As a candidate for admission to the Physician Assistant Program you must meet the following requirements:*

Undergraduate Preparation - Academic Requirements:

A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution within the United States is required. Required Courses:

All courses must be taken at regionally accredited institutions within the United States. A minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.8 on a 4.0 scale is required in order to be considered for the PA Program.

• Biology: 16 semester hours including a semester each of Human Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, and Genetics. Physical Education and Exercise Science courses are not acceptable. Labs are required, when available, for all biology courses.
• Chemistry: 16 semester hours including a semester each of Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Biochemistry. Labs are required, when available, for all chemistry courses.  
• English: 6 semester hours to include Composition and Speech.
• Psychology: 9 semester hours, including abnormal psychology.  
• Statistics or Biostatistics course  
  
• Medical Terminology Course  
  

* CLEP Credits and P/F Credits do not meet our requirements.  

Practical Experience Requirements:

As an applicant you must have completed at least 750 hours of direct patient-care experience as an employee or volunteer in a medical office, hospital, or extended-care facility. Shadowing a PA is required. Your experiences may be combined, but all acceptable clinical experiences must involve hands-on care of patients.

GRE

All applicants must complete the GRE and send their scores to Des Moines University before they will be considered for an interview.  You can find more information about the GRE at their website www.ets.org/gre.  

Technical Standards

Please see http://www.dmu.edu/pa/admissions/standards

Other

Accepted students will be required to complete a criminal background check prior to matriculation.