Updated Nov 4, 2026

Mary Baldwin PA Program Interview: Casper, Questions and Prep

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Key facts (2026-27)

Format: Interview by invitation after review of a verified CASPA application
Also required: Casper situational judgment test (90 to 110 minutes online, CSP-10101) required before interview consideration

Dates for 2026-27

Rolling, with CASPA verification due by October 1
Interview invitations
Rolling decisions, with a $2,000 non-refundable tuition deposit to hold a seat in the 40-student January cohort
Offers and decisions

Checked November 2026 against Mary Baldwin University Academic Catalog: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Program (MSPA) and Mary Baldwin University: Physician Assistant (MSPA) Program Overview. Confirm details in your invitation.

To be considered for an interview at Mary Baldwin University's Master of Science in Physician Assistant (MSPA) program, you must complete the 90-110 minute Casper situational judgment test (US Professional Health Sciences, CSP-10101) and have a verified CASPA application by October 1, per the Mary Baldwin University Academic Catalog. Interviews are by invitation from Admissions and the MSPA faculty for a cohort capped at 40 seats by ARC-PA that begins each January at the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences in Fishersville, Virginia. Sources: Mary Baldwin University: Physician Assistant (MSPA) Program Overview, Mary Baldwin University Academic Catalog: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Program (MSPA), Mary Baldwin University: Graduate Admission Requirements for School of Health Professions. Last checked November 3, 2026.

What the Mary Baldwin PA interview process looks like

Mary Baldwin University runs its PA admissions through the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences (MDCHS) in Fishersville, Virginia. Before your file can be reviewed for an interview invitation, your CASPA application must be verified and every required item must be on file by October 1, including your Casper score.

Once your file is complete, the Office of Admissions coordinates with the MSPA program faculty to evaluate applications and invite selected candidates to interview. Admissions decisions are made on a rolling basis. Not all applicants are invited to interview, an interview does not guarantee acceptance, and any travel expenses are the candidate's responsibility. Confirm your exact interview day schedule and whether your session is held on campus in Fishersville or online in your invitation email.

To rehearse both situational judgment scenarios and faculty interview questions out loud, Confetto lets you run timed PA mock interviews with follow-up questions on your own application. Start your free week.

Mary Baldwin MSPA interview and selection steps
Step	What Mary Baldwin University requires
Stage 1: Casper test	Acuity Insights US Professional Health Sciences (CSP-10101), 90-110 minute online assessment. Required before interview consideration. Duet is not required.
Complete file by Oct 1	Verified CASPA application, official transcripts, official GRE scores (code 3656), Casper score, personal statement, 3 letters of reference, $45 MBU supplemental fee (or waiver), and TOEFL if applicable.
Guaranteed interview pathway	Currently enrolled students at 8 partner colleges who meet articulation agreement terms, including a 3.4+ cumulative GPA and C or better in prerequisites.
Regional consideration	Special favorable consideration for high school graduates or 5+ year residents of 7 western Virginia and 2 eastern West Virginia counties and their cities.
Stage 2: Faculty interview	By invitation only, coordinated by Admissions and MSPA faculty. Any travel expenses are the candidate's responsibility.
Decisions and deposit	Rolling admissions decisions. Accepted students pay a nonrefundable $2,000 deposit applied to tuition.

Stage 1: The required Casper test (CSP-10101)

Several older pre-PA advising sheets still list Mary Baldwin as a non-Casper school. That is out of date. Mary Baldwin's graduate admissions page and academic catalog both state that you must complete the Casper assessment to be considered for an interview.

Register through Acuity Insights for the US Professional Health Sciences test (CSP-10101) and select Mary Baldwin University for score distribution. Casper is a 90-110 minute online, open-response situational judgment test that helps determine the behavioral tendencies of applicants pursuing people-centered professions. Duet is not required, and graduate admissions recommends submitting Casper early so your score arrives before the October 1 deadline.

Treat Casper as your first interview round. When you practice, state the most pressing concern first, ask what facts are missing, weigh both people's viewpoints, and commit to a practical next step.

Who gets an interview: holistic review, partner schools and regional ties

Mary Baldwin does not require a minimum number of patient care experience (PCE) or shadowing hours, and it does not set a minimum GRE score. Instead, the School of Health Professions uses a holistic review that considers the wholeness of each candidate rather than focusing disproportionately on any single metric.

