Of those people who come to Mercer University as first-year college students and intend to eventually apply to physician assistant programs, many participate in the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program (GAPDP). However, not all Mercer students who go on to attend a physician assistant program participate in the GAPDP, and not all of them enroll in Mercer's Physician Assistant Program at the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS). The text below contains information for students interested in or enrolled in the GAPDP and information for students who intend to apply to physician assistant programs but are not in the GAPDP.
Information About Mercer's Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program
Mercer University offers a Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program (GAPDP) for first-year students in the College of Liberal Arts (http://www2.mercer.edu/NewCLA/default.htm) who intend to apply to the Physician Assistant Program at Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (http://cophs.mercer.edu/pa.htm). The GAPDP is a rigorous academic program that requires students to take a specific group of classes. Students who successfully complete the requirements of this program will be admitted to the Physician Assistant Program at Mercer University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS) and, after successfully completing one year of studies at the COPHS, will be awarded a Bachelor of Science in Health Science by Mercer's College of Liberal Arts. For information about who is eligible to participate in the GAPDP and what is required of students in the GAPDP, read the following document: PrePhysicianAssistantGAPDPInfo.doc.
Any student who intends to participate in the GAPDP should make this decision before or during his/her first semester at Mercer. Students who are interested in the GAPDP should complete the "Request Form for Participation in the GAPDP" and return it to Mercer's pre-professional advisor before October of the students' first semester of enrollment at Mercer. This form can be found on the final page of the following document: PrePhysicianAssistantGAPDPInfo.doc. Students should not complete this form unless they know that they are eligible for the GAPDP.
Like all applicants to the Physician Assistant Program at Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, students in the GAPDP are required to take the Graduate Records Exam (GRE) General Test and submit their scores before the application deadline. GAPDP students are required to make a minimum combined score of 1,000 on the GRE’s verbal and quantitative sections. The GRE General Test is computerized and is offered by appointment. For more information about the GRE General Test, see the following website: http://www.ets.org/gre.
GAPDP students are required to apply to the COPHS through CASPA, the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (https://portal.caspaonline.org/). As part of the application process, each student will be required to have three letters of reference submitted on his/her behalf, one of which must be from a physician assistant or a medical doctor and another which must be from a university instructor. Each student must also submit a supplemental application to the COPHS. Final acceptance into the Physician Assistant Program is contingent upon a successful interview with the program’s faculty during a GAPDP student’s junior year.
Prior to matriculation in Mercer’s Physician Assistant Program at the COPHS, each GAPDP student must complete 1000 documented hours of clinical experience involving direct patient care. This experience may be gained by working in a variety of professions; examples include working as a paramedic, a nursing assistant, or a phlebotomist. Other professions involving direct patient care are listed on the COPHS’s website about Mercer’s Physician Assistant Program (http://cophs.mercer.edu/pa.htm).
For more information about the GAPDP, please read the following document: PrePhysicianAssistantGAPDPInfo.doc.
Information for Students Who Are Not in the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program
To become a licensed physician assistant, a person must earn a degree from an accredited physician assistant program and pass a national certification examination. Though some physician assistant programs accept applicants who have not completed bachelor's degrees, most programs require students to earn bachelor's degrees before enrolling (note that all students matriculated in Mercer's Physician Assistant Program, except those who successfully completed the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program, must have bachelor's degrees). However, no specific undergraduate major is required or preferred by physician assistant programs. A student interested in becoming a physician assistant should choose a major about which s/he is passionate, since a student who majors in a topic in which s/he is genuinely interested is more likely to achieve the academic success that will enable her/him to get into a physician assistant program.
Course Selection
The courses applicants must complete in order to be eligible for admission to a physician assistant program vary greatly from school to school. Thus, early in her/his undergraduate career, a student should research the admission requirements for the physician assistant programs to which s/he intends to apply, and s/he should schedule her/his undergraduate classes based on the requirements of the programs in which s/he is interested. The prerequisite courses for admission to Mercer's Physician Assistant Program are listed at the following website: http://cophs.mercer.edu/paadmissions.htm. Each student is ultimately responsible for knowing and fulfilling the admission requirements of the programs to which s/he intends to apply, but, as a general guide, many physician assistant programs require the following classes:
- Two semesters of human anatomy and physiology with laboratories*
- Two semesters of general biology with laboratories*
- One semester of microbiology with a laboratory
- Two semesters of general chemistry with laboratories*
- One semester of organic chemistry with a laboratory
- One semester of biochemistry
- One semester of statistics
- One to three semesters of psychology (general, developmental, and/or abnormal)
*A few programs require only one course from these sequences, but most programs require applicants to take both courses in each sequence.
