Applications must be submitted to CASPA and verified by October 1, 2023.

The Marshall University PA Program increased its class size to 30 students for the January 2023 cohort.

That information can be found on our website’s prospective students’ page: https://jcesom.marshall.edu/students/physician-assistant-program/prospective-students/.  

The next cohort will begin in January 2024.

While encouraged, they are not required.

This information can be included in your CASPA application, but there is not a required form to report your experience.

That information can be found at https://jcesom.marshall.edu/students/physician-assistant-program/prospective-students/.

This information can be found at https://jcesom.marshall.edu/students/physician-assistant-program/class-profile/.

Yes. The MCAT may substitute for the GRE if it, too, is taken within five years of the time of application.

The ARC-PA gives us specific verbiage to use.

At its June 2023 meeting, the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. (ARC-PA) placed the Marshall University Physician Assistant Program sponsored by Marshall University on Accreditation-Probation status until its next review in June 2025. The Marshall PA program was notified of this status change later that summer.

Probation accreditation is a temporary accreditation status initially of not less than two years. However, that period may be extended by the ARC-PA for up to an additional two years if the ARC-PA finds that the program is making substantial progress toward meeting all applicable standards but requires additional time to come into full compliance.

Probation accreditation status is granted, at the sole discretion of the ARC-PA, when a program holding an accreditation status of Accreditation-Provisional or Accreditation-Continued does not, in the judgment of the ARC-PA, meet the Standards or when the capability of the program to provide an acceptable educational experience for its students is threatened.

Once placed on probation, a program that fails to comply with accreditation requirements in a timely manner, as specified by the ARC-PA, may be scheduled for a focused site visit and is subject to having its accreditation withdrawn.

Specific questions regarding the Program and its plans should be directed to the Program Director and/or the appropriate institutional official(s).

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

The Marshall University Physician Assistant Program remains an accredited program. Students of the program will still be permitted to graduate from an accredited program and sit for the NCCPA exam. The Accreditation-Probation status will last for no less than two years and will be reassessed at our next site visit in February 2025 and at the ARC-PA commission meeting in June 2025. The day-to-day experience of being a student within our program will not change, such as curricular delivery and clinical rotations. The university, faculty and staff are working diligently to address the areas for improvement designated by the ARC-PA, especially our self-study/self-assessment process. This concerns our program’s collection of data and using that data to designate the strengths of our program as well as critically analyzing the areas for improvement within our program.

The University and the PA program are working together to address the areas of improvement needed as outlined by the ARC-PA. We feel that the items outlined by the ARC-PA are areas for which we can develop solid solutions. This work has begun in earnest. Together, Marshall University, the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, and the PA program remain committed to the improvement of the PA program.

Yes, the Marshall PA program is accredited by the ARC-PA. It is important to understand that any decision of accreditation is accreditation. The Marshall University Physician Assistant Program has the classification of Accreditation-Probation.