Questions to Ask PA Programs
For physician assistant applicants working out which questions to ask prospective PA schools, whether at an open house, on interview day or after an offer arrives: 62 to put to a PA program. They run from pass rates, attrition and accreditation through the didactic year, rotations and student support to what current students will tell you and what it all costs. Each note tells you what to look up beforehand, who to put the question to, or what a straight answer sounds like.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Big picture
What is your first-time PANCE pass rate for the last five classes?
Why ask it
Accredited programs post this report on their websites, so look it up first and ask about the pattern instead: one low year, a slow slide or a recovery. How faculty explain a dip, and what they changed after it, is worth more than the number itself.
How many students started in the most recent cohorts, and how many graduated on time?
Why ask it
Students dismissed over grades, students moved back a year and students who left for family reasons describe three different programs, so the reasons matter more than the count. The count itself is in the attrition table on the program's website, next to the pass rates.
What is the program's accreditation status with ARC-PA, and has it ever been on probation?
Why ask it
Provisional is the normal status for a new program, and probation means a review found the program short of the standards. In either case, find out what was cited, what has been fixed, and what it would mean for your class's eligibility to sit the certification exam. The current status is listed on the ARC-PA website if you want to check before you go.
What is the one thing this program does better than the PA programs it competes with?
Why ask it
Small classes and supportive faculty are promised everywhere, so wait for something with a name: a student-run free clinic, a full dissection course, a rural track. Then try it again on someone else before you leave. Two people naming the same thing unprompted is a good sign that it exists.
Where do graduates from the last two classes work now, and in which specialties?
Why ask it
A placement rate on its own tells you little. The split is what you want: how many went into primary care, surgery or emergency medicine, and how many stayed in the region. A class that mostly stays local shows where the program's clinical relationships are, which matters if you plan to move away.
How does the program prepare students for the certification exam?
Why ask it
Listen for what is on the timetable: end-of-rotation exams, a summative assessment, a taught review block before graduation. If the main answer is a question bank that students buy themselves, most of the preparation is yours to organize.
How long does it usually take graduates to land a first job, and how many are hired by a site where they rotated?
Why ask it
Placement figures measured a year out flatter every program. Time to the first offer, and the share that came through a rotation, show whether the clinical sites double as a hiring pipeline or whether graduates start the search cold.
How much faculty turnover has there been in the last few years, and how new is the program director?
Why ask it
Faculty turnover rarely makes the brochure, yet it changes who writes your exams and who picks up the phone when a rotation falls through. A recent change of director is not a bad sign on its own. Find out what the new one has altered so far.
What is changing in the next two years: curriculum, class size, leadership, campus?
Why ask it
You would be enrolled when those changes land. A bigger class is the one to press on, because seats can be added faster than rotation sites. How many new clinical sites came with the extra students?
What is the program's mission, and which rotation sites or projects exist because of it?
Why ask it
A program founded to send clinicians into primary care, rural towns or underserved neighborhoods tends to recruit and place students with that in mind. If you are set on a surgical subspecialty, find out now how graduates with that aim have fared here. It also tells you which parts of your own background to bring up at interview.
How does the program collect student feedback, and what did it last change because of it?
Why ask it
Surveys are universal. A change someone can name is not: a course moved, an exam schedule spread out, a site dropped. If the newest example is several years old, the feedback is probably being filed and not read.
Didactic year
Is the curriculum organized by organ system, or as separate courses in anatomy, pharmacology and medicine?
Why ask it
An organ-system design teaches everything about the kidneys, from structure to drugs to disease, before moving to the next system. The other design runs each subject as its own course all term. Neither is the better design. What matters is whether you learn by finishing one picture at a time or by keeping several subjects going at once.
How many hours a week are students in class or lab during the didactic year?
Why ask it
Get a number, then add the study hours students say they put in on top of it. Check whether attendance is mandatory and how an absence for illness or a family event is handled. Together those tell you whether anything else fits in your week, from a part-time shift to looking after a relative.
Are lectures recorded, and can students access them afterwards?