Alongside your 3.0 minimum overall GPA, GRE scores, and recommended PA shadowing or patient care hours, the catalog encourages you to document leadership, employment (healthcare or non-healthcare), volunteer work and community engagement, military service (veteran, active, or reserves), first-generation college status, and multilingualism. If your work history is outside a hospital, bring those stories to the interview. Two groups also receive defined advantages under the catalog's published admissions practices:

Articulation agreement partner schools (guaranteed interview): Currently enrolled students at Bridgewater College, Columbia College, Eastern Mennonite University, Ferrum College, Hollins University, Mary Baldwin University, St. Michael's College, and Virginia Military Institute are guaranteed an interview if they apply through CASPA, hold a 3.4 or higher cumulative GPA, earn a C or better in all prerequisites, submit GRE and Casper scores, and meet agreement terms. Admission itself is not guaranteed.
Western Virginia and eastern West Virginia regional applicants (favorable consideration): Applicants who graduated from high school in, or have lived for 5 or more years in, the counties of and cities within Albemarle, Augusta, Bath, Highland, Nelson, Rockbridge, or Rockingham in Virginia, or Pendleton or Pocahontas in West Virginia, receive special favorable consideration. They must still meet all admissions requirements and are not guaranteed an interview or admission.

Mission, interprofessional training and curriculum specifics to know

The strongest way to answer "Why Mary Baldwin?" is to connect your background to what happens at Murphy Deming. According to the MSPA catalog, the program's mission is to prepare students as "compassionate, effective, qualified clinicians able to serve in a variety of medical specialty areas and settings in collaboration with licensed physicians," in an environment promoting diversity and respect for self and others, with a strong commitment to service in underserved or disadvantaged areas. The mission statement adds a line worth remembering: "Veritably, the program holds that the primary goal of medical training is service to humanity."

Three features of the 27-month, 120-credit curriculum give you concrete talking points for your interview:

Interprofessional Seminar sequence (PAS 530, PAS 540, PAS 640): You take three 1-credit interprofessional seminars across your didactic phase and work in case study groups and clinical skills scenarios alongside students from occupational therapy (OTD), physical therapy (DPT), medicine, nursing, and social work. One of the program's published goals is that at least 80% of exit survey respondents rate their interprofessional preparedness as a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale.
PAS 510: Professional Wellness in your first semester: Taken in Spring Year 1, this course trains you in two named programs to build resiliency and prevent burnout: Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), which teaches you to spot and respond to mental health or substance use challenges and reduce stigma, and the Healer's Art (HART), an experiential curriculum addressing the loss of meaning clinicians face under healthcare system stress.
Didactic-to-clinical rhythm: By our calculation from the MSPA catalog's 120-credit curriculum table, the 15-month didactic phase spans 4 semesters and 71 credits (17 in Spring Year 1, 17 in Summer Year 1, 18 in Fall Year 1, and 19 in Spring Year 2). The 12-month clinical phase spans 49 credits across eight 6-week rotations, covering seven core specialties (Behavioral and Mental Health Care, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, and Women's Health, 6 credits each) plus a 6-credit Clinical Elective and a 1-credit Advanced Comprehensive Assessment (PAS 623).

Mary Baldwin PA practice questions (written by our team)

Our team wrote these practice questions around the MSPA mission statement, Murphy Deming's interprofessional model, PAS 510, the regional preference counties, and the holistic review criteria. Use them alongside our broader guide to PA school interview questions to rehearse out loud.

