Updated
CASPA Application 2026-27: Dates, Fees, Hours and Tips
CASPA is the one application almost every PA school uses. Here is how it works this cycle, from your hours to the deadline colors that trip people up.
CASPA is the shared application for physician assistant (PA) programs. The 2026-27 cycle opened April 30, 2026, and the last day to submit is April 1, 2027 at 11:59 PM ET, per the official cycle calendar. It costs $185 for your first program and $65 for each additional one, per CASPA. Your programs can set earlier deadlines.
CASPA stands for the Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants. PAEA runs it and says it represents 95 percent of currently accredited PA programs, which see your application through WebAdMIT. Each program still makes its own eligibility rules, and programs outside CASPA take applications themselves. Dates here are from official pages as of October 2026. To line up prerequisites first, see our PA school requirements guide.
What are the 2026-27 CASPA dates?
The cycle opened April 30, 2026, and the last day to submit is April 1, 2027. That is the last possible day, not your deadline. Each program sets its own. CASPA's calendar also has separate cutoffs for matching transcripts, letters and verification.
Every CASPA 2026-27 cutoff
| Date and time | What closes |
|---|---|
| April 30, 2026 | Cycle opens |
| April 1, 2027, 11:59 PM ET | Last day to create an account, submit, request evaluations or order Professional Transcript Entry |
| April 5, 2027, 5 PM ET | Last matching of transcripts and official test scores |
| April 5, 2027, 11:59 PM ET | Last evaluator submissions |
| April 7, 2027, 11:59 PM ET | Last approval of Professional Transcript Entry |
| April 8, 2027, 11:59 PM ET | Last resubmission of an Undelivered application |
| April 9, 2027, 5 PM ET | Last verification and end of processing |
What is in the CASPA application?
Four sections, per CASPA. Personal Information, Academic History and Supporting Information are the shared core every program sees. Program Materials is where each program adds its own questions and requirements. You are not done until both are complete for every program on your list.
What goes in each section
Personal Information. Your biographic, contact, citizenship and family details. The Environmental Factors questions are optional. Other Information covers language, background and infractions, and it includes two written responses, Life Experiences and Situational Decision Making, each up to 2,500 characters. The Personal Information guide walks through each part.
Academic History. Your schools, coursework and the tests you took or plan to take. If any of your programs ask for the PA-CAT, see our PA-CAT guide.
Supporting Information. Your evaluations, experiences, achievements, licenses and certifications, essay and memberships. The CASPA essay asks why you want to be a PA, has a 5,000-character limit counting spaces and returns, goes to every program and cannot be edited after you submit. Start your PA school personal statement early.
Program Materials. Each program's extra questions and documents. A finished core does not cover these, so open every program and work through its list.
What counts as patient care vs healthcare experience on CASPA?
It comes down to responsibility. On CASPA's experiences page, patient care experience means you were directly responsible for a patient's care, for example as a nurse, paramedic, EMT, CNA, phlebotomist or dental hygienist. Healthcare experience is paid or unpaid work in a health setting where you may interact with patients but are not directly responsible for their care, like a scribe, medical assistant or someone filling prescriptions. A CNA can land in either, depending on the job description.
Pick the category from what you actually did, not your job title. CASPA says it has no preference and that a program may not count an experience the way you categorized it, so ask each program if you are unsure. Shadowing, research, volunteering, leadership, teaching, extracurriculars and non-healthcare jobs each have their own category too.
How to enter hours without losing any
For each experience you enter the dates, your duties, your average weekly hours, the organization and a supervisor programs can contact to confirm it. You cannot count the same hours twice. If one job mixes duties, enter it in each category and split the hours. CASPA's own example is a 40-hour week with 10 hours of research and 30 hours of direct patient care, entered once under Research and once under Patient Care.
CASPA recommends focusing on experiences from the last 10 years at the college level and above. Enter only current and in-progress experiences, not planned ones, and check whether your programs want documentation.
What do accepted PA students look like?
There is no single typical applicant, so look up your own programs. Here are three programs in the PAEA Program Directory, as we read it in October 2026, each with its matriculant overall GPA and the direct patient care hours it lists. The hours are what the program asks for, not what its students averaged, so check whether each program requires them or only recommends them.
- Midwestern University (Downers Grove): 3.88 GPA, 500 hours listed
- George Washington University: 3.8 GPA, 1,000 hours listed
- Emory University: 3.7 GPA, 2,000 hours listed
Compare minimums and prerequisites in our PA school requirements guide.
How do CASPA letters and transcripts work?
CASPA calls letters evaluations, and your writers submit them online. CASPA requires at least 2 and allows up to 5. Any extra letters go straight to your programs. A committee letter counts as one, and a completed evaluation cannot be removed or replaced, so check each program's rules on who should write before you enter anyone. Ask early, and track each request in the Statuses section.
For transcripts, gather your records, enter your coursework carefully and follow CASPA's instructions for official documents. CASPA says transcripts and official scores take five business days to post after they arrive. Professional Transcript Entry costs $85 for 1 to 3 transcripts, $110 for 4 to 6 and $160 for 7 or more. Work starts within 10 business days of your submitted application and transcripts, entry can take up to another 10, and you must review and approve its work before verification can start. To estimate your numbers before CASPA calculates them, try our CASPA GPA calculator.
