Bethel University Physician Assistant Program, Tennessee prerequisites

6 credits

"Two Semesters, General Biology (or equivalent)," one of Bethel's nine required prerequisite courses. No laboratory is named anywhere on Bethel's prerequisite list. The six credits shown follows the program's own sizing rule that "Any class less than 3 semester credit hours will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis," rather than a credit total Bethel publishes.

6 credits

Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.

"Two Semesters, General Chemistry (or equivalent)," with no laboratory named. Organic chemistry and biochemistry are recommended rather than required, so general chemistry is the whole chemistry obligation.

3 credits

On the "Recommended Courses: Not Required for Admittance into Bethel's PA Program" list, alongside biochemistry, cell biology, pharmacology, immunology and statistics. Useful for the science hours total the program describes in its successful applicant profile, but no organic chemistry is owed.

1 semester · 3 credits

Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 3 credits and list it as required.

Explicitly not required. Biochemistry heads Bethel's list of "Recommended Courses: Not Required for Admittance into Bethel's PA Program," with organic chemistry, cell biology, pharmacology and immunology.

Not a prerequisite. English appears only in the international applicant rules, where non-native speakers need a TOEFL IBT total of at least 87 with section minimums of 21 reading, 26 speaking, 20 listening and 20 writing, taken within two years.

1 semester · 3 credits

Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 3 credits and list it as required.

Recommended rather than required, and satisfiable by something other than statistics: the recommended list carries "Introductory Statistics or Critical Thinking." Statistics is not among the nine required prerequisite courses.

1 semester · 3 credits

General psychology. Many programs fold it into a broader social or behavioural science block that sociology or anthropology also satisfies.

1 semester · 3 credits

"One Semester, Human Genetics." Human genetics specifically, not a general or plant genetics course, and it is required rather than recommended, which is unusual on the PA path. Three credits reflects the program's rule that a course under 3 semester credit hours is reviewed case by case.

6 credits

Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.

"Two Semesters, Human Anatomy & Physiology." Bethel names no laboratory on this line or any other prerequisite line, and publishes no credit count; six credits follows its rule that a course under 3 semester credit hours goes to case by case review. Where a course description is ambiguous the program invites a check in advance: "If you are unsure of a course meeting our requirements, please email the course description to paadmissions@bethelu.edu for verification."

3 credits

Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 4 credits · lab.

"One Semester, Microbiology or Bacteriology." Bacteriology is accepted in place of microbiology, and no laboratory is named.

Not among Bethel's nine required prerequisite courses and not on its recommended list either.

20 semesters · 60 credits

Not a requirement, and the credit figure here is a description rather than a floor. Bethel says that "Statistically, before applying to the program a successful applicant has" among other things "Completed 60 science hours," and the class of 2028 averaged 91 science hours. Bethel does not define which courses count toward that total; on CASPA it is the coursework the service classifies into the science GPA. Read it as a picture of who gets in, since the program adds that "Applicants who have scores that deviate significantly from the successful student will be considered on a case-by-case basis."

500+ hours

Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours and list it as required.

No minimum is published, and Bethel is unusually blunt that experience is not a gate: "Patient Care experience is preferred to Healthcare Related experience. Please note that Healthcare Experience is not required, though it is preferred to no experience at all." What gets in is a different matter. The class of 2028 averaged 5,502 patient care experience hours, which is an average and not a threshold, and it sits far above the 250+ healthcare hours the successful applicant profile describes.

500+ hours

Bethel distinguishes the two and ranks them: patient care experience is "preferred to Healthcare Related experience," and healthcare experience itself "is not required, though it is preferred to no experience at all." The successful applicant profile names "Completed 250+ hours of healthcare experience" and the class of 2028 averaged 3,021 healthcare experience hours. Neither figure is a minimum.

40+ hours

Most PA programmes ask for 20+ hours and list it as recommended.

One of the few hard experience requirements here, and tightly specified: "Completion of a minimum of 40 hours of uncompensated shadowing with a Physician Assistant-Certified (PA-C), within the past 5 years." Paid work alongside a PA does not count, it must be a certified PA, and hours older than five years expire. There is a program shadowing form to submit with the supplemental application. Forty is the floor only: the successful applicant profile says 100+ shadowing hours and the class of 2028 averaged 179.

25+ hours

A hard requirement with a recency window, which is rare: "Completed a minimum of 25 hours of Community Service/Volunteering within the past 5 years." The bar to clear is low but the competitive picture is not: the successful applicant profile says 100+ community service hours and the class of 2028 averaged 411. Community service experience is also named as one of the categories the Admissions Committee weighs.

Bethel's academic letter is not restricted to the sciences: "One (1) letter can be from a university professor or advisor," any discipline, with a work supervisor accepted if no academic letter is available.

1 letter

The third of the three CASPA letters: "One (1) letter can be from a university professor or advisor." Any discipline answers it, and an academic advisor counts as readily as a professor. "If you are unable to obtain a letter from someone within a college/university, you may submit a letter from your supervisor." Letters from family members are not accepted.

2 letters

"Two (2) of your letters of recommendation must be from a PA, MD, DO, or FNP." Two of the three letters must come from a clinician, and the accepted set is wider than physicians: a physician assistant or a family nurse practitioner answers it just as well. Letters from family members are not accepted. All three go through CASPA.

1 letter

Most PA programmes publish no minimum.

A PA letter is one of four ways to answer each of the two required clinician letters, not a separate requirement: they may come "from a PA, MD, DO, or FNP." Given that Bethel also requires 40 hours of shadowing a certified PA, a PA letter is the natural one to ask for.

1 letter

Most PA programmes publish no minimum.

A fallback rather than a requirement. The third letter should come from a university professor or advisor, and "If you are unable to obtain a letter from someone within a college/university, you may submit a letter from your supervisor."