PA · Iowa City, Iowa · public
University of Iowa Physician Assistant Program prerequisites
What Iowa 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.
Coursework
- Biology with labrequiredextra here
lab
"A Complete Course Sequence in Biology (General Biology I and II, or Animal Biology, Human Biology, or General Zoology)." Iowa publishes no credit hour figure, only the sequence, and adds that "Courses taken from a community college must be at the general level, and not at the introductory level."
- General chemistry with labrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
"A Complete Course Sequence in Inorganic Chemistry (General Chemistry I and General Chemistry II)." Both semesters, at the general level, and the community college rule applies: general level courses only, not introductory.
- Organic chemistry with labrequiredextra here
No published minimum
"At Least 1 Semester of Organic Chemistry." One semester, not the full sequence, and it must be the version with a prerequisite. No laboratory is stated. This sits alongside biochemistry rather than instead of it: Iowa requires both.
- Biochemistryrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
"Introductory/General Biochemistry," and it must be the course that requires organic chemistry as its own prerequisite. Required outright rather than as an alternative to organic chemistry, which Iowa also requires.
- English or writing-intensivenot required here
No English, composition or writing requirement appears on the prerequisite list, which covers only biological sciences, chemical sciences and statistics.
- Statisticsrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Unusually broad: "Any course with Statistics in the title will meet our prerequisite." General statistics, biometry, biostatistics, business statistics and psychological statistics are all named as acceptable.
- Psychologynot required here
Psychology is not a prerequisite at Iowa. It appears only obliquely, in that psychological statistics is one of the courses accepted for the statistics requirement.
- Advanced biologyrequiredextra here
3 semesters · 9 credits
The requirement that most distinguishes Iowa: "At Least 3 Additional Upper-Level Courses in Biology or Zoology (These courses must require prerequisites to get into the course.)" Three courses beyond the biology sequence, and the gate is that the course itself has prerequisites. Iowa's suggested list is Cell Biology, Genetics, Immunology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Neurology (Neuroscience), Pharmacology, Anatomy, Embryology, Endocrinology, and Histology. The 9 credits here is three standard three credit courses, since Iowa states a course count rather than a credit total.
- Anatomy and physiologyrequireddiffers
2 semesters · 8 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
Much narrower than the baseline sequence. Iowa requires only "A Course in Physiology (Animal, Exercise, or Human)" and never asks for anatomy as a prerequisite. Anatomy appears only in the suggested list of courses that can answer the three upper-level biology requirement. No credit hours and no laboratory are stated.
- Microbiologyrecommendeddiffers
1 semester · 4 credits
Most PA programmes ask for 1 semester · 4 credits · lab and list it as required.
Not a required prerequisite here. Microbiology appears only among the courses Iowa suggests for the three additional upper-level biology or zoology courses, alongside cell biology, genetics, immunology, molecular biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, anatomy, embryology, endocrinology and histology. Taking it satisfies one of those three slots rather than a line of its own.
- Medical terminologynot required here
Not listed among the prerequisite courses.
Experience hours
- Patient care experiencerequireddiffers
1000+ hours
Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours.
"The University of Iowa requires a minimum of 1,000 hours of direct patient health care experience," from "paid employment, volunteer, or research experiences," and the hours must be complete by October 1st. Read the discount schedule before counting: "a Medical Scribe is awarded 75% of the hours completed and a Pharmacy Technician or Dental Assistant is awarded 25% of the hours completed." Four thousand hours as a pharmacy technician is 1,000 credited hours here.
- Healthcare experiencerecommended
500+ hours
Iowa does not run a separate healthcare experience bucket with its own number. Instead it folds everything into the 1,000 hour direct patient care figure and discounts the roles it considers less hands on, awarding a medical scribe 75 percent and a pharmacy technician or dental assistant 25 percent of hours worked.
- PA shadowingrecommended
20+ hours
No shadowing hours are required and shadowing does not help twice over: it does not count toward the 1,000 direct patient care hours, and a provider who supervised shadowing cannot write the required healthcare experience supervisor letter.
Letters
- Science faculty letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
Preferred rather than mandated. The required academic letter should ideally come from a professor of a lecture based biological or chemical science course, but any collegiate academic reference who taught you or supervised your research satisfies the requirement.
- Faculty letter (any discipline)requiredextra here
1 letter
One of the three required letters must come from a "collegiate academic reference" with whom the applicant "took a course or did research under." A science professor is preferred but the requirement itself is academic rather than science specific, which is why it sits on this line.
- PA letterrecommendeddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum.
Iowa names no PA letter. The third of the "at least three letters of recommendation" may come from "anyone the applicant feels will provide the best evaluation of their ability to be successful in the PA Program," which is where a PA would go. Up to five letters are accepted and all submitted letters are reviewed.
- Supervisor letterrequireddiffers
1 letter
Most PA programmes publish no minimum and list it as recommended.
The second of the three required letters must come from a "health care experience supervisor" who "directly supervises the applicant." A provider you shadowed does not qualify, so this letter has to be earned in a working role.
Also on the school’s page
Iowa's prerequisite list is shaped like a biology major's transcript rather than the usual PA checklist: it names sequences and course families instead of credit hours, and publishes no credit numbers at all. The academic bar is the highest thing on the page. A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 and a minimum science GPA of 3.40 on a 4.00 scale are both required and both must be met by September 1st, though the science figure can be satisfied two ways: an overall 3.40 science GPA, or a 3.40 across the most recently completed 40 semester hours of biological and chemical coursework. All prerequisite courses must be completed by September 1st, and there is a recency window: prerequisites must be completed within 10 years of application, with upper-level science completed within the last 5 years opening the door for older courses to be approved. Community college credit is limited by level rather than by hours, since "Courses taken from a community college must be at the general level, and not at the introductory level." No GRE requirement and no PA-CAT requirement appear anywhere on the requirements page. Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree from a U.S. accredited institution by the program start and must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident by October 1st. Everything, application, letters and hours, is due to CASPA by October 1st: "All materials for application need to be received by CASPA by our October 1st deadline."
School
pa.medicine.uiowa.eduCheck your transcript against this list
Cyclios keeps this list beside your coursework and tells you what Iowa still needs from you.
See it for PA school