Updated Nov 4, 2026

Misericordia PA Program Interview: On-Campus Format & Prep

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Key facts (2026-27)

Format: Individual interview with PA faculty
Where: On campus in Dallas, Pennsylvania
Also required: A welcome and overview of the MUPA program with Q&A and a tour of Baloga Hall and the Henry Science Center on interview day
Decisions: Rolling written notifications shortly after interview day, with a $1,000 non-refundable deposit due within 2 to 3 weeks

Checked November 2026 against Misericordia University: PA Program Admission Requirements and Interview Criteria and Misericordia University: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies Overview. Confirm details in your invitation.

The Misericordia University PA program holds an on-campus interview day in Dallas, Pennsylvania, featuring a program overview with Q&A, an individual interview with PA faculty, and a tour of the facilities in Baloga Hall and the Henry Science Center. Per Misericordia University's Admission Requirements page, faculty score interviewees across 7 published criteria to fill a cohort of 25 seats each July. Admissions are rolling from April 30, 2026 to April 1, 2027 through CASPA, with no GRE or secondary application required. Sources: Misericordia University: Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies, Misericordia University PA Program: Admission Requirements & Process, Misericordia University PA Program: Mission, Goals, and Effectiveness. Last checked November 3, 2026.

What the Misericordia PA interview day looks like

Misericordia University interviews PA applicants in person on its campus at 301 Lake Street in Dallas, Pennsylvania. Your invitation comes after CASPA verifies your application, which can take up to 4 weeks, and after the graduate admissions officer confirms you meet every minimum requirement.

To rehearse for your individual faculty interview out loud, Confetto runs realistic mock interviews for PA school applicants with follow-up questions on your experiences and rubric-based feedback. Start your free week.

Welcome and overview of the MUPA Program with Q&A time.
Individual interview with PA faculty, scored against 7 published evaluation criteria.
Tour of the PA facilities, including the 7,575-square-foot PA educational space in Baloga Hall and the cadaver lab in the adjacent Frank M. and Dorothea Henry Science Center.
Post-interview decisions: top-ranked applicants are notified of acceptance in writing shortly after interview day, and alternative applicants are placed on a waitlist. Accepted students are given two to three weeks to reply and pay a $1,000 nonrefundable deposit, which is applied to tuition upon matriculation.

Misericordia University PA Interview & Admissions Snapshot (Cohort 2029)
Item	Official Program Policy
Interview format	On-campus: welcome and overview with Q&A, individual interview with PA faculty, and facilities tour
Cohort size	25 seats (waitlist maintained for alternative applicants)
CASPA cycle dates	Opens April 30, 2026 and closes April 1, 2027 (rolling admissions)
Program start and length	July 2027 start, 25-month year-round curriculum (105 credits across 7 terms)
Secondary application or tests	No secondary application required. No GRE, GMAT, or MCAT required
Final requirements deadline	Accepted applicants must meet all admission criteria by June 1, 2027

The 7 criteria faculty score in your interview

On its Admission Requirements page, Misericordia states that invited applicants are evaluated, scored, and expected to speak in detail on 7 specific criteria during the on-campus interview. Match at least 1 concrete story or fact from your preparation to each row below.

Misericordia's 7 Post-Interview Evaluation Criteria and How to Prepare
Official Evaluation Criterion	What to Have Ready to Speak About in Detail (Our Advice)
1. Understanding of the Misericordia University PA Program	Know the 25-month, 105-credit structure, the 2-day clinical callbacks, the final 4-month Summative Evaluation, and the Baloga Hall and Henry Science Center facilities.
2. Self-Awareness of the Role of Physician Assistants in the Healthcare Setting	Explain how PAs practice on collaborative, interprofessional medical teams and how a PA's scope connects to physician collaboration.
3. Patient Care Experience	Prepare 2 or 3 specific patient moments from your 500+ hours of hands-on direct patient care, focusing on what you observed, did, and learned.
4. Commitment and Preparation to the PA Profession	Connect your PA shadowing (especially if you met the 10-hour PA Shadowing Advantage), coursework, and clinical hours to why you are ready for a year-round graduate workload.
5. Experience in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion	Bring a real example of working with or advocating for people from different backgrounds, cultures, or underserved groups, tying directly to Goal I of the program.
6. Good Communication Skills	Answer the question asked concisely, listen without interrupting, and explain clinical or personal experiences in plain language.
7. Maturity, Professionalism, and Integrity	Have a story ready where you owned a mistake, handled a disagreement with a peer or supervisor calmly, or protected patient safety under stress.

