Annual Report and CASPA Data Show Established Trends Continuing

Annual Report

Mei Liang, PAEA assistant director of data and research, presented preliminary data from the the recently conducted revised annual survey of PA programs, the first annual survey to be conducted through the Association’s new Web data portal. The report was based on preliminary data from the roughly 75% of programs that had responded to the survey before the Education Forum. Percentages are expected to change slightly as the remaining programs respond to the survey.

The complete presentation is available here. Most data points did not change substantially. Highlights of the report included:

• Sixty-one percent of the institutions sponsoring PA programs were universities, 16% were academic health centers, and 14% were four-year colleges.
• The ratio of private to public institutions was 7:3.
• The percentage of programs that awarded a master’s degree as the highest degree increased from 77% in 2006 to 83% in 2007.
• Eight percent of responding PA programs paid to precept their students.
• Twenty-six percent of the programs had mandatory drug testing, and 69% required background checks for their enrollees.
• Eighty-four percent of faculty members and 76% of staff members were white.
• The average salary for PA faculty members was $79,685 and $84,212 for non-PA faculty members.
• Twenty-nine percent of faculty members had a doctoral degree, and 61% had a masters’ degree.
• Almost two-thirds of faculty members did clinical work.
• Student demographics remained relatively unchanged: 72% of incoming students were female, the average applicant age was 26.8 years, and 22% of new enrollees were from underrepresented minority groups.
• Average starting salary for new graduates was $74,153.

CASPA Report

Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) Advisory Committee Chair Janie McDaniel presented the results of the seven-year CASPA data trends and compared applicant and matriculant profiles for the 2007–2008 cycle. The complete presentation may be accessed here. Highlights of the CASPA data include:

• The number of CASPA participating programs continued to grow. In the 2007–2008 cycle, CASPA added four new programs, bringing the total to 101 programs.
• The number of unique applicants in 2007–-2008 was 10,550, a 16.8% increase over the previous cycle.
• The average number of program designations by each student increased from 5.06 to 5.59.
• The total number of applications processed by CASPA — the number of applicants multiplied by the average number of designations — increased to 58,971, a 29.1% increase over the previous cycle.
• The number of applicants per available seat in the 2007–2008 cycle was 2.75, up from 2.43 in the previous cycle.
• Female candidates made up about 73% of both the applicant and matriculant pool.
• The average age of all applicants decreased slightly over the seven years, from 28 to 27. On average, matriculants were younger than applicants in the past three cycles. Female candidates were three to four years younger than males for both applicants and matriculants.
• About 70% of applicants were white, lower than the percentage for matriculants of 77%.
• Applicants averaged 7,380 hours of health care experience, higher than the 6,271 hours for matriculants. In contrast, the average overall GPA of matriculants was 3.43, higher than that for applicants, 3.25.

Results from the program and applicant surveys showed high levels of satisfaction with the service. Ninety-six percent of responding program directors and 92% of admissions officers indicated that CASPA was “responsive” or “very responsive” to program concerns. Almost 90% of applicants thought that the overall quality of the CASPA service was “high” or “very high.”