Most PA programs will look for applicants to have a bachelor's degree at the time that they apply to the program or be pending completion of a four-year degree prior to enrolling in a PA program. However, some schools, such as Drexel University, will admit competitive applicants who have earned at least 90 credits at the time of application. Successful applicants to PA programs have an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0.
Competitive applicants to PA programs possess prior work experience in a health care setting with direct patient contact. The amount of required patient care experience varies; for example, George Washington University requires 960 hours, while Northwestern University requires at least 1,000 hours. Direct patient contact is gained through such roles as paramedic, nurse, medical assistant, orderly, dental hygienist or home health aide.
Recommendation letters are used by admissions committees to ascertain an applicant's potential for success in a PA program. PA program applicants will typically submit two to three recommendations. While recommendations from college professors can speak to an applicant's academic potential, PA program applicants should also submit a recommendation from a supervisor who has worked with them in a health care setting and can attest to their ability with and interest in providing patient care.
Graduates of PA programs are awarded a master's degree. Thus, applicants to PA programs are usually required to submit scores from the Graduate Record Examination, or GRE. The GRE measures verbal and quantitative reasoning as well as writing skills. GRE scores provide PA program admissions committees with a measure of a candidate's ability to succeed in the intellectually demanding PA program curriculum.