Many people thinking about applying to PA school are preoccupied by a single question: “What bachelor degree do I need for physician assistant school?”
The process of even gathering the material to apply to a PA program can be daunting. There are so many PA school requirements in order to even apply! The good news is that there’s no specific bachelor degree required for acceptance into a PA program. While the necessary coursework requirements lead a lot of applicants to the science side of things, you can apply with any major and any bachelor degree, as long as you completed the necessary PA prerequisite courses.
As to which prerequisites you’ll need to take, that can vary a bit, but there is a core set of classes almost all programs require. Let’s take a look at some of them, so you can be sure you’re taking the classes you need to get into PA school!
Typical Course Prerequisites for PA School
Course prerequisites do vary by program, but almost all programs require: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, biology/microbiology, chemistry, organic chemistry, English, and psychology. Some other common requirements include medical terminology and statistics.
Make sure you know what the prerequisites are for your top PA programs (they’re usually listed on their website) to make sure you’re not missing anything! I recall doing a final check my junior year of undergraduate and realizing one of the programs I was really interested in required medical terminology. I had to sign up for the course at a local community college at the last minute, which resulted in a lot of unnecessary stress that could’ve been avoided with better planning on my end.
As for whether you need to have completed all the prerequisites by the time you apply, you’re allowed to have a few pending course completions, but keep in mind they’ll ask you to report your scores and have the ability to revoke your acceptance if they don’t meet the required standards.
🩺 Want to make sure you’re prepped for PA school? Try out our Pre-PA practice questions from anatomy and physiology to medical terminology, professional practice, and more!
Do You Need a Bachelor of Science (BS) Degree?
As the list of prerequisites demonstrates, a lot of the classes you need for PA school fall into a “science” category, which leads many students to get a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree. Again, it is not mandatory to earn a BS degree in order to become a PA. As long as you have the prerequisites, you can pursue any degree or major you’re passionate about.
This is especially helpful for students deciding later in their education journey to pursue the PA pathway, as they don’t need to change their degree, they just need to take the necessary courses. So if you’ve come to the realization you’d like to be a PA a bit later in your college career, it’s not the end of the world. In fact, some PA programs may value students with alternative degrees and backgrounds! The bottom line is, you don’t need a B.S. degree to get into PA school.
4 Tips for Pre-PA Students
Here’s four more tips when it comes to grades, degrees, and volunteer work that’ll make you a stronger applicant:
1. Find ways to optimize your science GPA.
While many PA programs are open to admitting students from a variety of backgrounds, they do want to know your overall GPA, as well as your specific “science GPA,” which is your GPA for the science courses you took.
Therefore, if you wanted to focus on excelling only in the required courses and not take other science classes as a way to optimize your science GPA, that may lead to you pursuing an alternative major.
By contrast, if you want to increase your science course load to help balance out a less than favorable grade in a required course, that may also influence your choice of a major.
2. Beware the science major trap!
One thing some science majors struggle with is as they continue in their degree, they get into some notoriously difficult courses, such as advanced organic chemistry, which are required for their major but not required for PA school acceptance. This may bring down their science GPA because they took a course they technically could’ve avoided with another major.
Therefore, I recommend only pursuing that science major if you’re passionate about the coursework. It won’t make you any less of a PA to avoid the hardest science courses, such as advanced organic chemistry. I did pursue a B.S. degree, and I can promise you I haven’t thought about organic chemistry once in my career. I love science, and wanted to learn that material, but if that’s not you, then you should feel no pressure to put yourself through that! It won’t change the likelihood of your acceptance into a PA program.
3. Shadowing is required!
Many students use their free time to obtain PA job shadowing opportunities. This is something you need to do, not only to ensure this is the right career path for you, but also because shadowing is required by almost all programs.
I recommend shadowing practicing PAs in multiple specialties to give yourself a well-rounded experience. You may also use your time to get the necessary hands-on patient care experience at a paid position.
4. Other experience isn’t necessary, but it’s good to have.
While not required, I encourage you to get involved during your undergraduate years. This includes joining clubs and organizations, as well as spending time volunteering. Not only are these activities invaluable to you as they help shape you as a person, they also let programs see you’re a well-rounded individual.
For example, one of the best things I did in undergrad was go on a medical mission trip to Nicaragua. Not only did this experience become an important part of my application essay and something I talked about during PA school interviews, I still think about my time there almost every day in my current PA practice.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the decision of which bachelor degree to pursue for PA school is entirely up to you. Consider which careers you could pursue with that major and degree alone. While I have no doubt you’ll get into PA school and succeed, many students find comfort in getting a degree they can fall back on.
Something else to consider when it comes to majors is that it’s common for students to have to wait a cycle or two between graduation and acceptance, and that can put a lot of pressure on individuals to find a full-time job in the interim.
In the end, my best advice is to do something you’re passionate about, as that will enhance your overall undergraduate experience. And if being a PA sounds right for you, make sure to get those prerequisites in and do some shadowing.
Good luck on your journey, and be sure to reach out to Blueprint if you have any questions!
