Admissions

The PA Program at Penn State College of Medicine has updated its admissions policies, understanding COVID-19 may have impacted your educational experience.At this time, we have updated our policies as follows:

• GREs continue to be an admissions requirement. This remains unchanged.

  • We have never had a minimum GRE requirement and the range of an acceptable score varies. This can be viewed on our .

• While our grading preference remains taking a letter grade for courses, the Penn State PA Admissions Committee revised its grading policy for courses taken in the Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 semesters to accept Satisfactory or Pass grades in lieu of letter grades for both pre-requisites and other courses. Again, our preference is that a candidate reports a letter grade, but if your school did not give you the option to take a letter grade, we will accept Satisfactory or Pass grades for all courses, including pre-requisites, during these two semesters.

• We do not have a minimum letter grade requirement for individual pre-requisite courses; this remains unchanged.

• We have always accepted online courses and labs, including sciences, from regionally accredited institutions; this remains unchanged.

• You will be given the option to detail any academic, professional, personal hardships faced because of COVID-19 by way of an Impact Essay within CASPA.

• Healthcare hours required to matriculate remains at a minimum of 500 hours; many virtual experiences are accepted towards the minimum requirement.

The 2024-2025 admissions interview cycle will be conducted virtually.

This decision was made foremost for the safety of all involved parties and in order to limit undue risk. We are confident that what has been developed for this year's interview experience will enable candidates to experience the Penn State PA Program virtually to the best extent possible while also providing candidates ample opportunity to share who they are.

Our admissions committee will learn a great deal before a request to interview is offered based on all aspects of the CASPA and secondary applications. Our committee takes great pride in reading and reviewing each candidate's file prior to interviewing.

It is the goal of the PA admissions committee to provide a seamless, safe and informative experience from the candidate’s current location.

Interview sessions provide a personalized experience with the program and involve the following activities:

• Program director interview

• Faculty interviews; each candidate will meet individually with two faculty

• Group activity

• Program presentation

• Current student session

A number of prerequisites apply to students seeking to join the PA Program.

CASPA applications must include the following items to be eligible for consideration. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

• Verified CASPA application

• Official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended

• GRE General Test scores: GRE school code 0900 (see details below)

• Personal/biographic information

• Academic history

• Three letters of recommendation: At applicant’s discretion to select those writing recommendations

• Experiences (see details on CASPA)

• Achievements and certifications (see details on CASPA)

• Essay (see details on CASPA)

• Release statement (see details on CASPA)

Applicants must also agree to abide by the CASPA Professional Code of Conduct and the CASPA Admissions Code of Cooperation.

The Penn State PA Program has early assurance programs with the following institutions:

• Franklin and Marshall College

• Hampton University

• Lebanon Valley College

• Lincoln University

Students at these institutions should speak directly with their pre-med pre-health adviser to discuss requirements and eligibility. The Early Assurance program allows students to apply to the PA Program during the junior year of undergraduate. Early Assurance applicants have the opportunity to be granted admission at the completion of the Early Assurance process, forgoing the entire CASPA application process as a senior. Information regarding this program is available on request. To view the number of students who enroll via Early Assurance in each class, please visit the .

We require completion of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test for admission to our PA Program.

Penn State's PA Program GRE Code is 0900. Official GRE scores are uploaded directly to CASPA.

Alternately, if you have previously tested on any exam listed, you may provide these scores in lieu of completing the GRE:

• MCAT total score of at least 29 or higher (old version) or 505 (new version)

• PCAT total score 75th percentile rank or higher

• DAT total score of 18 or higher

Penn State's Physician Assistant Program has not adopted the PA-CAT or CASPer as an admission requirement. All applicants are required to submit results of the GRE general exam.

If it has been more than five years since you took the GRE, and the Educational Testing Service no longer has record of your score, we will accept a student copy of your GRE results. You must upload this document with your secondary application via LionPATH. If you no longer have a student copy, you will need to retake the GRE.

Applicants to Penn State College of Medicine must be U.S. citizens, permanent residents or have official DACA status. International candidates are not eligible. All applicants must have a bachelor's degree with completion of all academic requirement from an accredited U.S. or Canadian college or university.