Why ask it
Some programs record every lecture and others choose not to, to keep people in the room. It decides how you catch up after a sick day and whether you can replay a dense pharmacology hour at your own speed. See if the recordings stay available into the clinical year, when board review starts.
Who teaches the clinical medicine courses: practicing PAs, physicians or basic scientists?
Why ask it
A mixed faculty is normal, and a pharmacologist or a physician may well be the best person for their own subject. What to listen for is whether PAs teach clinical medicine and physical examination, since they can show how the material gets used in the role you are training for. Find out how many of the faculty still see patients.
Is there a cadaver lab, and do students dissect or work from prosections?
Why ask it
Programs teach anatomy with full dissection, with specimens already prepared, or with models and software, and students hold strong opinions about each. Dissection eats many hours a week in the first term. Prosection saves that time, but you never hold the scalpel. If there is a lab, get it added to your tour.
Are exams weekly or in big blocks, and is the year graded pass/fail?
Why ask it
A test every Monday and three large block exams a term make for two very different years. Letter grades and class rank give classmates a reason to compete, and pass/fail takes some of that away. Check what score counts as a pass too, since graduate programs often set it higher than you were used to as an undergraduate.
Is the didactic year mostly lectures, or problem-based learning in small groups?
Why ask it
Problem-based programs expect you to arrive having taught yourself the material, which some students love and others find exhausting on top of the reading. Think honestly about how you got through your hardest prerequisite, and favor the format that matches it.
Is any of the didactic year taught alongside medical, nursing or pharmacy students?
Why ask it
A program inside a large health sciences campus can offer this easily, while a stand-alone one has to arrange it. One shared lecture a term is thin. Joint simulation cases, where each student plays their own future role, are closer to how a hospital team works. Drop this one first if time is short.
When do students first examine a patient, real or standardized?
Why ask it
In some programs you are taking histories in the first month. In others the first patient arrives on day one of rotations. Early practice with standardized patients and graded physical exam checkoffs is what stops that first rotation from feeling like a cliff.
What hands-on skills are taught before the clinical year: suturing, splinting, ultrasound?
Why ask it
Casting, injections, IV lines, joint aspiration on a model, bedside ultrasound: get the list, and find out whether each skill is signed off individually or only demonstrated to the room. A student who walks into a rotation able to suture gets offered the next laceration. See if the lab stays open for practice after hours.
How big is the class, and how many full-time faculty teach it?
Why ask it
The ratio matters less than what it buys. A student can tell you how long an email takes to get answered and whether faculty know everyone by name by midterm. Even a large class can feel well looked after when advising groups are small.
Do students have to complete a research project or capstone paper to graduate?
Why ask it
Many programs require one for the master's degree, and it often comes due in the clinical year, when you are working full days and studying for end-of-rotation exams. Find out how many hours past students spent on it and whether any of the work can start early.
Rotations
How many clinical rotations are there, how long is each, and which are required?
Why ask it
The required set is much the same from program to program, so the informative part is what sits beyond it: how many electives you get, and whether a second one can go to the specialty you want to work in. Length matters as well, since a longer block gives a preceptor time to trust you with more. Get this year's actual list.
Does the program arrange every clinical rotation, or are students expected to help find sites?
Why ask it
Securing sites is the program's job, and accreditation standards say students must not be required to find their own. What differs is how well it works in practice: sites under long-standing contract, or a coordinator still phoning around a month before the block starts. Students who suggested a site themselves can tell you whether that was a choice or a necessity.
How far from campus is the furthest rotation, and who pays for housing there?
Why ask it
Distance is the hidden line in the budget. A program that looks affordable gets expensive when two rotations each need a second rented room, and that rarely shows on the published cost sheet. Find out which sites come with housing and whether any block means moving away for the whole of it.
On a core rotation, do students see patients on their own first and present them, or mostly observe?
Why ask it
Hours and call matter less than what the student is trusted to do. Seeing the patient before the preceptor does, presenting and writing the note is training. A month spent standing behind someone is shadowing. Clinical-year students know which sites are which, and so does the coordinator.
