Health Professions: Pre-Physician Assistant

Prepare Yourself

The Pre-Physician Assistant Career Track offers a comprehensive curriculum grounded in scientific principles and its practical application to prepare students for application to a graduate physician assistant program. The diverse curriculum that includes general education requirements and the foundational sciences courses that are typically pre-requisites for application to a graduate program in physician assistant studies.

Requirements:

A Bachelor of Science degree is typically required by most schools. Students who are interested in becoming physician assistants will be able to obtain the following courses for application to physician assistant programs. The following courses are required by many schools

• BI 111 General Biology Cells and Genes
• BI 112 General Biology Ecology and Evolution
• BI 220 Human Anatomy and Physiology
• BI 250 General Microbiology
• BI 318 Genetics
• CH 135 General Chemistry I
• CH 137 General Chemistry II
• CH 216 Organic Chemistry I
• CH 217 Organic Chemistry II
• BI/CH 342 Biochemistry I
• EN 112 English Composition II
• MA 155 Elementary Probability and Statistics
• HE 124 Medical Terminology
• PY 101 Introduction to Psychology
• Many schools recommend ethics, molecular cell biology (BI 345), and a foreign language.

Valuable resources for applicants to physician assistant programs include:

Central Application Service:
Standardized Entrance Exam: GRE or MCAT

Additional Information:
Students should have extensive clinical exposure prior to applying to PA school. Discuss options with your advisor and with Avila’s Career Services Office.

Physician Assistant Education Association – www.paeaonline.org and http://pafocus.org/
American Academy of Physician Assistants   
University of Missouri at Kansas City Physician Assistant Program
Missouri State University Physician Assistant Studies
Wichita State University Department of Physician Assistant