Mission, goals, and curriculum details to know

Criterion 1 tests whether you know Misericordia's program. Start with the mission statement word for word: "The Misericordia University Physician Assistant Program strives to attract intellectually talented and caring students who will be educationally transformed and mentored to become competent and compassionate Physician Assistants."

Misericordia University was founded by the Sisters of Mercy. The PA program pairs that compassionate ethos with 4 measurable goals. Goal I is recruiting qualified applicants who have experience with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Goal II is delivering a curriculum that ensures entry-level clinical knowledge and skills. Goal III is retaining and graduating at least 92% of matriculated students. Goal IV is achieving a first-time PANCE passage rate of 90% or better. The program holds ARC-PA Accreditation-Continued status, with its next validation review scheduled for September 2032.

When faculty ask why you chose Misericordia or what you know about the curriculum, refer to specific parts of the 25-month plan:

Didactic phase (12 months, 55 credits): 22 medical and clinical science courses taught face to face in Baloga Hall, which houses a dedicated PA classroom, an open-floor-plan physical assessment and procedural skills lab with 11 examination areas, 4 private OSCE rooms, and a student study area.
Gross anatomy cadaver lab: located right next door in the Frank M. and Dorothea Henry Science Center, featuring multiple full cadaver stations for direct student participation plus a virtual dissection table.
Clinical phase (13 months, 50 credits): 8 supervised 6-week clinical rotations across Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Surgery, Women's Health, Emergency Medicine, and an Elective.
2-day callbacks and Summative Evaluation: after every 6-week rotation, students return to campus for 2 days of end-of-rotation exams, student presentations, lectures, and PANCE prep. In the final 4 months, students complete the Summative Evaluation course, including a 5-week final course where pairs write an evidence-based medicine research paper and give a professional presentation.

Misericordia PA interview questions and example answers

We wrote the practice questions below to cover all 7 of the program's official evaluation criteria, its mission, and its curriculum. For more prompts, see our guide to PA school interview questions and our PA school mock interview hub.

1. Didactic and clinical facilities: How will learning in Baloga Hall's 11-station skills lab and the Henry Science Center cadaver lab support the way you study?
2. Clinical callbacks: During the clinical year, you return to Dallas for 2-day callbacks after every 6-week rotation. How do you think those callbacks will help you transition from student to practicing PA?
3. Mission fit: Our mission talks about mentoring caring students to become competent and compassionate PAs. Tell me about a mentor who changed how you care for people.
4. Interprofessional collaboration: Walk me through a moment from your shadowing or clinical work when you saw a PA collaborate with a physician or another team member. What made that partnership work?
5. Explaining the PA role: A patient tells you they want to wait to see the "real doctor" instead of a PA. How do you respond in the room?
6. Patient care experience (Criterion 3): Tell me about 1 patient encounter from your direct patient care hours that tested your clinical judgment or emotional stamina. Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "On a night shift as a CNA on a telemetry floor, I went in to take routine vitals on a 72-year-old man recovering from a hip replacement. His blood pressure and heart rate were within normal limits, so on paper he looked fine. But he was usually chatty about his grandkids, and that night he was staring at the ceiling and answering in 1-word whispers. Instead of just charting the vitals and moving on to my other 10 patients, I stayed for 2 minutes to ask how his breathing felt and checked his pulse oximetry again while he sat up. It dropped to 89%. I immediately paged his nurse, and a stat CT scan showed a pulmonary embolism. That night taught me that hands-on patient care is about noticing a change from a patient's baseline, not just reading numbers off a monitor."
7. Commitment and preparation: Misericordia's PA program runs 25 months year-round with 22 courses in the first year alone. What in your background shows you are ready for that pace?
8. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (Criterion 5, Goal I): Describe an experience you have had with diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how it shapes the way you will treat patients. Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented: "While working as a medical assistant at a family practice clinic in Scranton, I noticed that several of our older Nepali-speaking patients were nodding through discharge instructions when a family member interpreted, then returning 2 weeks later with their blood pressure medication taken incorrectly. I asked our practice manager if we could make the tablet video interpreter the default at intake rather than waiting for the provider to request it. Once we started rolling the iPad in during vitals, patients began asking questions they had held back in front of their adult children, including questions about side effects and pill cost. That experience taught me that inclusion in a clinic is not just being polite. It is removing the quiet friction that stops a patient from speaking up. As a PA student at Misericordia, I want to bring that same habit of checking whether the patient actually has the tools to be heard."
9. Inclusive service: Our program prepares students to provide care that does not exclude any group, race, or culture. Tell me about a time you noticed a barrier keeping someone from getting fair care or service.
10. Communication skills: Explain a medical concept or procedure from your patient care job to me as if I were an anxious family member with no medical background.
11. Maturity, professionalism, and integrity: Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work or in school. Who did you tell, and what did you change afterward?
12. Maturity and stress: Our technical standards mention enduring long hours and differences of opinion with peers or instructors without adverse behavior. Tell me about a disagreement you had on a team and how you handled it.

