Advising Course Plan - Health Sciences Major - Physician Assistant Interest
Those interested in pursuing a career as a Physician Assistant (PA) should plan on completing a common core of prerequisite course work (*), obtaining patient contact hours (some of these hours under the direct supervision of a PA who will, subsequently, be willing to write you a letter of recommendation), and taking the GRE. Some requirements may differ from the ones listed below depending on the PA program in which you may be interested, so please make sure to look at various graduate program requirements for different universities. You will want to begin looking at universities’ requirements during your 1st year as an undergraduate to better prepare you for graduate programs. Of course, you will need to make sure you satisfy all the Health Science (HLSC) major requirements listed in the course catalog (the plan below should allow you to do this).
Most PA programs require at least a 3.0 GPA, with exceptional programs expecting at least a 3.3. Many programs will use the Centralized Application Service for PAs (CASPA) for application submissions:
https://caspa.liaisoncas.com/applicant-ux/#/login
| First Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall | Units | |
| BIOL 141P1,* | Introductory Biology: Biochemistry, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics | 1 |
| HLSC 119V | Health and Wellness | 1 |
| FSEM 1001 | First Year Seminar (unless transfer student) | 1 |
| General Education requirement1 | 1 | |
| Term Units | 4 | |
| Spring | ||
| BIOL 142P1,* | Introductory Biology: Animal and Plant Physiology | 1 |
| PSYC 101S1,* | Introduction to Psychology | 1 |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective or recommended course1,2 | 1 | |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course)1 | 1 | |
| Term Units | 4 | |
| Summer | ||
| Plan on setting up opportunities for patient contact hours. | ||
| Term Units | 0 | |
| Second Year | ||
| Fall | ||
| HLSC 2011 | Anatomy Physiology I | 1 |
| CHEM 141P* | General Chemistry I | 1 |
| BIOL 3011,* | Microbiology (HLSC elective) | 1 |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) | 1 | |
| Term Units | 4 | |
| Spring | ||
| HLSC 2021 | Anatomy and Physiology II | 1 |
| CHEM 142P* | General Chemistry II | 1 |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective or recommended course1,3 | 1 | |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective | 1 | |
| Term Units | 4 | |
| Summer | ||
| Plan on setting up opportunities for patient contact hours. | ||
| Take the GRE in preparation for PA school applications - by the end of summer before Fourth Year. | ||
| NOTE: If you take HLSC 375, HLSC 376, and HLSC 377 and you’ve been taking 16 credits per semester up to this point, then you will need to make up 1.5 units (i.e., 6 credits) at some point across your junior & senior years in order to complete the required 128 credits to graduate. | ||
| Term Units | 0 | |
| Third Year | ||
| Fall | ||
| Junior Seminar must be taken during this year. | ||
| CHEM 2011,* | Organic Chemistry I (HLSC elective) | 1 |
| HLSC 3751,* | Community Health Care Seminar (HLSC elective; recommended) | 0.5 |
| Junior Seminar or General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective or recommended course1,4 | 1 | |
| Elective | 1 | |
| Term Units | 3.5 | |
| Spring | ||
| HLSC 4981 | Senior Research Proposal | 1 |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective or recommended course5 | 1 | |
| PUBH 376 | Health Coach Practicum I | 0.5 |
| Elective | .5 | |
| MATH 125Q | Introduction to Mathematical and Statistical Modeling | 1 |
| Term Units | 4 | |
| Fourth Year | ||
| Fall | ||
| HLSC 4991 | Senior Research Project | 1 |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective or recommended course1,6 | 1 | |
| HLSC 4111 | Exercise Physiology | 1 |
| PUBH 377 | Health Coach Practicum II (HLSC elective; recommended) | 0.5 |
| Elective | 1 | |
| Term Units | 4.5 | |
| Spring | ||
| PHIL 316V | Bio-Medical Ethics (or equivalent; HLSC elective; or other Personal & Social Responsibility course (R, E, W, D, J course)) | 1 |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective | 1 | |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective | 1 | |
| General Education Requirement (A, B, H, L course) or elective | 1 | |
| Term Units | 4 | |
| Total Unit: 32 | ||