Frequently Asked Questions

The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program was reaccredited in March 2023:

The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. (ARC-PA) has granted Accreditation-Continued to the Northwestern University Physician Assistant Program sponsored by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Accreditation-Continued is an accreditation status granted when a currently accredited program is in compliance with the ARC-PA Standards.

Accreditation remains in effect until the program closes or withdraws from the accreditation process or until accreditation is withdrawn for failure to comply with the Standards. The approximate date for the next validation review of the program by the ARC-PA will be 2033M. The review date is contingent upon continued compliance with the Accreditation Standards and ARC-PA policy.

The program’s accreditation history can be viewed on the ARC-PA website at https://www.arc-pa.org/accreditation-history-northwestern-university/. 

The Northwestern University PA Program began instruction in 2010, and graduated its first class in 2012. The report linked below includes Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) pass rates for first-time test takers for each of the graduating classes of the last 5 years. For the most recent graduating Class of 2024, the first-time test-taker pass rate is 97%.

The first-time test-taker pass rate during the most recent five-year period is 98%.

The data will be updated annually as new classes graduate and take the exam.

No. Northwestern University is a private institution and no admissions preference is given to Illinois residents, or on the basis of state of residence or geographical origin, in general.

All students in the Program pay the same tuition and fees.

No. Students must secure their own housing. As part of the onboarding process, the Program will share housing resources with incoming students, including survey data and insight provided by students currently enrolled in the Program.

As one of the largest cities in the nation, Chicago has a robust rental housing market that offers high inventory and diverse options across dozens of neighborhoods.

No. In the interest of maintaining equity in our admissions process, individual advising and application feedback is not offered to prospective, current, or former applicants to the Program.

Admissions questions may be submitted to paprogram@northwestern.edu and our team will aim to provide answers that are both thorough and helpful to you.

We invite you to register to join us for an upcoming Information Session. You can also watch recorded, on-demand Admissions and Curriculum & Culture Information Sessions via this same link.

Yes. The Program will hold at least one in-person Information Session during the summer. This session will include a presentation covering our curriculum and admissions process, as well as a campus tour.

If you have interest in joining us, please submit this brief form, and we will contact you once an information session date is scheduled.

For the 2024-25 Academic Year, which started in late May 2024, tuition is $55,557.

Students pay tuition 3 times a year on a trimester academic term basis. As such, for the 2024-25 Academic Year, the tuition cost per trimester is $18,519.

As the Northwestern University PA Program is 24 months in duration, students pay tuition for 6 total academic trimesters.

Tuition and fees are subject to change and are set annually by the Northwestern University Board of Trustees, typically in late April.

Detailed cost of attendance information for the Program can be found on the Cost of Attendance & Financial Aid page.

Yes. Admitted students will complete the FAFSA and the Northwestern University Financial Aid Application.

The Office of Financial Aid uses this information to prepare an award package for each student with the express goal of meeting the total cost of attendance.

The Office of Financial Aid is available to students for advising and consultation at all times.

In general, students finance their education via a package of federal government loans.

A scholarship is available to employees of Northwestern Medicine.

Enrolled US military veterans or active-duty military members may use any VA educational benefit toward the cost the Program. The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program. 

Veteran or active-duty applicants offered an interview with the Program will be connected with the Northwestern University Office of Financial Aid for the Chicago Campus so that they may better understand the benefits available to them should they be admitted to, and decide to attend, the Program.

The Northwestern University PA Program employs a rolling admissions approach. Our interview season will start after our September 1 application deadline, however, in this approach, interviews are held and admission decisions are made while applications are still being reviewed. This is the "rolling" aspect of the process, in action.

Our process is specifically designed to minimize the impact of the timing of application submission on the opportunity for an applicant to receive an offer to interview, and subsequently, an offer of admission. As such, invitations to interview and offers of admission are made incrementally as the cycle progresses, ensuring that many opportunities remain after initial application review concludes.

While applications are reviewed in the order that they are received, all applicants who meet our minimum requirements will remain under consideration for the duration of the interview period and may be invited for an interview at any time during that period. 

