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PreHealthAdmit has one of the most complete sets of PA school data available, along with powerful search tools to allow you to find programs that are the best fit for you.

You are viewing the details for one of 300 physician assistant programs in our database. By signing up, you also get access to our search tools and the ability to create a personalized list of schools.

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Physician Assistant (PA) School Details

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Immediately under the program’s name, you may see icons highlighting certain key characteristics. Here is the legend:

  • Good Value: our estimated total cost of attendance for residents including tuition, fees and cost of living is less than $139,000, which is less than about 75% of the programs
  • Average GPA (if reported) is more than 3.50, which is about average for all the programs.
  • This is a public school.
  • This school is on your list of programs.

University of Southern California (LA)

Alhambra,
CA
Information Last Reviewed by PreHealthAdmit: January 2023
1000 S Fremont Ave
Unit 7, Bld A10, N10100
Alhambra,
CA
91803

Program Website:

http://keck.usc.edu/physician-assistant-program/

Admissions Office Email:

uscpa@usc.edu
626-457-4240

Program Information

Length of Program:

33 Months

Part-Time Option Available:  

No

Starting Semester: 

Fall

Accreditation:

Continued

Students per Class:

60

PANCE First-Time Pass Rate: 

96%

Cost of Attendance (Resident / Non-Resident): 

$190,713 / $190,713   Does not include living expenses.

Combined Degree Program(s) Offered: 

None

Admissions Information

Application:

Participates in CASPA:

Yes

Application Deadline:

November 1
(Rolling Admissions)

GPA:

Minimum GPA:   

3

Minimum Science GPA:

3

Average GPA: 

3.49

Average Science GPA:   

3.4

Shadowing and Experience:

PA Shadowing Required or Recommended:

Recommended

Minimum PA Shadowing: 

20

Patient Care Experience Required:

None

Patient Care Experience Recommended: 

No Specific Recommendation

Additional Information Regarding Patient Care:

Hands-on, paid, patient care clinical experience is preferred. Other health care experience is equally acceptable as long as the clinical experience is hands-on in nature. It is important that PA applicants are familiar with medical care environments and the role of a physician assistant, and have experience working with patients. Volunteer clinical experience is also considered in the application process and should be entered into the CASPA application, as well; the applicant is encouraged to describe their hands-on experience, whether it is paid or volunteer.

Testing

Test(s) Required:

None

GRE Deadline:

Not Applicable

GRE Expiration:

Not Applicable

PA-CAT Deadline:

Not Applicable

CASPer Required:

No

CASPer Deadline:

Not Applicable

Beginning with the 2022-2023 application cycle, the standardized testing GRE and MCAT are NO LONGER a requirement for our program.

Coursework Policies

Coursework Expiration:

10 Years
All science prerequisite courses must be completed within 10 years of the year that an application is submitted. Exceptions to the 10-year science prerequisite time frame may be granted on an individual basis to those individuals who have completed one of the following: 1) at least eight semester units of graduate credit in a medically-related natural science discipline, with an overall grade point average of 3.0 or better, completed within seven years of the application deadline or 2) received an advanced degree in the natural sciences, clinical sciences or other appropriate disciplines (e.g., MS, MPH, DVM, PharmD, PhD, MD) within 10 years of the application deadline.

Online Coursework Accepted:

Yes
Distance learning courses are acceptable provided they are equivalent in all dimensions (including laboratory requirements) to courses taught in ‘traditional’ educational settings (e.g., hybrid courses). All distance learning course credit must be provided by regionally accredited institutions of higher education.

Community College Coursework Accepted:

Yes

Pending Prerequisite Coursework Allowed:

Yes
All non-science prerequisite courses must be completed by the spring semester prior to matriculation, but no more than two non-science prerequisite courses may be in progress in the spring semester or quarter following the November 1 application deadline.

