Rush University Physician Assistant Program prerequisites

Not among Rush's six prerequisites. Biochemistry is the only chemistry course required.

1 semester · 3 credits

3 semester or 4 quarter credit hours, "lab preferred, not required." Required outright here, not an organic chemistry alternative.

No English or composition credit appears among the six prerequisites.

1 semester · 3 credits

Statistics, not calculus. The exception is regional: several Oklahoma and Texas programs require college algebra instead and do not count statistics, so check those individually.

1 semester · 3 credits

General psychology. Many programs fold it into a broader social or behavioural science block that sociology or anthropology also satisfies.

6 credits · lab

Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.

Two routes. Separately: "Human Anatomy (lab required)" and "Human Physiology (lab preferred, not required)," 3 semester or 4 quarter credit hours each. Or "a two-course sequence combined Human Anatomy & Physiology (anatomy lab required)," 5 combined semester or 7 combined quarter hours, which is the cheaper path in credits. Either way the anatomy laboratory is the one lab Rush will not waive, and the whole sequence must fall within seven years of matriculation.

3 credits

Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 4 credits · lab.

3 semester or 4 quarter credit hours, "lab preferred, not required." Take the lab if the choice is free, but a lecture only course satisfies the requirement.

Not among Rush's six prerequisites and not mentioned on the admissions page.

1000+ hours

Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours.

"A minimum of 1,000 hours of direct patient contact experience (via paid employment) is required at the time of application." Two traps in that sentence: the hours must be paid employment, and they must already be accrued when you submit. The program requires "documented hands-on, direct patient contact experience in a health care setting, accrued with seven years of application submission," and warns that "hours accrued during the completion of previous health care degrees, certifications or training do not count toward health care experience hours." On competitiveness, "having more than 1,500 hours is competitive, and more than 2,500 hours is highly competitive"; those are context, not minimums.

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.

20+ hours

No hour figure is published. Rush lists "experience working with or shadowing PAs" among the factors in its admissions decision, and says "experience working with advanced practice providers or physicians is preferred" for the healthcare experience hours.

The academic letter is "from a college or university instructor," with no science restriction, so it is recorded as a faculty letter in any discipline instead.

1 letter

Rush asks for "three professional letters of reference" from "educators, PAs, MDs or other professionals," and specifies that "one should be from a college or university instructor." Instructor in any discipline, not a science professor specifically.

1 letter

Most PA programmes publish no minimum.

Not named on its own. A PA satisfies the health professional letter, but so does a physician or another clinician: "at least one reference should be from a physician, PA or other health professionals."

1 letter

Most PA programmes publish no minimum and list it as recommended.

Of the three professional letters, "at least one reference should be from a physician, PA or other health professionals." A clinical supervisor from the paid patient care employment is the natural writer, though the program allows any health professional.