Updated · 16 min read
Concordia PA Program Interview: Format, Questions & Prep
Key facts (2026-27)
The CUW/CUAA 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog lists the 27-month, 113-credit MSPAS program and does not publish the exact interview room format or interview months.
- Format
- Interview by invitation for the 40-seat MSPAS cohort
- Invitations
- Verified application deadline January 15 (submit 4 to 6 weeks early for verification)
Checked November 2026 against CUW/CUAA 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies and CUW/CUAA 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog: Health Profession Programs. Confirm details in your invitation.
The Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies (MSPAS) listed in the Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW) 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog is the 27-month, 113-credit program at Concordia University Ann Arbor (CUAA). It holds a maximum class size of 40 students and Accreditation-Continued status from the ARC-PA through July 2035. Your interview evaluates how well your background aligns with the program's mission to train primary care PAs for rural and underserved communities, alongside behavioral standards in maturity, teamwork, and high-stress adaptability.
CUW vs. CUAA: Which Concordia PA program are you interviewing for?
Applicants searching for the Concordia University Wisconsin PA program quickly run into two campus names: Mequon, Wisconsin (CUW) and Ann Arbor, Michigan (CUAA). Both campuses share the joint Concordia University Wisconsin and Concordia University Ann Arbor 2026-2027 Academic Catalog.
In the 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog under Health Profession Programs, the only Physician Assistant degree listed is the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies (CUAA). In the March 2025 ARC-PA Accreditation Actions reports, Concordia University-Wisconsin is listed under Additional Actions with footnote 3 (Accreditation-Probation) and N/A for its next validation review, while Concordia University-Ann Arbor was first accredited in June 2020 and was granted Accreditation-Continued status with its next comprehensive evaluation in July 2035 and a maximum class size of 40 students.
If you are comparing active programs across the region, see our guide to <a href="/pa-programs/wisconsin">Wisconsin PA program acceptance rates, PANCE pass rates, and class sizes</a> or our overview of <a href="/medical-schools/medical-college-of-wisconsin">Medical College of Wisconsin admissions</a>. If your interview is with Concordia's 27-month, 113-credit MSPAS program, you are preparing for the curriculum and selection standards governed by the CUAA PA program in the shared CUW/CUAA catalog.
Concordia PA Program Snapshot (CUW/CUAA 2026-2027 Catalog & ARC-PA)
| Feature | Official Program Detail |
|---|---|
| Degree awarded | Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies (MSPAS) |
| Program length | 27 months (7 semesters: 4 didactic, 3 clinical) |
| Total credits | 113 credit hours (67 didactic credits, 46 clinical credits by our calculation from the catalog) |
| Maximum class size | 40 students (ARC-PA Accreditation History) |
| Accreditation status (CUAA) | Accreditation-Continued, next review July 2035 |
| Verified application deadline | January 15 (submit 4 to 6 weeks early for verification) |
| Class start date | August 25 (per the 2025 cycle date in the 2026-2027 catalog) |
What to expect in the Concordia PA interview
The PA program at Concordia retains the authority and responsibility for the selection and evaluation of students. Confirm the exact schedule, whether your session is virtual or on campus, and whether you will meet interviewers one-on-one, in a panel, or in a group by checking your interview invitation email and the department website (cuaa.edu/pa).
While your invitation sets the day's logistics, the catalog spells out the exact communication, behavioral, social, and professional standards the faculty require of every candidate admitted to the program. Treat those standards as the scoring rubric for your interview day.
To practice answering questions against those competencies out loud, Confetto offers <a href="/pa-school">PA school mock interviews</a> with follow-up questions on your stories. Start your free week.
- Communication standards: Interviewers evaluate whether you communicate effectively and efficiently, interpret non-verbal cues, and present information in a concise and logical manner.
- Teamwork and cooperation: Candidates must demonstrate integrity, honesty, professionalism, compassion, and a spirit of cooperation and teamwork at all times.
- Feedback and self-awareness: Students must take responsibility for their learning and implement positive changes in response to constructive feedback. Expect a behavioral question about a time you received criticism or made a mistake.
- Composure under pressure: You must show the emotional stability and maturity to perform competently in high-stress, fast-paced situations, adapt to changing environments, and manage the inherent uncertainties of patient care.
- Health literacy and empathy: Candidates are expected to demonstrate empathy and compassion for all patients while accommodating varying levels of health literacy.
- Christian values in clinical care: One of the ten official Program Learning Outcomes is to appreciate and respect Christian values, attitudes, and behaviors in clinical practice.
Mission, vision, and goals: How to frame your answers
Every answer you give on interview day should connect back to what Concordia is built to do: primary medicine, rural and medically underserved communities, and service.
Program Mission: "The mission of the Concordia University Ann Arbor Physician Assistant Program is to educate Physician Assistant students in primary medicine with a focus on rural and underserved patient populations and communities."
