College of St. Benedict/St. John's University
Department of Biology
Barbara May, Ph.D.
College of St. Benedict/St. John's University
Department of Biology
pre-physician assistant
Physician assistants (PAs) are health professionals licensed to practice medicine with physician supervision. In order to practice you must graduate from an accredited physician assistant program or obtain a license from the NCCPA. This means you must have passed a board that is designed after the national boards for medical school.
There are a lot of PA schools out there but only several in the midwest region(Augsburg, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, University of Wisconsin-Madison). There are also several in Illinois. If you are interested in seeing a different part of the country, there are a larger number of schools out east and some on the west coast as well. All schools are competitive but it has been noted by several students here at St. John's and St. Ben's that the midwest schools are becoming more competitive because of the limited number of spots that are available in this area (only one school in MN).
community and participation hours:
IMPORTANT! Many schools require a certain number of hours (some at least 1000 hours and the average for applicants is usually more) in patient care. This could be as a nursing assistant, hospital orderly, EMT (emergency medical technician-their is a program here to be trained as an EMT), OR technician, physical or respiratory therapy, or as a volunteer. This can be in a variety of settings as well: nursing home, hospital, clinic, etc... It will only benefit you to get this experience-make sure you like working with patients!
find and talk with PAs. try to shadow a PA. be as familiar with the profession and know this is the area you want to be in.
research can help too. all of the treatments, drugs, and applications you apply or give to patients is discovered and developed through research. An attempt to understand this process can be very rewarding and beneficial.
classes to take:
you don't have to be a biology or chemistry major, but you will end up taking numerous courses in each of these fields. These courses are recommendations. Please check with the school you are interested in attending to see what their exact requirements are.Biology:
-Biology 121 and 221: these are the introductory courses
in biology that are required for most schools
-BIOL316: genetics
-BIOL307: biology of microorganisms
-BIOL325 and 326: human anatomy and physiology
-BIOL329: histology (some schools like the University of
Iowa highly recommend this course)
Chemistry:
-CHEM123 and 124: these are the introductory inorganic
chemistry courses and are required for most schools
-CHEM235: this is the first semester of organic chemistr
(some recommend and/or require a second semester)
-BIOL317/CHEM331: this is biochemistry
Math:
-MATH124: statistics I (some require this)
Psychology:
-PSYCH111: introductory psychology
-PSYCH360: developmental psychology
websites of interest: