Physician Assistant Program Data

PA National Certification Exam 5-Year Pass Rates

The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants is the credentialing organization for physician assistants in the U.S. It administers the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam, which students must pass to practice as a certified PA.

NCCPA Exam Performance Summary Report

ClassClass
Graduation
Year		GroupNumber of
Candidates
Who Took
PANCE		Number
of Exam
Attempts		Number
of Exams
Passed		Program
Exam Pass
Rate		National
Exam Pass
Rate for the
Class
Graduation
Year		% of
Candidates
Who
Ultimately
Passed
PANCE
Class of 20232023All Takers38483675%89%95%
Class of 20232023First Time Takers38383182%92%95%
Class of 20242024All Takers45514588%89%100%
Class of 20242024First Time Takers45454191%92%100%
Class of 20252025All Takers48584679%88%96%
Class of 20252025First Time Takers48483981%91%96%
Class of 20262026All Takers42424095%90%95%
Class of 20262026First Time Takers42424095%94%95%

Program Goals and Outcomes

Goal 1: Prepare PA students with the knowledge and skills necessary to enter clinical practice.
Goal 2: Cultivate student professionalism within the PA program. 
Goal 3: Prepare students as leaders and advocates for the PA profession.

Progress Toward Program Goals

Student Attrition Rates

Graduated ClassesClass of 2024Class of 2025Class of 2026
Maximum entering class size (as approved by ARC-PA)465050
Entering class size 485050
Graduates454846
* Attrition rate6.25%4.0%8.0%
**Graduation rate93.75%96%92%

*Attrition rate calculation:  Number of students who attritted from cohort (decelerated + withdrawals + dismissals) divided by the (entering class size + number joining class cohort).
**Graduation rate calculation:  Number of cohort graduates divided by the (entering class size + number joining class cohort).

Competencies

  1. Knowledge of Practice: Demonstrate knowledge about established and evolving biomedical and clinical sciences and the application of this knowledge to patient care.
  2. Interpersonal and Communication Skills: Demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in the effective exchange of information and collaboration with patients, their families, and health professionals.
  3. Person-centered Care: Provide person-centered care that includes patient- and setting-specific assessment, evaluation, and management and health care that is evidence-based, supports patient safety, and advances health equity.
  4. Interprofessional Collaboration: Demonstrate the ability to engage with a variety of other health care professionals in a manner that optimizes safe, effective, patient- and population-centered care.
  5. Professionalism and Ethics: Demonstrate a commitment to practicing medicine in ethically and legally appropriate ways and emphasizing professional maturity and accountability for delivering safe and quality care to patients and populations.
  6. Practice-based Learning and Quality Improvement: Demonstrate the ability to learn and implement quality improvement practices by engaging in critical analysis of one’s own practice experience, the medical literature, and other information resources for the purposes of self-evaluation, lifelong learning, and practice improvement.
  7. Systems-Based Practice: Systems-based practice encompasses the societal, organizational, and economic environments in which health care is delivered. Physician assistants must demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger system of health care to provide patient care that is of optimal value. PAs should work to improve the larger health care system of which their practices are a part.
  8. Society and Population Health: Recognize and understand the influences of the ecosystem of person, family, population, environment, and policy on the health of patients and integrate knowledge of these determinants of health into patient care decisions.
  9. Personal and Professional Development: Demonstrate the qualities required to sustain lifelong personal and professional growth.