Physician Assistant Requirements
Most PA education programs require applicants to earn a bachelor's degree prior to admission into a professional PA program.
ADMISSION CRITERIA
- Certain coursework
- Good GPA
- Test scores (GRE)
- Experience
- Recommendations
A competitive applicant for PA programs will have taken the recommended coursework (see below), have a GPA of 3.3-3.5 (3.00 minimum), taken the GRE, have good references, history of community service/volunteerism. You also need to have about 3 years of healthcare experience such as:
- Medical assistant
- Emergency medical technician (EMT)
- Paramedic
- Medic or medical corpsman
- Peace Corps volunteer
- Lab assistant/phlebotomist
- Registered nurse
- Emergency room technician
- Surgical tech
- Certified nursing assistant (CNA)
- Medical or ER scribe
- Medical mission trips
There is some variation in the pre-requisite coursework needed at the undergraduate level. Below is a listing of the undergraduate coursework required by most programs as well as some additional coursework that may be required by some programs.
Minimum Pre-Requisites C or better:
- Biol 130 – Cells to Organisms
- Biol 150 – Organisms to Ecosystems
- Biol 260 - Microbiology
- Biol 300 - Human anatomy
- BIOL 370 - Human physiology
- Chem 116 – Energetics and Dynamics (may need 115 Structure and Reactivity)
- Chem 250 – Organic I
- Chem 340 – Biochemistry I
- Psyc 100 – Principles of Psychology
- Statistics (Math 107 or Biol 170)
- Additional courses for some programs:
- Phys 141 – Principles of Mechanics
- Another biology course
- Comp phys, vert morph, genetics, immunology
- Another chemistry course
- Another one or two psychology courses
Usually a biology or biochemistry major works well for preparing for PA school.
PROGRAM COST and LENGTH
The length of professional physical assistant programs is typically 2 years and the average cost per year for programs in 2017-18 range from an avg of $35,000/yr tuition for residents and $40,000/yr for non-residents
LICENSING
To practice as a PA in the US, you must earn a PA degree from an accredited PA program and pass the PANCE licensure exam.
PROGRAMS attended by LU ALUMS
University of Wisconsin, Concordia University