Augusta University PA Program: Interview, Stats & Prep

Check your scheduling email and portal instructions from the Department of Physician Assistant for your session structure, timing, and whether your date is held on the Health Sciences Campus in Augusta or virtually. If you want to visit campus before your interview, the program hosts PA Open Houses for the Class of 2029 in the Health Sciences Building at 10:30 a.m. on September 24, October 13, October 27, and November 5.

To rehearse your answers out loud before interview day, Confetto is an AI mock interviewer for PA and healthcare program interviews that runs traditional, panel, and MMI formats with follow-up questions on your own experiences. Start your free week and practice with rubric-based feedback. You can also work through our broader list of <a href="/articles/pa-program-interview-questions">PA school interview questions</a> to cover common behavioral and scenario prompts.

• Degree awarded: Master of Physician Assistant (MPA), a 2-year, 122-credit-hour on-campus program in the College of Allied Health Sciences.
• Distinction: Established in 1972 and accredited in 1973, making it the only publicly funded PA program in Georgia and one of the oldest in the South.
• Leadership: Elizabeth Prince-Coleman, DMSc, MS, MPA, PA-C, a 2013 graduate of the AU PA program, has served as Program Director since 2021 and Department Chair since August 2025.
• PANCE performance: 98% five-year average first-time test-taker pass rate.
• Contact and location: Health Sciences Campus, Health Sciences Building, 987 St. Sebastian Way, Room 3304, Augusta, GA 30912. Phone: 706-721-3247. Email: paprogram@augusta.edu.

Augusta University states its mission in one sentence on its Mission page: "At Augusta University, our mission is to develop physician assistants with the knowledge and skills to practice all aspects of medicine from a primary care perspective and to meet the needs of society through education, discovery, and service." Because of the fast pace of the program, the graduate catalog notes that previous medical experience is strongly encouraged and highlights four traits suited to a PA career: the ability to relate to people, calm and reasoned judgment in handling emergencies, an orientation toward service, and critical thinking.

On its About page, the department adds a clear geographic priority: "We embrace our statewide mission in meeting the healthcare needs of Georgia's citizens." By our calculation from the five-year class table for the Classes of 2022 through 2026, 210 of the 228 accepted students across the last five cohorts (92.1%) were Georgia in-state residents, including 46 of 48 (95.8%) in the Class of 2026. On its Mission page, the program also lists six official goals:

• Above-national-average pass rates for first-time PANCE test takers.
• A 100% PANCE pass rate within the first year of graduation.
• High employment rates (90%) of graduates within the first six months after graduation.
• A high level of student satisfaction as measured by online surveys of lecturers and faculty.
• Affordable graduate PA education compared to other comparable programs within Georgia and across the Southeast.
• High graduation rates with low attrition and deceleration rates.

These 12 questions are written by our team around Augusta University's published mission, graduate catalog traits, and 122-credit-hour curriculum. Each example answer is a blueprint written by our team, and the applicant in each example is invented. For more practice, see our University of Findlay PA program interview guide.