A preparation plan for Misericordia's interview

Use this 1-week plan to build vocal fluency across all 7 scoring areas before your interview in Dallas.

Day 1 (Audit the 7 criteria): Copy Misericordia's 7 evaluation criteria onto 1 page and list 2 real experiences from your CASPA application under each.
Day 2 (Study the curriculum and facilities): Review the 22 didactic courses, Baloga Hall's 11-station skills lab and 4 OSCE rooms, the Henry Science Center cadaver lab, and the 8 6-week rotations.
Day 3 (Drill Criteria 1, 2, and 4): Practice your answers on why PA, why Misericordia, and how your shadowing and coursework prepared you, keeping each answer focused and concise.
Day 4 (Drill Criteria 3 and 5): Record yourself answering 2 questions on direct patient care and 2 on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Check that you told a specific story.
Day 5 (Drill Criteria 6 and 7): Have a partner or AI interviewer ask you professionalism and mistake questions with unscripted follow-ups.
Day 6 (Prepare Q&A questions and travel): Write 3 questions for the opening overview Q&A session and check your route to 301 Lake Street in Dallas, PA.
Day 7 (Light review): Read your CASPA personal statement and experience descriptions once so your dates and hours are fresh, then rest.

Admissions requirements, prerequisites, and tuition (2026-2027)

Show details

Misericordia screens every verified CASPA application against strict minimums before considering you for an interview. If you are comparing rules across programs, see our guide to PA school requirements. Beyond the minimums, Misericordia awards higher initial scoring points for higher cumulative and science GPAs, higher prerequisite grades, more direct patient care hours, and letters from PAs, MDs, DOs, and NPs (middle scores go to professors, other healthcare professionals, and supervisors, and lowest scores go to personal references or friends). Formal scoring advantages go to Misericordia bachelor's or master's degree holders, active duty reserve or U.S. Military Veterans, and applicants who report at least 10 hours under "PA Shadowing Experience" in CASPA.

Across 7 terms (semesters), direct billed charges are $14,750 in tuition, $1,050 in University General Fees, and $1,745 in PA Program Fees per term, which by our calculation from the Full Program Tuition and Fees table equals $17,545 in billed tuition and fees per term ($122,815 total billed across 7 terms: $103,250 tuition, $7,350 general fees, and $12,215 PA program fees). Adding $54,650 in estimated unbilled costs brings the estimated total cost of enrollment to $177,465. The PA Program Fee covers AAPA/PSPA memberships, clinical-year conference attendance, the cadaver lab fee, and the clinical skills lab. It also covers PACKRAT, PAEA Exam Box, PANCE prep, ExamSoft, Osmosis, Rosh Review, Access Medicine, and Sentinel U. In addition, it pays for your white coat and name tags, scrubs, OSCE assessment (GCSOM Sim Lab fee), ACLS/BLS, malpractice insurance, HIPAA/OSHA training, the clinical experience fee, and the program ceremony. Students also pay a $36 annual Exxat account fee over 3 years and an estimated $600 ($900 in NY state) over 3 years for annual background checks, fingerprinting, and drug screens.

