Can’t find a PA to shadow? You’re in good company — shadowing opportunities dried up for many applicants in recent years, and plenty of hopeful PAs live hours from the nearest willing preceptor. The good news: many accredited PA programs don’t require shadowing at all, and this page tracks exactly which ones, live.
Live snapshot (Sep 22, 2026): 52 PA programs do not require shadowing, 170 recommend it without requiring it, and 61 require it.
Not required still doesn’t mean worthless
Even where it isn’t required, shadowing remains one of the best ways to confirm this career is right for you — and to say so convincingly in your personal statement and interviews. If you can get even a day or two alongside a PA, take it. If you truly can’t, programs on this list won’t hold it against you; strong patient care experience and a clear-eyed understanding of the PA role can carry that weight.
One distinction that trips up more applicants than almost anything: shadowing is not patient care experience (PCE). Shadowing is observation; PCE is hands-on care you’re paid or credentialed to provide. Programs count them separately, and no amount of shadowing substitutes for required PCE hours.
This list updates itself
Most “cheapest/best/lowest” PA school posts were true the day they were written and quietly wrong a year later. This one is different: the list above is generated live from the PA School Finder directory every time the page loads. Program details are verified from each program’s own official pages and CASPA, and accreditation status is checked against the ARC-PA weekly — so the rankings, counts, and figures you see are current as of today, not the day this post was published.
Build your full school list
One data point never makes a school list. Combine this with state, GPA, patient care hours, deadlines, and PANCE pass rates using the free PA Program Match tool — or paste your stats into PA Program Match AI for a free competitiveness score and a personalized read on where you stand.
