I am currently an undergrad studying Biology at Providence College. I have a GPA of 3.75, but I think it’s going to be boosted since I just got an A in Calculus 2. I have written books when I was a teenager and published it online, gaining an audience of about 5 million reads and 100k followers on Twitter. I continued to write but not post years later and now, in my early 20s, I have completed a book I am trying to get published. I didn’t write it for admission purposes or a college ploy, it is something I have worked on since 2016. However, a friend said that it will definitely boost my chances into being accepted into a PA program.
It is a fiction novel. If I am lucky, because I would consider myself lucky if it becomes published, and manage to get it published, would it actually make a difference in my application? What about if it becomes pretty successful?
I have met all other prerequesites, have over 4,000+ hours in a healthcare profession, and I am trilingual. I haven’t taken the GRE yet, though some programs don’t require it. I might not even publish it by then because I tend to re-write a lot but I was just wondering how much it would help if I did get it done beforehand and put it on my application. Either way, I’ll still try to publish it.
I think grad schools will be primarily interested in your college accomplishments and what you have done in your field of study.
Unless your book gets published by a major house and becomes a huge bestseller (bringing you fame) all before applications are due I doubt it would move the needle much on grad school admissions.
If you were looking for an MFA program in fiction, this book might be meaningful, but it is immaterial for a PA program. For that kind of grad program, publications in a medical-adjacent journal (biology, chemistry, public health) would be useful.
Yeah, I know, I just like writing fiction. It deals with mental illness, so a lot of research was involved. I have published medical-adjacent journals, but not many. I was just wondering if it would actually make a bit of a difference, you know?
It’s wonderful that you like writing fiction! I hope you continue to do it.
But no, it won’t make much of a difference to your PA application, because the experience isn’t really relevant. If you were writing scientific or medical articles, perhaps.
(However, I can say that there are better chances it’ll help with jobs, oddly. I’ve observed that sometimes quirky facts that make one seem more human on a resume can put one over the edge.)