I’ve decided to go to PA school, but will have to return to undergrad to complete the science prereq’s. I know that they have to be less than 5 years old. But, what about the non science ones? I was on one program’s website and I saw they required the non science prereq’s to be less than 10 years old. Does this hold true for most health science programs?
If it does then I have a longer road ahead of me than I thought, because I started college in 1991 and I’m going to have to repeat some Gen Ed courses I took way back when. 
The schools vary. And each applicant is unique in one way or another. Why don’t you call the school and ask them directly?
I’ll be contacting programs when I narrow them down. I was just trying to see if anyone had any info regarding the age of prereq’s in general. Thanks.
I can’t speak for PA schools, but med schools seem to care mainly about the BPCM prereqs. Even among those, there’s variance. Almost all schools want to see recent biology coursework, but physics and math seem more flexible.
There’s no hard-and-fast rule, but I’d say that you want your pre-reqs to be fresh; the gen ed requirements are probably more flexible.
- pi1304 Said:
I can't speak for PA schools, but med schools seem to care mainly about the BPCM prereqs. Even among those, there's variance. Almost all schools want to see recent biology coursework, but physics and math seem more flexible.
There's no hard-and-fast rule, but I'd say that you want your pre-reqs to be fresh; the gen ed requirements are probably more flexible.
There's no hard-and-fast rule, but I'd say that you want your pre-reqs to be fresh; the gen ed requirements are probably more flexible.
I think Adam is right here but check with the school first. Do not ask the adviser at another college, ask the school you want to go to and the program directly. Good Luck
What non-science courses do PA schools require? Medical schools don’t seem to care much about the age of non-science material, though they are always interested to know how well-rounded you are. However they do require recent coursework in the life sciences because the field is changing so quickly.
More importantly, medical schools want to know that your brain is in gear and you can demonstrate recent scholastic achievement. I would suppose that PA schools have similar expectations. As Kasia suggests, you might call one or two schools and ask, and also check out the PA forum on studentdoctor.net. Best of luck,
Your questions would be better answered on the PA Board (www.paassociate.com). Unfortunately, there is no consistent uniformity on PA school prerequisites like there is for medical schools. This is because of the tremendous differences between the 50 states in defning what courses and course hours are required for PA licensing. Because some PA schools incorporate course hours from prerequisite course work into the legislatively prescribed course work required for PA licensing, the recency of prerequisite course work sometimes become an issue.
Thanks for everyone’s responses. I’ll just check with schools I’m interested in. Case closed. 