In this rolling approach, the timeline between application submission and interview invitation can vary significantly for a given applicant. Thus, one applicant could submit their application in August and receive an invitation to interview in September, while another applicant could submit their application in May and receive and invitation to interview in December.

If not selected for an interview, applicants are notified at the conclusion of the interview season, typically in December.

For the Class of 2028 with a projected start date in early June 2026:

The CASPA application portal will open in late April 2025 (date TBA).

The deadline for application submission for this Program is 11:59pm Eastern Time on September 1, 2025.

The CASPA application must be in "Received", "Complete", or "Verified" status, as designated by CASPA, as of the application deadline. Applicants can access the CASPA application status definitions through the application's FAQ resource.

In addition to the CASPA submission, the Northwestern University PA Program Supplemental Application must also be submitted and received by 11:59pm Central Time on September 1, 2024. The Supplemental Application will be made available to applicants in late April 2025, concurrent with the launch of the CASPA application.

Failure to meet the above criteria will result in an incomplete application which will not be considered further for an admissions decision.

Only prerequisite coursework may be outstanding as of the deadline. Please see the Prerequisite Coursework section below for the timeline and policies governing completion of this coursework.

No. The submission of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test scores is not required and any GRE scores submitted will not be evaluated during application review.

The CASPA application opens in late April. Peak application months have historically been June and July.

In our rolling admissions approach, the timing of submission is not linked to the timing of a potential invitation to interview.

Placing a higher priority on submitting an application by an early date at the expense of quality and accuracy is not recommended. Applicants are advised to ensure their applications present the best representation they can put forth. It is generally good practice to submit all required application materials at least one month before the application deadline to give ample time to address unexpected issues.

No. Completed submissions include a complete CASPA application with fee payment, supplemental application with fee payment, and at least three letters of reference (called "evaluations" within CASPA).

The CASPA and supplemental applications are received separately by our Program and then combined to create an application file. Applicants are not penalized if required parts of the application are received at different times, but a file is not reviewed until the application is complete and all components are present.

To meet our deadline requirement, both the CASPA application, in "Received", "Complete", or "Verified" status, as defined by CASPA, and the supplemental application must be received by the Northwestern University Physician Assistant Program by 11:59pm Eastern Time on September 1, 2025. 

Applications that do not meet our deadline requirement are considered incomplete and will not be considered further for an admissions decision.

Yes. A complete CASPA submission to our Program must include at least 3 completed letters of reference (called "evaluations" within CASPA). Additional letters of reference (up to 5 total) may be submitted and will be reviewed by our admissions committee, but are not required. There is no admissions advantage or disadvantage associated with the number of letters submitted as part of the application.

All applications meeting our minimum admissions requirements are holistically evaluated on the basis of their merits.

The decision to offer an interview to a candidate is based on the following criteria: academic record, patient care experience, health care experience, professional references (evaluations), written personal statement, supplemental application essay responses, awards, honors, publications, and all Experiences provided via the CASPA application (leadership, volunteer/community enrichment, PA shadowing, research, teaching, extracurricular, and additional professional experiences). 

Competitive applicants stand out by being able to speak to each of these categories. Please see our Class Profile to better understand the academic and professional experience of our current students.

Interviews will be conducted between September 2025 and December 2025 for the class matriculating in early June 2026. Interviews are conducted on set dates within this range. Applicants are notified when selected to visit on one of these dates. If not selected for an interview, applicants are notified at the conclusion of the interview selection process.

All applications meeting our minimum admissions requirements are holistically evaluated on the basis of their merits.

Admission decisions are based on the following criteria: academic record, patient care experience, health care experience, professional references (evaluations), written personal statement, supplemental application essay responses, awards, honors, publications, and all Experiences provided via the CASPA application (leadership, volunteer/community enrichment, PA shadowing, research, teaching, extracurricular, and additional professional experiences). Select applicants are invited to interview and their candidacy is further evaluated based on interview performance.