How is the order of rotations decided, and can an elective be saved for late in the year?
Why ask it
Order matters more than it sounds. An elective near the end lets you choose it after you know what you liked, and it falls close to when you are job hunting. Lotteries, ranked preferences and fixed tracks are all common, so find out which one this is.
At teaching hospitals, do PA students compete with medical students and residents for patients and procedures?
Why ask it
Shared sites cut both ways. A teaching hospital has rounds and lectures built in, but the PA student can end up last in line for procedures and patients. A clinical-year student can tell you who actually got to close the incision.
Are out-of-state or international rotations possible, and how far ahead do they have to be arranged?
Why ask it
An elective in the city where you hope to work is a month of being seen by people who hire. The agreement between a school and a new site can take months to sign, so find out the deadline for requests, who pays the extra costs, and whether an international block counts toward graduation or sits on top of the requirements.
How are preceptors chosen, and what happens when a student reports a poor one?
Why ask it
Programs visit and evaluate their sites, though how seriously differs. The telling detail is whether a site has ever been dropped after student feedback. If poor reviews change nothing, next year's class inherits the same preceptor.
Has a rotation ever fallen through at the last minute, and what did the program do?
Why ask it
Preceptors retire, practices get sold and sites pull out, so it happens everywhere. What you are checking is the backup: a replacement within the same block, or a delayed graduation. Students in the clinical year will know of a case if there has been one.
Are there call-back days on campus during the clinical year, and can students at distant sites join remotely?
Why ask it
Many programs bring the class back between rotations for end-of-rotation exams, practical testing and review sessions. From a site several hours away that is a tank of fuel or a flight every few weeks, so find out how many of those days there are and which of them truly need you in the room.
Support
What is the remediation policy, and can a failed course set a student back a year?
Why ask it
Get the specifics: how many retakes, whether a retake caps the grade, and whether failing a course means deceleration, which is dropping back to join the class behind. Someone fails something in nearly every cohort. The policy shows whether the program's instinct is to support or to filter.
How soon does the program step in when a student's grades slip, and what does the help look like?
Why ask it
The good answers are proactive: a meeting after the first low exam, assigned tutoring, a learning specialist. Programs that wait for students to ask tend to lose the ones who did not know how far behind they were.
Does every student get a faculty advisor, and how often do they meet?
Why ask it
Advising that happens once a term on a schedule catches problems that drop-in office hours miss. Check that the advisor stays the same through the clinical year, when you are off campus and easiest to lose track of.
Is counseling available to students, and is it kept apart from the faculty who grade them?
Why ask it
The detail that matters is confidentiality: whether a counseling visit could ever reach the faculty who decide on your progression. Find out too whether sessions are covered by fees, how quickly a student can be seen, and what is on offer while you are on a rotation hours from campus.
How does the program handle a student who needs a leave of absence?
Why ask it
Nobody plans one, but illness, bereavement and pregnancy all happen over a program this long. Find out whether a student can rejoin with the following cohort, what happens to financial aid in the meantime, and when a student last did it.
How are disability accommodations handled, in the classroom and on rotations?
Why ask it
Extra exam time on campus is usually routine and runs through the university's disability office. Clinical sites are where it gets harder, and a good answer names who negotiates with them. You can raise this as a general question without saying whether it applies to you.
How does the program support students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the profession?
Why ask it
Start with what you can see on the day: the make-up of the faculty and of the class in front of you. Then put it to students, who will know whether a mentoring scheme or student group is active or only listed, and how a complaint about a preceptor or a patient was dealt with. A values statement on the website tells you the least.
What counts as a professionalism concern here, and what is the process when one is raised?
Why ask it
Students can be put on probation or dismissed for conduct as well as for grades, and the definition ranges from repeated lateness to a social media post. A written process with stages and an appeal protects you. "We know it when we see it" does not.
Are first-years paired with a second-year student as a mentor?
Why ask it
A second-year who hands over a study schedule and tells you which exam is the hard one is worth several orientation sessions. See whether the pairing is organized by the program or left to chance, and whether the clinical-year class is around enough for it to work.
