Every pre-PA applicant should know what the top of the market looks like — whether you’re budgeting, comparing offers, or deciding if a private program’s price tag is worth it. Here is every accredited PA program with published tuition, ranked most expensive first, straight from each program’s own cost page.
Live snapshot (Jul 16, 2026): 333 PA programs publish total resident tuition — median $103,740, ranging from $21,360 to $221,361 (plus the tuition-free military Interservice program).
Is an expensive program worth it?
Sometimes — but never on prestige alone. Tuition does not predict PANCE performance, and every graduate sits for the same boards and earns the same credential. Before paying a premium, click into the program’s profile and check its pass rates, attrition, rotation sites, and location costs. A higher price is only worth it when it buys something you can name.
Figures are total resident program tuition; fees and cost of living come on top, and nonresident totals often differ. Programs that don’t publish a clear total are excluded rather than guessed.
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.
