PA · Pocatello, Idaho · public

Idaho State University Physician Assistant Program prerequisites

What Idaho State asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 10 lines differ from the standard PA school set, marked below.

Read from the school’s pageCheck it with the school

Coursework

General chemistry with labnot required here
General chemistry is not a prerequisite at Idaho State. The list is six courses only: microbiology, biochemistry, human anatomy, human physiology, statistics, and abnormal psychology. Chemistry still matters indirectly, since the CASPA science GPA feeds a small part of the file score, but no general chemistry sequence is required to apply.
Biochemistryrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Required, and the program screens the course title: "Organic" cannot appear in it. Medical Biochemistry, General Biochemistry and Introduction to Biochemistry all qualify. Organic chemistry itself is not a prerequisite here and does not substitute.
English or writing-intensivenot required here
No English, composition or writing requirement appears among the six prerequisites.
Statisticsrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Broadly accepted by department: "Statistics in any field such as Psychology, Sociology, Biology, or Mathematics will meet this requirement. Generally, Research Methods courses do not meet this requirement."
Psychologyrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Not introductory psychology. The requirement is "Abnormal Psychology (or Developmental Psychology throughout the Lifespan)," and the FAQ states it must specifically be an abnormal psychology course, not Introduction to Psychology or General Psychology. An intro course taken years ago will not clear this line.
Anatomy and physiologyrequireddiffers
2 semesters · 8 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
Required, but stated as two separate lines with an explicit allowance for the combined sequence: "Human Anatomy (as a single course or as part of a two semester combined anatomy and physiology course)" and "Human Physiology (as a single course or as part of a two semester combined anatomy and physiology course)." Idaho State publishes no credit hour figure and does not state a laboratory requirement.
Microbiologyrequireddiffers
1 semester · 4 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 4 credits · lab.
Listed simply as "Microbiology," one of the six prerequisites. No credit hours and no laboratory requirement are published.
Medical terminologynot required here
Not among the six prerequisite courses.

Experience hours

Patient care experiencerecommendeddiffers
500+ hours
Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours and list it as required.
No minimum, and the program says so plainly: "Neither health care nor patient care experience is required for admission to the Program," and "Work and health care experience are preferred but not required." It still earns points: 600 or more hours of patient or healthcare experience is worth 0.250 points of the 6.00 point file score, awarded whole or not at all. Note that Idaho State scores patient care and healthcare experience together rather than separately, so the 600 hour threshold is the number to plan around.
Healthcare experiencerecommended
500+ hours
Idaho State does not split patient care from healthcare experience. The file score has a single "patient/healthcare experience" line with a 600 hour threshold worth 0.250 points, and neither kind is required for admission. Non healthcare employment is scored separately and much lower: 1,000 or more hours earns 0.025 points.
PA shadowingrecommended
20+ hours
Not required, but the file score rewards 20 or more shadowing hours of which at least 10 must be with a PA, worth 0.050 points. The PA specific half is the part applicants miss, and as with every experience category the points are not pro-rated.
Non-clinical volunteeringrecommendedextra here
120+ hours
Not required, but 120 or more hours of volunteerism and community service earns 0.100 points on the file score, twice what shadowing is worth and four times what 1,000 hours of non healthcare employment earns. Points are awarded only at the threshold, never pro-rated, so 119 hours scores zero.

Letters

Science faculty letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
Not named. The published requirement is only the count, three letters submitted through CASPA by the November 1 deadline.
PA letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
Idaho State requires "at least 3 letters of recommendation" through CASPA but names no writers at all, so no PA letter is mandated. The choice of writer is left entirely to the applicant.
Supervisor letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
Three letters are required and the program does not specify who they must come from, so a work supervisor letter is a choice rather than a requirement here.

Also on the school’s page

Idaho State is one of the shortest prerequisite lists on this path, just six courses, and one of the few programs that still requires the GRE. "The GRE is required for admission...regardless of an applicant's background," the general test only, taken by November 1, and "We do not accept the MCAT or PCAT in place of the GRE." No minimum score is published; the GRE is scored rather than gated, contributing up to 0.30 points for the verbal percentile and 0.30 for the quantitative out of a 6.00 point maximum file score. Prerequisite GPA is by far the heaviest item at 4.00 of those 6.00 points, and it is calculated from those six courses only. Academic minimums: "Each prerequisite course must have a grade of C or better, AND the GPA of the prerequisite courses must be 3.0 or higher." There is a recency window: "Prerequisite courses must be 10 years of age or younger," and "Coursework ten years or older is not accepted as prerequisite coursework." Online and community college work counts, since "Online coursework is accepted as long as it is taken from a U.S. regionally accredited institution." All prerequisites and the bachelor's degree must be finished by June 30th: "A Baccalaureate degree needs to be completed by June 30th of the year you plan to enter the PA Studies program." First time applicants may have two prerequisites in progress in the spring; re-applicants may have none. CASPA and the Graduate School application are both due November 1, with three letters of recommendation. Read the file score sheet before deciding where to spend a year: military service, a rural childhood (a home town of 49,999 or fewer people) and intermediate or better proficiency in a language other than English are each worth 0.25 points, more than the GRE verbal and quantitative percentiles combined and ten times what 1,000 hours of non healthcare employment earns. The experience points are all or nothing: "These points for each category are not pro-rated or partially awarded."

School

isu.edu/pa

Check your transcript against this list

Cyclios keeps this list beside your coursework and tells you what Idaho State still needs from you.

See it for PA school