Pre Health Programs

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

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:

Other recommended and/or required courses:

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.

You can use the following file as a guideline to organize the prerequisites of the schools you are interested in  (PA_SchoolComparisonSpreadsheet_WCSU)

Additional Information: The Connecticut Academy of Physician Assistants maintains a website for all programs in Connecticut. Their website is https://connapa.org/pa-programs/

Pre-Physician’s Assistant Pathway Sample Four Year Plan

 

Fall 1

WRT101 Composition I (FY)

MAT170 Calculus with Review or MAT181 Calculus I (QR)*

BIO103 General Biology I (SI)

CHE110 General Chemistry I (SI)

Spring 1

Writing Intensive (WI)

MAT171 Calculus I with Review OR MAT115 Biostatistics OR MAT120 Statistics (QR)

BIO104 General Biology II

CHE111 General Chemistry II

 

Fall 2

COM162 Public Speaking (OC)

Foreign Language Part I (IC)

CHE210 Organic Chemistry I

Major Course

Gen Ed (HW)

Spring 2

PSY100 Intro to Psychology

Foreign Language Part II (IC)

CHE211 Organic Chemistry II (recommended but not required)

Major Course

Gen Ed (CT)

 

Fall 3

Major Course

Major Course

BIO105 Anatomy & Physiology I

BIO312 Genetics

Spring 3

Major Course

Major Course

BIO106 Anatomy & Physiology II

BIO216 Microbiology

 

Fall 4

CHE421 Biochemistry I (Macromolecules)

Major Course

Major Course

Major Course

Major Course (W3 & CGE)

Spring 4

Gen Ed (CP)

Major

Major

CHE422 Biochemistry II (Metabolism) (recommended but not required)

Free Elective OR MAT115 or MAT120 Statistics

*Students who did not take pre-calculus in high school are encouraged to take MAT133 Pre-calculus during the summer prior to the start of this program.

Taking multiple lab sciences in a semester can be very challenging. You may wish to reduce your course load and take some courses in the summer.  Speak with your advisor about this possibility.