I'm a practicing Physician Assistant in the Neuro ICU. Before PA school I served as a practical nurse in the Army and spent fifteen years as a respiratory therapist in adult acute care.
I knew early in my career that I wanted to do more in medicine. By my first year of undergrad I had already decided to go to medical school, but as a young father with a daughter at home I prioritized my family first. I waited until I knew she was ready to be independent before committing to a lengthy program that was going to consume all of my time. By the time I was applying, I had decided on PA school instead - it aligned more closely with my values than going to medical school.
The Neuro ICU has its share of tough cases. One of the things I've found I'm good at is having the hard conversations with family members - being the one in the room when the news is difficult. The patients and families I work with are going through one of the most intense events of their lives. I've seen some miraculous recoveries, and I've sat with the families whose cases didn't go that way. Either way, what those people need is support through it, and being the person who gets to give that support is what makes the road into PA school feel well worth the stress and hardship I went through to get here.
Why this exists
It took me three application cycles to get into PA school - one program the first time, then three, then twenty-two. Anchoring on a single school the first time was the mistake. If I had applied to eight or twelve programs in cycle one, I'd probably have gotten in then; reapplicants have a different bar to meet than first-time applicants. The third cycle - twenty-two programs - is when the spreadsheet started.
There are 337 applicant-facing listings in the current directory, and narrowing that list down to the 22 I actually applied to was challenging to say the least. Each program has its own website, and on each website I had to click through three to five different links to find the data I needed - GPA minimums, prerequisite courses, CASPA deadlines, PCE hours, GRE policy. Which is why I made the spreadsheet. The first version took me about eighty hours.
When it was done I shared it on the pre-PA subreddit, mostly because I figured someone else was solving the same problem. It was warmly received. The community kept that sheet alive for the next five years, editing and adding programs as each cycle moved through.
But a community-edited spreadsheet has a built-in problem. When hundreds of people are editing a single sheet, the data can't be validated, and the trust in it eventually breaks down. You can't tell what's current, what's been changed in good faith, and what's been changed by someone who misread the program's page.
What changed for me was the technology. Recent advances in AI have made it possible for someone like me - a clinician, not a coder - to build checks that compare published program data and flag likely drift. The result is a faster source-review workflow without relying on a community of volunteer editors. AI doesn't decide what the correct value is; it gets me to the source faster so I can verify the important details by hand.
I went through this process myself. I know what pre-PA students are looking for, what they think might be helpful, and where the gap between the two sits. I built this website to put the tools I wish I'd had in one place.
How the data is checked
The spreadsheet covers all 337 applicant-facing PA program listings across 50 columns - more than 16,800 individual data points maintained on the file. The roster and high-change fields are reviewed against three sources: the program's own admissions page, ARC-PA's accreditation records, and PAEA and CASPA's program-published data.
Most of that work is automated. A scraper visits each program's page, pulls the current values, and compares them against what's on last quarter's spreadsheet. Anything that's changed - a new GPA minimum, a dropped GRE requirement, a revised PCE floor, a moved deadline - gets flagged for me to look at by hand. I open the program's actual page, confirm the change is real, and update the column. The "last verified" date moves with it, so when you open the file you can see exactly when each value last got checked.
PA programs do shift policy without warning, and the source pages occasionally lag behind their own decisions. Every attempt is made to keep the file accurate, but the spreadsheet is only as current as the last source check. If you find a column that doesn't match what a program currently publishes, send it to [email protected] and the value will get re-checked.
What's on the site
The site is a small set of products and free tools, all built around the same problem - the data and decisions a pre-PA applicant has to navigate are scattered across hundreds of program pages, dozens of forum threads, and CASPA itself. Tools below are listed roughly in the order they show up in the application cycle.
Pre-PA Playbook Free
A 16-page primer on the application timeline, GPA targets, PCE expectations, and the structure of CASPA. A good starting point if you're early in the cycle.
Chances Calculator Free
Uses available PAEA matriculant data from the current 337-listing roster and lets you compare your stats side-by-side. Useful for narrowing your list before you commit to a CASPA fee.
Insights blog Free
Long-form posts on the parts of the cycle the spreadsheet alone doesn't cover - prerequisite-course strategy, deadlines by state, GRE policy shifts, reapplicant strategy, cost-by-state, and similar.
Application Dashboard
The paid product. Upload up to four unofficial transcripts and the Dashboard maps every course to its CASPA Subject Category and Course Type, predicts your CASPA GPAs (Cumulative, Science, Non-Science, Last-60, Post-Bacc, Graduate), and uses the result to build a qualified program list ranked against each program’s published matriculant GPAs. A statement workspace (drafts saved and encrypted, CASPA character limit tracked) and structured interview prep - MMI and traditional formats, a question bank organized by competency - carry the rest of the cycle. Prepaid 3, 6, or 12-month term from $48; does not auto-renew. The spreadsheet is included as a download.
Spreadsheet-only option
The same 337-listing, 50-column XLSX included with the Dashboard is also available by itself for $24.99. It is the secondary option for applicants who only need the raw data and plan to do their own comparison work.
Earlier standalone products
The Transcript Mapper, the Personal Statement Checker, and the Interview Guide are no longer sold separately - their successors live inside the Dashboard. Everything previously purchased keeps working: delivered files stay delivered, and existing checker sessions remain usable.
A note on AI
AI is used on this site for what it does well - drafting blog posts, normalizing formatting, and grading the writing dimensions of essays submitted to the Dashboard’s statement checker. AI doesn't decide what's correct in the spreadsheet; every column is verified by hand against the program's own page. The statement checker reviews your writing rather than generating it, which keeps it inside the CASPA 2026-27 zone permitting AI for non-substantive edits.
Frequently asked
How is the PA program data verified?
Every column is verified against the program's official admissions page, ARC-PA accreditation records, and PAEA and CASPA program data. The applicant-facing roster was refreshed August 13, 2026 from PAEA and cross-checked against ARC-PA. Requirements are reviewed on a rolling basis, and time-critical details are linked back to the official program source for final verification before applying.
How often is the spreadsheet updated?
The full dataset is refreshed quarterly. The "last verified" timestamp on the spreadsheet is real - if a policy moved, the column gets dated. Returning buyers can see when each value last moved.
What sources does PAschoolprereqs cite?
Statistical and policy claims are sourced to PAEA, ARC-PA, AAPA, NCCPA, CASPA / Liaison, BLS, and program-published data. Forum threads, Reddit posts, and other applicant blogs are useful as community resources, but they are not cited as authority for numerical or policy claims.
Is the statement checker CASPA-compliant?
Yes. The CASPA 2026-27 cycle explicitly permits AI tools for non-substantive edits like grammar and spelling, while continuing to prohibit AI for generating content. The Dashboard’s statement checker reviews user-written essays against a six-dimension PA-admissions rubric - it evaluates writing rather than generating it.
How do I report a data error or missing program?
Email [email protected]. The site stays accurate when readers report drift; every email is read.
How many programs and columns are in the spreadsheet?
The spreadsheet covers 337 applicant-facing PA program listings across 50 columns: GPA minimums, prerequisites with credit hour requirements, CASPA deadlines, rolling admissions status, PCE and HCE hour requirements, GRE and CASPer policy, accreditation status, and direct links to each program's admissions page.