Admissions Requirements | Emory School of Medicine

Undergraduate Degree

A baccalaureate degree from an institution accredited by the Commission on Colleges of a Regional Accrediting Organization is required.

Those candidates who received their baccalaureate degrees from colleges and institutions outside of the United States must complete at least one year (24 semester hours) as a full-time student at a US or Canadian regionally accredited institution.

Applicants need to have a cumulative and a science GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

Prerequisite College Courses

The Emory PA Program requires 8 prerequisite courses listed below. We strongly recommend all prerequisite courses be completed within 10 years of submitting the application. All prerequisite courses must be completed by December 2025 for the class matriculating in August 2026. Online courses at accredited institutions are acceptable.

Natural Sciences: minimum 23 semester credits

- Biology course of choice with lab: 4 semester/4 quarter hours
- Chemistry course with lab: 4 semester/4 quarter hours
- Second Chemistry course of choice with lab: 4 semester/4 quarter hours
- *Human Anatomy: 3 semester/4 quarter hours
- *Physiology: 3 semester/4 quarter hours
- Organic Chemistry or Biochemistry: 3 semester/4 quarter hours

*Combined Anatomy and Physiology courses are acceptable provided the total credits received is a minimum of 6 semester hours or 8 quarter hours.

Statistics: 3 semester credits/4 quarter hours

Recommended but not required: Coursework in microbiology and genetics

All courses taken to satisfy the requirements must be taken from a regionally (North American) accredited institution. Each course must be completed at a grade level of “C” or better and must be completed by December of the application year. All courses are subject to approval by the Admissions Committee and cannot be taken on a Pass/Fail basis, as CLEP credit, or audited.

Applicants should be aware that all courses within the curriculum are required even if you started a PA program at another institution previously. No transfer credit is accepted, and no credit is granted for pre-admission experiential learning. Only full-time students are admitted to the program and there is no part-time pathway.

Experience Required

A minimum of 2,000 hours of paid or volunteer patient care experience is required with direct, "hands-on" patient contact (e.g., EMT or paramedic, health educator, RN, patient care attendant or nurse’s aide, clinic assistant, medical Peace Corps volunteer or other cross-cultural health care experience, medical technologist, therapist, scribe, clinical research assistant, etc.). These hours of patient care experience must be completed at the time of the submitted application.

The following types of experience are NOT accepted toward the 2,000 patient care experience hours: non-clinical research assistant positions, pharmacy technician, hours accrued in certificate training programs or student clinical experiences, student "intern" experiences for which school credit is received.

In addition, non-patient care community volunteer hours as well as PA ‘shadowing hours’ are highly recommended although they do not count towards the 2,000 hours minimum of patient care experience. Volunteer patient care hours should be included in the 2,000 hours and in the volunteer community service hours in our supplemental application.

The Emory PA program does not grant advanced placement. All students must complete all Emory PA program course requirements to graduate.

Healthcare Experience requirements

Additional Requirements

Applicants must meet the Emory PA Program Technical Standards.
TOEFL is required for applicants for whom English is not their native language and/or their first degree is from a foreign institution. Scores must be sent directly to the PA Program from the Educational Testing Service. A minimum total score of 93 with a speaking score of 26 is required.
Completed CASPA and Supplemental Applications (including non-refundable Supplemental Application Fee of $75). This includes two letters of reference.
GRE's are no longer required.

If accepted into the program, consent for a criminal background check is required.

Technical Standards

Questions? Email us at pa_admissions@emory.edu