Pre-PA: Student that is pursuing becoming a PA and attending a Physician Assistant Studies Program 

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PA-S: Student in a Masters of Physician Assistant Studies Program. PA Programs are 2-3 years depending on the program. So PA-S1 for example is a PA Student in the first year of the program. 

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PA-C: Certified Physician Assistant 

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PANCE:(Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam ) Exam taken by graduate student of a Physician Assistant program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). After passing PANCE, PAs are issued certification and are PA-C. 

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GRE: The Graduate Record Examinations is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for some PA programs depending on the program.

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PCE: Experiences in which you are directly responsible for a patient's care. For example, prescribing medication, performing procedures, directing a course of treatment, designing a treatment regimen, actively working on patients as a nurse, paramedic, EMT, CNA, phlebotomist, physical therapist, etc.

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HCE: Both paid and unpaid work in a health or health-related field where you are not directly responsible for a patient's care, but may still have patient interaction; for example, filling prescriptions, performing clerical work, delivering patient food, cleaning patients and/or their rooms, administering food or medication, taking vitals or other record keeping information.

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CASPA: Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants is an application service for graduate-level PA programs. This the system used to apply to PA school and allows students the to apply to multiple participating PA programs with a single application. 

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Upward Trend:  Is a progression on your transcript that shows your grades consistently improving over  time. For example, this would look like lower grades in freshman and sophomore year, followed by substantially higher grades in junior and senior years.

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Holistic Program: This means that a PA program looks at the applicant as a whole. This program will not just look at GPA but experiences from patient care, volunteer experiences, research etc.