Admissions

•  All applicants must earn a Bachelor’s degree and complete all required coursework before submitting the CASPA application. Required degree and coursework must be completed at an institution of higher education accredited by a Touro California-approved accrediting body (See Institutional Accreditation Requirement below).
• Cumulative and Science GPAs, as computed by CASPA, must be 3.0 or better. The GRE is not required.
• Prerequisite Coursework
  • The prerequisite courses listed below must be completed with a grade of C or better (C- grades will not satisfy the requirement). Prerequisites are:
    • 8 semester/12 quarter units (including labs) in each of the following categories:
      • Biological Sciences (may be comprised of general biology, genetics, immunology, embryology, etc.)
      • Chemistry (may be comprised of inorganic, organic, and biochemistry)
    • 4 semester/5 quarter units (including labs) of the following:
      • Human Anatomy (must be completed within 6 years of the expected year of matriculation)
      • Human Physiology (must be completed within 6 years of the expected year of matriculation)
    • Microbiology (3 semester/4 quarter units, lab not required) 
• Advanced Placement (AP) Credit: We accept advanced placement credit as long as such credit appears on the undergraduate transcript and indicates either specific subject credit (e.g. General Chemistry - 4 units) or specific course credit (e.g. Chem 101 - 4 units). General advanced placement credit without such specifications is not accepted.

The Touro California Joint MSPAS/MPH Program requires three letters of recommendation, which should be submitted within the CASPA application.

• One letter must be from a licensed healthcare provider (i.e., PA, MD, DO, or NP)
• One letter from a supervisor or manager.
• The source of the remaining letter is up to you (e.g., professors, mentors, colleagues). We do not accept reference letters from friends, family, the applicant’s healthcare provider, or patients/clients.
• If your supervisor is also a clinician, as previously defined, you may use a letter from that person to satisfy both the supervisor and the clinician's letter. You will still need to provide an additional two letters from any source, excluding friends, family, your healthcare provider, or your patients/clients, for a total of three letters.

If letters are not submitted with the CASPA application, they may be sent directly to the Office of Admissions (tuc.admit@touro.edu). Please note that submitting letters outside of the CASPA application may delay the review of your application.

Be sure to submit all application materials prior to their respective deadlines. Letters of recommendation are used for admissions purposes only and do not become part of your official academic record.

• Candidates must have completed a minimum of 1000 hours of patient care experience either as a volunteer or in a paid position at the time of application submission.
• CASPA defines Patient Care Experience as follows: Experiences in which you are directly responsible for a patient’s care. For example, prescribing medication, performing procedures, directing a course of treatment, designing a treatment regimen, actively working on patients as a nurse, paramedic, EMT, CNA (depending on job description), phlebotomist, physical therapist, dental hygienist, etc.
• Candidates submitted patient care and healthcare experience hours will be evaluated to ensure they meet the program’s definitions of patient care versus health-related hours. If any hours are miscategorized, they will be reallocated accordingly to align with these definitions. PLEASE NOTE: Our program considers back-office medical assistant (MA) responsibilities as patient care (even though CASPA lists it as an example of healthcare experience). If you have back-office MA experience logged under healthcare experience, we will count those hours as patient care experience when your application is reviewed. For clarity, back-office MA hours, where direct responsibility for a patient's care is involved, will be considered Patient Care Experience by our program. Front-office MA duties will be categorized as Healthcare Experience. It is helpful to specify the breakdown of front-office versus back-office hours when listing MA duties in your application.
• Applicants are responsible for thoroughly documenting their patient care and health care duties. Job titles may not always accurately reflect the level of involvement in patient care, so it's crucial to consider the tasks performed and use discretion when categorizing them in the CASPA application. Hours should be separated for positions involving both patient care and health care experience. Note that you cannot repeat hours between experience types. So, if position duties encompass more than one section, enter the position in both sections and divide the hours and duties accordingly.
• All reported Patient Care Experience will be evaluated based on the following criteria: specific duties performed, skill set needed, quality of patient interaction, total number of hours, specialty, setting, patient population served, and time frame of experience. Preference will be given to candidates who serve under-resourced or underserved populations (e.g., rural, immigrant/refugee, unhoused, and other vulnerable and marginalized communities), those who work in settings such as FQHCs, Community Health Centers, Indian Health Service, correctional facilities and those working in primary care (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology), urgent care and behavioral health.
• All healthcare-related experiences (paid or unpaid) should be documented in either the Patient Care Experience or Health Care Experience sections. As outlined by CASPA, healthcare-related experiences do not belong in the Volunteer section.
• Credit for Experiential Learning: no direct patient care credit will be granted for student-related experiences required for your degree or certificate program (i.e., athletic training student, EMT student, contact hours required for nursing school, etc.)
• Common types of patient care experiences:
  • Athletic Trainer, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)*, Clinical Nutritionist, Clinical, Research Assistant, Dental Assistant, Dental Hygienist, Medic/Medical Corpsman, Medical Assistant (MA)**, Nurse (LPN/LVN/RN), Occupational Therapist, Paramedic/Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Phlebotomist, Physical Therapist, Physical Therapy Aide, Physician, Psychologist/LCSW, Registered Behavioral Technician, Respiratory Therapist, Techs (EKG, ER, Lab, Mental Health, Ophthalmology), Techs (Radiology, Surgery)

*CNA hours are often a combination of Patient Care and Health Care. Monitoring vitals, wound care, and assisting with medical procedures are examples of patient care duties. On the other hand, helping patients with activities of daily living (ADLs) is considered health care by our program standards because it involves a lower level of responsibility.
**CASPA suggests you report MA hours under "Health care Experience". The TUC PA program, however, will count back office MA hours, where you are directly responsible for a patient's care, towards our minimum required 1,000 "Patient Care'' hours. Therefore, when listing your MA duties it is helpful to define how many hours (or percent) were front office versus back office. The Program will consider back-office MA duties as Patient Care Experience and front-office MA duties as Health Care Experience.

• There is no minimum requirement for health care experience. The program values candidates with these experiences and it weighs half the weight of Patient Care Experiences.
• CASPA defines Health Care Experience as follows: Paid or unpaid work in a health or health-related field where you are not directly responsible for a patient’s care but may still have patient interaction. For example, filling prescriptions, performing clerical work, delivering patient food, cleaning patients and/or their rooms, administering food and medication, taking vitals or other record-keeping information, working as a scribe, home health aide, or CNA (depending on the job description).
• Preference will be given to candidates who serve under-resourced or underserved populations (e.g., rural, immigrant/refugee, unhoused, and other vulnerable and marginalized communities), those who work in settings such as FQHCs, Community Health Centers, Indian Health Service, correctional facilities and those working in primary care (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology), urgent care and behavioral health.

• There is no minimum requirement for shadowing hours.  However, candidates with 15 hours or more of PA shadowing or those who have experience working with a PA will be given preference.
• Working with or shadowing a PA provides an applicant with more in-depth knowledge of the profession, allowing an applicant to make an informed career decision to enter a PA program. Applicants who have a detailed knowledge of the PA role tend to perform better during the interview.
• Applicants who have worked with PAs are advised to describe all such interactions under the appropriate job descriptions or use the related program CASPA custom question to further elaborate on this experience.
• Preference will be given to candidates who shadowed PAs who serve under-resourced or underserved populations (e.g., rural, immigrant/refugee, unhoused, and other vulnerable and marginalized communities), those who work in settings such as FQHCs, Community Health Centers, Indian Health Service, correctional facilities and those working in primary care (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology), urgent care and behavioral health.
• Virtual shadowing hours are not accepted as there are substantial limits to understanding the role of the PA in a virtual setting. We discourage applicants from paying for these types of virtual opportunities.

• There is no minimum requirement for community service hours.  However, preference is given to candidates who have 200 or more hours of volunteer work with community-based organizations.
• Though not required, community service volunteer work is highly desirable and is viewed favorably during the application review process.
• We prefer to see experiences where candidates serve under-resourced or underserved populations (e.g., rural, immigrant/refugee, unhoused, and other vulnerable and marginalized communities), and those who work in settings such as FQHCs, Community Health Centers, Indian Health Service, and correctional facilities. 

Transfer Students from Other PA Programs:
The Program does not accept transfer students.

Transfer of Credit:
The program does not grant transfer credit. This includes prerequisite credit for work-related experiences and credit for completing a public health degree at a different institution. There is no acceleration or advanced standing in the program regardless of prior experience or degree.

Applications from TUC MPH Students and/or Graduates of Other MPH Programs:
The Joint Program does not award credit for coursework completed prior to enrollment. Designed as a joint MSPAS/MPH curriculum, applicants who already hold an MPH degree are not eligible to apply to this program.