University of the Cumberlands PA Interview: Format & Questions

Our team wrote the 12 questions and example answers below around UC's individual and group format, its score sheet priorities, and its published goals. The applicants in the example answers are invented. For broader practice across general prompts, see our guide to <a href="/articles/pa-program-interview-questions">PA school interview questions</a>.

1. Why do you want to become a PA at University of the Cumberlands, and why this campus specifically?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "Growing up in Whitley County, I saw how often my neighbors put off primary care until a manageable condition turned into an emergency room visit. Working as a medical assistant in a rural family practice over the last two years showed me how a PA closes that gap by handling same-day acute visits and long-term chronic disease management alongside the supervising physician. I am applying to the Williamsburg campus because Goal 1 of your program is recruiting students from Appalachia and medically underserved regions, and that is where I intend to practice. I also value the 30-student class size in the Correll Science Complex, where learning anatomy on the Anatomage table and practicing procedures in a small cohort mirrors the tight-knit clinic environment I want to return to."

2. You completed at least 50 hours of PA shadowing to apply here. Tell us about one patient encounter you observed that showed you the unique role of a PA on the healthcare team.

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "While shadowing a PA in an outpatient internal medicine clinic, I watched her evaluate a patient who came in for routine hypertension follow-up but mentioned new shortness of breath when climbing stairs. She took a focused history, performed a cardiopulmonary exam, and ordered an in-office EKG and labs. When the EKG showed new atrial fibrillation, she used a structured SBAR handoff to consult with her collaborating physician down the hall. Within ten minutes, they agreed on rate-control medication, anticoagulation, and an expedited cardiology referral, and the PA spent the next fifteen minutes educating the patient and his wife in plain language. That encounter showed me how a PA practices with real diagnostic autonomy while using team collaboration to move a patient safely from workup to treatment in a single visit."

3. Tell us about a time during your 500+ direct patient care hours when you saw team-based care break down, and what you learned about interprofessional communication.

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "When I worked as an emergency department technician, a patient with diabetic ketoacidosis had a two-hour delay in starting her insulin drip because the verbal handoff between triage and the main floor missed that her potassium result was still pending in the lab queue. Nobody checked back because each person assumed someone else was tracking the lab. After that shift, our charge nurse and the ED PA reminded the team to use closed-loop communication and to assign a named owner to every pending critical lab. In my own role, I started writing the time of every blood draw on the whiteboard and verbally confirming with the nurse when a sample reached the lab. It taught me that accountability in a healthcare team means verifying the handoff, not just completing your own task."

4. If you are placed in a rural or medically underserved clinic where patients struggle to afford medications or travel for specialty referrals, how would you adapt your care plan?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "First, I would ask about cost and transportation before finalizing the plan, because a prescription a patient cannot afford does not help them. As a scribe in a community clinic, I watched our PA check the clinic's $4 generic formulary list with patients right in the exam room and switch a brand-name inhaler to an affordable alternative before the patient left. Second, if a specialist is an hour away, I would talk with my supervising physician about what diagnostic workup we can complete locally so the patient only has to make one trip, or whether a telehealth consult is an option. Third, I would loop in the clinic social worker or care coordinator early to connect the patient with gas vouchers or patient assistance programs."

5. How have you prepared for the academic pace of a 27-month, 113-credit-hour program with 68 hours of on-campus didactic coursework?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "During the last three semesters of my undergraduate degree, I took upper-level Genetics, Immunology, and Biochemistry while working 20 hours a week as a phlebotomist. To keep a 3.7 BCP GPA, I switched from rereading notes to daily active recall and spaced repetition within 24 hours of every lecture. For PA school, I have planned to step away from work completely so I can treat the 15 to 19 credit didactic semesters like a full-time job. I also read on your website that the program tracks course remediation trends and moved Research and Epidemiology to a later semester to balance student load, which tells me faculty are approachable when a student reaches out early."

6. Group interview scenario: Your small group is given 10 minutes to rank the top three barriers to healthcare in Kentucky and present one realistic clinic-level intervention. How do you approach the group discussion?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "In a timed group task, my goal is to help the group reach a clear decision on time while making sure every applicant gets heard. In the first minute, I would suggest a simple time split: four minutes to share ideas, four minutes to agree on our top three barriers and one clinic intervention, and two minutes to decide who presents which piece. If a quieter group member has not spoken by the three-minute mark, I would invite them in directly by asking what they have seen in their clinical hours. When I speak, I would connect someone else's point to a concrete step, such as pairing transportation barriers in rural counties with clustered appointment scheduling so families can see primary care and get lab work done in one drive."

7. Describe a time you cared for or worked with someone from a background very different from your own. How did you adjust your communication?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "As a CNA on a post-surgical floor, I cared for an older patient who spoke limited English and kept refusing to ambulate after knee replacement, which the day shift had charted as non-compliance. Using the hospital video interpreter, I asked him what was worrying him before trying to get him out of bed. He explained that in his home country, walking on a fresh surgical joint was believed to ruin the repair, and his pain medication had worn off an hour before physical therapy arrived. Once I timed his PRN pain medication 45 minutes before therapy and had the physical therapist explain through the interpreter why early movement prevents blood clots, he walked the hallway every shift."

