• Physician assistant duties vary depending on the state and specialty in which they practice. In most states, including New York, physician assistants may prescribe medication.
  • Examples of specialties include (but are not limited to): internal medicine, family medicine, emergency medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, general surgery, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and neonatology. Clinical rotations (internships) during students’ last year provide the opportunity to explore these varied disciplines.
  • The physician assistant major is offered as a BS/MS degree program, which enables students to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in five years.
  • The curriculum is divided into the pre-professional phase (years 1 and 2), which includes course work in the basic sciences, mathematics, general education, and liberal arts; and the professional phase, (years 3, 4, and 5), which features didactic medical education and culminates in clinical rotations in which students apply their medical knowledge in a series of rotations through various disciplines of medicine.