• 1. Why do you want to attend the Augusta University PA program specifically? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "I want to train at Augusta University because it is Georgia's only publicly funded PA program and builds its curriculum around a primary care perspective while still preparing graduates for specialty practice. Growing up in Macon and working as a medical assistant in an internal medicine clinic, I saw how a strong generalist foundation allows a PA to manage complex chronic conditions before a patient reaches a specialist. In your 122-credit-hour curriculum, the three-semester Clinical Skills Integration and Application sequence and the second-year clinical rotations across Augusta and Georgia affiliates, including the Psychiatric and Addiction Medicine Practicum, stood out. Training on the Health Sciences Campus alongside the Medical College of Georgia gives me the foundation I need to practice primary care in central Georgia."
• 2. How do your career goals align with our mission to meet society's needs through education, discovery, and service? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "To me, combining education, discovery, and service means staying curious about the evidence behind our treatments and making sure that care actually reaches the patients who need it. In my two years as a medical assistant at a family practice in Columbus, I helped our clinic track blood pressure follow-up rates for uninsured patients and connect them with prescription assistance programs. At Augusta University, courses like Evidence-Based Medicine and Medical Writing and the Senior Thesis series will train me to evaluate clinical literature and apply it in community practice. After graduation, I plan to bring that habit of tracking outcomes and improving patient education to a rural Georgia primary care clinic."
• 3. What does practicing medicine from a primary care perspective mean to you, even when working in a specialty? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "Practicing from a primary care perspective means looking at the whole patient, including prevention, health promotion, and the daily barriers that keep someone from following a care plan, no matter what clinic they walk into. When I shadowed a PA in orthopedics, a patient came in for knee pain, but the PA also noticed his blood pressure was dangerously high and that he did not have a primary care provider. Instead of only treating the joint, she coordinated a warm handoff to an internal medicine clinic in the same building and explained why uncontrolled hypertension mattered for his surgical clearance later on. Whether I practice in family medicine or a specialty, I want to be the clinician who never loses sight of the whole patient."
• 4. Our catalog notes that because of the fast pace of the program, previous medical experience is strongly encouraged. How has your clinical background prepared you for a 122-credit-hour curriculum? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "Working full-time as an emergency department tech for the past 18 months taught me how to prioritize under pressure and made medical terminology, EKG leads, and physical assessment part of my daily routine. On a typical 12-hour shift, I room patients, take vitals, run 12-lead EKGs, and report abnormal findings to the PA or physician within minutes. When I read through Augusta University's didactic course list, from Human Gross Anatomy and Human Physiology for the Clinician to EKG Interpretation and Pharmacotherapeutics, I recognized the clinical problems behind those courses. Seeing those conditions at the bedside first gives me a real framework to anchor the classroom material."
• 5. Describe a time when you had to demonstrate calm and reasoned judgment while handling an emergency or high-stress situation. Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "While working at an urgent care clinic, a 58-year-old man walked to the front desk holding his jaw and sweating heavily, saying he thought he had a bad toothache. Instead of putting him in the standard waiting queue, I stayed calm, brought him straight to an exam bay, took his vitals, and started a 12-lead EKG while paging the PA on duty. His blood pressure was elevated and the EKG showed ST changes. Because we kept our voices steady, explained each step clearly, and had EMS on the way within minutes, the patient stayed calm until transport arrived. While we waited for the paramedics, I also gathered his medication list and called his wife so the hospital team had his history ready."
• 6. PAs lead patient-centered medical teams and practice both autonomously and collaboratively. Tell us about a time you worked effectively on a team. Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "At our outpatient clinic, we noticed that several post-discharge hospital patients were missing their 7-day follow-up visits because discharge paperwork arrived by fax without a phone call to the patient. As one of the medical assistants, I asked our lead PA and the front-office coordinator if we could sit down for 15 minutes at the end of the day to trace where the handoff was breaking. Together we set up a shared morning log where I flagged every hospital discharge summary, the scheduler called the patient before noon, and the PA reviewed any medication changes before the visit. Within two months, our post-discharge no-show rate dropped noticeably."
• 7. Why did you choose the PA profession over becoming a physician or nurse practitioner? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "I chose the PA profession because I want to be trained in the medical model as a certified medical generalist while working in a collaborative team structure that lets me adapt to what my community needs. Shadowing both a family medicine physician and a PA in the same clinic made the distinction real for me. The PA handled her own panel of acute and chronic visits, ordered and interpreted labs, and adjusted treatment plans autonomously, then stepped into the hallway for a two-minute consult with the collaborating physician on a complex presentation. I also value that Augusta University trains PAs across surgery, adult medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and psychiatry in two years so I can enter clinical practice sooner."
• 8. What do you see as the role of a Physician Assistant in disease prevention, health promotion, and patient education? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "A prescription only works if the patient understands why they are taking it and how it fits into their daily life. In our clinic, I helped check in a patient whose A1C had climbed over two visits despite refilling his metformin on time. When the PA sat down with him, she did not lecture him. She asked him to walk her through what he ate during his night-shift warehouse job and discovered he was drinking sweetened energy drinks to stay awake, not realizing how much sugar they had. Together they came up with two realistic swaps and a follow-up check in six weeks. At his next visit, his fasting blood sugars had already started coming down."
• 9. Our second-year clinical rotations take place with community partners in Augusta and affiliates across Georgia and the Southeast. How do you adapt to new environments and expectations? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "When I worked as a float medical assistant across three clinic locations in our health system, every site had a different rooming flow, different nursing staff, and preceptors who liked patient presentations formatted differently. I learned to arrive 20 minutes early on my first day at a new site, introduce myself to the nurses and front-desk staff first, and ask the clinician two direct questions: how they preferred histories summarized and what they expected me to have ready before they walked into the room. Writing those expectations in a pocket notebook kept me from making the same mistake twice. I plan to bring that habit to every four-credit practicum in the clinical year."
• 10. Tell us about a time you received constructive criticism from a supervisor or professor and what you changed. Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "During my first month scribing and rooming for a PA in orthopedics, she pulled me aside after clinic and told me that my history notes were too long and buried the main reason the patient was there today. At first I felt defensive because I was trying to be thorough, but when we looked at two charts side by side, she was right. Asking her to show me three of her own notes helped me build a concise template: onset, location, duration, aggravating factors, and prior treatments tried. Within two weeks, my notes were ready with almost no edits, and my verbal handoffs to the PA became much clearer."
• 11. Tell us about a significant academic or personal challenge you faced and how it prepared you for PA school. Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "During my sophomore fall semester, I took Organic Chemistry and Human Physiology while working 25 hours a week at the hospital, and I earned a C-plus on my first physiology midterm. Instead of hoping the next exam would go better, I met with my professor during office hours the next day, cut my hospital shifts back by six hours a week, and switched from passively rereading slides to drawing out physiological pathways from memory with a study partner every Tuesday and Thursday. I finished the course with an A-minus. In a fast-paced 122-credit-hour PA program, I already know how to spot when a study method is not working and ask for help early."
• 12. Our curriculum includes a required Psychiatric and Addiction Medicine Practicum and a Senior Thesis and PA Professional Practice series. Why do behavioral health and evidence-based medicine matter in everyday PA practice? Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "Almost every primary care or emergency visit has a behavioral health layer, whether it is untreated depression making heart failure harder to manage or a substance use disorder behind a recurring infection. Having a full four-credit Psychiatric and Addiction Medicine Practicum means Augusta University graduates do not treat mental health as an afterthought. At the same time, the Evidence-Based Medicine and Medical Writing course and the three-part Senior Thesis series train you to read clinical trials critically so you can explain to a skeptical patient why guidelines changed. Combining empathy for behavioral health with solid evidence is what makes a trustworthy primary care clinician."

