Education · 1 of 5
The path
A bachelor's degree, real hours working with patients, then a hard two-year master's.
- 1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, chemistry and math. Get a job or volunteer post that puts you near patients as early as you can.
- 2
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Any major is allowed as long as you finish the science prerequisites: anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry and statistics. Keep your GPA high, because admissions is numbers-first.
- 3
Patient care hours
1 to 2 years, often overlapping
Many programs want a large number of hours of hands-on work first, and each sets its own minimum. People get them as a medical assistant, an emergency medical technician, a paramedic or a nursing assistant. Some do this during the degree, some take a year after it.
- 4
Physician assistant program
About 2 to 3 years
Usually more than two years, ending in a master's degree. One year of classroom science, then rotations through family medicine, surgery, emergency, psychiatry, pediatrics and obstetrics. Apply through CASPA (Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants), which sends one application to many schools.
- 5
Certify and get licensed
A few months
Pass the national certifying exam, then apply to the medical board in the state where you want to work.