Online Microbiology with Lab for PA School Applications- a complete guide to completing the second-most-weighted PA prerequisite online — covering CASPA acceptance, the home microbiology lab kit, course content, and how to fit Microbiology into a working applicant’s schedule.
Microbiology with lab is one of the most consistently required prerequisites in the entire CASPA application. Required by approximately 85% of CASPA-participating PA programs — and weighted second only to Anatomy & Physiology in admissions screening — it is also one of the prerequisites pre-PA applicants most often need to take fresh after their undergraduate years. Few non-science degrees include microbiology, few science degrees from more than five years ago survive PA recency rules, and few CASPA reapplicants emerge from a first cycle without considering whether to retake it for GPA repair.
The good news is that online Microbiology with lab is now accepted at the overwhelming majority of CASPA programs when taken at a regionally accredited US institution. The post-2020 shift in PA program policies cemented online microbiology as a viable path, and home microbiology lab kits have evolved to a point where the hands-on work — sterile technique, gram staining, culturing on differential media, biochemical identification — closely mirrors traditional university lab work.
This guide walks through everything you need to know: why microbiology matters in PA admissions, what the course actually covers, what the home lab kit contains and how the lab work is conducted, which programs accept the online format, the realistic time commitment for a working applicant, the cost landscape, and how to study microbiology effectively. Whether you are a career changer taking microbiology for the first time, a reapplicant retaking it to raise your prereq GPA, or a refresh-stage applicant whose original microbiology expired under program recency rules, the details below are written for your scenario.
| In this guideWhy microbiology is heavily weighted in PA admissionsWhat online microbiology with lab actually coversHow the home microbiology lab kit worksWhich PA programs accept online microbiologyTime commitment and realistic paceCost comparison across providersStudy strategies for earning an AHow PrereqCourses delivers Microbiology with lab |
Microbiology is the second-most-weighted prerequisite at most PA programs, behind only A&P. Admissions committees treat it as a critical signal for several reasons, all of which compound during application review.
Every PA program teaches infectious disease as a major component of the first-year curriculum — bacterial pathogenesis, antimicrobial pharmacology, common infections by body system, opportunistic infections, antibiotic stewardship. A student who arrives at PA school without a strong microbiology foundation faces a steep climb in the first six weeks of school, exactly when other demanding courses are simultaneously ramping up.
Admissions readers know this. Your microbiology grade is read as a direct readiness signal for infectious disease coursework. A strong grade says you can handle it; a C or below raises a real concern.
Of all PA prerequisites, microbiology is the one whose vocabulary and concepts most directly appear in clinical practice. PAs working in any specialty — primary care, emergency medicine, internal medicine, surgery, dermatology, infectious disease itself — encounter microbiology terminology daily. Culture results, sensitivity panels, antibiotic selection, and infection prevention all draw on microbiology fundamentals.
This direct clinical relevance makes microbiology one of the few prerequisites that programs evaluate not just as academic preparation but as professional preparation. The grade carries weight beyond GPA arithmetic.
Microbiology is typically a 4-credit course (3 lecture + 1 lab) at most regionally accredited US institutions, which means it carries roughly the same weight in prereq GPA calculations as a single semester of A&P. A C in microbiology drops your prereq GPA noticeably; an A raises it noticeably. The credit weight, combined with the screening importance, makes microbiology one of the highest-leverage grades on your transcript.
| The microbiology principle. If you have ever struggled with a science course, microbiology is the one to plan around. Admissions committees read it as a direct clinical readiness signal, and a low microbiology grade is the kind of red flag that prompts a closer review of the rest of your application. Plan to invest the time and attention needed to earn an A, even if that means slowing down other prerequisites or shifting your timeline by a few weeks. |
Microbiology is a one-semester course in most PA prerequisite contexts (a few programs require a year-long sequence, but this is the exception). The topic coverage is consistent across regionally accredited US institutions, including the version offered through PrereqCourses.com and Upper Iowa University.
Standard microbiology lecture coverage includes:
Microbiology lecture is conceptually demanding in a different way than A&P. Where A&P is vocabulary-heavy and structure-focused, microbiology is concept-heavy and process-focused. Many students who excel in A&P find microbiology harder, and vice versa. Plan study strategies accordingly.
