PA School Prerequisites: What Programs Actually Require (and What Expires)

* To build your own prerequisite plan against every accredited PA program, free and with no sign-up, use the PA School Prerequisite Planner.

Let's start with the thing nobody tells you.

There is no national prerequisite list. None. ARC-PA — the body that accredits every PA program in the country — had exactly one standard that even mentioned prerequisites, and they rescinded it in August 2025. What each program requires is entirely that program's business.

Which is why you're here, staring at a browser with nine tabs open, trying to work out whether the biochemistry you're signed up for next term is going to count anywhere.

I remember that feeling. In my case it was organic chemistry — a subject that beat me up so thoroughly at the University of Washington that I switched off the pre-med track in the spring of my junior year, partly out of strategy and partly out of self-preservation.

Here's what I wish someone had shown me back in 2001: most PA programs don't hard-require organic chemistry at all. More on that in a minute, because the numbers genuinely surprised me.

This post is part of my 5 steps to PA school series, to go from zero to PA school hero:

1. Complete the necessary prerequisite coursework ← you are here
2. Obtain the required medical and hands-on patient care experience
3. Successfully prepare for and take the GRE (or avoid it)
4. Obtain at least 3 high-quality letters of recommendation
5. Complete the CASPA application essay and all supplemental materials on time

What do PA schools actually require? Here are the real numbers.

For years the honest answer to this question was "it depends, go look them up." So we went and looked them all up — every accredited program, read off that program's own admissions page, with the source link recorded next to it.

Here is how often each course appears. This table is generated live from the PA School Finder database every time this page loads, so it reflects what programs publish today, not what they published when I wrote this paragraph.

Read that bottom section twice.

Physics and calculus are almost never required. Two per cent and one per cent. If you have been white-knuckling your way through a physics sequence because you assumed PA schools wanted it — they mostly don't. That is a semester of your life, and a chunk of your science GPA, back in your pocket.

The top five are your non-negotiables. Anatomy, physiology, microbiology, statistics and general chemistry will get you in the door almost everywhere. Everything below general chemistry on that list is a strategic decision, not a requirement — and which ones you take should depend entirely on where you're applying.

Do I really need organic chemistry?

Probably not. This is the finding that surprised me most.

Across every accredited program:

• 38% hard-require organic chemistry.
• 29% will accept biochemistry instead.
• 27% don't require it at all.
• 6% don't publish a clear policy.

So the course that has terrified pre-PAs for two decades — the course that redirected my own undergraduate career — is a hard requirement at fewer than four programs in ten.

Don't misread me. If organic chemistry interests you and you'll do well in it, take it. It keeps every door open and it's decent preparation for pharmacology.

But if you are choosing between a C+ in organic chemistry and an A in biochemistry, the A in biochemistry is worth more to you. It satisfies almost as many programs and it doesn't drag your science GPA down a tenth of a point.

That is a real strategic choice, and until now nobody could see the landscape clearly enough to make it.

The three prerequisite rules nobody tells you about

Course names are the easy part. These three are what actually cost people a cycle.

1. Your credits have an expiration date

Most applicants have no idea this exists. Across accredited programs:

• 24% never expire your prerequisites — a course you took in 2011 still counts.
• 12% expire them in 5 years or less.
• 20% expire in 6–7 years, and 38% in 8–10 years.

If you are a career changer, that first line is the most valuable sentence in this post. Roughly one program in four will count the coursework you already have, in full, no matter how old it is. Those are the programs your list should start with.

No directory will sort them for you either, because that information sits in prose on hundreds of different websites. If your oldest science course is eight years old, this single fact opens or eliminates dozens of programs before you have thought about GPA, location or tuition.

2. A pass isn't always a pass

Ninety-three programs publish a minimum letter grade for every prerequisite. For most of them that's a C — but thirteen programs require a B- or better, and at those a C simply doesn't count, no matter how good your overall GPA looks.

Worth knowing before you decide whether a course needs retaking.

3. AP and CLEP credit is a coin flip

• 45% accept AP/CLEP credit for prerequisites.
• 46% accept it with limits — most commonly "only if it appears on your university transcript with a grade."
• 15 programs won't take it at all.

If you tested out of general chemistry in high school and never took it again in college, you need to know which bucket each of your target programs falls into before you build your list. This is one of the most common ways a strong applicant discovers in March that they are short a prerequisite.

Build your prerequisite plan in ten minutes instead of ten hours

This is the part of this post that used to say: make a list of fifteen schools, open the program directory, look each one up, and fill in a worksheet by hand.

You don't have to do that any more.

→ Open the PA School Prerequisite Planner

Pick the programs you're applying to, tick off the courses you've already completed, and it hands you back:

• exactly which courses you still need, ranked by how many of your schools require each one — so you know which class to sign up for first
• a warning if any of your programs will expire the coursework you already have
• a school-by-school table you can print or download as a CSV
• every program's real prerequisite list, searchable, with expiration, the organic chemistry rule, AP/CLEP policy and minimum grade side by side

It's free, there's no sign-up, and it reads the live database rather than a snapshot.

Then take the printout to your academic adviser. That conversation is still the most valuable hour in this whole process — you're just walking in with the research already done instead of doing it in the meeting.

What if you don't know where you want to apply yet?

Fair. Most people don't, and "pick fifteen schools" is easy advice to give and hard advice to follow.

Prerequisites are only one of the things that decide where you should apply. GPA, patient care hours, location, tuition, deadlines and whether a program even counts your kind of experience all matter, and they interact with each other.

The PA Program Match AI takes your whole profile — GPA, hours, the coursework you've finished, where you can move to, what you can afford — and scores every accredited program against it. It tells you which ones you're genuinely competitive at, which are reaches, and the part I like best: which single fix opens the most programs for you. Sometimes that's 200 more patient care hours. Sometimes it's one chemistry class.

