Annual Report, CASPA Data Both Shows Trends Continuing

Annual Report

Bert Simon, director of the PAEA Annual Report, presented results of the most recent survey. Most of the trends of recent years continued with this survey, Simon noted during his presentation at the Annual Education Forum. These trends include:

• Students continue to get younger — the proportion of students who are over 29 fell for the 11th straight year, while the proportion of those younger than 24 continues to rise

• The mean number of months of health care experience continues to decline — to 29 months this year, down from 35 months last year and a high of 56 months in 1992

• The percentage of matriculating students that are female continues to rise; this figure was up to 73% this year

• More than 70 percent of PA programs now offer the master’s degree

• The percentage of students that are minorities was at 23%; this percentage has been fairly steady over the past decade

The complete slideshow can be accessed here. Hard copies of the 22nd Annual Report will be available in the next few weeks and will be mailed to all programs in January.

CASPA

CASPA Advisory Committee Chair Ted Ruback followed Simon with a report on recent and five-year data from the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants.

So far, this is looking like a very good year for CASPA, Ruback said. The number of applicants applying to CASPA programs in the present cycle is up by about 1,300 — more than 25 percent — over the same time last year. This is likely only partly attributable to a slight increase in the number of participating programs, which now stands at 96, up from 93 in 2005. In CASPA’s Cycle 5 (May 1, 2005, through March 30, 2006) 7,608 unique applicants applied to the service, generating 36,459 applications. The mean number of designations rose to 4.54, continuing the upward trend over the five years of the service. It was more competitive than last year to be accepted at a PA program: the number of applicants per seat was up to 2.25 this year.

Demographically, the applicant pool has been fairly steady over the five years of the service’s existence. About 70 percent of applicants are female, and about the same percentage is white. The average age of applicants has been creeping down over the five years, to 27.2 years in 2006. The mean overall GPA of applicants rose slightly again in 2006, to 3.25. The most popular major continues to be biology.

The mean number of years of self-reported health care experience for 2006 applicants was 3.28 years, up from 3.10 last year. Nearly 58 percent of reported health care experience is direct patient care experience.

Ruback also reported data on some differences between matriculants and non-matriculants. Matriculants had more health care experience on average: 7,552 hours compared to 6,914 for non-matriculants and a slightly higher total GPA than non-matriculants (3.24 vs. 3.21). Gender and ethnic differences were negligible.

As a service, CASPA continues to improve, according to evaluation data Ruback presented. The processing time for applications is down considerably in 2006 relative to 2005. The consolidation of deadlines has helped in this effort, Ruback said. Recent improvements to the service include the scanning of all reference letters, so that all references are available electronically, and a new advisor’s Web portal.

A detailed report on the first five years of CASPA data is being prepared by a consultant and will be ready in the spring of 2007, Ruback said.

To access the CASPA Report slide show, click here.