PA · San Antonio, Texas · public

Army Medical Center of Excellence Physician Assistant Program prerequisites

What Army IPAP asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 1 line differs from the standard PA school set, marked below.

Read from the school’s pageCheck it with the school

This school states it has no required prerequisite courses. Everything below is coursework it recommends rather than a gate.

Coursework

General chemistry with labrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
The two-semester sequence with lab. Around a fifth of programs want only one semester or skip general chemistry entirely and start at organic or biochemistry.
Biochemistryrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Roughly half the programs that ask for an upper chemistry accept either biochemistry or organic chemistry for the same single line, so one course often covers both entries on this list.
English or writing-intensiverecommended
2 semesters · 6 credits
English composition, usually two semesters where it is asked for at all.
Statisticsrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Statistics, not calculus. The exception is regional: several Oklahoma and Texas programs require college algebra instead and do not count statistics, so check those individually.
Psychologyrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
General psychology. Many programs fold it into a broader social or behavioural science block that sociology or anthropology also satisfies.
Anatomy and physiologyrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
The full A&P sequence with lab, the one course essentially every program names. Recency windows bite hardest here: several programs expire A&P specifically, one at three years, while leaving the rest of the list alone.
Microbiologyrequired
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
Named by nearly every program, usually 3 or 4 credits. A minority accept it without the lab, so read the school's own line before dropping one.
Medical terminologyrecommended
1 credits
Required outright by nearly half of programs, which is more than its recommended level here suggests. Several refuse a certificate or a free online course and want transcript credit; a few teach it after acceptance instead.
Additional science creditsrequiredextra here
No published minimum
IPAP names no prerequisite course anywhere on its own site. The entire published coursework requirement is "A minimum of 60 semester hours, with emphasis in science course work," with no science credit count, no subject list and no laboratory stated. The specific courses are set by each uniformed service in its own application packet, not by MEDCoE, so plan against your branch's packet rather than against this line.

Experience hours

Patient care experiencerequired
500+ hours
The number PA applications are judged on, and the one most often misread. Just over half of programs set any minimum at all; among those that publish one the median is 500 hours and the range runs from 80 to 2000. Admitted classes routinely average several times the floor, so treat 500 as the door, not the target. A few programs score the type of work rather than the total and say outright that extra hours earn no extra preference.
Healthcare experiencerecommended
500+ hours
Many programs publish one combined healthcare figure instead of splitting patient care from healthcare exposure; where they do, the number lands here. Median published minimum is 500 hours.
PA shadowingrecommended
20+ hours
Under a fifth of programs set a shadowing minimum; among those that do the median is 20 hours and a handful ask for 100 or more. Several count shadowing inside their experience total rather than separately, and a few have dropped it from scoring entirely.

Letters

Science faculty letterrecommended
No published minimum
Only a handful of programs require a science faculty letter by name. An academic letter is welcome nearly everywhere and mandatory almost nowhere.
PA letterrecommended
No published minimum
Fewer than a third of programs require a letter from a PA. Most ask for a clinician letter that a PA, physician or nurse practitioner satisfies equally, so a PA letter is usually sufficient and rarely necessary.
Supervisor letterrecommended
No published minimum
A letter from a work supervisor is required by about a quarter of programs. Many name no writer category at all and simply ask for three letters.

Also on the school’s page

The Interservice Physician Assistant Program does not work like any other program on this path, and its own site says so rather than publishing a prerequisite table. The gate before any coursework is service: "Only Military applicants are accepted," applicants must "Meet security clearance requirements," be "Under age 42 by commissioning," and "Meet medical standards for commissioning into the military services after both phase 1 and 2 (see DODI 6130.03)." There is no CASPA application. What MEDCoE publishes as the applicant checklist is four items: "A minimum of 60 semester hours, with emphasis in science course work; SAT; Basic Life Support (with current card); Service unique applicant package." That is the whole of it. Note what is absent: no bachelor's degree is required, only 60 semester hours; the exam is the SAT rather than the GRE or the PA-CAT, and no minimum score is published anywhere on the program's pages; and no letters of recommendation, patient care hour minimum or shadowing figure appears on any MEDCoE page, so this file leaves those baseline lines alone rather than inventing numbers for them. The named prerequisite courses, hour minimums and letter requirements live in each branch's own application packet, and MEDCoE points applicants there: the Army at https://recruiting.army.mil/armypa/, the Air Force, the Coast Guard and the Navy at their own sites. Army and Air Force applicants holding professional credentials such as 68W, 68C or 4A "must have completed all CEU's required for upcoming re-certification period prior to course arrival." Once selected there is no shortcut: "Advance placement, none. Once selected, all students will complete the entire 29 month program," tuition and student activity fees are zero, and off duty employment is not authorized. At its September 2025 meeting the ARC-PA placed IPAP on Accreditation-Probation status until its next review in October 2027.

School

medcoe.army.mil/ipap

Check your transcript against this list

Cyclios keeps this list beside your coursework and tells you what Army IPAP still needs from you.

See it for PA school

Also in Texas

All PA programmes, compared