The Admissions Committee consists of the PA program faculty, clinically practicing PAs and community representatives. Final admission decisions are made by the PA Program Director and PA Program core faculty. Decisions may not be appealed.

The CASPA Application and Supplemental Application can be submitted at different times in the application cycle. Each must be submitted and received by 11:59pm Eastern Time on September 1, 2025.

The CASPA application must be in "Received", "Complete", or "Verified" status as designated by CASPA by 11:59pm Eastern Time on September 1, 2025 to meet our deadline.

An application will not be reviewed until both applications are received and all requirements are met. Please see the How to Apply page to fully understand the application requirements.

All else equal, applicants should plan to submit application materials earlier in the cycle rather than later in order to minimize the impact of any potential technical or administrative issues encountered during submission.

No. The Supplemental Application will be made available to applicants in late April 2025. It can be accessed at any point during the application cycle and is not sent only to select applicants.

The Supplemental Application must be submitted by the September 1 end of day application deadline. Applicants will not be able to access the Supplemental Application after the deadline.

Applications will not be reviewed until both the CASPA Application (in "Verified" status) and Supplemental Application have been received, and all admissions requirements have been met.

CASPA defines a distinction between the application Experience categories of Patient Care Experience and Healthcare Experience. When evaluating an application, we look beyond this binary definition into the actual care responsibilities held and tasks executed in each clinical role.

As such, hours accrued in most clinical roles defined by CASPA as Healthcare experience will meet our definition of patient care experience, and thus are eligible to meet our 1,000 hour requirement noted above. Our admissions committee will review experiences provided by applicants in both the Patient Care Experience and Healthcare Experience categories of the CASPA.

On our Class Profile page, you can view the clinical roles held by our current students prior to matriculation, all of which qualify as patient care experience for this Program. This list is not exhaustive and does not indicate an admissions preference for one clinical role over another. Please contact paprogram@northwestern.edu with questions about the eligibility of a given clinical role to meet our requirements.

Direct patient care experience hours should be entered in the Patient Care Experience section of the CASPA. For each entry, select the appropriate option for whether the experience was paid or unpaid. Volunteer patient care experiences should not be double-listed in the Volunteer section.

The CASPA guidelines for entering professional experiences provides useful assistance in this area.

PA shadowing experiences should be listed in the Shadowing Experience section of the CASPA application.

We recommend following the CASPA guidelines for entering professional experiences.

Prerequisite coursework must be entered on both the CASPA Application and Supplemental Application.

To be considered further for admission, all prerequisite coursework must be completed no earlier than 7 years prior to application cycle deadline. Thus, for the 2025-26 application cycle, all qualifying prerequisite coursework will have been completed on or after September 1, 2018.

CASPA Application:

• Select one course per prerequisite. Labs are not required for any of our prerequisites; if the lab component of a prerequisite is listed separately from the main course in your transcript information, select only the main course, not the lab as well.
• Do not select any expired prerequisites completed before the cycle's listed expiration date; these are not acceptable or considerable for admission. Instead select an unexpired prerequisite course, or a current/planned future qualifying course. If a prerequisite course has been identified but a grade not yet earned, select this course from those listed on the transcript entry section.
• If a prerequisite course has not yet been identified, select the option: "I am not matching any courses to this prerequisite."

Supplemental Application:

• Enter one course per prerequisite. Labs are not required for any of our prerequisites; if the lab component of a prerequisite is listed separately from the main course in your transcript information, enter only the main course, not the lab as well.
• Do not enter any expired prerequisites completed before the cycle's listed expiration date; these are not acceptable or considerable for admission. Instead enter an unexpired prerequisite course, or a current/planned future qualifying course.
• If your institution is not included in the predefined list, select "None of the Above," then manually type in the name of the institution at which the prerequisite was completed. Leaving this field as a default "Not Found" will result in an error message.
• If a prerequisite course has been identified but a grade not yet earned, enter all course information and select "N/A" for grade.
• If a prerequisite course has not yet been identified, complete each as follows:
  Course #: Any number
  Course Name: Name of the prerequisite being fulfilled (i.e. Microbiology)
  Credit Hours: 3
  Grade: Select N/A
  Date Completed: Enter an estimated completion date
  Institution: Select "Find Institution," perform a state search, select "None of the Above," then manually type "Unknown"

Applicants who have qualified for a CASPA application fee waiver will qualify for a Supplemental Application fee waiver for our Program, if the applicant requests a fee waiver before submitting the Supplemental Application.

