Pre-physician Assistant Path

Physician assistants (P.A.) are healthcare professionals who provide diagnostic and therapeutic patient care with a supervising physician. PAs' duties depend on the setting in which they work, their specialty, and their level of experience. A PA's responsibilities include, but are not limited to: conducting physical exams, diagnosing and treating illnesses, ordering and interpreting laboratory and radiological tests, counseling on preventative healthcare measures, and assisting in surgery. For more information on PA, see the Physician Assistant section at this link.

Starting with your first semester of college, you are accumulating the credentials to apply to PA programs. Applicants are expected to have:

• Completed a bachelor's degree in any major
• Completed prerequisite course requirements (see below)
• Earn excellent grades; overall and science GPAs should be at least a 3.5
• Earn a good score on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
• Obtain individual letters of recommendations, academic and clinical
• Obtain a minimum number of patient care hours (varies between program, ave. of 1,000 hours)

Course Requirements

These are the courses at SUNY Oswego that are recommended you complete to meet PA admissions requirements (note, there is a lot variation in course requirements for PA programs, you should check directly with the programs you are applying to for the most up to date information):