PA · Shreveport, Louisiana · public
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport Physician Assistant Program prerequisites
What LSU Shreveport asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 9 lines differ from the standard PA school set, marked below.
Coursework
- General chemistry with labrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
Eight hours of chemistry with labs, and the program lets you build that block from "General, Inorganic, or Organic" chemistry rather than naming the two-semester general sequence.
- Biochemistrynot required here
Not named. The eight hour chemistry block may be filled with "General, Inorganic, or Organic" chemistry, and biochemistry is not called for separately.
- English or writing-intensivenot required here
No English or writing requirement appears on the prerequisite table.
- Statisticsrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Three hours of statistics, and the course may carry a BIO, PSYCH, MATH or STAT prefix.
- Psychologynot required here
Not on LSU's prerequisite table. Psychology appears only as one of the accepted prefixes for the statistics course.
- Advanced biologyrequiredextra here
8 credits
"Biology electives (8 hours) - Junior level or higher (300/400 or 3000/4000 level)." Upper-division biology specifically, not a general science block.
- Anatomy and physiologyrequireddiffers
7 credits · lab
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
LSU splits the sequence: Anatomy, 4 hours with lab, and Physiology, 3 hours, general or human. The program also accepts the combined A&P I and II sequence, 8 hours total, in place of the two separate courses.
- Microbiologyrequired
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
Four hours at the 200 level or higher, with lab. A non-majors survey course does not meet the "for science majors" rule the program applies to every prerequisite.
- Medical terminologyrequireddiffers
1 semester · 2 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 credits and list it as recommended.
Required here rather than recommended: "Medical Terminology (2 hours accepted, 3 hours recommended)."
Experience hours
- Patient care experiencerequired
500+ hours
LSU sets one combined floor across both buckets rather than a separate patient care number: "Minimum 80 hours of experience (see below categories) documented in CASPA before the application deadline." It does define the category: "Experiences in which you are directly responsible for a patient's care. For example, prescribing medication, performing procedures, directing a course of treatment, designing a treatment regimen, actively working on patients as a nurse, paramedic, EMT, CNA, phlebotomist, physical therapist, dental hygienist, etc." The 80 hour minimum is recorded on the healthcare experience line because either category satisfies it; do not read it as an 80 hour patient care minimum, and do not read it as a competitive target.
- Healthcare experiencerequireddiffers
80+ hours
Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours and list it as recommended.
The program's single published experience minimum, satisfied by patient care hours, healthcare hours, or a mix: "Minimum 80 hours of experience (see below categories) documented in CASPA before the application deadline." HCE is defined as "Work in a health or health-related field where you are not directly responsible for a patient's care, but may still have patient interaction; for example, filling prescriptions, performing clerical work, delivering patient food, cleaning patients and/or their rooms, administering food or medication, taking vitals or other record keeping information, working as a scribe, CNA (depending on job description), medical assistant, etc." Eighty hours is a floor for eligibility, not a competitive number.
- 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 letternot required here
LSU asks for "Letters of reference (3) to be received via CASPA" and names no writer, so a PA letter is not required here.
- Supervisor letternot required here
Three letters are required with no source specified; the program does not require one from a work supervisor.
Also on the school’s page
LSU Health Shreveport publishes a prerequisite table in semester hours and requires every course to be a course "for science majors" from a regionally accredited U.S. institution with a grade of C or better. The GPA floor is explicitly residency-tiered: a "minimum undergraduate cumulative GPA (as calculated by CASPA) of a 3.0 for Louisiana residents and 3.5 for out-of-state residents," with the same minimums applied to the science GPA. Preference is stated outright: "Admissions preference is given to Louisiana residents, and the program strives to admit a class comprised of 90% Louisiana residents." The GRE is REQUIRED, with scores "from within the last five years." No minimum score is published, but the program reports the Class of 2027 averaged 152 quantitative, 152 verbal and 4.1 analytical writing, and it uses the highest overall score rather than super-scoring. The PA-CAT is not mentioned. Prerequisite recency is a recommendation, not a bar: "It is recommended that prerequisite coursework has been completed within the past 10 years to support your success in the program." Pass/fail grades are not accepted except for Spring and Summer 2020 COVID-era courses, and then for no more than 50 percent of prerequisites; online coursework is acceptable if it appears on a verified transcript. Three letters of reference are required via CASPA, with no writer named. The program warns that "Meeting the minimum admissions criteria does not guarantee an interview for the program."
Check your transcript against this list
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