Advisors: Manuel Campos, Ashley Fink

Pre-physician assistant students must take a number of natural and social science courses as pre-requisites for admission. There are no universal set of common pre-requisites to all programs, but the courses listed below are common to most. Because of the complexity of scheduling prerequisite courses, we recommend that students interested in applying to physician assistant school contact an advisor as early as possible in their academic career.

Pre-requisite courses common to most programs:

In addition most programs require a substantial number of patient contact hours prior to admission - the number of hours is very variable from program to program but a minimum of 1000 hours is generally recommended.  For this reason it is common for many students to take a gap year during which they have employment in a clinical setting.

Examples of patient care hours includes work as a(n):

• Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) or Personal Care Assistant (PCA) in a health care setting (i.e. hospital, nursing home)
• home health aide
• physical therapy aide
• camp counselor for kids who are patients
• Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
• Phlebotomist
• Medical scribe
• Volunteer in a health care setting (but must be working with patients)

Some schools also require completing the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) as well as significant shadowing experience with a Physician Assistant.

Additional Requirements: 

General Education Requirements: 

All undergraduate students must complete the requirements of the Integrations Curriculum (IC) which is designed to ensure all of our students receive a liberal arts education. Please review details of the Integrations Curriculum requirements here. 

Graduation Requirements:

In addition to the Integrations Curriculum, all undergraduate students must meet the following minimum degree requirements to earn their degree from CSB and SJU. 

      Credits:  124 total credits, 40 of which must be from upper division coursework
           GPA:   2.0 or higher* 
Residency:   At least 24 of your last 32 credits must be completed at CSB and SJU

Please visit Graduation under the Academic Policies and Regulations portion of the catalog for additional details regarding degree requirements.

* Cumulative GPA as well as major(s)/minor(s) GPA. Please note some majors/minors may require a higher GPA to earn their degree. 

Four Year Plans

Pre-Physician Assistant

Pre-Physician Assistant with Study Abroad