Misericordia PA Admissions Requirements & Prerequisite Rules (2026-2027 Cycle)
Requirement	Official Rule and Source Detail
Degree and GPAs	Bachelor's or graduate degree from a regionally accredited institution prior to matriculation. Minimum 3.2 overall GPA and 3.2 science GPA on a 4.0 scale (all science course grades, including repeats, are included in the undergraduate science GPA).
Prerequisite rules	Letter grade of "B" or higher required in every prerequisite (Pass/Fail is not accepted. Any "C" or lower disqualifies you for that cycle. Each prerequisite may be repeated once). Completed within 10 years of entry. Maximum 2 in progress or planned when applying.
Required courses (22 credits)	Anatomy & Physiology I with lab (4 cr), Anatomy & Physiology II with lab (4 cr), Microbiology with lab (4 cr), Biochemistry (3 cr, lab not required), Genetics (3 cr, lab not required), Statistics (3 cr), and Medical Terminology (1 cr, letter grade required).
Direct Patient Care Experience	Minimum 500 hours of hands-on patient contact reported in CASPA under "Direct Patient Care Experience" (e.g., CNA, MA, LPN, RN, Phlebotomist, PT/PTA, OT/OTA, Medical Scribe, EMT, Paramedic, and Pharmacy/X-Ray/Ultrasound/Surgical Tech).
Letters and TOEFL	2 letters required in CASPA. TOEFL iBT (if English is not native/primary home language): minimum 80 total (20 per section) before Jan 21, 2026, or 5.5 total (5.5 per section) on or after Jan 21, 2026.
Advanced placement	Never granted. No advanced standing or special consideration for prior coursework or degrees.

Practice the Misericordia PA interview out loud

Confetto lets you practice individual PA faculty interviews out loud, asks follow-up questions based on your actual answers, and gives rubric-based feedback so you can tighten your stories before you drive to Dallas. Start your free week.

Practice question

What stands out to you about the Misericordia University PA program curriculum, and why do you want to train here in Dallas?

See an example answer

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented. "Two things drew me to Misericordia: the small class of 25 students and how closely faculty stay involved during the clinical year. Working as a medical assistant in a busy orthopedic clinic, I learned fastest when a PA watched me do a physical exam and gave immediate feedback. Having a 25-student cohort in Baloga Hall's 11-bay skills lab and 4 OSCE rooms, with the cadaver lab right next door in the Henry Science Center, means you cannot hide in the back row during those 22 didactic courses. I also really value the 2-day callbacks after each of the 8 6-week rotations. Instead of going out on clerkships for 13 months and feeling disconnected from campus, coming back to Dallas after every rotation for end-of-rotation exams, presentations, and PANCE prep keeps the whole cohort learning together right up to the 4-month Summative Evaluation."

It directly satisfies Criterion 1 of Misericordia's published interview rubric (Understanding of the Misericordia University PA Program) by connecting a real personal learning habit to specific program facts: the 25-student cohort, Baloga Hall's skills and OSCE rooms, the Henry Science Center cadaver lab, the 22 didactic courses, and the 2-day clinical callbacks.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Misericordia University PA program interview format?

Misericordia holds an on-campus interview day in Dallas, Pennsylvania, featuring a welcome and program overview with Q&A time, an individual interview with PA faculty, and a tour of the PA facilities. Faculty score applicants across 7 published criteria, including understanding of the program, PA role self-awareness, patient care experience, and experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

What are the GPA and patient care hour requirements for the Misericordia PA program?

You need a minimum CASPA-calculated overall GPA of 3.2 and science GPA of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, plus at least 500 hours of hands-on direct patient care experience. Every prerequisite course must be completed within the last 10 years with a letter grade of "B" or higher, and any "C" grade or lower disqualifies you for that cycle.

Does the Misericordia PA program require the GRE, MCAT, or a secondary application?

No. Misericordia states on its Admission Requirements page that GRE, GMAT, and MCAT examinations are not needed for entry, and no secondary application is required beyond your verified CASPA application.

When is the Misericordia University PA program application deadline?

For the 2026-2027 admission cycle (Cohort 2029, matriculating in July 2027), the CASPA cycle opens April 30, 2026 and closes April 1, 2027. Because the program uses rolling admissions to fill its 25 seats, applying early in the cycle gives you the best chance at an interview slot.

How much is Misericordia University PA program tuition and what is the PANCE pass rate goal?

Total billed tuition and fees across the 7 semesters are $122,815 ($103,250 tuition, $7,350 general fees, and $12,215 PA program fees), and the estimated total cost of enrollment including living expenses is $177,465. Under Goal IV of its published program goals, Misericordia targets a first-time PANCE passage rate of 90% or better and links its current NCCPA 5-Year First-Time Taker Summary Report on its website.

Sources

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