Some physician assistant programs require the following courses, in addition to those listed above:
- The second semester of organic chemistry
- One to three semesters of upper-level biology electives
- One semester of college-level math, in addition to statistics (Note that the Medical College of Georgia's Physician Assistant Program requires its applicants to have had a semester of pre-calculus or calculus.)
- One semester of medical terminology
- One semester of nutrition
- One semester of pathophysiology
- One semester of computer science
- One semester of sociology
Some physician assistant programs recommend courses in the following disciplines, in addition to those courses they require for admission:
- Anthropology
- Cell biology
- Economics
- Embryology
- Endocrinology
- Ethics
- Genetics
- Histology
- Immunology
- Neuroscience
- Pharmacology
- Physics with laboratories
- Speech
- Technical or scientific writing
In addition to taking the required and recommended courses for the programs to which s/he intends to apply, a student should note that physician assistant programs expect their applicants to be computer literate. Thus, if a student on a pre-physician assistant track feels that her/his computer skills could use improvement, the student should consider taking a computer class.
Grades
Many physician assistant programs require applicants to have minimum overall GPAs of 3.0 or higher, though some programs accept students with GPAs as low as 2.6. In addition, many programs also evaluate each applicant's GPA in math and science and/or prerequisite courses. Note that having the minimum required GPA does not guarantee entry to a program; the higher a student's GPA is, the more competitive the student will be when applying to a physician assistant program.
Work Experience and Extracurricular Activities
In addition to the academic preparations a student should make before applying to physician assistant programs, s/he should keep in mind that some type of experience with the physician assistant profession is advisable. This experience should include shadowing physician assistants in various clinical settings. Such experience will, of course, serve as evidence to physician assistant programs that a student is truly interested in and knowledgeable about the profession, but it will also help the student determine if s/he is making the right choice by enrolling in a physician assistant program.
Note that some physician assistant programs require applicants to have completed a minimum number of documented hours observing physician assistants and/or working directly with patients in a healthcare setting before applying for admission. The number of hours a person should spend shadowing a physician assistant and/or working in healthcare before applying to a physician assistant program vary greatly from program to program. Some programs do not require applicants to have spent any time observing or working in a healthcare setting, and some programs require applicants to have spent 2000 hours or more working in a healthcare setting. Mercer University's Physician Assistant Program requires students to complete 1000 hours of direct patient care experience before matriculating in the program; see the program's website for more information (http://cophs.mercer.edu/paadmissions.htm). Students should research the requirements of the specific programs in which they are interested. Also, some programs require that applicants submit at least one letter of recommendation from a physician assistant.
In addition to gaining experience with the physician assistant profession, pre-physician assistant students may wish to join Mercer's pre-health club, MerPMed. For more information, students should visit the club's website, located at http://www2.mercer.edu/AAS/Pre-professional Information/MerPMed.htm, or send an e-mail to merpmed@yahoo.com.
Technical Skills
Note that, in addition to evaluating applicants based on their academic abilities and extracurricular activities, physician assistant programs require that their applicants have certain "technical skills." Technical skills include an applicant's abilities in the areas of: observation; communication; sensory and motor function; intellectual, conceptual, integrative, and quantitative abilities; and behavioral and social skills.
The Application Process
Many physician assistant programs participate in the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA). This centralized service allows students to fill out one on-line application and submit it to multiple physician assistant programs. For more information, visit the following website: https://portal.caspaonline.org/. Please note that the physician assistant program at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) does not participate in CASPA; students who wish to apply to the program at MCG must fill out MCG's own application. Many programs that participate in CASPA also require applicants to complete supplemental applications. Applicants should familiarize themselves with the application process for each program to which they intend to apply.
Most physician assistant programs require applicants to take a standardized test as part of the admissions process, though some programs do not. Many physician assistant programs require applicants to achieve a minimum score on the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) General Test. For more information on the GRE, visit the following website: http://www.ets.org/gre. Some programs will take the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) in place of the GRE. For more information on the MCAT, visit the following website: http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/.
More Information
For more information about the physician assistant programs offered in Georgia, see the following schools' websites: Emory University (http://www.emorypa.org/); the Medical College of Georgia (http://www.mcg.edu/sah/phyasst/Index.html); Mercer University (http://cophs.mercer.edu/pa.htm); and South University in Savannah (http://www.southuniversity.edu/campus/Programs/campusPrograms.asp?plid=30&id=4&progid=13&siteID=4). For a list of physician assistant programs offered throughout the United States, see the following website: http://www.aapa.org/pgmlist.php3.
For more information about physician assistant programs and careers, see the following websites: the website of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (http://www.aapa.org/); the website of the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants (http://www.gapa.net/); the website of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (http://www.nccpa.net/); and the website of the Physician Assistant Education Association (http://www.paeaonline.org/).
For more information about preparing for and applying to physician assistant programs, contact the pre-professional advisor in the Office of Academic and Advising Services (478-301-2250).