Pre-Physician’s Assistant Pathway (27 credits of Math/Science courses)

The pre-requisites for physician assistant programs can vary.  It is important for students to determine the specific requirements for each physician assistant program they wish to apply to, in consultation with a pre-health advisor.   Most physician assistant programs require the following courses:

• BIO103/BIO104 General Biology I & II (pre-requisite for microbiology)
• BIO105/BIO106 Anatomy and Physiology I & II
• BIO216 General Microbiology
• CHE110/CHE111 General Chemistry I & II
• CHE210 Organic Chemistry
• MAT115 or MAT120 Biostatistics or Statistics
• One semester of a writing intensive course

Other recommended and/or required courses:

• BIO312 Genetics
• CHE211 Organic Chemistry II
• CHE421 Biochemistry I
• MAT133 Calculus I with review and/or MAT181 Calculus
• PSY100 Psychology
• Medical terminology (can be taken online)

Other Requirements:
Schools require between 500 – 3000 hours of relevant patient care experience (paramedic, EMT, nurse, ER tech, CNA, etc).

The GRE (graduate record examination) is required by some schools.

Grades:
Physician Assistant programs are highly competitive.   While most schools require a minimum GPA of 3.0 to apply, a higher GPA is necessary to be considered.  The national average science GPA of students entering into a Physician Assistant program is 3.3.

To help guide you use the following:

1. Read the Pre-PA Pathway document
2. Organize the prerequisites of the schools you are interested using the following spreadsheet: PA School Comparison Spreadsheet
3. The information for all accredited PA schools is found in the CASPA Program Directory.
4. Consider joining The Connecticut Academy of Physician Assistants to be up-to-date with your future profession.