If you'd rather just browse and filter for yourself, the free PA Program Match tool does that too — including filters for organic chemistry, prerequisite expiration, biochemistry, genetics, medical terminology and minimum grade.

Is there a "standard" prerequisite list I can trust?

Sort of, with a caveat that matters.

CASPA publishes a Common Prerequisites List of twelve courses: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, general biology, microbiology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, English composition, genetics, medical terminology, general psychology and statistics.

Here's the caveat, in CASPA's own words: the list is "non-exhaustive, courses not on the Common Prerequisites List may still be included." It is a naming convention — a way of standardising how your courses get labelled inside the application — not a statement of what programs require. Plenty of advisers and blog posts present it as a requirements list. It isn't one.

Use it to understand how your coursework will be categorised in CASPA. Use the programs' own pages, or the planner above, to find out what they actually require.

And while we're on directories: the old PAEA Program Directory is now the CASPA Program Directory. It is still free and still worth knowing about — it's the best single source for tuition, class size and deadlines straight from the programs.

Should I take upper-level courses?

Yes, if you can. Here's why, and it's personal.

My wife was pre-nursing. On her academic adviser's recommendation she took all lower-level science courses — they satisfied the stated requirement, so why not? When she applied to the University of Washington School of Nursing, then ranked number one in the country, her prerequisite coursework paled next to applicants who had taken the upper-level series.

To her boyfriend's dismay 🙂, she wasn't admitted. She went to Seattle Pacific University's School of Nursing that year instead and has had a wonderful career — but she'd tell you herself it was an avoidable detour.

Take chemistry at the University of Washington as an example. Chem 110 and 120 are the introductory series — "lower level." Above them sit Chem 142, 152 and 162: the year-long general chemistry series with labs that pre-med students are required to take. Same subject. Very different signal on a transcript.

Organic chemistry works the same way (Chem 220 versus the 237–239 series), and so does biology (the 100 series versus the 200s). You will find that pattern at almost every university and community college in the country.

The rule: meeting the minimum requirement and being a competitive applicant are two different goals. Some programs — George Washington among them — require upper-level coursework outright. Taking the harder series keeps every door open and tells an admissions committee something a transcript otherwise can't.

What major should I choose to get into PA school?

Whichever one you'll actually enjoy and do well in.

PA programs are flexible about your major. Like medical schools, they care that you excelled in it and that it reflects a genuine interest. I've advised applicants who majored in everything from dance to biochemistry, and both got in.

Three things worth weighing:

• Pick something you'd still want if this doesn't work out. Not everyone gets in the first cycle. Your major is your plan B.
• Pick something that helps you get patient care hours. Most of the common routes — phlebotomist (that was me), EMT, CNA, medical assistant — need a certification, not a degree. Nursing is the other well-worn path: work intensively for four or five years, finish your PA prerequisites along the way, then apply.
• An upward trajectory beats a flawless start. A rough freshman year is survivable. What committees look for is what happened next.

My own pre-PA coursework at the University of Washington

For what it's worth, here's what I actually took — quarter system, four years, and a change of direction in the spring of my junior year when I finally sat down with an adviser and admitted I wanted to be a PA rather than a physician.

• Anatomy and physiology
• Upper-level biology — 1 year
• Cellular biology elective
• Microbiology with lab
• Upper-level general chemistry with lab — 1 year (3 quarters)
• Upper-level organic chemistry — 2 quarters, then a strategic retreat to the short program senior year
• Upper-level physics with lab — 3 quarters (which, per the table above, virtually nobody required — live and learn)
• Genetics
• Calculus — 2 quarters, plus a quarter of statistics
• Sociobiology and biomechanics
• Foreign language — 1 year
• General and abnormal psychology
• English composition

Leaving the pre-med track opened up genetics, physiology, biomechanics and microbiology — courses that both raised my GPA and made a stronger application. Changing direction wasn't a setback. It was the best academic decision I made.

Your next step

Four things, in this order:

1. Run the prerequisite planner. Even if your school list is a rough guess, you'll see the pattern in ten minutes. Pay attention to the expiration column.
2. Book time with an academic adviser and bring the printout. Ask specifically about your school's course numbering — which series is the upper-level one.
3. Sequence the gaps by leverage. Take the course that unlocks the most programs on your list first, not the one that's most convenient next term.
4. Check the calendar. The 2026–2027 CASPA cycle opened April 30, 2026 and closes April 1, 2027. Most programs want prerequisites finished — or at most one or two outstanding — by the fall of the application year.

You do not need a perfect transcript. You need a plan, an upward trajectory, and enough foresight that you aren't discovering a missing prerequisite in March.

Now go take a look at where you actually stand. I think you'll find you're closer than you think. 🙂

Thanks for reading — I'm here for you.

— Stephen Pasquini PA-C

Prerequisite figures on this page are drawn from the PA School Finder database, where every program's requirements were read from that program's own admissions page and recorded with the source. Programs revise prerequisites every cycle — always confirm on the program's site before you register for a course. There are 330 ARC-PA accredited entry-level PA programs as of ARC-PA's April 2026 meeting.

Stephen Pasquini PA-C Physician Assistant

Stephen has been a family practice PA since 2004 and is the creator of The PA Life, Smarty PANCE Board Review, and PASchoolfinder websites. A National Health Service Corps Scholar and a graduate of The University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ (Rutgers) PA Program and the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. Stephen's goal is to provide one-of-a-kind online resources for those interested in or practicing in the PA profession, to promote better access to healthcare for all, and to foster universal recognition/awareness of the PA profession. Read more about Stephen.

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