8. Tell us about a mistake you made in an academic or clinical setting and how you handled accountability.

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "During my first month as a medical assistant, I roomed a patient with the same last name as another patient in the waiting room and entered his vital signs into the wrong chart. I caught the error two minutes later when I checked the date of birth on the intake sheet. Even though the provider had not opened the chart yet, I immediately told the PA what I had done and asked our clinic manager to help me strike the vitals from the first chart and enter them into the right one. From that day on, I made it a rule to have every patient state their full name and date of birth out loud before typing a single number."

9. A patient in your family medicine rotation asks you to prescribe an antibiotic for a three-day viral upper respiratory infection because a different provider gave them one last year. How do you respond?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "I would start by validating why they came in: three days of congestion, cough, and poor sleep is exhausting, and it makes sense they want what seemed to help last time. Then I would explain in plain words that their exam findings point to a viral infection, and that an antibiotic targets bacteria, so it will not shorten a virus and could cause side effects or resistance when they need an antibiotic later. Instead of leaving them empty-handed, I would offer a specific symptomatic treatment plan, give them clear red-flag symptoms that should bring them back in, and check what questions they have."

10. While on a clinical rotation, your preceptor asks you to perform a minor procedure on a patient that you have only seen on a simulator and do not feel ready to do unsupervised. What do you do?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "One of the clinical rotation goals at UC is identifying role limitations to protect patient safety. I would step outside the exam room with my preceptor and state clearly and respectfully that I have practiced the procedure in the skills lab on a task trainer, but I have not yet performed it on a patient and need direct supervision at the bedside. I would offer to walk my preceptor through the steps I know so they can see where I am comfortable and where I need guidance."

11. Tell us about a time you received critical feedback from a supervisor, professor, or preceptor. What did you change?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "Three weeks into my job as an emergency department scribe, the PA I worked with told me after a busy shift that my history of present illness notes read like a chronological transcript rather than a focused clinical story. I asked if we could look at two of my charts from that day so she could show me what she would cut and what she would move to the first sentence. For the next month, I kept a short checklist on my clipboard: onset, pertinent positives, pertinent negatives, and risk factors for the chief complaint. At my 90-day review, that same PA noted that my charts needed almost no editing."

12. What will be your biggest challenge in transitioning from your current clinical role to being a PA student, and how will you manage it?

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "Working as a paramedic for three years has trained me to focus on immediate stabilization and rapid transport protocols. The biggest adjustment in PA school will be shifting from protocol-driven prehospital care to building a broad differential diagnosis and long-term management plan across every organ system. I have started preparing for that shift during my PA shadowing hours in internal medicine and pediatrics by asking the PAs how they narrow down three or four possible diagnoses before ordering tests. In class, I plan to lean on the Integration Seminars each semester to practice working through full patient cases step by step."

Every applicant applies through CASPA and submits a UC PA Supplemental Application with a $30 fee (sent by email after CASPA verification). Both campuses require a bachelor's degree, a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, a 3.0 CASPA BCP GPA, and a C or better in all prerequisites completed within 10 years prior to admission (Williamsburg also requires a 3.0 prerequisite GPA). Neither campus accepts transfer credit or grants advanced placement. See how these cutoffs compare nationally in our guide to <a href="/articles/pa-school-requirements">PA school requirements</a>.

By our calculation from UC's published PANCE and graduation tables, across the four graduated classes from 2023 to 2026 at Williamsburg, 122 students entered (31, 30, 30, and 31, with graduation rates of 84%, 90%, 77%, and 87% and attrition rates of 16%, 10%, 23%, and 13%) and 102 graduated (26, 27, 23, and 26), for a four-year combined graduation rate of 83.6%. At Northern Kentucky, across the three graduated cohorts listed (2024, 2025a, and 2025b), 92 students entered (32, 30, and 30, with graduation rates of 87.5%, 93.3%, and 93.3% and attrition rates of 12.5%, 6.7%, and 6.7%) and 84 graduated (28, 28, and 28), for a combined graduation rate of 91.3%. Tuition is $12,500 per semester.

When you are ready to practice your answers out loud with timed follow-ups for both one-on-one and group questions, use Confetto's <a href="/pa-school">PA school mock interviews</a>. Start your free week.

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "While working as a medical assistant at an outpatient clinic in eastern Kentucky, I cared for a patient in his fifties with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes who missed every other three-month A1C check. When I asked him privately while taking his vitals what was making the visits hard, he told me he worked hourly construction and lost half a day's pay every time he drove 45 minutes to our clinic and waited another hour for labs. Our clinic PA worked with him to switch to early-morning lab draws before his shift, consolidated his hypertension and diabetes refills onto the same 90-day schedule, and switched him to a generic regimen covered by his plan. Six months later, his A1C dropped by two points. That experience showed me that clinical knowledge only works when the care plan fits the patient's daily reality. It is the reason I want to train at University of the Cumberlands and practice primary care in an underserved Kentucky community."

It connects UC's first program goal (serving medically underserved areas and Appalachia) to a concrete patient story from the applicant's direct patient care hours, shows what the PA on the team actually did, and ends with a clear clinical takeaway.