Prerequisites

Course
Semesters
Required or Recommended
Notes
General Chemistry
2 Semesters with Lab
Required
Two Options: Option 1: General Chemistry with lab: One (1) year sequential coursework Option 2: One (1) semester/quarter of General Chemistry or Human Chemistry and one (1) semester or two (2) quarters of an additional Chemistry course(s) with a lab from the following: Organic Chemistry, Quantitative Analysis, Inorganic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Analytical Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Not Required
Biochemistry
Not Required
Biochemistry or Organic Chemistry Options
Not Required
Introductory Biology
2 Semesters with Lab
Required
Two options: Option 1: General Biology or Human Biology Option 2: One (1) semester/quarter of General Biology or Human Biology and one (1) semester or two (2) quarters of an additional Biology course(s) from the following: Cell, Biology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Endocrinology, Pharmacology, Immunology, Histology, Embryology, Neuroscience If your institution does not offer General Biology or Human Biology, then you must provide proof for the biology series of introductory biology for biological-based science majors (i.e. Zoology, Cell Biology, Botany). Applicants from an institution on the quarter system: If your institution does not offer three (3) quarters of General Biology or Human Biology, you may elect to take two (2) quarters of General Biology and one (1) quarter of one of the following: Genetics, Molecular Biology, Immunology or Cell Biology.
Microbiology
1 Semester with Lab
Required
Upper-Level Biology
Not Required
Genetics
Not Required
Anatomy and Physiology
2 Semesters: 1 Each of Anatomy and Physiology, OR 2 Semesters of Combined Anatomy/Physiology, Each with Lab
Required
Physics
Not Required
Medical Terminology
1 Course
Required
A minimum of one semester/quarter unit at a regionally accredited institution or submit a medical terminology certificate of completion from a regionally accredited institution or vocational program.
English / Writing
Not Required
Psychology
1 Semester
Required
Social Sciences
Not Required
Statistics
1 Semester
Required
Other Math
Not Required
Foreign Language
2 Semesters
Required
One year of beginning Spanish language. Must be college-level credit earned either through coursework or by placement examination.
Other Requirements

None.

Other Recommendations

None.

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Instructions and Tips

Use this page to search for programs based on prerequisites.

Here’s some tips:

  • After searching, make sure you also review the detailed notes, recommendations and requirements on the school detail page and/or the compare prerequisite page.
  • Check one or more boxes within each group of fields to narrow the search results down.
  • Select every checkbox up to and including your target requirement. For example, if you have one semester of chemistry, check “None” also to make sure you don’t exclude those programs with no requirement.
  • The search criteria are only applied to programs that have that specific requirement. For example, if a program has a requirement for “1 semester of chemistry required and a lab is recommended”, this school will satisfy the “1 semester required” option.
  • Some programs have requirements for any combination of courses of one type, for example “2 total courses of any chemistry subject”. For the purposes of this search, that would not be treated as a requirement, but you’ll need to be aware that you need to closely look at each program’s detailed requirements.
  • Use the Add/Remove buttons to fine-tune your list of programs.

Instructions and Tips

Use this page to search for programs based on general criteria.

Here’s some tips:

  • Check one or more boxes within each group of fields to narrow the search results down.
  • For certain numerical searches (such as Minimum GPA), if the program does not have a minimum, it is considered a zero. Make sure you include zero in your range of values so that they show up in your search.
  • The tuition search uses our estimate of total cost of attendance for non-residents including tuition, fees and living expenses.
  • You’ll probably want to start with more boxes checked and start with a short list of results. Uncheck boxes to expand the list.
  • Use the Add/Remove buttons to fine-tune your list of programs.

 

An example of how to maximize the effectiveness of your search: let’s say you don’t want to take any standardized tests:

  • Check every box under Test(s) Required that does not have “required” in it. for example “None”, “GRE Recommended”, “PA-CAT Recommended”, etc.
  • Leave blank any box that has a “required” test, such as “GRE Required”, “PA-CAT Required”, “GRE Required and PA-CAT Recommended”, etc.

This will make sure you only filter for programs that have no requirement for a standardized test.