Standard microbiology lab coverage includes:
Microbiology home lab kits are more sophisticated than most prospective students expect. The kit is engineered around safety (working with attenuated or non-pathogenic strains only) and around producing the same skill development as a traditional university microbiology lab. Pre-PA applicants who complete the home microbiology lab thoughtfully emerge with the same core competencies their in-person counterparts have.
A typical home microbiology lab kit contains:
The kit is shipped at the start of the course. The bacterial cultures have a limited shelf life, so kits are designed to align with the course pacing — typically the bulk of lab work happens within an 8–12 week window after the kit arrives.
Online microbiology labs combine four components:
| The gram stain matters more than anything else in the lab. If you take away one technical skill from microbiology, it is the gram stain. PAs interpret gram stain results almost daily in clinical practice — gram-positive cocci in clusters suggests Staphylococcus; gram-negative rods in a urinary sample suggests E. coli or related Enterobacteriaceae. Master the gram stain procedure and interpretation in the home lab. Programs do not test the home-vs-campus origin of your lab skills, but PA school will test whether you know what a gram stain tells you. |
Approximately 85% of CASPA-participating PA programs accept online Microbiology with lab when the course is taken at a regionally accredited US institution. This is a strong acceptance rate — only A&P online (~90%+) and General Biology online (~90%) are higher among the lab sciences.
The 15% of programs that do not accept online microbiology fall into two camps: programs that require all lab sciences to be completed in person (the smaller group), and programs whose policy is unclear or pre-dates the post-2020 online lab acceptance shift. For broader context on PA online prerequisite acceptance, see our pillar guide on can you take PA school prerequisites online.
Before enrolling in any online microbiology course, verify acceptance at the specific PA programs you plan to apply to:
Programs that accept online microbiology apply consistent structural requirements:
The PrereqCourses.com version of Microbiology is structured around all four requirements. The course is delivered through Upper Iowa University (HLC regionally accredited), is 4 credit hours including lab, ships with a physical home lab kit, and produces an official UIU transcript with a letter grade.
Microbiology is a 4-credit course, structurally similar to A&P I or General Chemistry I in time demand. The realistic completion time depends on how many hours per week you can dedicate to the course.
| Weekly Hours | Completion Time | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| 10–12 hours/week | 14–16 weeks | Full-time workers; standard semester pace |
| 15–18 hours/week | 10–12 weeks | Part-time workers; balanced pace |
| 20–25 hours/week | 7–9 weeks | Reapplicants on a CASPA deadline |
| 30+ hours/week (full-time) | 5–6 weeks | Refresh-stage gap year; aggressive timeline |
Microbiology has one pacing constraint that A&P and chemistry do not: the cultures take time to grow. A streak plate inoculated on Monday is not readable until Wednesday or Thursday. A 48-hour culture cannot be sped up. This means microbiology cannot be compressed quite as aggressively as A&P at the very fastest end of the pacing spectrum — even the most motivated student needs roughly 5–6 weeks minimum because of biological growth time.
For most working applicants, this constraint is irrelevant — you are pacing at 10–18 hours per week anyway, and the cultures grow during your work hours and family time. But applicants planning the absolute fastest possible completion should plan for biological pacing constraints, not just calendar ones.
Microbiology is conceptually independent of A&P — it does not technically require A&P as a prerequisite. Some students take microbiology before A&P, some after, some in parallel.
Recommended sequence for most pre-PA applicants: take A&P I first, then either microbiology in parallel with A&P II or microbiology immediately after A&P II. The reason is that microbiology becomes far more clinically meaningful once you have the body-system context A&P provides — gram-positive cocci in the bloodstream means more once you know what the bloodstream is doing, and antibiotic sensitivity panels make more sense once you understand renal physiology and drug clearance.
Microbiology is typically the second-largest single line item in a PA prerequisite budget (behind only A&P I + II combined). Cost varies dramatically by provider.
| Provider | Per Course (4 cr) | Lab Kit | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-state community college | $600–$900 | Often + $150–$300 | $750–$1,200 |
| Out-of-state community college (online) | $1,200–$2,000 | Often + $150–$300 | $1,350–$2,300 |
| Public four-year university | $1,600–$3,000 | Sometimes + $200 | $1,600–$3,200 |
| Post-baccalaureate program | $3,200–$6,000 | Usually included | $3,200–$6,000 |
| PrereqCourses.com | $675–$695 | Included | $675–$695 |
The lab kit fee is easy to overlook when comparing per-credit pricing at community colleges and universities. Microbiology lab kits typically run $150–$300 separately when the institution does not include them in tuition — closing much of the apparent price gap with self-paced online providers that include the kit in the course price. For PrereqCourses, the kit is included.
Microbiology rewards a specific set of study practices that differ from those that work for A&P. The vocabulary load is large but smaller than A&P; the conceptual content is heavier; the lab work is more procedurally complex. Students who earn As in microbiology tend to share several habits.
Microbiology exams typically test your ability to identify the organism responsible for a clinical scenario, choose appropriate antibiotics, and explain the mechanism of pathogenesis. The information is testable, but only if you can find it fast. Build a one-page reference sheet for each pathogen as you learn it — including gram stain morphology, distinguishing biochemical tests, diseases caused, typical treatment, and any clinical pearls. Reviewing 30 of these one-page sheets is dramatically more efficient than re-reading textbook chapters.
Microbiology lecture is abstract — bacterial growth curves, biochemical pathways, immune mechanisms. The lab is where these abstractions become concrete. Gram staining a culture, watching it change color, examining the bacteria under the microscope, then plating it on selective media and reading the result two days later — this sequence integrates lecture content in a way no amount of reading can. Take the lab seriously not because it is required, but because it is the most efficient learning environment in the course.
Gram stain morphology — gram-positive cocci, gram-negative rods, gram-negative cocci, gram-positive rods — is the foundation of clinical microbiology. Most microbiology exam questions begin with a gram stain finding and ask you to narrow the differential. Build flashcards for the major pathogens in each category and review them daily. By the final exam, you should be able to name the top three pathogens in each gram stain category without thinking.
PA programs explicitly read your microbiology grade as a clinical readiness signal. Strengthen that connection in your own studying by treating each pathogen as a clinical scenario rather than as an isolated organism. Streptococcus pneumoniae is not just “gram-positive diplococci, alpha-hemolytic” — it is also “the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia in adults,” and it has “increasing penicillin resistance, treated with macrolides or amoxicillin.” The clinical framing both improves retention and prepares you for exam questions that test clinical application.
Most microbiology courses include a 4–6 hour module on antimicrobial agents — beta-lactams, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, and so on, with their mechanisms, spectrum, and key adverse effects. This is dense material that is easy to lose if not reviewed. Study it carefully once when it is introduced, then review the antibiotic table for 15–20 minutes per week through the rest of the course. The cumulative effect is decisive on the final exam, where antibiotic questions are usually heavily represented.
| The microbiology vs. A&P contrast. Students who excel in A&P sometimes struggle in microbiology, and vice versa. A&P rewards memorization with structure; microbiology rewards conceptual understanding with clinical application. If you are coming off a strong A&P performance and feeling overconfident, plan to put in more study time on microbiology than you did on A&P. If you struggled with A&P vocabulary load, microbiology may actually feel easier because the volume is smaller and the concepts are more clinically intuitive. |
PrereqCourses.com delivers Microbiology through Upper Iowa University — a Higher Learning Commission–accredited regional university. Every structural element of the course is built to satisfy what PA programs require.
Microbiology is priced between $675 and $695 — competitive with in-state community college (and dramatically cheaper than community college when you factor in separate lab kit fees), substantially less than a public four-year university, and a fraction of post-baccalaureate program pricing. The lab kit is included in the course fee, with no separate charges.
Enroll directly:
The course page includes the official Upper Iowa University course code, syllabus overview, lab kit contents list, completion timeline, and the CASPA prerequisite category the course satisfies.
Yes, the overwhelming majority do. Approximately 85% of CASPA-participating PA programs accept online Microbiology with lab from a regionally accredited US institution. CASPA does not distinguish online from in-person coursework on the transcript, and home microbiology lab kits are now structurally mature and widely accepted.