Qualifying applicants should contact the Northwestern University PA Program at paprogram@northwestern.edu before submitting the Supplemental Application. In their email message, applicants should include documentation of their CASPA fee waiver (e.g. a screenshot of the email waiver notification email from CASPA). We strongly recommend that individuals confirm their CASPA fee waiver status before submitting the supplemental application.

Refunds for already submitted Supplemental Applications are not retroactively granted.

Email notifications regarding the status of an application will be sent to applicants in the following instances:

• Your application is complete: your verified CASPA application and supplemental application have been received by the Northwestern University PA Program.
• During the application cycle if a required part of the application has not been received.

Once your CASPA application is verified and you have submitted the Supplemental Application, please allow up to 5 business days for application processing and notification as noted above.

Email notifications will not be sent to confirm receipt of each individual component of the application. If you believe your application to be complete and have not received a confirmation email from the PA Program, please check your junk email folders and contact us directly at paprogram@northwestern.edu 

For the 2025-26napplication cycle, interviews will be held virtually via Zoom from September through December 2025.

The timeline between receipt of a complete application and the evaluation of that application by the admissions committee will vary depending on application volume, and is typically between 4 and 8 weeks.

While applications are reviewed in the order that they are received, all applicants who meet our minimum requirements will remain under consideration for the duration of the interview period and may be invited for an interview at any time during that period. 

The timeline between application submission and interview invitation can vary significantly for a given applicant. Thus, one applicant could submit their application in August and receive an invitation to interview in September, while another applicant could submit their application in May and receive and invitation to interview in December.

In almost all cases, applicants contacting us via email to check on the status of their complete application will be informed that their application remains under review. 

Relevant coursework is often completed by applicants after the CASPA application has been submitted.

Your CASPA profile has a feature called Academic Update. For courses added and/or grades earned after submitting the CASPA application, this feature provides an unofficial update to your CASPA course listing. Entered grades and courses will not be re-verified, but this can provide your designated programs with an updated, unofficial picture of your academic profile.

We do not require applicants to send transcripts to our Program.

Completion of an applicant's official transcript record will be addressed upon an offer to interview.

For a current patient care role, it is not necessary to provide newly accrued hour totals. 

For all applicants, patient care experience hours are automatically projected forward based on the date of CASPA application submission and the provided weekly hours. Applicants who start new positions or experiences or who wish to report significant updates to their weekly hours and/or professional responsibilities may do so via CASPA. Alternatively, updates and modifications to patient care positions and other experiences may be sent to paprogram@northwestern.edu

Eligible updates include:

• Starting new or leaving old patient care positions
• Significant changes in hours worked per week in existing patient care roles
• Changes in responsibilities or duties within an existing patient care role
• New volunteer, leadership, community service or shadowing experience
• Newly acquired certifications or honors

We do not require applicants to send transcripts to our Program.

Completion of an applicant's official transcript record will be addressed upon an offer to interview.

Select applicants will be invited to interview, which begin in the late summer of each year. Interview invitations will be extended via direct email communication.

For the 2025-26 application cycle, interviews will be held virtually via Zoom from September through December 2025.

The interview day will include an information session, a group activity featuring an interactive Problem-Based Learning patient case, and several one-on-one interviews with PA Program faculty, alumni, and/or clinical partners.

The Program employs a traditional, conversational interview model. That is, we do not employ Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI).

A detailed schedule and additional important information will be provided to each candidate upon acceptance of an offer to interview.

Interviewed candidates are eligible to receive an offer of admission at any point after the interview day.

