PA · Ypsilanti, Michigan · public
Eastern Michigan University Physician Assistant Program prerequisites
What Eastern Michigan asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 11 lines differ from the standard PA school set, marked below.
Coursework
- General chemistry with labrequireddiffers
3 credits · lab
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
One semester, not the two semester sequence: "Only one semester is required if the course is at least three semester credit hours and includes a lab." Lecture and lab may be one course or two. General, introductory, principles of, fundamentals of and inorganic chemistry are all accepted, but "Courses such as organic or biochemistry are not accepted for this requirement", so the organic or biochemistry line is a separate course on top of this one.
- Biochemistryrequireddiffers
1 semester · 3 credits · lab
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 3 credits.
The line reads "Organic chemistry with lab or biochemistry with lab", so one semester of either satisfies it, and a combined organic/biochemistry course with lab also works. The laboratory is required here even though it is optional for anatomy and physiology. Lecture and lab may be one course or two.
- English or writing-intensivenot required here
No English or composition credit appears among EMU's seven pre-admission courses.
- Statisticsrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
"May be taken from a variety of departments, including math, psychology or sociology. The main focus must be on statistical analysis and methods with direct content or correlation to using statistics in research studies."
- Psychologyrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Lifespan psychology specifically, and EMU closes the common substitutes: the course "Must focus on psychology across the entire lifespan (birth to death)", and "Courses such as introduction to psychology, general psychology, abnormal psychology or child psychology are not accepted."
- Anatomy and physiologyrequireddiffers
6 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
Either route works: separate anatomy and physiology courses of at least three semester credit hours each, or "two semesters of a combined anatomy/physiology course (combined at least six semester credit hours or more)", which should be taken at the same institution. The content bar is explicit: "A substantial portion of these courses must focus on humans and encompass virtually all body systems." Unusually for this path, the laboratory is optional: "Taking a lab is recommended, but not required."
- Microbiologyrequireddiffers
3 credits · lab
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 4 credits · lab.
"Microbiology with lab." Lecture and lab may be combined as one course and one grade or taken separately, and the lab carries the same B minus floor as the lecture.
- Medical terminologynot required here
Medical terminology is not one of EMU's seven pre-admission courses.
Experience hours
- Patient care experiencerecommendeddiffers
500+ hours
Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours and list it as required.
No minimum, and not required at all: "Clinical experience/health care hours are preferred but not required." It is still the heaviest non-academic factor, scored as large impact, and the preference order is published. The top category, "professional provider", covers registered nurses, medical corpsmen, respiratory therapists, paramedics, physical therapists, pharmacists, dental hygienists, dieticians, mental health therapists and athletic trainers; the next, "technician", covers EMTs, CNAs, medical assistants, x-ray and radiology technicians, physical therapist assistants, phlebotomists, medical technicians and medical scribes. Two hard exclusions: "Experience/hours obtained outside of the United States health care system or older than 10 years at the time of application are not considered", and "While volunteer work in a medical setting and student internships provide valuable experiences, they are not considered in the calculation of an applicant's clinical experience hours." Hours must be complete before submission; anything earned after the CASPA application "may not be used."
- Healthcare experiencerecommended
500+ hours
EMU runs one combined bucket and does not split patient care from healthcare experience. Its definition: "Time spent directly participating in hands-on patient care; Directly observing interaction between health care providers and patients; Health care-related interactions with providers." No number is published for any of the three.
- PA shadowingrecommended
20+ hours
No shadowing minimum is published, and shadowing is not counted separately: "Directly observing interaction between health care providers and patients" sits inside EMU's single clinical experience/health care hours definition, subject to the same 10 year and U.S. health care system limits.
Letters
- Science faculty letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
Not required as a science letter. Two letters minimum, and EMU's examples of common writers are "health care professionals (physicians, PAs, nurses, etc.), employment supervisors, science instructors or other college professors." What it wants from any of them: someone "qualified to evaluate your interpersonal skills, professionalism and ability to meet the demands of an academically rigorous program."
- Faculty letter (any discipline)recommendedextra here
1 letter
Two letters minimum and no writer mandated: "more letters are not necessarily better; minimum of two." EMU names "science instructors or other college professors" among the common writers, so a professor of any discipline counts.
- PA letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
A PA is one of EMU's named examples of a common writer, not a required one. Letters carry small to moderate impact in the scoring rubric.
- Supervisor letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
"Employment supervisors" appear among EMU's examples, but no writer is required and clinical hours are not required in the first place.
Also on the school’s page
EMU calls them pre-admission courses and names seven: human anatomy, human physiology, general chemistry with lab, organic chemistry with lab or biochemistry with lab, microbiology with lab, lifespan psychology and statistics. Credits: "All pre-admission courses must consist of at least three semester credit hours", with five quarter hours converting to three semester hours. Grades: "All pre-admission courses (including associated labs) must be completed with a minimum grade of 'B-'", numerically at least 2.7, and "No pre-admission course may be taken as 'credit/no credit', 'pass/fail', 'advanced credit' or credit by exam such as CLEP or AP, as a grade must be assigned." Grades for repeated courses are not averaged. Recency and timing: "At least 5 of the 7 pre-admission courses (including associated labs) must be completed at the time of application", all seven by June 1 of the entering year, and "Each pre-admission course must be successfully completed within 10 years prior to September enrollment." All coursework must come from a regionally accredited U.S. college or university, and online courses from those institutions are acceptable. GPA: a minimum cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 is a minimum admission requirement; only once that is met does CASPA's last 60 credit GPA come into play, and the program then evaluates the better of the two. On exams, EMU is one of the few programs still requiring the GRE: "Official GRE scores" sit in the list of items that must reach CASPA by December 1 for an application to count as complete, and GRE scores are named again among the academic factors scored in review. No minimum score is published and the PA-CAT is not mentioned. Scale of the competition, in the program's own words: "Nearly 1,000 applications were received for 30 seats for the class matriculating in 2026." The cycle runs April 30 to December 1, revisions are not accepted after submission except for one or two courses flagged as planned or in progress, and "There is no advanced placement or advanced standing for anyone chosen to join the EMU PA program." Experience, letters and scoring come from the sibling pages https://www.emich.edu/chhs/pas/admissions/clinical-experience.php and https://www.emich.edu/chhs/pas/admissions/process.php .
Check your transcript against this list
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