University of the Pacific Master of Physician Assistant Studies prerequisites

6 credits · lab

"Two courses with a minimum of 1 lab. Total of 6 semester or 9 quarter units. Should be a course sequence designed for biology majors." General biology sits beside anatomy and physiology here, which the PA baseline does not carry, and a non-majors survey sequence will not answer it.

2 semesters · 8 credits · lab

"Two courses with a minimum of 1 lab. Total of 8 semester units or 12 quarter units. Should be a course sequence designed for chemistry majors." One lab across the two-course sequence is enough, but the sequence must be the majors track.

Pacific's chemistry requirement stops at the general chemistry sequence. Neither biochemistry nor organic chemistry appears in the published prerequisite list.

2 semesters · 6 credits

Most PA programmes ask for 2 semesters · 6 credits and list it as recommended.

Required here rather than recommended: "Two courses are required. Total of 6 semester or 9 quarter units. Minimum of 1 composition course; 2nd course can be composition, literature, or writing intensive course."

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

"One course in General or Abnormal Psychology is required. Total of 3 semester or 4 quarter units." Either course answers the line.

4 credits

"One course is required. Total of 4 semester or 5 quarter units (or combined Anatomy & Physiology). Lab recommended, but not required." Pacific lists anatomy and physiology as two separate prerequisites, though it will accept a combined A&P sequence for both.

1 semester · 4 credits · lab

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

This line carries Pacific's human anatomy course only, since physiology is listed separately: "One course with lab is required. Total of 4 semester or 5 quarter units with lab (or combined Anatomy & Physiology)." The lab is required on the anatomy half and only recommended on the physiology half.

3 credits

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

"One course is required. Total of 3 semester units or 4 quarter units. Lab recommended, but not required." A lecture-only microbiology course satisfies this.

No medical terminology course appears anywhere in Pacific's prerequisite list.

1000+ hours

Most PA programmes ask for 500+ hours.

A stated floor, not an average: "Minimum of 1,000 hours of patient care experience." The admission policies page also lists patient care experience among the factors that earn preference, so hours beyond the minimum are read rather than ignored.

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

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.

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.

No published minimum

Preferred, not required. The admission policies page lists "letters of recommendation from a Physician Assistant" among its preferential factors and sets no required number of letters or required writers anywhere.

Pacific names no required writer. The only letter language published is a preference for "letters of recommendation from a Physician Assistant," with no supervisor letter asked for and no number set.