2 years
(6 terms, including 2 summer terms)
2 years
(6 terms, including 2 summer terms)
Pitt’s Guaranteed Admissions Programs (GAP) offer students a secure pathway to graduate study, ensuring admission to select Pitt graduate programs while allowing them to pursue any* undergraduate major that aligns with their interests and career goals. While it does not shorten the time required to complete a degree, you will gain special access to faculty, current students and opportunities to learn more about the field throughout your undergraduate studies.
Students applying to Pitt as first-year undergraduate students may be eligible for the GAP offered by select SHRS graduate programs. Answer the question “Would you like to be considered for a Guaranteed Admission Program?” on your first-year application to be screened for a guarantee.
SHRS Guaranteed Admissions Programs include:
*The Communication Science and Disorders Guarantee requires students to complete an undergraduate degree in Communication Science (BA).
The University of Pittsburgh Physician Assistant Studies program does not utilize priority ranking for the waitlist. If a student has been placed on the waitlist, the student has been deemed qualified for admission. By nature, the waitlist process is extremely unpredictable and fluid, as it is dependent upon the decisions of our admitted students throughout the entire admissions cycle.
The program cannot guarantee that we will visit the waitlist during a given admissions cycle. With this in mind, waitlisted students will be notified of their status and updated regularly throughout the admission cycle. Students may be invited from the waitlist leading up to, and after, the start of our program in January. All applicants, including waitlisted students, will be notified when the class has been filled and the admissions cycle has officially ended.
The admissions committee and the entire PA program faculty and staff realize that being on the waitlist can be a stressful and uncertain time, and we will contact you immediately if there are any changes to your application.
Students can work with the program-assigned placement specialist to find rotation sites in their preferred area. The placement specialist and clinical team will do their best to ensure students have clinical site options in their preferred area. The clinical team cannot guarantee they will be able to obtain any clinical sites in students preferred area(s). While on rotations, students must be prepared to travel to an assigned site if necessary.
Health insurance coverage is required while enrolled in the Physician Assistant Studies Hybrid Program and is available for students and their families through the University. Insurance packages will only be available to students beginning in December. If you plan on purchasing insurance through the University, it is okay to wait until December 1 to enroll/submit documentation on EXXAT.
The program, department, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh offer a wide variety of student resources such as student advising, online library access, IT troubleshooting, Human Resources, Accessibility Services, SHRS Affinity Groups and more. Please visit the links below for more information:
Each cohort is individual and as such the average GPA for accepted students varies. Qualified applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. They should have a “Cumulative Undergraduate” GPA of 3.0 (based on 4.0) in all undergraduate- and post-baccalaureate-level coursework and a minimum GPA of 3.0 (based on 4.0) in the prerequisite science courses. Exceptions may be made for candidates who present compelling evidence of success in graduate coursework, including successful completion of a graduate-level program.
Acceptance into program requires a full-time commitment. It is an intense and rigorous program that can be demanding.
The program strongly discourages students from holding an outside job during the didactic and clinical years. Students are not required to work for the program or permitted to serve as the primary instructor for any component of the curriculum. Students must not substitute for or function as instructional faculty and clinical or administrative staff.
Students are not permitted to substitute as clinical or administrative staff during the supervised clinical practice experiences. Employment is not an acceptable excuse for class absence, missed or late assignments or poor performance.
The program does not currently accept transfer credits.
Advanced placement, defined as a waiver of required coursework included in the physician assistant studies curriculum for applicants to the program and/or a waiver of required coursework included in the physician assistant studies curriculum for currently enrolled students in the program which results in the student advancing in the curriculum without completing required curricular components at the University of Pittsburgh, is not an option in this program.
No. Students are welcome to move to Pittsburgh to complete the program, however, it is not required. Students who live in Pittsburgh will not have access to, or be able to attend, any on-campus program labs or lectures.
No. There is no expiration date for prerequisite courses. Learn more about prerequisite courses on the Admissions page.
If you still have questions please contact the enrollment specialist at PittPAHybrid@shrs.pitt.edu for additional information.
The following will not be accepted as patient care experience:
Community engagement opportunities both local, regional and international are accessible during a student’s time in this program. The following is a list of just some of the opportunities offered to Pitt PAS students:
Learn more about these offerings, initiatives and more on the Department of Physician Assistant Studies page.
The ARC-PA has granted Accreditation-Provisional status to the University of Pittsburgh Physician Assistant Studies Hybrid Program sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh.
Accreditation-Provisional is an accreditation status granted when the plans and resource allocation, if fully implemented as planned, of a proposed program that has not yet enrolled students appear to demonstrate the program’s ability to meet the ARC-PA Standards or when a program holding Accreditation-Provisional status appears to demonstrate continued progress in complying with the Standards as it prepares for the graduation of the first class (cohort) of students.
Accreditation-Provisional does not ensure any subsequent accreditation status.
It is limited to no more than five years from matriculation of the first class. The program’s accreditation history can be viewed on the ARC-PA website at http://www.arc-pa.org/accreditation-history-university-of-Pittsburgh-hybrid/.