Program Vision: "The vision of the Concordia University Ann Arbor Physician Assistant Program is to provide the local and global community with competent medical providers who will improve lives and influence communities through clinical service and leadership, and do so in a compassionate and respectful manner that changes the lives of all patients who seek our care."
University Mission: "Concordia University Wisconsin is a Lutheran higher education community committed to helping students develop in mind, body, and spirit for service to Christ in the Church and the world."
- Goal 1 (Matriculating diverse students): Matriculate and graduate students from rural and/or medically underserved areas. If you grew up or worked in a rural town or underserved neighborhood, name it specifically in your introduction.
- Goal 2 (Clinical exposure): Expose PA students to healthcare provided by PAs in rural and/or medically underserved communities. Show that you want to train in those clinical sites, not just big urban medical centers.
- Goal 3 (Primary care competency): Graduates will demonstrate competency in all aspects of entry-level clinical practice in primary care. Out of 11 clinical rotations (44 rotation credits total), two full rotations are in Family Medicine and two are in Internal Medicine (one inpatient, one outpatient).
12 Concordia PA interview questions to practice
We wrote these 12 practice questions around Concordia's mission, its three program goals, its behavioral and communication standards, and its PHAS curriculum. They are for practice and do not predict the exact questions you will be asked. For broader preparation across all programs, see our guide to <a href="/articles/pa-program-interview-questions">PA school interview questions</a>.
- 1. Mission & Fit: Our mission focuses on educating PAs in primary medicine for rural and underserved patient populations. What in your clinical or personal background shows that you will thrive in those communities?
- 2. Primary Care Focus: Concordia requires two clinical rotations in Family Medicine and two in Internal Medicine. Why do you want a curriculum anchored so heavily in primary care?
- 3. Direct Patient Care Experience: Walk us through one patient encounter from your 1,000+ hours of direct patient care where you had to adjust how you communicated to match a patient's health literacy.
- 4. Constructive Feedback (Behavioral Standard): Tell us about a time a supervisor or professor gave you constructive feedback that was hard to hear. What positive change did you make afterward?
- 5. High-Stress Adaptability (Behavioral Standard): Describe a fast-paced or high-stress situation in clinic or work where the plan changed suddenly. How did you respond?
- 6. Conflicting Beliefs (PHAS 5225): In PA Professional Practice II, students discuss stereotyping, bias, and conflicting health beliefs. Tell us about a time you cared for a patient or worked with a colleague whose values or health beliefs differed from yours.
- 7. Teamwork & Cooperation: Tell us about a time a healthcare or academic team you belonged to was not working well together. What was your role in fixing it?
- 8. Christian Values & Service: Concordia is a Lutheran higher education community committed to developing students in mind, body, and spirit for service. How does service shape the way you want to practice as a PA?
- 9. Ethical & Legal Standards: You are a PA student on rotation and realize you recorded an inaccurate physical exam finding in a note you already signed. Nobody else has noticed. What do you do?
- 10. Caregiver & Interpreter Communication (PHAS 5410): A geriatric patient arrives with an adult child, and the patient cannot provide their own medical history. How do you gather accurate information while keeping the patient respected and at the center of the visit?
- 11. Academic Rigor: Concordia's didactic year covers 67 credits across four semesters, and students must score at least 79% in every course while keeping a 3.0 GPA. How will you manage that workload?
- 12. Role of the PA (PHAS 5125): How do you explain the changing role of the Physician Assistant in the U.S. healthcare delivery system to a patient who asks why they are not seeing a physician?
Example answers for two more Concordia interview questions
Strong answers use first-person stories from your actual patient care hours and connect naturally to Concordia's curriculum without reciting the website. Here are two worked examples written by our team, in addition to the mission practice question above.
- Question 3 (Health literacy and communication): "Walk us through one patient encounter from your direct patient care hours where you had to adjust how you communicated to match a patient's health literacy." Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "While working as an ER tech at a county hospital, I helped discharge a 62-year-old man who had come in for a minor forearm laceration after a farm equipment repair. The PA had sutured the wound and gone over the discharge sheet, but when I walked in to remove his IV, I saw him staring at the paperwork looking overwhelmed. I asked him what questions he had about keeping the stitches clean. He admitted he could not read small print without his glasses, which had broken that morning, and he was confused by phrases like 'signs of purulent drainage.' Instead of repeating the medical terms, I sat down and walked through the care steps using plain words: what redness to watch for, how to wash around the area with soap and water, and which day to return to his family clinic to have the stitches taken out. Then I asked him to repeat the plan back to me in his own words so I knew I had explained it clearly, and I wrote the return date in large block letters on the top page. That shift taught me that good discharge instructions only work if they fit the patient's daily reality."
