PA School differs from Medical School because of the high clinical hours needed to apply. Schools can ask an applicant to have anywhere between 0-2000 hrs of experience, but applicants usually go for 1000 hrs at a minimum and 2000 hrs to be a more competitive applicant. Additionally, some PA schools ask you to have some hours shadowing PAs, but this amount is usually only a couple of hours.
Clinical Hours
How does one get enough clinical hours before going to PA school? The answer is usually a gap year or multiple gap years to work in a clinical setting before starting. If the applicant does not want to take a gap year, some options to get clinical hours are being an EMT, CNA, Medical Assistant, or Phlebotomist either over the summer or during the school year. All of these require certain certifications before starting the job, which is another challenge in getting clinical hours.
PA schools value clinical hours VERY highly, much more than GPA. The usual GPA needed to get into PA school is around 3.2, with required GPAs ranging from each school, but are either from 3.00 to a 3.5.