All interviewed candidates remain under consideration for an offer of admission by the Admissions Committee until all seats in the class have been committed, at which point the waitlist phase is opened. Select candidates are offered the opportunity to join our unranked waitlist (see next question).

Yes, the Program employs an admissions waitlist process.

Once all seats in the incoming have been committed, the Program will contact all interviewed candidates who have not received an offer of admission to date.

At that juncture, an interviewed candidate will either be offered the opportunity to join an unranked admissions waitlist or they will be informed that their candidacy is no longer under consideration for an offer of admission.

If and when an admitted student withdraws their acceptance, the Admissions Committee will meet to consider all candidates who have opted to join the unranked waitlist, and an offer of admission will be extended.

The number of admitted student withdrawals, and thus the number of offers of admission extended to waitlisted candidates, varies significantly by year. As such, no prediction or estimate can be offered to waitlist candidates with regard to the number of offers of admission that will ultimately be made.

Waitlisted candidates will remain under consideration for an offer of admission until 1) they inform us that they no longer wish to be considered or 2) the closure of the waitlist at the start of the Program academic year in late May or early June.

Waitlisted candidates will be notified of the closure of the waitlist by email.

Yes. Upon receiving an offer of admission, applicants must submit a non-refundable $1,000 deposit to secure their seat. This deposit must be received within 10 business days from the date of the offer letter.

The $1,000 deposit will be credited to the student's first trimester bill from Northwestern University in May of the matriculation year.

Additional details are provided to candidates at the time of an admissions offer.

We strive for a holistic approach to candidate evaluation and consider all components of an application.

The decision to offer an interview to a candidate is based on the following criteria: academic record, patient care experience, health care experience, professional references (evaluations), written personal statement, supplemental application essay responses, awards, honors, publications, and all Experiences provided via the CASPA application (leadership, volunteer/community enrichment, PA shadowing, research, teaching, extracurricular, and additional professional experiences). 

It is possible for a weak aspect of a profile to be counterbalanced by stronger than normal characteristics in another aspect of the application. However, our applicant pool is very competitive.

In order to meet our admissions requirements and be eligible for application review, applicants must have achieved an Overall GPA and Overall Science GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale, as calculated by CASPA, at the time of application submission to our Program.

Competitive applicants have typically completed a rigorous science courseload and have typically achieved an Overall GPA and Overall Science GPA of 3.30 or higher.

Please see our Class Profile to better understand the academic and professional experience of our current students.

No. Applications are reviewed holistically and no specific academic major is preferred from undergraduate or graduate school experiences. Because the PA Program is a professional health science graduate program, strong performance in science coursework is expected.

To view the academic major backgrounds of our current students, see our Class Profile page (scroll down).

The submission of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test scores is not required and any GRE scores submitted will not be evaluated during application review.

No, the submission of MCAT, PA-CAT, or CASPer exam scores is not required and any such scores submitted will not be evaluated during application review.

Not yet. Candidates must document in their CASPA application a minimum of 1,000 hours of direct patient care experience at the time of application submission. CASPA applications submitted with fewer than 1,000 accrued hours of direct patient care experience are not considered further for admission.

Enrolling class cohorts typically average well over 1,000 hours of patient care experience at the time of application submission.

All else equal, the admissions committee will prefer applicants with two years or more of clinical experience over those with one year, for example. However, clinical experience is not the only type of experience that the admissions committee values. Leadership, volunteer, teaching, and research experiences, among others, are also considered during the holistic evaluation of an application. But no type of experience is valued more than direct patient care experience.

CASPA defines a distinction between the application Experience categories of Patient Care Experience and Healthcare Experience. When evaluating an application, we look beyond this binary definition into the actual care responsibilities held and tasks executed in each clinical role.

As such, hours accrued in most clinical roles defined by CASPA as Healthcare experience will meet our definition of patient care experience, and thus are eligible to meet our 1,000 hour requirement noted above. Our admissions committee will review experiences provided by applicants in both the Patient Care Experience and Healthcare Experience categories of the CASPA.

