Choosing a Major for PA | Springfield College

Students generally complete the following requirements to apply to physician assistant (PA) school.

Requirements vary by program and additional prerequisite courses may be required for some courses on the list.

Common PA program prerequisite courses

  • Bioscience 1 & 2
  • General Chemistry 1 & 2
  • Organic Chemistry 1 (Organic Chemistry 2 is also required by some PA programs)
  • Human A&P 1 & 2
  • Biological Chemistry
  • Microbiology
  • Pre-Calculus or Calculus
  • Statistics or Biostatistics
  • Intro to Psychology (content included in MCAT)

Additional PA program requirements

  • GRE or MCAT exam scores (varies by program)
  • High overall GPA
  • High GPA in science courses
  • Letters of recommendation
  • Personal statement
  • Patient care hours (many schools require 500-2000 hours, although exact number of hours varies by program; many applicants work as a medical assistant, CNA, or an EMT to accumulate these hours)
  • Community service and extracurricular activities

Additional course requirements are needed to complete the following majors:

Health Science (12 additional courses), Psychology (9 additional courses), and Sports Biology majors (8 additional courses):

For Health Science major

  • Intro to Health Care
  • Intro to Public Health
  • Intro to Health Care Ethics
  • Human Disease and Chronic Illness
  • Principles of Epidemiology
  • Concepts of Assessment in Health Care
  • Evidence-Based Health Care
  • Cultural Competency for Health Professionals
  • Senior Research Practicum
  • 4 Health Science selectives (e.g., EMT 1, EMT 2, Health Psychology, Health Law, etc.)

For Psychology major

  • Biological Basis of Behavior selective
  • Developmental Processes selective
  • Individual Differences selective
  • Social and Cultural Contexts selective
  • Applied Psychology selective
  • 2 Psych in the Larger World selectives
  • PSYC 301 – Research Methods
  • PSYC 482 – Senior Capstone Seminar

For Sports Biology major

  • Physiology of Exercise
  • Kinesiology
  • Physics 1 & 2
  • Organic Chemistry 2 (sometimes required for PA school)
  • 2 Biology selectives (e.g., Genetics, Developmental Biology, Virology and Immunology, etc.)
  • Seminar in Biology (BIOL 482)

Resources developed by Sofija Zagarins and Melinda Fowler.

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