PA · Englewood, Colorado · private
Rocky Vista University Physician Assistant Program prerequisites
What Rocky Vista asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 17 lines differ from the standard PA school set, marked below.
This school states it has no required prerequisite courses. Everything below is coursework it recommends rather than a gate.
Coursework
- Biology with labrecommendedextra here
No published minimum
"Biology" heads the strongly recommended list. No credits, sequence or laboratory are specified, because none of these courses is actually required.
- General chemistry with labrecommendeddiffers
2 semesters · 8 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab and list it as required.
"General Chemistry" is in the strongly recommended list. It counts toward the preferred Biology, Chemistry, Physics GPA, which is where these courses actually matter here.
- Organic chemistry with labrecommendedextra here
No published minimum
Organic chemistry is named in the strongly recommended list, between general chemistry and biochemistry. No credits or laboratory are specified.
- Biochemistryrecommendeddiffers
1 semester · 3 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 3 credits and list it as required.
Biochemistry is in the strongly recommended list, named alongside organic chemistry rather than as an alternative to it.
- Physics with labrecommendedextra here
No published minimum
Physics is named in the strongly recommended list, which is unusual for a PA program. No credits or laboratory are specified.
- English or writing-intensivenot required here
No English or composition course appears in either recommended list. "Humanities" and "Communication" are named among the additional recommended coursework, but neither is an English requirement.
- Statisticsrecommendeddiffers
1 semester · 3 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 3 credits and list it as required.
Statistics is in the strongly recommended list. No credit amount is published and no department is specified.
- Psychologynot required here
Psychology is not named. The nearest thing is the broader "Behavior/Social Science" recommendation, which a psychology course answers but does not exhaust, and none of the recommended coursework is required in any case.
- Geneticsrecommendedextra here
No published minimum
Named among the "additional coursework" the program recommends beyond its core recommended list.
- Advanced biologyrecommendedextra here
No published minimum
"Cellular Biology" appears in the additional recommended coursework, alongside genetics, anatomy, physiology and microbiology.
- Anatomy and physiologyrecommendeddiffers
2 semesters · 8 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab and list it as required.
Recommended, not required. "Human Anatomy" and "Physiology" are listed separately among the additional recommended coursework, and the program states outright that it does not require applicants to have completed specific prerequisite courses. No credits or laboratory are specified.
- Microbiologyrecommendeddiffers
1 semester · 4 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 4 credits · lab and list it as required.
Recommended only, listed among the additional coursework. No credits or laboratory are specified.
- Medical terminologyrecommended
1 credits
Named among the additional recommended coursework. No credit amount is published and no substitution rule is stated.
- Social sciences and humanitiesrecommendedextra here
No published minimum
"Behavior/Social Science" sits in the strongly recommended list, and ethics, humanities and communication appear among the additional recommended coursework. Rocky Vista names the category rather than psychology or sociology specifically, so a wide range of courses answers it.
Experience hours
- Patient care experiencerecommendeddiffers
500+ hours
Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours and list it as required.
Rocky Vista does not split patient care experience from healthcare experience and publishes no patient care minimum of its own. Its single requirement is written against "paid healthcare relevant experience" and is recorded on the healthcare experience line.
- Healthcare experiencerequireddiffers
1000+ hours
Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours and list it as recommended.
The one hard number the program publishes, and it is recorded here rather than on patient care experience because that is the term Rocky Vista uses: "Applicants are required to have a minimum of 1,000 hours of documented paid healthcare relevant experience within five years of application. Paid internships are not accepted as paid healthcare relevant experience." Three constraints stack: the hours must be paid, they must be documented, and they must fall inside the five years before you apply, so older hours from an earlier career do not count.
- PA shadowingrecommended
20+ hours
No number published: "Though shadowing PA professionals is not required, it is strongly recommended." Shadowing a PA specifically is what the program names.
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
No writer is named: "The RVU PA Program does not specify who letters should be written by, rather references should be selected from individuals who are well acquainted with the applicant academically, professionally and/or personally over a period of time." Three letters are required through CASPA, and "References from family members are strongly discouraged."
- Supervisor letternot required here
Same line: three letters of reference are required through CASPA before an application is considered complete, but the program specifies no relationship any writer must have to you, so a supervisor letter is a choice rather than a requirement.
Also on the school’s page
Rocky Vista is one of the few PA programs with no course prerequisites at all: "The Program does not require applicants to have completed specific prerequisite courses." What it publishes instead is a recommendation list, and every course line in this file is recorded at that level rather than as a requirement. The strongly recommended set is "Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, Statistics, Behavior/Social Science," plus "Additional coursework such as Genetics, Human Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Cellular Biology, Medical Terminology, Ethics, Humanities, and Communication." No credit hours, laboratory requirements, minimum course grades or recency window are published for any of them. Do not read the absence of prerequisites as a lower bar: "All applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Applicants with a CASPA verified Biology, Chemistry, Physics (BCP) GPA of 3.0 or higher are preferred," and the program's own admissions statistics page at https://www.rvu.edu/admissions/mpas/ reports an average cumulative GPA of 3.67 and an average BCP GPA of 3.53 for the Class of 2027, which are averages of who was admitted and not minimums. A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution is required, as is U.S. citizenship or permanent residency. Neither the GRE, the PA-CAT nor CASPer is mentioned anywhere on the admissions page, so nothing about exams can be recorded here. The class is 48 students over 27 months in Colorado.
School
rvu.edu/admissions/mpasCheck your transcript against this list
Cyclios keeps this list beside your coursework and tells you what Rocky Vista still needs from you.
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