On our Class Profile page, you can view the clinical roles held by our current students prior to matriculation, all of which qualify as patient care experience for this Program. This list is not exhaustive and does not indicate an admissions preference for one clinical role over another. Please contact paprogram@northwestern.edu with questions about the eligibility of a given clinical role to meet our requirements.

Clinical positions are evaluated based on the nature of patient contact involved and the level of responsibility held. Positions that require a certification or licensure are often stronger clinical experiences because the holder must assume a higher level of responsibility for the care of the patient.

Hours accrued through research and graduate assistant positions will qualify if direct patient care is a significant responsibility within the professional role. If the role has both patient-facing and administrative responsibilities (e.g. Clinical Research Coordinator), hours can potentially be split in CASPA between Patient Care Experience and Health Care Experience categories. To qualify, these roles cannot be associated either the completion of an academic degree or certification credential.

Please note that other PA Programs may have different rules or policies regarding these professional experiences.

No. Hours completed as part of an academic degree or professional certification program cannot be used to meet the minimum 1,000 hour patient care experience requirement.

No. Due to conflict of interest considerations, and in the interest of maintaining equity in the admissions process, the Northwestern University PA Program is not able to assist PA Program applicants with obtaining PA shadowing experiences. You may consider contacting your local physician assistant organization for assistance and networking opportunities. In Illinois, this is the Illinois Academy of Physician Assistants.

No. Shadowing hours accrued while shadowing a PA carry the most impact on the application and is strongly encouraged. Shadowing hours accrued while shadowing a physician or other non-PA health care professional, such as a Nurse Practitioner, are factored into the overall review of your application, but will not carry the impact of shadowing a PA.

Yes. In our evaluation of an application, a virtual shadowing experience is considered equivalent to an in-person shadowing experience.

With this stated, as a matter of professional development, we encourage applicants to pursue in-person shadowing opportunities whenever possible.

Yes. In fact, this is a common circumstance, and it carries no advantage or disadvantage to an applicant during application evaluation.

As of September 1, 2025, up to three prerequisite courses may be in progress or planned for the future. In this scenario:

• Up to three prerequisite courses may be in progress or planned to be completed between September 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025.

• Only one prerequisite course may be in progress or planned to be completed between January 1, 2026 and May 30, 2026.

When completing your CASPA application, include courses in progress and coursework planned in the appropriate fields to alert us to your plans. If you are accepted into the program before you complete the required coursework, your acceptance will be conditional upon successful completion of the outstanding coursework in accordance with our established requirements. No student will be allowed to matriculate into the program if all prerequisite requirements are not met. We encourage applicants to complete the majority of prerequisites before applying.

To be considered further for admission, all prerequisite coursework must be completed no earlier than 7 years prior to application cycle deadline. Thus, for the 2025-26 application cycle, all qualifying prerequisite coursework must have been completed on or after September 1, 2018.

Yes. You are most welcome to complete prerequisite coursework at any regionally-accredited institution of higher learning, which includes almost all community colleges. Coursework may be completed in-person or online.

We assign no preference in admissions on the basis of the modality of instruction (in-person or online) or the academic institution at which this coursework is completed.

We would be happy to review any course syllabus to confirm the eligibility of a given course to meet our requirements.

To be eligible, all prerequisite coursework must:

• Be completed for college credit (not for certificate or continuing education credits) and appear on an official transcript as such
• Be completed for 3 or more college credits* (semester or quarter)
• Be completed with a grade of 'C' or higher
• Be completed on or after 9/1/2018 (7 year eligibility window)

Visit our How to Apply page to review our prerequisite coursework requirements, including course content, credit, and minimum grade guidelines.

*Medical Terminology, a required course, must be completed for 1 or more college credits.

No. Applicants cannot test out of or waive prerequisite coursework requirements based on previous professional or academic training experiences.

Prerequisites cannot be satisfied through Continuing Medical Education (CME) or Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credit.