Current students
Is your class more collaborative or more competitive?
Why ask it
Collaborative is the expected answer, so listen for evidence: a shared drive of study guides, group review the night before an exam, notes passed to a classmate who was ill. Class rank and rotation lotteries are the usual sources of friction, so check whether either is in play here.
How ready did you feel on the first day of your first rotation?
Why ask it
One for a clinical-year student, and the most direct test of the didactic year you can get. Listen for what they could already do, such as take a full history or write up a patient, and what they had to pick up on the spot. If several say they felt behind students from other programs at the same site, weigh that heavily.
If one thing about this program could change tomorrow, what should it be?
Why ask it
Put the same question to faculty and compare. Faculty who name the problem the students named, and describe what is being done about it, are running a program that listens. Two unrelated lists suggest the groups are not talking.
What was the deciding factor for you when you accepted the seat here?
Why ask it
Cost, a partner's job, a good feeling on interview day: whatever they name is the thing this program beats its rivals on. "It was my only acceptance" is common and perfectly honest. Follow up with whether they would make the same choice today.
What time does your day start and end at the moment, and is Sunday a study day?
Why ask it
Clock times are the point, because "busy" means nothing. When they close the books at night tells you what the published timetable leaves out. Put it to a first-year and to a clinical-year student, since the two years have little in common.
What did nobody warn you about before the first semester?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone expects the volume. The surprises are usually smaller and more useful: how early the first exam came, how much is group work, how far their old study habits had to change. Those are the things you can prepare for.
What have you had to give up since starting, and what have you managed to keep?
Why ask it
What they kept matters more than what they lost. A student who still runs three mornings a week or gets home for dinner most nights is evidence that it can be done here. If the whole table laughs at the question, that is also an answer.
When you bring a problem to a faculty member, what usually happens next?
Why ask it
Every program describes itself as open door. A student can tell you whether the door led anywhere: a rescheduled exam after a family emergency, a quiet word with a preceptor, or a reply that quoted the handbook.
Is there a student-run clinic or community volunteering, and do first-years have time for it?
Why ask it
A student-run clinic or a screening day puts first-years in front of patients long before rotations, and it is where a mission statement ought to show up. The realistic follow-up is the time it costs each month and whether people keep it going after the first set of exams.
Do you need a car here, and how long is your commute to campus?
Why ask it
Students know which neighborhoods the class clusters in, what rent runs and how bad the commute is in exam week. The car question tends to answer itself once rotations come up, since clinical sites are often spread well beyond campus.
Does anyone in your class have children or a long commute, and how are they managing?
Why ask it
Worth raising if either describes you, and students will often offer to put you in touch. One person coping tells you it is possible. Several tells you the program has adapted, with predictable schedules and notice before anything changes.
Cost and admissions
Beyond tuition, what will fees, equipment, insurance and rotation travel add to the bill?
Why ask it
Get the cost sheet in writing and check whether the tuition figure is locked for your class or reset every year. Then there is a diagnostic kit, a laptop that meets the testing software's requirements, background checks and exam fees. Second-years can tell you what the sheet missed.
What scholarships or assistantships do students here actually receive, and when are the applications due?
Why ask it
Loans do most of the work for many PA students, so even a modest program scholarship is worth knowing about before its deadline passes. Service-commitment scholarships and loan repayment schemes exist too, with rules that change. The financial aid office, not the faculty, is the place to get current terms.
Is working during the program banned, discouraged or left up to the student?
Why ask it
Whatever the handbook says, students will often tell you that the few who tried gave it up early. If you will need income, say so and find out what others in that position did, such as per diem shifts during the breaks.
When does the program start, how long does it run, and where are the breaks?
Why ask it
Start dates fall in different seasons and lengths range from about two years to three, which changes total living costs and when you begin earning. Breaks matter more than they sound. A program that runs straight through with a week off here and there is a different test of stamina.
How does the admissions committee weigh GPA, patient care hours and the interview?