Reapplying to PA school through CASPA
Use your existing account, as the reapplicant guide says. You choose whether to copy eligible information over, and that choice cannot be changed later. Letters, your personal essay and Program Materials do not carry forward. You need updated transcripts for any new coursework or newly awarded degree, and once you finish, your application goes into the verification queue.
How much does CASPA cost?
CASPA charges $185 for the first program and $65 for each additional one. Five programs, for example, come to $445, and ten come to $770. Some programs add their own supplemental fee.
Fee waivers are gone for this cycle. A waiver covers the first two programs ($250 in total), as PAEA describes, but CASPA says that as of September 2026 it is no longer accepting waiver requests for 2026-27 because all available waivers have been awarded. The getting started guide has the rest of CASPA's fee rules.
What do blue, orange and green CASPA deadlines mean?
The color tells you what has to be done by the deadline, not just when it is. Each program picks a color, and all three close at 11:59 PM ET on the program's date, per CASPA's deadline guide. Green is the strictest.
| Color | What must be done by the deadline |
|---|---|
| Blue | Your application is submitted. Program Materials can come later. |
| Orange | Your application, payments, transcripts and at least two evaluations are received, and any Professional Transcript Entry is approved. |
| Green | Your application is verified. CASPA recommends finishing at least four weeks before. |
Programs can also ask for test scores or a supplemental application. If a program's instructions are unclear, ask it directly.
How do you plan to submit CASPA early?
Start from your earliest deadline and its color. Once your materials are in, verification can take up to 10 business days, and it goes in date order. For a green deadline, your real target is four weeks before the date, as CASPA recommends. The weeks below are our planning suggestion, built around those times. Then add each program's own tests, prerequisites and extra materials, and leave extra time for anything that depends on other people, like transcripts and letters.
| Before your earliest deadline | What to do |
|---|---|
| 12 weeks | Confirm each program's eligibility, deadline color and materials. Log your hours and ask your letter writers. |
| 10 weeks | Order every transcript. Draft your essay and the two Other Information responses. |
| 8 weeks | Finish the core sections and each program's materials. Order PTE by now if you are using it. |
| 6 weeks | Proofread and submit. Chase any letter or transcript still missing in Statuses. |
| 4 weeks | Aim to be Complete or Verified by now, especially for a green deadline. |
Practice the classic PA interview question
Your CASPA hours are the raw material for your interview. Pick one real patient moment, say what you learned and connect it to why you want to be a PA. For the other questions programs ask most, see our PA school interview questions guide.
“Why do you want to become a physician assistant?”
Skip the job description. Pick one moment from your patient care hours and say what it showed you about the PA role.
Example answer written by Confetto
As an EMT, I brought in a man with chest pain who was terrified and kept asking what was happening. In the ER, the PA who took over spent two minutes explaining the plan to him before anything else. You could see him calm down.
I want that mix of real clinical responsibility and time with patients, inside a team where I can keep learning from the physicians and nurses around me. Becoming a PA is how I get to do that work.
Sources: PAEA and the CASPA Help Center from Liaison, linked throughout and checked as of October 2026. The CASPA program user guide has more on how programs see your application.
Frequently asked questions
When does the 2026-27 CASPA application open and close?
The cycle opened April 30, 2026. The last day to submit is April 1, 2027 at 11:59 PM ET, and your programs can set earlier deadlines. See CASPA's cycle dates.
How much does CASPA cost?
$185 for your first program and $65 for each one after that. Five programs, for example, come to $445. Some programs add their own supplemental fee. See CASPA's fees.
What is the difference between patient care and healthcare experience on CASPA?
Patient care experience means you were directly responsible for a patient's care, like an EMT or phlebotomist. Healthcare experience is paid or unpaid work in a health setting where you were not directly responsible for care, like a scribe. Programs set their own rules, so ask how they count your role. Read CASPA's experience definitions.
What is the difference between a blue, orange and green CASPA deadline?
Blue means you must submit by the deadline. Orange means your application, payments, transcripts and at least two letters must be received by then. Green means you must be verified by then, and CASPA suggests finishing at least four weeks early. Read CASPA's deadline types.
How long does CASPA verification take?
Up to 10 business days once all your required materials are received and your application is in line. Transcripts and official scores take five business days to post first, so leave extra room. Read CASPA's verification page.
What GPA do accepted PA students have?
It varies by program. PAEA's directory lists a matriculant overall GPA of 3.7 at Emory, 3.8 at George Washington University and 3.88 at Midwestern University in Downers Grove. See Emory's PAEA directory page.
How many letters of recommendation does CASPA allow?
You must request at least 2 evaluations and can request up to 5 through CASPA. Extra letters go straight to your programs. A committee letter counts as one. Read CASPA's evaluation instructions.
Do all PA programs use CASPA?
Nearly all. PAEA says CASPA represents 95 percent of currently accredited PA programs. Programs outside CASPA take applications on their own. See PAEA's CASPA page.
More PA program guides
Applying to more PA programs? These guides cover how other programs interview: