How to Apply

A completed baccalaureate (or higher-level degree) from a regionally-accredited United States or English-speaking Canadian institution of higher learning, or an equivalent institution as determined by Northwestern University, is required prior to matriculation into the program.

Applicants are welcome to apply with a baccalaureate degree in progress, provided that this degree will be conferred prior to matriculation.

For applicants applying in 2025 for admission to the Class of 2028, the anticipated start date of our Program is early June 2026. Once confirmed, the start date will be added to our website.

International applicants should review these additional considerations and requirements.

Applicants must have achieved an Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher and an Overall Science GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale, as calculated by CASPA, at the time of application submission.

Applications not meeting these minimum GPA requirements *at the time of application* are not eligible for application review and thus are not eligible for admission to the Program.

Competitive applicants have typically taken rigorous science courseloads and have typically achieved an Overall GPA and Overall Science GPA of 3.30 or higher.

We invite you to view our Class Profile to better understand the pre-matriculation academic performance of our enrolling class cohorts.

Candidates must present in their CASPA materials a minimum of 1,000 hours of direct patient care experience, accrued upon the date 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 average well over 1,000 hours of 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 does not include all qualifying patient care experience roles 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.

The information below is an abbreviated version of the policies governing the completion of prerequisite coursework in accordance with our admissions requirements. For additional details, please review the Coursework Prerequisites section found at the bottom of the How to Apply page of our website.

Summary

• There are 6 required courses.
• Lab coursework is not required.
• All courses must be have been completed on or after 9/1/2018 (7 year window) to be eligible.
• All courses must have been completed for a grade of "C" or higher.
• All courses must have been completed for 3 or more college credits (semester or quarter), with the exception of Medical Terminology, which need only be completed for 1 or more college credit.
• Applications will still be considered if prerequisites are in progress or planned for the future per the stipulated timeline below. There is no admissions disadvantage to the applicant in this scenario.
• Questions regarding course eligibility can be sent to paprogram@northwestern.edu 

Required Courses

Applicants to our Program must have completed (or have a qualifying plan to complete) the six required courses noted below for a grade of "C" or higher at one or more regionally-accredited institutions of higher learning:

• Anatomy (3 or more college credits)
• Biochemistry (3 or more college credits)
• Medical Terminology (1 or more college credits)
• Microbiology (3 or more college credits)
• Physiology(3 or more college credits)
• Statistics (3 or more college credits)

Timeline

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. No exceptions are made to this policy.

Applications will still be considered if prerequisites are in progress or planned for the future. 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.

Qualifying Course Topic Coverage & Additional Topics

For additional details, please review the Coursework Prerequisites section found at the bottom of the How to Apply page of our website.

Questions regarding course eligibility can be sent to paprogram@northwestern.edu. When inquiring, please be so kind as to include the course syllabus in your email message, as this assists our admissions committee in their evaluation. 

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

Similarly, we do not require submission of results from theCASPer, PA-CAT, MCAT, or any other standardized test (except the TOEFL for international applicants), and submitted results will not be evaluated during application evaluation.

For International Applicants:

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 this page to view our TOEFL minimum score criteria.

If you do not, or will not, hold a bachelor's or higher level degree from a US or English-instruction Canadian institution, you are considered an international applicant to our Program and you will need to 1) have your transcript(s) and degree(s) evaluated by an accredited service, 2) submit TOEFL results which meet our minimum requirements, and 3) meet our requirements for minimum credit hours in the United States.

Detailed information about these requirements can be found on the International Applicants page of our website.

For more information about the TOEFL requirement, including minimum scores, please visit the Test Requirements section found at the bottom of the How to Apply page of our website.

A complete application to our Program includes two separate application submissions:

• The CASPA Application in "Verified" status including 3+ submitted Evaluations (Letters of Reference)
• The Northwestern University PA Program Supplemental Application (available late April 2025)

These two applications may be submitted at the same time or separately (i.e. days, weeks, or even months apart), as long as both are submitted before our September 1, 2025 11:59pm Eastern Time application deadline.

Once you have submitted both applications, and your CASPA submission has achieved Verified status, please allow us up to 5 business days to process this information.

We will then contact you by email at the address provided to us as part of your CASPA application to confirm the complete status of your application. Your application will then be put in queue for review by our admissions committee. All applications are reviewed in the order that they achieve complete status.

Please visit the CASPA website to start your application. Applicants must submit their CASPA application to our Program by the September 1, 2025, 11:59pm Eastern Time deadline.

CASPA applications not in "Received", "Complete", or "Verified" status, as designated by CASPA, as of the September 1, 2025, 11:59pm Eastern Time deadline will not be considered further for admission. 

Please see Step 3 of this overview to learn more about our requirements with respect to the CASPA application submission.

CASPA Resources:

• CASPA Website
• Checking Your CASPA Notifications and Status
• CASPA Quick Start Guide & FAQs

In addition to the CASPA application, applicants to our Program must submit the Northwestern University PA Program Supplemental Application by the September 1, 2025, 11:59pm Eastern Time application deadline.

The Supplemental Application will be launched concurrently with the launch of the CASPA application in late April 2025 (date TBA), and can be started at that time with a current-cycle CASPA ID.

Applicants will not be able to access or submit the Supplemental Application after the September 1, 2025, 11:59pm Eastern Time application deadline.

Please see Step 3 of this overview to learn more about the Supplemental Application.

Please be sure to follow the instructions and guidelines provided by CASPA regarding completion of the application. You will designate Northwestern University.

As part of the CASPA application, to meet the admissions requirements of our Program, you must submit a personal statement and official academic transcripts from all institutions attended at the baccalaureate or higher level. In addition, you will request that evaluators submit letters of reference (called "evaluations" in CASPA) on your behalf.

To meet the admissions requirements of our Program, your CASPA application must include:

• 3 or more submitted evaluations
• At least one evaluation from a healthcare professional who can discuss the applicant's abilities and performance in providing patient care, preferably someone who has supervised the applicant in a clinical setting

Personal references from friends or family members are not accepted.

As part of the CASPA application, up to 5 total evaluations may be submitted on an applicant's behalf and all submitted evaluations will be reviewed by our admissions committee. There is no admissions advantage or disadvantage associated with the number of letters (3, 4, or 5) submitted as part of the application.

Verified CASPA applications with fewer than 3 submitted evaluations will not move forward to application review until such time as at least 3 evaluations have been submitted.

CASPA Resources:

• CASPA Website
• Checking Your CASPA Notifications and Status
• CASPA Quick Start Guide & FAQs

The Northwestern University PA Program Supplemental Application will be launched concurrently with the launch of the CASPA application in late April 2025 (date TBA), and can be started at that time with a current-cycle CASPA ID.

The Supplemental Application is available to all applicants--that is, it is not sent separately to selected applicants.

The Supplemental Application includes:

• 3 required essay submissions
• 1 optional essay submission
• Summary of an applicant's completed, in progress, or planned prerequisite coursework
• Summary of an applicant's Patient Care and Health Care Experiences
• Questions related to the State of Illinois Required Background Check

There is a $50 application fee paid online upon Supplemental Application submission. You may view and work on the Supplemental Application without submitting payment.

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.

Applicants will not be able to access or submit the Supplemental Application after the September 1, 2025, 11:59pm Eastern Time application deadline.

The Northwestern University PA Program will send notification acknowledging receipt of your completed application once the required materials have been received:

• The CASPA Application in "Verified" status including 3+ submitted Evaluations (Letters of Reference)
• Northwestern University PA Program Supplemental Application (available in late April 2025)

We will then contact you by email at the address provided to us as part of your CASPA application to confirm the complete status of your application. Your application will then be put in queue for review by our admissions committee. All applications are reviewed in the order that they achieve complete status.

Applicants are holistically evaluated on the basis of their individual 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/accolades, 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.

To learn more about the rolling admissions process, sending updates, and the admissions interview and offer timeline, we invite you to visit the Next Steps page of our website.