Prereqs are where a lot of applications quietly fall apart, usually a year or two before anyone notices.

The common ones are General Biology 1, General Chemistry 1 and 2, Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2, Statistics, Psychology, and Microbiology. But every program has its own list, its own expiration rules, and its own opinions about what counts. Check each one. Do not assume.

Aim for a B or better. A C technically satisfies the requirement at some programs, but it doesn't do anything for you, and with how competitive this is, "technically satisfied" isn't the goal.

And if you're not sure whether a specific course will be accepted, email the program and ask. They answer. It takes five minutes and can save you a whole semester.

What I cover:

• The prerequisite courses most programs want
• Why grades of B or higher matter more than passing
• Expiration dates on science coursework
• Community college versus four-year credits
• Emailing programs to confirm a course counts
• Planning prereqs around your work schedule

Resources:

CASPA GPA calculator: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-caspa-gpa-calculator

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Welcome to episode 66.

Today we're talking about prerequisite coursework for PA school.

Welcome to the pre PA club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in.

Before we jump into today's episode, I want to thank our sponsors.

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Alright, let's jump into today's episode and I hope you guys enjoy.

Let me know if you have any questions.

As always, alright, guys, this week we are talking about prerequisites for PA school.

This is something I've been getting a lot of questions about in my DMs on Instagram and really just everywhere.

So I posed the question in our Pre PA Club Facebook group and said, what do you guys want to know about prerequisites?

What questions do you have?

What concerns?

What do I need to cover?

And I got a lot of really great questions.

So if we've never met, I'm Savannah, I'm the founder of the PA Platform and the Pre PA Club podcast.

And if you are not in our Facebook group, the Pre PA Club, make sure you join that.

So I'm really excited to talk about this today because I feel like there's a lot of information out there that's not very good or not very clear.

Clear and stuff that just really is inaccurate, which drives me crazy and is why I started the PA platform in the first place.

So I want to debunk some of those myths and try to give you the best information I can or direct you in how to get the information that you're looking for from a reliable source.

So I have a whole list of questions and topics and we're just gonna jump right in.

And.

And as always, after this episode, if you have more questions, feel free to leave a comment on YouTube, leave a comment and a review on the Pre Pa Club podcast, a comment on Instagram, join our Facebook group, Reach out in some way if your question was not answered or you have more questions, which happens a lot.

Anyway, let's jump in.

So the first thing when we're talking about coursework for PA school is what classes do I need to take?

And this is a point that frustrates a lot of people, and it's reasonable that it does, because every single school has different requirements and that can be a little bit confusing and time consuming to try to figure out what all of those are.

But it's so, so important that you meet the minimum requirements for the schools that you're applying to.

If you are missing a class, if you have a class in progress and they don't allow that, or any little thing, your application is going to get weeded out.

And then that's a waste of your money, a waste of your time, and you're not going to get the result that you want.

So you want to kind of get your list in place, know what's required of you and follow up on it.

Often because schools change their requirements, if you're not applying for a few years.

Make sure that you kind of check in every once in a while and make sure they haven't changed anything so that you can adjust your plans as needed.

But the typically required courses for Almost every single PA school include General Bio 1, Gen Chem 1 and 2, Organic Chemistry and or biochemistry.

Sometimes those are interchangeable, sometimes both are required.

Anatomy and physiology 1 and 2.

And this one gets a little confusing because some schools offer an anatomy and a physiology and some offer ANP1 and A and P2.

Usually there's no issue with those being interchangeable.

You just need the full year series of those courses.

Statistics, Psychology and Microbiology.

After these pretty typically required courses, there are some that are sometimes required, I would say about 50, 50, and those include organic chemistry 2, medical terminology and Genetics.

And there are a few more that can be thrown in there that are just random Immunology, Developmental Psych, just different courses depending on the program.

So when you're going to choose these courses and to look into them, you want to choose typically the one that is for science majors or the upper level course.

Sometimes schools do not accept the basic courses that aren't for science majors.

So like bio101 versus bio201, you want to choose the one that is geared towards science majors and just.

I'm going to throw this out there and I'm probably going to say it 10 times.

But if you ever have questions about if a course is accepted or if the one you're signed up for is the correct one, go directly to the programs you're applying to.

Ask them.

CASPA is not going to help you.

They don't know because they are a middleman.

They don't really care what you take.

It doesn't matter to them.

The programs are the ones who, who care and want to make sure that you're taking the right courses.

