PA · Virginia Beach, Virginia · private

ECPI University Physician Assistant Program prerequisites

What ECPI asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 6 lines differ from the standard PA school set, marked below.

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Coursework

Biology with labrequiredextra here
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
"General Biology I (for science majors)," 4 semester hours, lab required. One semester only; the majors sequence is specified.
General chemistry with labrequireddiffers
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
"General Chemistry I (for science majors)," 4 semester hours with lab. One semester, not the two-semester sequence the baseline assumes; the second and third chemistry courses ECPI names are organic instead.
Organic chemistry with labrequiredextra here
3 credits
"Organic Chemistry I," 3 semester hours. The table's Lab Required column is blank for this row, so ECPI does not require the organic laboratory.
Biochemistryrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
"Organic Chemistry II or Biochemistry," 3 semester hours, applicant's choice, no lab required. Organic Chemistry I is required separately and is recorded on its own line.
English or writing-intensivenot required here
ECPI's prerequisite table is presented as the program's full list and names no English, composition or writing course.
Statisticsrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
"Statistics or Biostatistics (200 level or above)," 3 semester hours. The course level matters here: a 100-level statistics course does not satisfy it.
Psychologyrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
"Psychology (200 level or above)," 3 semester hours. Introductory psychology below the 200 level does not satisfy it.
Anatomy and physiologyrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
"Human Anatomy and Physiology," 8 semester hours with lab. "A&P I and A&P II combined or Anatomy (4 semester hours) and Physiology (4 semester hours) are acceptable." Subject to the 10-year window.
Microbiologyrequired
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
"Microbiology," 4 semester hours, lab required, with lab and lecture each needing a C or higher on their own.
Medical terminologyrequireddiffers
1 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 credits and list it as recommended.
Required, listed in the prerequisite table as "Completion" rather than a credit count. "Medical Terminology does not need to be completed from an institution of higher learning and can be taken online through Coursera or MedCerts. A certificate of completion must be submitted on your CASPA application or must be in progress at the time of your application submission."

Experience hours

Patient care experiencerequired
500+ hours
"A minimum of 500 hours of direct hands-on direct patient care experience is required, but competitive candidates will have over 1200 hours. Applicants may have these hours in progress at the time of application." ECPI uses the CASPA definition, "experiences in which you are directly responsible for a patient's care," and lists athletic trainer, clinical or medical assistant, CNA with clinical duties, EMT, paramedic, patient care technician, mental health aide, military corpsman or medic, nurse, nurse aide, OT or OTA, phlebotomist, PT or PTA, respiratory therapist, surgical technologist and in-person medical scribe among the roles that count. Not accepted: administrative and clerical roles, virtual medical scribe, patient navigator, pharmacy technician, hospital transport, housekeeping, chiropractic and acupuncture assistant, personal trainer or lifeguard, hours accrued as part of a licensure or training program, and purely observational volunteering. The 1200 figure is a competitive marker, not a minimum.
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 shadowingnot required here
No shadowing requirement is published, and shadowing is named among the experiences that do not count toward the patient care hours: "Observational Roles: Physician or PA shadowing."

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

ECPI (MPA, Virginia Beach, 24 months, 121 credit hours, cohort of up to 50) publishes its whole admissions policy in a PA Admissions Guidebook, updated every January, and the guidebook carries a prerequisite table in semester hours. Minimum required standards are an overall GPA of 3.0, a science GPA of 3.0, a prerequisite GPA of 3.0 and 500 hands-on direct patient care hours; "Competitive applicants will exceed the minimum required standards listed above." A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution is required. Grades: "All prerequisite courses must be passed with a letter grade of 'C' or higher," pass/fail is accepted "for core content classes only," grade substitutions count the highest grade earned, and where a course has a lab, "Both lab AND lecture must individually meet the minimum grade requirement." Online prerequisites are accepted "from regionally accredited colleges and universities." Recency: "All prerequisite coursework requirements must be taken within 10 years of enrolling in the program." Timing: "We allow up to three prerequisites to be in progress during submission, but all prerequisites must be completed by Spring semester prior to matriculation." Testing: "At this time, we do not require any additional testing except the TOEFL if applicable," and the guidebook names the GRE, MCAT, CASPer, PA-CAT and Kira as not required; "If test scores are submitted, they will not be factored into our decision." Scoring: extra points go to applicants with GPAs above 3.0, to clinical healthcare licensure, to over 500 and again to over 1200 direct patient care hours, to socioeconomic and first-generation background, to military or veteran and master's-degree applicants, and to "Hampton Roads local preference (counties in VA and NC within a 75-mile radius of our campus.)" In-person interviews are required. Applications run through CASPA; for the cohort entering August 2027, CASPA opened April 30, 2026 and closes April 1, 2027. The program does not accept advanced placement for previous medical training. Accreditation-Provisional from ARC-PA, a status "limited to no more than five years from matriculation of the first class" that "does not ensure any subsequent accreditation status." The guidebook does not mention letters of recommendation at all, so the baseline letter lines stand unchanged here.

School

ecpi.edu/programs/master-science-physician-assistant

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