Background: Student success is the foundation for maintaining programmatic accreditation in all healthcare education programs. There is limited research on admissions criteria and predictors of success in physical therapist assistant education. The goal of this study was to understand the relationship between admissions criteria and student success in a physical therapist assistant program using Tinto's longitudinal model of student departure and Astin's input-environment-output (IEO) college impact model as theoretical foundations. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to address the limited research available in physical therapist assistant education by investigating preadmissions characteristics from a physical therapist assistant program as predictive factors for programmatic and licensure exam success. Methods: This non-experimental observational study used retrospective secondary data collected from student files, transcripts, and the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy website to identify admissions criteria that predicted graduation from an associate degree level physical therapist assistant program. The data collected were categorized as student intrinsic and student extrinsic and subjected to descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses to create two predictive models of student success. Results: The statistical analyses identified two variables, prior academic level and Wonderlic score, that significantly correlate with programmatic success. Additionally, two variables, grit and prior aide experience, correlated significantly with first-time NPTE-PTA passing rate. Conclusions: The core of the success and sustainability of a program is graduate success. When developing admissions criteria for a physical therapist assistant program, an applicant's prior academic level and Wonderlic score can be used to predict programmatic success. Additionally, an applicant's grit score and prior aide experience can be used to predict licensure exam success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]