Admissions Criteria

Completion of a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university is required. The UKPAS program does not require a specific degree and the program does not favor one degree over another. All applicants must meet the minimum academic standards for the Graduate School which is at least a 2.75 institutional undergraduate GPA and a 3.0 Graduate GPA (if applicable). The program may allow a higher Graduate GPA to trump a low Undergraduate GPA if at least 20 credit hours are acquired from a Graduate degree program.  (This is a case-by-case basis reviewed by the Admissions Committee and does not guarantee the Graduate GPA will be accepted.) Your degree must be completed by December 2025 if applying in the 2025-2026 Admissions cycle that opens April 2025.

The prerequisites are as stated in the Graduate School Bulletin:  

Courses must be taken from a regionally accredited college or university with a letter grade received and equivalent to the UK course requirement. Pass/Fail grades are not accepted except in Spring 2020 due to COVID (see link below). The UKPA program will also accept AP credit if the AP score is equivalent to the UK course requirement for the program as well as CLEP credit. You may check the UK AP credit chart for equivalency here and the CLEP chart here. We will allow multiple retakes of the prerequisite courses for admission.  However, applicants must earn a "C" grade or higher for the course to be accepted.  Lastly, exceptions, substitutions, and waivers are not allowed for ANY prerequisite course requirements due to fair admissions policies and accreditation requirements. 

For the 2025-2026 Admissions Cycle, applicants may apply with two outstanding pre-requisite courses, as long as they are completed in a Summer semester term by August 2025. Fall course completions will not be accepted.

COVID Response pertaining to P/F grading given in the Spring 2020 semester.

Checking Course Equivalency

To determine equivalency with the UK courses listed below, consult the Transfer Equivalency Database. If your course is not listed in the equivalency database, a copy of the course syllabus must be sent to Julia Berry for review of equivalency.  If the course is not equivalent to the UK course number below, then it will not be accepted, and we will not allow substitutions.

Pre-Requisite Courses**

*A standalone Anatomy cannot be paired with an A & P II course and vice versa. The prerequisite must be taken with their corresponding course (i.e. Anatomy is paired with Physiology or A & P I is paired with A & P II).

**Science prerequisite courses that are equivalent to the UK courses are generally those taken from a biology/chemistry pre-med curriculum.  Please make sure to check our transfer equivalency database to see if your school's courses are equivalent to the UK course requirement. See the link for the database above.

***Prereqs do not have an expiration.  I.E. We will accept courses that were completed over 5 years ago.

Applicants must meet all behavioral and technical standards for the College and Program.   Please read here: Behavioral and Technical Standards

The UKPA Program reviews the institutional undergraduate GPA as well as the prerequisite GPA during admissions. A minimum 2.75 institutional undergraduate GPA is required per the UK Graduate School requirement.  The program will allow a graduate GPA to trump the undergraduate if it is at least 20 credit hours from an enrolled graduate program.  This does not include post-bach graduate classes which are not associated with program completion.

UKPA does not require any standardized exam for application including GRE, PACAT, MCAT, etc.

Applicants do not need to report any standardize test score on the CASPA application, as the admissions committee will not consider test scores in the decision process.

The UKPA Program requires patient contact, however, a minimum amount of hours is not set. Contact hours may be completed utilizing the following (but not limited to) medical disciplines: CNA, EMT, CMA, Medical Tech., Physical Therapy Assistant, Athletic Training, Scribe, etc. Applicants should obtain hands-on clinical skills such as, but not limited to, taking patient vitals, blood pressure, glucose, administering immunizations, etc. Also, you may go to our FAQ link here for more detailed information about acquiring patient contact experience.

Patient contact hours are documented in the CASPA application only. The UKPA program does not require any other documentation i.e. pay stubs, signed forms from preceptors, etc.

Applicants must be certified in Basic Life Support for Health Providers through the American Heart Association. Red Cross certifications will not be accepted. All students must have completed a BLS course by the time of matriculation in January. Click Here for a BLS provider course offered online or to locate a training center near you.

All students matriculating into the UKPA Program are required to meet certain technical and behavioral standards of the program and College of Health Sciences. Additionally, applicants must pass a background check and drug screenings. If you have questions concerning the standards, background checks, and/or drug screen please contact Tammy Jo Edge.

• College of Health Sciences and UKPA Program Technical & Behavioral Standards