To be eligible, all prerequisite coursework must be completed for 3 or more college credits* (semester or quarter) and a grade of 'C' or higher must be earned in the course. We do not require lab coursework.

Visit our How to Apply page to review our prerequisite coursework requirements, including course content, credit, and minimum grade guidelines.

*Medical Terminology, a required course, must be completed for 1 or more college credits.

For our Program, international graduates, who do not hold, or are not in the process of completing, a baccalaureate or higher degree from a regionally-accredited college or university in the US or English-speaking Canada, are considered international applicants to our Program.

In addition to meeting the general admissions requirements, international applicants must meet the following specific requirements:

• They must submit one or more qualifying foreign transcript evaluations to CASPA
• They must meet our minimum published TOEFL score criteria
• They must have earned, or be on track to earn, 30 or more credit hours at a regionally-accredited US college or university by the time of matriculation

Please visit our International Applicants page to understand our requirements, in full. Qualifying TOEFL results must be received by our Program by the application deadline. Minimum TOEFL score criteria can be found in the Test Requirements section at the bottom of the How to Apply page of our website.

No advanced standing or academic credit is granted based on prior academic or professional experience. That is, all students will complete the entire 24 month curriculum, without exception, from start to finish, to earn their Master of Medical Science degree.

For our Program, international graduates, who do not hold, or are not in the process of completing, a baccalaureate or higher degree from a regionally-accredited college or university in the US or English-speaking Canada, are considered international applicants to our Program.

That is, the definition of international applicant is tied to where the applicant earned their degree, rather than their current citizenship or residency status.

Please visit our International Applicants page to understand our requirements, in full.

Official and valid TOEFL scores are required of all applicants who do not currently hold (or who are not in the process of completing) a baccalaureate degree or higher level degree from an institution of higher learning in the United States or English-speaking Canada, regardless of the official language of the country of origin or the predominant language of attended educational institutions. Please visit the Test Requirements section at the bottom of the How to Apply page of our website to view our TOEFL minimum score criteria.

The Northwestern University PA Program has one academic year start date in late May or early June of each year. All enrolled students start the Program on this date. There is no part-time option.

Realistically, no. This is a full-time, in-person program with classes scheduled during regular business hours. Employment of PA students by the Program itself is strictly prohibited.

Yes. All applicants offered admission are required to submit an enrollment deposit to hold their seat within 10 business days of receiving their admission offer. The enrollment deposit is $1,000.

This deposit is applied to your tuition, and is non-refundable.

Additional details are provided to candidates at the time of an admissions offer.

Yes. Accepted students are subject to a pre-enrollment background screen for criminal convictions and appearance in the US Department of Health & Human Services List of Excluded Individuals. Should the background screen process yield any such information, an offer of admission may be rescinded.

No. Our Program does not accept transfer students from other programs. Applicants who have completed, or partially completed, other professional degrees, must apply for admission to our Program via the same process completed by all applicants.

The PA Program does not allow advanced placement or course credit for experiential learning or prior academic training.

For example, clinical experience acquired as a registered nurse, during a medical school residency, or during medical school or nursing school clinical clerkships, will not allow an admitted student to waive or earn credit for courses in our curriculum.

All students will complete the entire 24 month curriculum, without exception, from start to finish, to earn their Master of Medical Science degree.

Please be advised that each state and other jurisdictions and credentialing bodies determine the criteria for professional licensure, registration, certification or employment. Physician assistants must meet the same high standards required of physicians, nurses and other health professionals.

Applicants with histories of impairments such as alcohol or substance abuse, certain mental illnesses or other disabilities may be denied licensure or related credential. Applicants with felony and other convictions may also be denied licensure or related credential. Applicants with outstanding child support obligations or who have defaulted on student loans or public scholarship obligations, may also experience difficulties obtaining licensure.

Physician assistants who leave clinical practice for a period of time may also face challenges and barriers. Licensing bodies and some employers may be concerned that clinical skills and knowledge are out-of-date, thereby placing patients’ health and safety at risk.

Additional information is available at the American Academy of Physician Assistants website.