Hi all,

I was just readig the "A" school waiting lists and saw that most people on the PA list have not yet qualified for the school. As all you PA's know, there's a screening process. So, being that I'm considering putting my name on said list in the near future, I have a couple of questions about the aforementioned screeing process:
1) What does it consist of?
2) How long does it take to complete?

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

Hopefully I can answer this one for you.

The screening process consists of a few things.

First you should plan spending 2-3 days with a PA staff. Before you arrive, you should have written a 250-word "essay" (more of a summary) on why you want to be a PA. This allows whoever is doing your screening to get an idea of your background, desire to do the job, and writing ability.

Once you arrive there a few other things you must complete. You must take a typing test as well as a diagnostics test which we use to gauge your grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. For the typing test you need to be able to type at least 20 WPM. You should also check Direct Access or with your Education Officer to ensure your ASVAB scores meet the minimum requirements: (VE 54, VE+AR=109)

The diagnostics test is more of a benchmark that allows us to recommend areas you will need to brush up on before going to school. Many people have waited up to two years to get to A-School so it's conceivable your skills in writing, proof-reading, etc., will get a little rusty when you're not constantly using them.

The rest of the time you are with the PA office for your interview you are usually doing PA work such as preparing press releases, going on photo shoot, editing photos/video, doing research, etc. We try to familiarize you with what you will be doing at A-School and as a PA both to ensure this is what you want to do and to prepare you for school. We sit down with you and talk about what your expectations of being a PA are and make sure you don't have any unrealistic expectations about what it is we do. We also talk to you about A-School and what to expect there since you'll be in a joint-service environment with all branches of the military, Coast Guard being the smallest group there.

You'll also write a 3-4 paragraph essay during the interview process while at with the PA staff (in addition to the one you bring with you). This again allows us to assess your writing ability among other things.

A-School isn't terribly difficult if you have a strong work ethic, but the workload is pretty heavy at times making time management critical. Since the Coast Guard does not get many slots each year to send people through (it's a DoD school), we want to make sure the people we are sending are going to be able to make it through. There are roughly 75-80 PA's for the 41,000+ people in the Coast Guard and we get 15-30 slots/year for A-School so we need every one we send to make it.

The hold-up most people face with going to school is the clearance requirement. If you have not already begun that process I highly encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Your command's security officer should be able to help you.

Being a PA requires you to have a secret clearance and thus is required for A-School. The sooner you get that taken care of the faster you'll move up the list. Just because you are in the #1 slot on the list doesn't guarantee you are going next. You're only going to go if you have met all the requirements, including getting your security clearance.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask here or email me directly.

Thanks for your indepth response, KickFox. The process doesn't seem too bad at all. But I guess the guys and gals stuck on big cutters have a harder time getting the screening process done? That's rough.

Anyway, thanks again for the quick response. I really appreciate it.

-- Tom

It can be tough if your underway to get in and get it done, but I would encourage anyone in that sort of situation to email your servicing public affairs office. We'll work with you any way we can to expedite things. We all waited on the list so we definitely know how those who are there now feel ... lol.

usually there's a PA office near the big cutters...