Physician Assistant Program Medical Core Prerequisites

Medical Core Prerequisite Course List

Course	Credit Requirement	Notes about Coursework
Microbiology w/lab	4 semester hours	N/A
Anatomy and Physiology w/lab	8 semester hours	A&P I and II or 4 s.h. of Anatomy and 4 s.h. of Physiology will fulfill this requirement.
One additional Biology course	3 semester hours	Examples, but not limited to: Intro to Biology, Genetics, Cell Biology, Immunology
Organic Chemistry w/lab	4 semester hours	May not be a combined General, Biochemistry, and/or Organic Chemistry course. An acceptable Organic course should have a General Chemistry prerequisite.
Biochemistry	3 semester hours	May not be a combined Organic and Biochemistry course. An acceptable Biochemistry course should have an Organic Chemistry prerequisite. Organic Chemistry does not fulfill this requirement.
Statistics	3 semester hours	A Psychology statistics or Biostatistics course will also fulfill this requirement.
One Psychology course	3 semester hours	N/A
Medical Terminology	1 semester	No semester hour is assigned to this course. Must receive a grade or PASS result; a certificate or CME credit will not fulfill this requirement.

Applicants may have no more than three (3) outstanding courses at the time they submit their application.
Applicants may apply and be accepted with in-progress or planned courses. All bachelor’s degree requirements and prerequisite coursework must be completed by the mid‑August program start date.
If an applicant is offered admission, any outstanding prerequisite courses must be completed with a grade of B‑ or higher.
All prerequisite courses must be taken through a regionally accredited U.S. institution. (Applicants may use this linked accreditation search tool to search their college or university. Ensure “Regional Accrediting Organizations” is selected under the Accreditor Type filter.)
Any prerequisite course completed with a C‑ or below must be repeated to count toward requirements. Lecture and lab grades are evaluated separately and are not averaged.
While there are no expiration limits for prerequisite coursework, applicants are encouraged to consider retaking Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, or Medical Terminology if these were completed more than five years ago, as refreshed knowledge may improve readiness for the program.
Courses completed through a regionally accredited online program or at a community college are acceptable. However, for optimal preparation, it is strongly recommended that applicants take prerequisites in person and at the university level.