The Master of Physician Assistant (MPA) is an on-campus, 2-year program totaling 122 credit hours in the 2025-2026 Augusta University Catalog. The didactic phase takes place on the Health Sciences Campus in Augusta, and second-year clinical rotations (4 credits each in Surgery, Adult Medicine I and II, Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatric and Addiction Medicine, Women's Health, Elective, and Teaching/Leadership/Clinical Elective) are completed predominantly with community partners in the Augusta area and affiliates across Georgia and the Southeast. All students must satisfy technical standards and pass the Summative Evaluation to graduate.

This two-week preparation plan is written by our team to help you organize your stories around Augusta University's curriculum and catalog traits:

• Days 1 to 3: Match two real patient or team stories to each of the four traits in the Augusta University catalog: ability to relate to people, calm and reasoned judgment in emergencies, orientation toward service, and critical thinking.
• Days 4 to 6: Build your "Why Augusta University?" and "Why Georgia?" answers. Pick two specific features from the curriculum, such as CAHS 7400 Human Gross Anatomy (6 credits), Human Physiology for the Clinician (PHAS 7120, 5 credits), the Clinical Skills Integration and Application I through III sequence, the Psychiatric and Addiction Medicine Practicum, or the Senior Thesis and PA Professional Practice I through III series (6 credits total), and tie them to your clinical goals.
• Days 7 to 10: Practice all 12 questions in this guide out loud on a timer. Keep each answer concise so your interviewer has room for follow-ups.
• Days 11 to 13: Run two full mock sessions on camera or in person with a partner who pushes past your first answer with "What specifically did you say?" and "What did you learn from that?"
• Day 14: Review your invitation email for arrival or login times, prepare two questions for faculty about second-year clinical rotations or the Senior Thesis series, and rest.

Augusta University is the only publicly funded PA program in Georgia, and our mission is to develop PAs who practice all aspects of medicine from a primary care perspective. Tell us about a patient encounter that shaped how you think about primary care in Georgia.

• Augusta University PA Program: About the Program
• Augusta University PA Program: Mission and Goals
• Augusta University PA Program: Accreditation and Class Statistics
• Augusta University PA Program: Prospective Students
• Augusta University PA Program: College of Allied Health Sciences Home
• 2025-2026 Augusta University Catalog: Master of Physician Assistant
• Augusta University Graduate Catalog: Master of Physician Assistant
• ARC-PA Accreditation Actions Summary (March 2023)