So if there's ever a question, if it's about the title, the hours, which one to take, the syllabus, whatever, go directly to the program.

And I recommend doing this by email so that you have an answer in writing.

So if a school tells you yes, we accept that course as a prerequisite, you have it in writing.

If later on you're kind of like, why didn't I hear back from you?

And they're like, oh, you didn't have by bio too?

And you said, oh well y' all said you would take my cell bio as that.

So just.

Also, schools typically don't substitute courses.

It is very rare unless you can really prove that the title was just A little funky.

And the syllabus and the content was very similar to what you would be having in the same course.

So there are not necessarily exceptions made.

And that comes down to accreditation and schools needing to make sure that they are following these rules when they accept people to maintain their accreditation.

So just don't have high expectations there.

It doesn't hurt to ask, but know that ahead of time.

Okay, so why do schools require all these courses?

When I was going through this process, I was a biology major at the University of Georgia, and I was in the class, all my classes with pre med majors.

And so my husband was a pre med major.

And when I compared the required courses, I had to take a lot more courses.

He didn't have to take anatomy and physiology in undergrad, and there were a lot more requirements on me.

The reason is when you get to PA school, you're expected to go.

They're not gonna review these things.

They're not going to go back through biochemistry.

You may have genetics, we had a very short genetics class over the summer.

But ultimately they want you prepared.

And I mean, does chemistry really play that big of a role in medicine and what you do?

No, but you need to have a basic knowledge, so that, that comes down to like pharmacology and just understanding those concepts a little bit better.

So.

And then someone asked in the Facebook group, like, why do some schools want genetics without a lab and some want it with a lab.

And it's just school preference.

And they, based on experience and the students they've had, they kind of decide what courses they feel best prepare students for their program.

So you want to, if you ever have the option to take lab, do it.

It's going to potentially, as long as you do well, help your science gpa.

And the more courses that you can fulfill as requirements, the better your chances of being accepted.

So if a school requires six courses and another school requires 10 courses, if you can fulfill those 10 courses and all of their other requirements, you're going to have a much narrower pool of applicants.

And that makes your chances that much better.

So, yeah, every school is different.

I know it's frustrating, but just do the best you can with that.

So when you're choosing classes, the very first ones that I always recommend starting with are the required courses.

So these are the ones that you absolutely have to take.

No matter what.

Start with those.

Those you need to go ahead and get knocked out so that you'll be ready to apply.

After that, move on to the recommended courses.

Now, in my mind, a recommended course is a required course.

And that was the mindset I had when I choosing classes and applying.

There's a reason it's recommended and that's because they feel like it will help you.

And so start with required and then move on to recommended and then move on to any other upper level sciences.

The benefit of taking science courses is that you're boosting not only your overall gpa, but your science GPA as well.

And I mean, someone asks, what about non science classes?

Are there any that would be helpful?

And I couldn't really think of any that I felt like I missed out on or should have taken or things that I did take.

I took a lot of psych classes which are non science and I did feel when we came to the psych section in PA school, I was very well prepared.

So I took abnormal Developmental, a specific brain course.

So yeah, maybe just if there's something you're interested in, go for it, take classes.

This is the only chance you're going to get to do that.

Andrea from Life as a PA always talks about how she wishes she took more business classes.

And I am with her 100%.

Like I love PR and marketing and my sister gets to do that and I think it's the coolest thing in the world.

So I kind of wish I had gotten that experience and knowledge while I was in undergrad because once you're done, you're done.

So if there's something that you're interested in, go ahead and take it.

I sound like the girl.

Nailed it.

Sorry.

Okay, moving on.

When should you take your classes?

So this is going to be very individualized based on where you're at, whether you're an undergrad student or whether you're going back and taking classes, pursuing this as a second career.

But ultimately you want to keep in mind that some classes expire for certain programs.

So some programs put expiration dates of 5 years, 7 years, 10 years, particularly on the prerequisites and, and specifically anatomy.

They want that to be recent and in your mind.

So I probably, if you're going into undergrad or you know you're going to be taking classes for a few years, I wouldn't start with anatomy because that's one that you want to stay current as long as possible in the event that you have to reapply.

So kind of plan out your timeline.

I get a lot of emails that.

And when we're doing pre PA assessments from people who are switching and they don't have any of their prerequisites or any science courses done.

And they'll say, you know, I think I can take all of these classes in a year.

That is bold.

And it could possibly happen if all you're doing is taking classes.

But if you're taking classes and trying to get experience and volunteering and taking care of just your normal life, that is a lot.

And a lot of these courses are sequential.

So you've got to take gen chem 1 and 2 to take organic, and you've got to take biology to take microbiology.

And it just.

They all kind of build on each other.

And so take time in getting your coursework done.

Don't feel like you have to rush into it and get it all done in a semester.

You can't.

But you've got to plan out the coursework.

And based on your school schedule and what they offer, that's really important too, because you may find that if you get off track or one semester, they don't offer the course that you're looking for.

And then you've got to go look elsewhere.

You've got to look into other programs or you have to wait to take it if you don't have any other options.

And when you're also planning your coursework, think about when you're going to apply.

Because some programs allow for coursework to be in progress and some don't.

And so if you are planning on applying with courses in progress, just make sure that's okay before you submit so that your application doesn't get thrown out.

Ideally, you want your application to be as complete as possible before you apply.

But it's okay to have courses in progress.

I did, and I was still accepted at two schools because they were okay with that.

So just check on that before.

One question that we had was can you submit some applications now and then if you're finishing up prerequisites and submit more later?

And you know you can.

You have to think about this with CASPA in that there can be an issue because the programs may not look at your GPA or look at those courses.

So when you resubmit, Casper will add it to your application.

But the ones you've submitted, you may not look at it again and then they're not going to calculate your GPA again.

I cannot say that enough times.

If you are finishing up summer coursework, it gets done in August and you submit in July, those grades will not go into your GPA calculations even if you resubmit later on.

So please just keep that in mind because that just screws everybody up.

So yeah, that is a really, really important thing to understand.

If that's confusing, please let me know.

Okay, so when you're choosing courses, we talked about required, recommended and then upper level sciences.

Beyond that, for those upper level sciences, you want to make sure that the courses you're taking are science.

Psychology classes are not science.

Health promotion classes.

Some are.

If they fall into education, they are not.

Public health courses tend to be science.

CASPA has a list, so I will link to that in the description.

It is a really important list.

Just bookmark it or do something.

But I use it all the time.

You want to look at that and make sure the courses you're taking fall into science, if that's your intention.

When CASPA is categorizing your classes, they go first by the title of the course and then the subject.

So let's say your course is pub in the public health.

So ph200 and the subject matter is education of the population.

That is a non science class because it falls under education, even though the subject is public health.

Now let's say that you have a course that is called biology of something typically that is going to fall under science.

So what I do is I pull up the list.

If I see a course, if I'm doing a pre PA assessment, someone's course title is there.

I am going to search for that title, the words in the title on the CASPA Science page and see if anything comes up.

If it doesn't, I'm going to move on to the subject and search that and figure out which ones fall under science.

And some of them are kind of questionable.

And you can ask CASPA and see if they're willing to kind of tell you, do you think this is going to be science or not?

So that you can predict your GPAs, but ultimately when they verify is when they assign those categorizations.

So let's move on to where to take your courses.

I think this is actually what got me started on this subject recently because a lot of people ask, can I take my classes at a community college?

Can I take online classes?

So let's address both of those things.

For most programs, a community college is just fine.

I called when I was getting ready for PA school because I UGA was weird.

I don't know if they're still like this, but I was a biology major and anatomy and physiology was not required for my major and was not considered really to be anything.

So if I took that, it was strictly an elective and I needed the class.

But because it wasn't required for my major, I couldn't get into the class at uga, so I had to take it at a smaller college at home.

But over the summer and a question came up that our summer courses, okay, absolutely.

There's nothing wrong with summer classes.

If anything, they're more rigorous because everything is jam packed.

But back, back to my story.

So I signed up for anatomy and took it over the summer at a smaller class at a smaller college.

But I called the programs I was interested in, I said, hey, is this okay?

Like I'm at this big university, is it okay if I take my courses at a community college?

And they said, literally the girl I talked to said, I don't care where you get them as long as you have them complete.

So I said, okay.

I mean, you want to make sure you're where you're getting them is accredited, and that's important.

There are a lot of these online places popping up that aren't necessarily accredited, and in those cases your courses wouldn't count.

So make sure that you check on that.

But a community college should be fine.

But I've seen a few programs and I can't recall which ones exactly that will say, you know, we, we don't prefer community college or will not accept prerequisites from community college, so double check.

But for the most part it's okay.

And if you're working and trying to get classes done, like it's hard, you have to do what you got to do.

I mean, if that is going to a community college that offers night courses, great.

That's what you got to do to get it done.

So yeah, you should be fine there.

Online courses are a little controversial, particularly labs.

You really want to try to get your labs in person if you can.

Now it's interesting because caspa, when the actual file comes up, it doesn't really designate right now whether a course is online or not.

So I know that a lot of University of New England classes are online.

And so when I look at someone's transcript, I know that they took those online, but that doesn't necessarily mean your program will.

Now, honesty is the best policy.

And if a school does not take online classes, please don't try to get your online classes accepted without telling them because that could come back and bite you later on if they find out and then they revoke your acceptance.

Not good.

Scary, actually.

So with that, I mean, online courses for a lot of places are Fine.

There are some schools that will say, do not accept online courses.

Do not accept online labs.

And that's something that you would need to look into before applying just to be sure if you are looking at taking some online classes.

Okay.

And also, I just wanted to mention it's okay to take classes at different places.

So I rarely see a transcript that has one college listed.

It is very rare most of the time.

People have taken classes at a lot of different places.

So don't fret over that.

What do I do if I do bad in a prerequisite?

No matter what, my opinion on this will never change.

In a prerequisite course, you need to try to get a B or higher.

Schools will accept Cs, but they don't want Cs.

They want to see better grades.

A prerequisite.

Those courses that they're requiring are ones that they want you to show proficiency and they want to know that you understand it and that you're ready to bring that knowledge with you to PA school.

So I want to see a B or veteran prerequisites.

And that's what the schools are typically looking for too.

So if you do bad in a prerequisite, retake it, show that you can do it.

And a lot of people are saying like, oh, well, what if we have life circumstances going on?

That happens.

And even with that, though, if that was the case, if it was just kind of a lot going on, take it when you don't have a lot going on and show that you can do better.

Because that's what the schools are going to ask about when it comes to interviewing and all that.

Those grades, any repeated courses do count towards your gpa, they all do.

So you will have to take that into consideration.

But I would try to improve that grade.

And if it comes down to you're in a class, you feel like you're doing bad, you're not really sure if you're going to do well.

A withdrawal always looks better than a bad grade.

So if you have the opportunity to withdraw and you're sure that you're not going to do well, I would take the W before I would take a bad grade because a W does not affect your gpa, whereas a bad grade certainly does.

So, yeah, just try to do the best you can while you're in the class.

But I mean, things happen and, and if, if it does and later you have to retake it, that's fine.

Just be able to show the program.

Don't give them anything that they could tell you to work on.

And that's just advice I give everyone.

So if you applied and then they didn't accept you and you called back and said, what could I work on?

What could I do better?

You want them to look at your application and say nothing?

We.

We cannot find anything that you can improve on.

So just something to keep in mind.

Okay, so one.

This might be our last thing.

Last thing that I wanted to touch on was how do you tell if a course counts for a specific program?

First of all, AP and CLEP exams.

Make sure that your program accepts these.

When I was in high school, AP stuff was just kind of coming out.

I didn't take any science AP classes.

I only took history ones, which was awesome because then I didn't have to take history in college, but.

Or political science or I take one English.

So I didn't take any sciences.

But now I'm seeing a lot of people who have like Bio1 chem1.

If you can pass that chem AP test, you should not have to take chem again, but you may have to.

And then CLEP exam is kind of the same thing.

So if you have AP credit, just double check with programs.

Because if a school has a prerequisite class, they want to see a grade for that class.

And so most likely you're gonna have to retake it.

And just know that going into college you should be very well prepared if you did well in that AP course.

But know that a lot of schools aren't going to take that AP credit.

They're not going to sub another biology or anything like that.

So try to keep that in mind.

And just again, like, if you have any questions, ask the program.

There are some classes that they are very specific about.

One I found is statistics and Biostatistics.

Some schools will only accept an Intro to Stats class.

Some will only accept biostats.

And so if statistics is listed and you took biostats, check with that program before you apply that biostats is accepted.

Don't just assume that they're gonna take it because that is not always the case at all.

Someone asked about study abroad classes too, and these depending on where you take them and how it worked through your school, some fall under just your undergrad degree if they're on your transcript, and then some fall fall under foreign coursework.

And CASPA has a really good part about on their FAQ about that so that you can kind of figure out how those will factor in.

All right.

I think that's all I have on prerequisites, but I'm sure you guys have more questions.

If you do, please just let me know.

And then I'll look forward to seeing you in the next episode.

Thanks for watching or listening.

See you guys next time.