PA · Jacksonville, Florida · private

Nova Southeastern University Physician Assistant Program, Jacksonville prerequisites

What NSU Jacksonville asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 13 lines differ from the standard PA school set, marked below.

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Coursework

Biology with labrequiredextra here
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
Four semester hours of general biology or zoology with lab, required alongside the anatomy and physiology sequence rather than instead of it.
General chemistry with labrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
The two-semester sequence with lab. Around a fifth of programs want only one semester or skip general chemistry entirely and start at organic or biochemistry.
Biochemistryrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Three semester hours, no lab. NSU states that organic chemistry does not substitute for it, so the common organic or biochemistry choice is closed here.
English or writing-intensiverequireddiffers
2 semesters · 6 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 6 credits and list it as recommended.
Six semester hours, of which at least three must be composition.
Statisticsnot required here
Statistics is not a prerequisite here and NSU states it does not satisfy the college math requirement either.
College mathematicsrequiredextra here
1 semester · 3 credits
Three semester hours of college math at the level of algebra or higher. NSU states outright that statistics does not satisfy this requirement, so the usual PA statistics course will not answer it.
Psychologyrecommendeddiffers
1 semester · 3 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 3 credits and list it as required.
Psychology is not named as its own prerequisite. It is one of the subjects NSU lists as filling the 9 hour social sciences block, next to anthropology, sociology and political science.
Geneticsrequiredextra here
1 semester · 3 credits
Three semester hours, and it must be human genetics. NSU says animal genetics does not count.
Anatomy and physiologyrequireddiffers
6 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
Six semester hours across human anatomy and physiology I and II, and unusually for a PA program, "labs are not required."
Microbiologyrequired
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
Named by nearly every program, usually 3 or 4 credits. A minority accept it without the lab, so read the school's own line before dropping one.
Medical terminologyrequireddiffers
1 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 credits and list it as recommended.
Required rather than recommended, one semester hour, and it must be college level coursework. Continuing education does not count.
Social sciences and humanitiesrequiredextra here
4 semesters · 12 credits
Twelve hours in two separate blocks: 3 hours of humanities or arts, which NSU illustrates with philosophy, religion, foreign language, ethics and literature, and 9 hours of social sciences, illustrated with anthropology, psychology, sociology and political science. The blocks are counted separately and one cannot cover the other.

Experience hours

Patient care experiencerecommendeddiffers
500+ hours
Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours and list it as required.
NSU publishes no patient care hour minimum. The page says the program "considers healthcare experience as part of the holistic admissions review process" and gives greater consideration to verifiable healthcare experience, so hours are scored rather than gated.
Healthcare experiencerecommended
500+ hours
NSU speaks of "healthcare experience" as one category and does not split patient care from non patient care work or attach a number to either. Verifiable experience earns greater consideration in review.
PA shadowingrecommended
20+ hours
PA shadowing is named alongside healthcare experience as earning greater consideration, with no number published and no requirement stated.

Letters

Science faculty letternot required here
NSU requires exactly two letters, one from a PA and one from another healthcare professional, and permits no substitutions or waivers, so a science faculty letter has nowhere to land.
PA letterrequireddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum and list it as recommended.
Exactly two letters are required and one of them must come from a physician assistant. "Substitutions for, or waivers of, the required letters of recommendation are not permitted," so this one cannot be covered by another writer.
Supervisor letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
NSU asks for no supervisor letter as such. The second of its two letters must come from "a healthcare professional" such as a physician, nurse practitioner, registered nurse, physical therapist or occupational therapist, so a work supervisor answers it only by being one of those.

Also on the school’s page

NSU publishes one admissions page for the Master of Medical Science PA program and the requirements on it apply uniformly to all four locations, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Jacksonville and Orlando; no campus specific differences are documented. The prerequisite table is long and unusually specific, in semester hours: college math 3 (algebra or higher, and statistics does not satisfy it), English 6 (must include 3 hours of composition), humanities or arts 3, social sciences 9, general chemistry I and II 8 with both labs, microbiology 4 with lab, general biology or zoology 4 with lab, human anatomy and physiology I and II 6 with "labs are not required," biochemistry 3 without lab and with organic chemistry explicitly not substituting, human genetics 3 which must be human rather than animal genetics, and medical terminology 1 which must be college level, not continuing education. Every prerequisite needs a "minimum grade of C (2.0)." GPA floors are a "minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0" and a "minimum science GPA of 3.0," while successful applicants typically bring "cumulative and science GPAs of 3.3 or higher," which is a description of the admitted class and not a cutoff. On recency, there is no hard cutoff: "applicants who completed their prerequisite science courses less than 10 years ago are considered more competitive." On exams, "all applicants are required to submit official scores from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test" by the January 15 CASPA deadline, scores must be from within the past five years, the school code is 6329, and no minimum score is published. The page does not mention the PA-CAT.

School

md.nova.edu/degrees/masters/physician-assistant/jacksonville/index.html

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