1. Mission and service: Our mission states that the primary goal of medical training is service to humanity, especially in underserved or disadvantaged areas. Tell us about a time you served someone who had few options, and what that taught you about access to care.
2. Why Mary Baldwin and Murphy Deming: What draws you specifically to training at the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences in Fishersville rather than another Virginia PA program?
3. Interprofessional collaboration: At Murphy Deming, PA students train alongside physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, social work, and medical students. Tell us about a time you worked on a team where someone from a different background or role saw a problem you missed.
4. Burnout and PAS 510: In your first semester here, you take PAS 510 (Professional Wellness), which includes Mental Health First Aid and the Healer's Art to prevent burnout. What is a real sign that you are reaching your limit under heavy workload, and what do you do when you notice it?
5. Holistic background: We weigh non-healthcare employment, volunteering, and life experience alongside clinical hours. Tell us about a job, volunteer role, or responsibility outside of healthcare that will make you a better PA.
6. Rural and Shenandoah Valley care: Many of our patients and clinical sites are in western Virginia and eastern West Virginia counties like Augusta, Rockingham, Highland, and Pocahontas. If a patient drives an hour from a mountain county and tells you they cannot afford the specialist referral you want to order, how do you handle the visit?
7. Physician-PA collaboration: How do you explain the PA's collaborative relationship with a licensed physician to a patient who asks when they will see the "real doctor"?
8. Mental health stigma: Mental Health First Aid focuses on reducing stigma around mental health and substance use challenges. Describe a time you helped someone who was embarrassed or afraid to ask for help.
9. Academic rigor: Our MSPA curriculum is full-time and sequential, requires a 3.0 GPA every semester, and dismisses any student who earns a D or F in a course. Tell us about the hardest academic stretch you have faced and how you will adjust to a 15-month, four-semester didactic phase starting in January.
10. Cohort model: You will start and finish this 27-month program with the same cohort of up to 40 students. When a small group is under exam stress and tension builds between two classmates, what role do you usually play?
11. Ethical scenario (Casper-style): You are on your behavioral health rotation and notice a fellow PA student looking up the chart of a patient who is a family friend but not assigned to your team. What do you do first?
12. Self-awareness and feedback: Tell us about a piece of critical feedback you received from a supervisor, professor, or preceptor that stung at first, and show us how you used it.

Example answers to more Mary Baldwin questions (written by our team)

Alongside the worked practice question at the bottom of this page, here are two more example answers showing how to connect your own stories to Mary Baldwin's curriculum and holistic review.

Question 4: "In your first semester here, you take PAS 510 (Professional Wellness), which includes Mental Health First Aid and the Healer's Art to prevent burnout. What is a real sign that you are reaching your limit under heavy workload, and what do you do when you notice it?"

"My earliest tell is that I stop asking questions and try to do everything myself. Two falls ago I was taking organic chemistry, working 20 hours a week at the campus dining hall, and helping care for my grandmother after her hip surgery. I noticed I was rereading the same textbook page three times at midnight and snapping at my roommate over small things. That semester I sat down on Sunday nights, wrote out the three things that actually had to get done each day, and asked my supervisor to swap my Thursday closing shift for a Saturday morning. I also kept a 30-minute walk without my phone right after lab. Having PAS 510 in the first spring semester at Murphy Deming matters to me because burnout does not wait until clinical rotations, and I want the habits and cohort language from the Healer's Art in place from month one." (Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.)

Question 5: "We weigh non-healthcare employment, volunteering, and life experience alongside clinical hours. Tell us about a job, volunteer role, or responsibility outside of healthcare that will make you a better PA."

"For three summers I worked the customer service desk at a regional hardware store in Rockingham County. Half of my day was talking to contractors whose orders were late and homeowners who were stressed because a pipe had burst and they did not know which part they needed. That job taught me two clinical habits before I ever stepped into a clinic. First, when someone comes in frustrated, they are almost always worried about cost or time, so acknowledging that in the first sentence lowers the temperature right away. Second, I learned to explain a fix in plain steps without talking down to someone. When I shadowed a family medicine PA in Harrisonburg last year, I watched her use that exact rhythm with a patient who was overwhelmed by a new insulin regimen. My medical assistant hours taught me vitals and charting, but that counter job taught me how to listen when someone is having a bad day." (Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.)

A two-week preparation plan for Mary Baldwin

Use this two-week schedule to prepare for both Casper and the Mary Baldwin faculty interview. Adjust the days to fit your invitation date, and practice out loud.

