, so would not have any “demonstrated interest,” but my daughter did get accepted into the program. We do have a visit scheduled for February. She is interviewing with two other direct entry programs, but Quinnipiac is top 1 or 2 at this point.
I went by the CSS which says that demonstrated interest is important, but it’s clearly based on so many factors, one can’t ever know! I definitely think that being a CNA and having that health pathway was a big factor. My daughter didn’t have access to any of those things, the most she could do was volunteer, and sign up for a very convoluted PA shadowing process that only gave her minimal hours. One place she got into said that they won’t count such experience because it’s really not equitable as not everyone has access to it, but for most places, I’m sure it makes a candidate stand out.
From my experience, it seems that every PA program has different wants and needs and different ways of rating their candidates . . . taking into consideration things that one might not consider important at all. So you never really can know your chances. We learned that after she was waitlisted at a program where she had so much demonstrated interest, and better stats than a good number of those who were accepted… and we think it was largely because she was given a much better merit scholarship to attend the school than other candidates. It’s a business, after all.
Appreciate the advice! That’s awesome your high school has a program for a healthcare pathway. I’ve heard of high schools that do the same with a year-long EMT course during their school day. Our high school only has an EMR (no EMT nor CNA) class which is likely not so helpful.
Did QU share any info about steps they are taking to ensure their continued accreditation is reinstated?
They have not shared any info, but we have also not reached out yet to inquire. We are still waiting to hear from 2 other dual entry programs. If she doesn’t get in to either of those, then Q would be her only option anyway. If she does get into another program and she prefers Quinnipiac, then we will definitely start asking those questions. Our high school health pathway offers CNA junior year and EMT in senior year. My daughter opted to drop the pathway this year, so she could fit in AP Biology instead.
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We went to Health Science Academic Explore Day on Monday and some parent asked about the probation. The dean of health science answered that they have fulfilled all the requirement and submitted updated report on Feb 1st. They will probably hear back in June with update. They also invested additional half million on the PA program to get improvement so they don’t think they will have any issue on the accreditation.
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