Admission Requirements

Admission Requirements

For admission to the program, an applicant must have:

• Baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university
• Minimum overall CASPA verified GPA of 3.0
• Minimum overall CASPA science verified GPA of 3.2 (recommended)
• 250-500 hours of patient care experience (strongly recommended)
• Physician Assistant shadowing experience, leadership experience, research experience, volunteer experience (recommended)
• Three letters of recommendation must be requested through CASPA, two are required for verification
• Successful completion of faculty interview (by invitation only)

Additionally, the following prerequisite courses must be completed:

Linked courses are available through the MCPHS School of Professional Studies.

• Anatomy & Physiology I & II with lab (8 credits)
• Microbiology with lab (4 credits)
• General Chemistry I with lab (4 credits)
• Organic Chemistry I with lab (4 credits)
• Biochemistry (3 credits)
• Psychology (3 credits)
• Statistics (3 credits) (Acceptable substitutions include basic statistics, biostatistics, psychological statistics, economic statistics)

Prerequisite courses (as indicated above) must have been completed at a regionally accredited college or university with a grade of C or better. Math and science courses taken more than ten years prior to the anticipated date of matriculation to MCPHS will not be accepted.

Students with international coursework must submit a course-by-course evaluation from the World Education Service (WES). Please note that a WES evaluation is not required for applicants for coursework from English-Speaking Canadian universities and colleges.

Articulation Agreements

The Accelerated Master of Physician Assistant Studies Program has articulation agreements with eleven colleges and universities. These articulation agreements contain certain provisions that provide an advantage for an interview and admission to the Program of up to a specified number of qualified applicants from the eleven colleges and universities set forth below. These articulation agreements provide that admission to the PA Program is granted on a space-available basis and only if the applicant meets the articulation agreement institution applicant criteria described below. If the number of applicants from an articulation agreement school exceeds the number of positions designated in the applicable agreement, the PA Admission Committee will rank-order the most qualified applicants based on consideration of a full set of their application materials and the evaluation from the admissions interview. Any additional applicants from that specific articulation agreement school will enter the PA Program's regular applicant pool.

Articulation agreement institution applicant criteria for admission to the PA program:

• Satisfies all requirements for a baccalaureate degree with an overall grade point average of 3.4 and all PA Program prerequisite coursework at his/her respective college or university
• Has an overall grade point average of no less than 3.4 on a 4.0 scale in the specified prerequisite coursework, has no grades less than C, and has no repeated courses
• Has submitted a verified application to the Program through the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) by October 1st in the year preceding anticipated matriculation
• Submits an acceptable TOEFL or IELTS score if English is the applicant's second language
• Completes a pre-admission interview with a score of acceptable or above

Student Work Policy

In order to ensure student success in the Physician Assistant program, it is strongly recommended that Physician Assistant students not work while enrolled in this accelerated program. Because of the intense nature of the studies during the program, there is a high potential for those who work to find themselves in academic jeopardy. No allowances will be made in the academic or clinical schedules for working students.