Admissions
Purpose Statement
The mission of the Physician Assistant Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is to provide an advanced education to physician assistant students who are capable of rendering preventive and primary health care to the multicultural population of South Texas. The PA program promotes the importance of lifelong learning and ongoing self-evaluation in its students. The PA program envisions that its graduates will be leaders in the health care community, striving for excellence in all academic, professional and research endeavors while helping to provide for the health care needs of the South Texas region. In an effort to achieve both the mission and the vision of our program, we make the following statements of purpose with regard to the admissions process:
To admit a class:
- that will most benefit from the university’s curriculum and faculty;
- with the most distinguished undergraduate academic records;
- that will reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the local community;
- that will be the most engaging to teach in the classroom and at off-campus clinical sites;
- that will go on to serve the surrounding community, the state of Texas, and the nation;
- that will bring greatest distinction to the university after graduation;
- that will earn the highest collective GPA;
- that will collectively achieve the highest pass rates on the national certifying examination.