The Drury University Physician Assistant Program is accepting applications for the class of 2027 starting in the Fall of 2025. Prospective students must apply through the Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA).
All CASPA applications must be received and verified by April 1, 2025. We encourage you to apply early in the admission cycle to increase your chance of acceptance into our program as we practice rolling admissions.
Prospective applicants please carefully read our admissions and FAQ webpage to learn about our requirements and process. If your questions are not answered after review of our admissions and FAQ webpages, please contact us for further information at PAProgramAdmissions@drury.edu.
Your CASPA application to the Drury University PA Program must be verified by April 1, 2025.
The following application materials must be received and verified by CASPA before an application will be reviewed:
Incomplete or unverified applications will not be reviewed.
The Admissions Committee will begin reviewing verified applications as they are received. Applications will be reviewed based on the following admission criteria:
Final admission decisions will be based upon in-person interviews, the Admissions Committee’s recommendations, and the application review. After completed interviews, candidates will be notified of their acceptance status within two weeks of the interview date.
If accepted into the program, a seat deposit of $1,000 is due within two weeks of notification.
All prerequisite coursework must be completed by June 1st of the year of matriculation. Transcripts must be submitted to the program no later than July 1st prior to matriculation in August.
Please Note: At the time of application, a candidate may only have a maximum of two outstanding prerequisite courses. Any candidate accepted into the program without completed prerequisites, will be accepted on the following conditions:
*Human physiology may be taken in conjunction with gross anatomy. This course must cover the major body systems and meet our credit hour requirements (6 credits) if combined with human anatomy.
**CLEP (College Level Examination Program), AP (Advanced Placement), IB (International Baccalaureate), ACE Credit (American Council on Education), and AICE (Advanced International Certificate of Education) course credit may not be used or substituted to meet prerequisite requirements.
All applicants must be citizens or residents of the US.
A minimum of 750 hours of direct patient care experience is required and must be completed by April 1, 2025. On CASPA, enter your hours under Supporting Information -> Experience -> Add Experience -> Patient Care Experience.
Applicants should have direct (hands-on) patient care in a clinical setting to be competitive.
The experience can be traditional paid employment, volunteer, or research experience. Hours obtained as a student (for credit or for certification) will not be counted toward the 750-hour minimum. Additional consideration is given to candidates with direct patient care experience over 750 hours up to 2000 hours.
A minimum of 16 hours shadowing a physician assistant(s) is required.
On CASPA, enter your shadowing hours under Supporting Information -> Experience -> Add Experience ->Shadowing.
What do we expect from your shadowing experience? We want to see you shadow a physician assistant to learn about their daily work life, settings in which they work, how a PA differs from other healthcare professionals, and their educational experience to become a PA.
Three letters of recommendation must be submitted to CASPA. References should highlight your qualities that will make you an excellent physician assistant and enable you to handle the rigors of physician assistant school.
Who should write your letters of recommendation?
*No letters from immediate family members or friends will be accepted.
The GRE General Test or the PA-CAT exam is required and must have been taken within five years of the application deadline. If you are applying for entry for fall 2025, you must have completed the GRE no earlier than April 1, 2019.
GRE scores must be sent directly to CASPA using the code 3989.
Applications will not be considered complete and ready for review until either your GRE or PA-CAT scores are received.
The Physician Assistant College Admission Test (PA-CAT) is a specialized test designed to measure applicant knowledge in key prerequisite science subjects typically required for PA school. For information about the PA-CAT and to schedule your exam go to www.PA-CAT.com to register.
We seek to recruit and retain students with diverse backgrounds whose qualifications align with the program’s mission and goals. Applicants to the program will be evaluated holistically. Candidates with the following experiences will be given additional consideration:
Qualified Drury students and alumni will automatically receive an invitation for an interview for up to two admissions cycles. An invitation to interview does not guarantee acceptance into the program.
The Drury University PA Program is focused on graduating PAs who are capable of leading in the healthcare setting. We value applicants’ leadership experience and give additional consideration to applicants with a proven record of leadership. The following is a list of leadership activities we value:
We give additional consideration for significant volunteering in the following areas:
This lists above are not exhaustive. If you have activities or events demonstrating leadership/maturity/volunteering, please list them in your application.
No advanced placement credit will be awarded to applicants. The program does not accept transfer students or provide credit for experiential learning. All students matriculating into the Drury University Physician Assistant Program must take all curricular components of the PA curriculum in order to graduate and be awarded a degree from Drury University.
The Drury University Physician Assistant Program assumes responsibility for the recruitment of clinical sites and preceptors in sufficient numbers for the program-mandated supervised clinical practice experience (SCPE). Students are not required to provide or solicit preceptors or clinical sites for the program-mandated clinical experiential learning component of the program.
Students may voluntarily submit the name(s) of potential preceptors and/or clinical sites not already affiliated with the PA program; however, the potential preceptors and/or clinical sites must agree to host future students from the Drury University PA Program. There is no direct or implied guarantee on the part of the program that the student will be assigned a rotation with any requested preceptor or clinical site, including those already affiliated with the program. It is ultimately the responsibility of the director of clinical education and the program director to judge whether the preceptor and clinical site are deemed appropriate for use in Supervised Clinical Practice Experiences.