Yes, at the overwhelming majority of programs. Home microbiology kits include pre-poured agar plates, non-pathogenic bacterial cultures, staining reagents, a microscope, an incubation method, and antimicrobial sensitivity disks. Students perform real culturing, real gram stains, real biochemical tests, and real Kirby-Bauer testing. The lab transcribes identically to an in-person microbiology lab.
Most PA programs require a 4-credit microbiology course (3 lecture + 1 lab). Lower-credit microbiology — including 3-credit microbiology without lab, or microbiology offered as a 1-credit lab attached to a general biology course — is not typically accepted as fulfilling the prerequisite. Verify the credit requirement at your target programs before enrolling.
After A&P I, ideally. Microbiology is technically independent of A&P, but the clinical context A&P provides makes microbiology much more meaningful and easier to retain. Most pre-PA applicants take A&P I first, then either microbiology in parallel with A&P II or microbiology immediately after A&P II.
Self-paced online microbiology can be completed in 6–9 weeks at an accelerated pace (20–25 hours/week), or 12–16 weeks at a standard pace (10–12 hours/week). The biological growth time for cultures creates a minimum floor of roughly 5–6 weeks even at the most aggressive paces.
The content is identical and the difficulty is comparable. The structural difference is that online microbiology requires more self-direction, since you set your own pace and are not on a fixed semester schedule. Students who are good at managing their own time often perform better online than in-person; students who rely on classroom structure may prefer in-person.
The cultures in home microbiology kits are non-pathogenic or attenuated strains. The kit includes full PPE (gloves, surface disinfectant) and detailed safety protocols, including disposal procedures. Hundreds of thousands of students have completed home microbiology labs without safety incidents. Students who work in healthcare typically find the kit substantially safer than the clinical environments they encounter daily.
The gram stain is a four-step staining procedure that classifies bacteria as either gram-positive (purple) or gram-negative (pink) based on cell wall structure. It is the single most important technique in clinical microbiology because the gram stain result immediately narrows the differential diagnosis of an infection and guides initial antibiotic selection. Mastering gram staining in your microbiology course pays dividends through PA school and clinical practice.
Yes, in roughly half of CASPA-participating programs. Microbiology is one of the lab sciences most consistently subject to recency rules — typically a 5-, 7-, or 10-year requirement. If your original microbiology coursework is more than five years old, check each target program’s recency policy. Most refresh-stage applicants need to retake microbiology if any of their target programs has a recency rule. See our PA prerequisite refresh guide for details.
Sometimes. BSN microbiology courses are typically 3-credit lecture-and-lab courses, which may or may not satisfy the 4-credit requirement many PA programs apply. Some programs accept BSN microbiology; some require the more rigorous 4-credit version. Nurses moving toward PA practice should verify each target program’s exact microbiology requirement — see our RN to PA transition guide for the full landscape.
Microbiology is the second-most-weighted prerequisite on a PA school application, behind only A&P. It is required by approximately 85% of CASPA-participating PA programs, weighted heavily in admissions screening, and read as a direct readiness signal for first-year infectious disease coursework and for clinical practice itself. A strong microbiology grade is one of the most useful single signals you can put on your application.
Online microbiology with lab is now accepted at approximately 85% of CASPA programs — making it a structurally optimal choice for working pre-PA applicants who need to fit a 4-credit lab science into a schedule that does not accommodate semester-based campus attendance. The home microbiology lab kit, with non-pathogenic cultures, full PPE, and structurally rigorous techniques like gram staining and biochemical identification, satisfies the lab requirement at the overwhelming majority of programs.
| Ready to enroll? Start your microbiology coursework with Microbiology with Lab at PrereqCourses.com. The course is delivered through Upper Iowa University — regionally accredited, lab kit included, self-paced, with rolling enrollment. Most pre-PA applicants complete microbiology in six to twelve weeks, with the cultures growing in the background while they continue other coursework or PCE work. |
Not sure whether your existing microbiology coursework will satisfy your target PA programs? Speak with an academic advisor — we’ll review your transcript, check credit hours against each program’s requirements, and confirm whether you need to retake or can use what you have.