- Question 4 (Constructive feedback): "Tell us about a time a supervisor gave you constructive feedback that was hard to hear. What positive change did you make afterward?" Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "During my first two months as a certified nursing assistant on a busy medical-surgical floor, I prided myself on finishing my vitals rounds faster than anyone else on the shift. One afternoon my charge nurse pulled me aside and told me that two patients had mentioned I seemed rushed and did not really listen when they described new pain. Hearing that stung because I cared deeply about our patients, and I thought speed was how I helped the team most. After my shift, I thought about her feedback and realized I was treating the vitals checklist as the goal instead of the patient. The next day, I changed my routine: before putting the blood pressure cuff on, I made eye contact, asked one open question about how they were feeling compared to the morning, and waited until they finished speaking before typing into the chart. My rounds took about 10 minutes longer overall, but within two weeks I caught an early shortness-of-breath complaint in a post-op patient that I might have brushed past before. My charge nurse noted the change on my 90-day review."
A 7-day preparation plan for your Concordia PA interview
This seven-day checklist is our suggested plan to help you turn Concordia's catalog facts and technical standards into clear spoken answers before interview day.
- Day 1 (Audit your PCE stories): Pull up your CASPA application. Pick five moments from your 1,000+ hours of direct patient care that show teamwork, adapting to a fast-paced shift, communicating across health literacy levels, owning an error, and serving an underserved patient.
- Day 2 (Map your rural and primary care fit): Write a concise answer to 'Why Concordia?' that connects your background to the program's three goals (rural/underserved diversity, rural clinical exposure, and primary care competency) and its two Family Medicine and two Internal Medicine rotations.
- Day 3 (Practice behavioral standards out loud): Record yourself answering Questions 4, 5, and 7 from the list above. Keep your background setup brief so you spend most of your time on what you actually did and learned.
- Day 4 (Drill ethics and cultural humility): Practice Questions 6, 9, and 10. Make sure your answers show empathy first, protect patient safety, and involve your supervising PA or physician when appropriate.
- Day 5 (Prepare for the academic rigor question): Review the 4-semester didactic plan (14, 19, 17, and 17 credits) and the 79% minimum course grade rule. Prepare a concrete answer on how you study and handle heavy science blocks.
- Day 6 (Full mock interview): Run a full mock session with a partner or on Confetto, including unscripted follow-up questions on every answer.
- Day 7 (Logistics and questions for faculty): Confirm your link or campus arrival details from your invitation email, test your camera and audio if virtual, and write down two specific questions to ask the faculty.
Admissions requirements, prerequisites, and curriculum in brief
Every requirement below comes from the 2026-2027 CUW/CUAA Graduate Catalog. Each science prerequisite must be completed with a minimum grade of C from a regionally accredited U.S. college or university within 8 years of application, and all science prerequisites must be finished when you apply. One non-science prerequisite may be pending at application if completed before matriculation. Online labs are not accepted except from the 2020-2021 academic year, and Pass/Fail or audited courses are not accepted. For how these compare nationally, read our guide to <a href="/articles/pa-school-requirements">PA school requirements for GPA, prerequisites, tests, and hours</a>.
By our calculation from the Plan of Study Grid, the didactic phase spans Semesters 1 to 4 and totals 67 credits (14, 19, 17, and 17 credits), including a 5-credit Anatomy course with supervised cadaver dissection and prosected specimens. The clinical phase spans Semesters 5 to 7 and totals 46 credits (16, 16, and 14 credits), covering 11 four-credit rotations (Family Medicine I and II, Internal Medicine I inpatient and II outpatient, Women's Health, Pediatrics, Behavioral Medicine, Surgical Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Elective I and II) plus a 2-credit Summative Assessment. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA each term, score at least 79% in every course, rotation, and summative evaluation, and finish within 40 months. The program does not decelerate students for academic or professionalism failures.
When you are ready to practice your answers out loud, rehearse with <a href="/pa-school">Confetto's AI mock interviewer for PA school</a> to get rubric-based feedback on your stories and delivery. Start your free week.
Concordia PA Program Prerequisites (2026-2027 Graduate Catalog)
| Category | Course | Minimum Credits & Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Science | Human Anatomy & Physiology | Two semesters (minimum 3 credits each) with lab. Can be A&P I and II, or Anatomy plus Physiology (both with lab, college biology prerequisite required). Pathophysiology does not replace Physiology. |
| Science | Organic Chemistry | One semester, minimum 3 credits, with lab. |
| Science | Biochemistry | One semester, minimum 3 credits, with or without lab. |
| Science | Microbiology | One semester, 3 credits, with lab. |
| Non-Science | Medical Terminology | One semester of a 1-credit or 2-credit course. |
| Non-Science | Psychology, Statistics & English Composition | One semester, 3 credits minimum in each of the three subjects (lifespan/developmental, abnormal, or general psychology). High school AP credit accepted for all three. |
- Deadlines and degree: January 15 deadline for verified applications (submit 4 to 6 weeks early) for an August 25 class start. Requires a U.S. regionally accredited baccalaureate degree before matriculation. No advanced placement, transfer credit, or experiential learning credit is granted.
- GPA and PA-CAT: Minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and minimum 3.0 prerequisite science GPA. The program recommends taking the PA-CAT (Physician Assistant College Admission Test).
- Direct Patient Care Experience (1,000 hours minimum): Approved roles include nursing, CNA, ER tech, EMT/paramedic, lab tech, dietician, exercise stress test tech, mental health therapist, military medical/clinical specialist, OT/PT, pharmacist, pharmacy tech, phlebotomist, respiratory therapist, and surgical tech. Medical scribes can count up to 500 hours. Shadowing, non-clinical research, CPR instruction, patient transport, pharmaceutical rep, ski patrol (unless EMT certified), lifeguard, aerobics instructor, and clerical roles do not count.
- Three required letters of reference: (1) A direct patient care employer or supervisor, (2) a PA or advanced healthcare provider you shadowed or worked alongside, and (3) a character reference from a professor, coach, co-worker, or supervisor.
Concordia Wisconsin PA PA program practice question (written by us, not Concordia Wisconsin PA)
Our mission is to educate Physician Assistant students in primary medicine with a focus on rural and underserved patient populations and communities. What in your background shows that you will stay committed to primary care and underserved patients after graduation?
Example answer (written by us, invented applicant)
Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "I grew up in a rural county in northern Wisconsin where our nearest hospital was 40 minutes away, and a Physician Assistant at our local family medicine clinic was the main provider for my entire family. For the past two years, I have worked full-time as a certified nursing assistant at a community health center that serves a largely uninsured and Medicaid patient population. In that clinic, I saw how much happens in primary care when specialists are hours away: our PAs managed complex type 2 diabetes, adjusted blood pressure regimens around what a patient could afford at the pharmacy, and caught mental health crises during routine physicals. One patient I worked with regularly had skipped his insulin for three weeks because his car broke down and he could not get to town. Working alongside our PA to connect him with a mail-order pharmacy program and follow-up calls showed me that primary care in an underserved town requires resourcefulness and long-term trust. Concordia's curriculum, especially completing two full clinical rotations in Family Medicine and two in Internal Medicine, is built for the exact kind of broad-scope primary care I want to practice back home."
Why this answer works: It answers the prompt in the first sentence, grounds the motivation in a specific rural and underserved clinical experience from the applicant's direct patient care hours, and connects directly to Concordia's curriculum (two Family Medicine and two Internal Medicine rotations) without reciting the mission statement word for word.
Concordia Wisconsin PA PA program interview FAQ
What is the minimum GPA for the Concordia PA program?
Applicants must have both a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and a minimum 3.0 prerequisite science GPA. Every science prerequisite course must be completed with a grade of C or higher within 8 years of application, and Pass/Fail or audited courses are not accepted.
How many patient care experience (PCE) hours does Concordia require?
You must document at least 1,000 hours of direct patient care experience. Medical scribe work can count for up to 500 of those 1,000 hours, while the rest must involve direct hands-on patient interaction. Provider shadowing, patient transport, non-clinical research, and clerical roles do not count.
Does the Concordia PA program require the GRE or PA-CAT?
The 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog recommends that applicants take the PA-CAT (Physician Assistant College Admission Test) to measure knowledge in key prerequisite science subjects. The GRE is not listed in the catalog's admission requirements.
How many seats are in the Concordia PA program class?
According to the ARC-PA Accreditation History for Concordia University-Ann Arbor, the program is approved for a maximum class size of 40 students and holds Accreditation-Continued status with its next comprehensive review in July 2035.
When is the Concordia PA program application deadline?
The deadline is January 15 for verified applications, for a class starting August 25. Because the January 15 cutoff requires your application to already be verified, the program advises submitting at least 4 to 6 weeks prior to the deadline.
Who must write my letters of recommendation for the Concordia PA program?
Concordia requires three letters of reference: one from an employer or supervisor of your direct patient care experience, one from a PA or advanced healthcare provider you shadowed or worked alongside, and one character reference from a professor, coach, co-worker, or supervisor.
Sources, checked November 3, 2026:
- CUW/CUAA 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies (CUAA)
- CUW/CUAA 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog: Physician Assistant (PHAS) Course Descriptions
- CUW/CUAA 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog: Health Profession Programs
- ARC-PA Accreditation History: Concordia University-Ann Arbor
- ARC-PA Accreditation Actions Summary (January 2026)
- ARC-PA Accreditation Actions Summary (March 2025)
Confetto isn't affiliated with Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor. Everything here about the school comes from its public pages, checked in November 2026.
Formats and dates can change between cycles, so go by your invitation email.