Days 1 to 3 (Audit your CASPA file against MBU's holistic factors): List one concrete story for each area Mary Baldwin names in its catalog: patient care or PA shadowing, non-healthcare work, volunteering in an underserved community, leadership, and working with someone from a different discipline.
Days 4 to 6 (Casper timing and ethics drills): Practice open-response situational judgment prompts under a timer. Name the dilemma, check missing facts, and propose an action that protects patient safety and respect.
Days 7 to 9 (Murphy Deming specifics): Review PAS 510 (Professional Wellness) and the Interprofessional Seminars (PAS 530, 540, 640). Record your answer to "Why Mary Baldwin?" on camera and cut anything that could apply to every PA school in Virginia.
Days ten to twelve (Full mock interview): Run a full mock interview using the practice questions above, with a partner or on Confetto's PA school mock interview platform asking unscripted follow-ups on every answer. Start your free week.
Days 13 to 14 (Logistics and questions for faculty): Confirm your interview link or Fishersville campus travel details from your invitation email, and write two specific questions for the faculty about interprofessional case groups or clinical rotations.

Mary Baldwin PA admissions requirements, prerequisites and deadlines

Show details

If you are comparing programs across the country, see our guide to general PA school requirements. At Mary Baldwin, watch the two-step autumn deadline: while your verified CASPA application, Casper score, GRE, and Medical Terminology prerequisite are due October 1, your bachelor's degree and all other prerequisite courses must be completed by September 1 to be considered during the cycle.

Practice question

Our mission states that the primary goal of medical training is service to humanity, especially for those in underserved or disadvantaged areas, and our students train interprofessionally with PT, OT, nursing, and social work students. Tell us about a time you worked with others to help someone in an underserved setting, and how that shapes why you want to train at Murphy Deming.

See an example answer

For the past year I volunteered two Saturdays a month at a rural food and health outreach pantry in Augusta County, about 20 minutes from Fishersville. One morning an older gentleman came in for blood pressure screening and quietly mentioned he had stopped taking his blood pressure medication because he had lost his ride to the pharmacy after his sister moved away, and he was too proud to ask his neighbors. On my own, all I could do was record his reading of 168/96. Instead, I brought in our site's volunteer social work student and the parish nurse. While the nurse reviewed which medications he still had at home, the social work student set him up with the county's mail-order prescription assistance program and a local volunteer driver list. Watching how fast that problem moved once 3 different disciplines sat at the same table is the exact reason I want to train at Murphy Deming. In your 3 Interprofessional Seminars, PA students do not wait until rotations to learn what occupational therapists, physical therapists, nurses, and social workers bring to a complex patient. I want to build that habit here so I can practice primary care in western Virginia after graduation. (Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.)

It answers both parts of the prompt with one specific patient story in Mary Baldwin's own region (Augusta County), shows real teamwork with nursing and social work rather than solo heroics, and names the MSPA curriculum's 3 Interprofessional Seminars accurately without reciting the catalog.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Mary Baldwin PA program require Casper?

Yes. You must complete the 90-110 minute Casper situational judgment test (US Professional Health Sciences, CSP-10101) through Acuity Insights to be considered for an interview at Mary Baldwin University, though Duet is not required.

What is the minimum GPA, GRE, and PCE hour requirement for Mary Baldwin's PA program?

You need a minimum 3.0 overall GPA and a C or better in all prerequisites, and you must submit GRE scores taken within 5 years (CASPA code 3656), though Mary Baldwin sets no minimum GRE score. Healthcare observation and patient care experiences are recommended, especially shadowing a PA, with no minimum hours required.

When is the Mary Baldwin PA application deadline and when do classes start?

CASPA opens April 30 and your application must be submitted, verified, and complete with all materials by October 1, while your bachelor's degree and all prerequisites except Medical Terminology must be completed by September 1. The 27-month MSPA cohort begins in January.

How many seats are in the Mary Baldwin University PA program and what is the PANCE pass rate?

The program has an ARC-PA maximum entering class size of 40 students at the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences in Fishersville, Virginia. According to the program's published outcomes, 100% of 2025 graduates ultimately passed the PANCE and 100% of 2024 graduates were employed within six months.

Which colleges have a guaranteed interview agreement with Mary Baldwin's PA program?

Mary Baldwin has PA articulation agreements guaranteeing an interview (not admission) to qualified currently enrolled students with a 3.4+ cumulative GPA at eight schools: Bridgewater College, Columbia College, Eastern Mennonite University, Ferrum College, Hollins University, Mary Baldwin University, St. Michael's College, and Virginia Military Institute.

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