Why ask it
Best asked at an open house, before you apply. The minimums are on the website. What you want is what last year's admitted class looked like, and whether strength in one area can make up for a thin one. Leave it out on interview day, when your file is already in front of them.
When do decisions go out, and how many people usually come off the waitlist?
Why ask it
Put this one to the admissions staff, since interviewers often do not know. A ranked list where you are told your position is something you can plan around. An unranked one with no figures from last cycle is closer to a hope.
Once an offer is made, how long do I have to accept, and what does it cost to hold the seat?
Why ask it
The trouble starts when this program's deadline falls before another program's decision. With the amount, the due date and the refund rules in hand, you can work out what it costs to keep this seat while you wait to hear from somewhere else. See if the money comes off your first tuition bill.
If I am accepted, what has to be finished before the first day?
Why ask it
Outstanding prerequisites, final transcripts, immunization records, a background check and a life support certificate are typical, and each has its own deadline. Get the list in writing and find out what happens if one item runs late, because the answer is not always that the seat is held.
What kind of person is this program a good fit for, and who would be happier somewhere else?
Why ask it
A good one to close on. On interview day the answer shows what they are looking for across the table, and you can say honestly where you fit. If you are reapplying, or think you may have to, find out whether the program gives feedback to unsuccessful candidates.
Using an open house or interview day well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the visit
Cross off what the website already answers
A visit leaves room for only a handful of these, so spend none of them on facts you could have read at home. Pass rates, attrition, accreditation status, the rotation list and the cost sheet are usually published. Read them and keep only the follow-up: "what is your pass rate" becomes "your first-time rate dipped two years ago, what changed". What is left should fit on one page, grouped by who you will be asking.
Match the questions to the occasion
At an open house, before you apply, the admissions and curriculum questions are fair game and nobody is scoring you. On interview day, lean on the ones that only people in the building can answer. Anything factual you forgot, such as a deposit date or the cost sheet, can go in a short email to admissions afterwards.
Work out your own constraints in advance
Can you relocate for a rotation? Do you need recorded lectures? Is someone at home depending on you? A program cannot tell you whether it fits until you know what you need from it.
Prepare three questions you will ask everyone
Putting one question to faculty, current students and recent graduates is the fastest way to find where a program's description and its reality diverge.
On the day
Know who holds each answer
Outcomes, curriculum and policy sit with the faculty. How placements really get made sits with the clinical coordinator. Students know the hours, the atmosphere and what the cost sheet left out, and admissions staff own deposits, waitlists and decision dates. Aid terms come from the financial aid office. Ask a faculty interviewer about the deposit and you get a kind, vague reply and two minutes fewer with the person who wrote the curriculum.
Save the honest questions for students without faculty present
Attrition, competitiveness, workload, and complaints all get different answers in a corridor than in a panel. If the day includes a student-only session, hold your real questions for it.
Ask the same question twice, differently
"How are rotations assigned" and "where was your furthest rotation, and who set it up" can produce two different pictures. The second version is the one to trust.
Write notes between sessions, not at the end
Programs blur together quickly, especially if you interview at several. Note the specifics while you can still attribute them to the right place.
What applicants get wrong
Only asking questions designed to impress
Interview days run both ways and you are choosing too. A question about remediation policy is not a weak question, and programs that treat it as one have told you something.
Comparing tuition without comparing the rest
Rotation travel, required equipment, relocation, exam fees, and lost income during a longer program change the real total substantially. Ask each program the same list.
Ignoring where the program's clinical network is
Rotation sites and the employers who know a program's graduates tend to sit within a few hours of campus. If you intend to practice somewhere else, find out how recent graduates got their first job there and whether an away elective helped.
What to have written down before you decide
- The first-time pass rate for the last five classes, and the explanation for any low year.
- Attrition and on-time graduation figures for the last three cohorts.
- Who arranges rotations, and the furthest placement a student had last year.
- The remediation policy, in the program's own words.
- The full cost including travel, housing, equipment, and fees.
- One specific thing current students would change.
- The decision date, the deposit amount and its deadline.