To become a Pennsylvania State Trooper, you must be at least 20 years old when you apply, a U.S. citizen, and hold a high school diploma or GED. The Pennsylvania State Trooper requirements also include a valid driver’s license, strict vision and fitness standards, a clean background, and completion of an eight-stage selection process followed by roughly 28 weeks of academy training in Hershey. The 60-college-credit rule that gatekept applicants for years was suspended in August 2023, so the diploma-or-GED floor is now the real educational bar.1Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Following Removal of College Credit Requirement, Pennsylvania State Police Sees Jump in Cadet Applications
Who Can Apply
You must be at least 20 years old on or before the date you finish your application, and at least 21 but not yet 40 on the date you are appointed as a cadet.2Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Cadet Eligibility Requirements U.S. citizenship is required at the time you apply.3Pennsylvania State Police. Requirements
Residency is less restrictive than most people assume. You don’t have to live in Pennsylvania when you apply, and you can hold an out-of-state driver’s license at appointment. But you must become a Pennsylvania resident and hold a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license by the time you graduate from the academy.2Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Cadet Eligibility Requirements The license at appointment must be a non-commercial Class C or equivalent.4GovernmentJobs. State Police Cadet – 6025 Selection Cycle
Education is the gate that opened up most recently. Before August 2023, the Pennsylvania State Police required 60 college credits. Governor Shapiro directed PSP to suspend that rule, and applications climbed afterward.1Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Following Removal of College Credit Requirement, Pennsylvania State Police Sees Jump in Cadet Applications A high school diploma or GED is now sufficient, though college coursework still helps on the written exam and in the academy classroom.
Background and Conduct Standards
PSP maintains a list of automatic criminal and personal history disqualifiers but doesn’t publish the specifics.2Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Cadet Eligibility Requirements What the agency does confirm is that substance use within a prescribed time frame, or beyond what PSP considers experimental, is an automatic disqualifier. The exact timeframes aren’t published.3Pennsylvania State Police. Requirements A pattern of traffic violations, license suspensions, or any dishonesty during the hiring process will weigh heavily during the background investigation.
Credibility is central. Every trooper has to be able to testify in court, so a background that raises credibility questions can end a candidacy even without triggering an automatic bar.
Tattoo rules are specific. Nothing can be visible when you wear the department-issued long-sleeve uniform shirt. That means no tattoos on the hands, neck, or face, and nothing showing below the wrist or above the neckline. Content also matters: tattoos depicting extremist imagery, racial or ethnic hatred, sexual content, or anything the department considers detrimental to the PSP mission are prohibited anywhere on the body.5Pennsylvania State Police. Cadet Personal Appearance
Physical and Medical Standards
Vision standards are detailed and strictly enforced. Your stronger eye must be at least 20/70 uncorrected and correctable to 20/20. Your weaker eye must be at least 20/200 uncorrected and correctable to 20/40. You also need normal depth perception and normal color vision, tested by the Farnsworth or Ishihara method.6Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission. MPO-211 Vision Examination Form Hearing must fall within normal limits across standard frequencies, verified by a licensed physician.
The physical readiness test follows MPOETC standards and measures the 30th percentile for your age and gender across four events. For men aged 18 to 29, that’s a 300-meter run in 62.1 seconds or less, 26 push-ups in one minute, 35 sit-ups in one minute, and a 1.5-mile run in 13:16 or less. For women in the same age range, it’s 75 seconds for the 300-meter, 13 push-ups, 30 sit-ups, and a 1.5-mile run in 15:52.7Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Physical Fitness Standards ease for older brackets but never become easy.
The academy adds separate graduation-level fitness standards, including an 18-inch vertical jump and an Illinois Agility Run completed in 19.5 seconds or less. The agility run starts from a prone position and requires sprinting, reversing direction, and weaving through cones in a figure-eight; knock over a cone or miss a turn and you restart.8Pennsylvania State Police. Cadet Physical Readiness Tests Train before you apply. There isn’t much recovery time between selection stages.
The Selection Process
The hiring pipeline has eight stages and they happen in order. Some are months apart; others move quickly once you clear the one before.
Application and Written Exam
You apply through the Commonwealth’s employment portal at employment.pa.gov. Applications can be filed at any point during the calendar year, and eligible candidates receive a notice with the date, time, and location for the written exam.9Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Cadet Selection Procedures The written test is the Law Enforcement Aptitude Battery and runs two hours and 30 minutes. It has three parts: a 48-question multiple-choice Ability Test covering reading comprehension and reasoning, a 66-item Work Styles Questionnaire, and a 44-question Life Experience Survey.10Pennsylvania State Police. PSP Cadet and LEOT Written Examination Prep Guide
Oral Interview
If you pass the written exam, two Pennsylvania State Police members conduct an oral interview. You get about five questions in a prep room with 15 minutes to organize your thoughts, then face those plus roughly four more presented on the spot. The response window runs about 25 minutes total.11Pennsylvania State Police. Cadet Oral Interview Candidate Preparation Guide Panelists score oral communication, interpersonal skills, and your ability to present ideas under pressure. Specific examples from your own experience land harder than generic answers about wanting to help people.
Eligibility List and Veteran Preference
Scores from the qualifying exams establish an eligibility list that ranks all candidates. Veterans who pass the exam get an additional 10 points added to their final score, which can move them substantially up the list.12Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 51 Chapter 71 – Section 7103 Veterans must provide discharge papers or a statement of service before starting the position.
Polygraph, Background, Fitness, Medical, and Psychological Screenings
Candidates are called from the eligibility list for a pre-employment polygraph administered by a certified PSP examiner. The test evaluates truthfulness across all areas of your life.9Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Cadet Selection Procedures A full background investigation follows, covering personal history, family, education, military service, employment, character references, associates, criminal and traffic history, credit, and residency.
Those cleared by the background panel take the physical readiness test. Pass that and PSP issues a conditional offer of employment, after which you complete the medical examination and a psychological evaluation. The psychological screening uses a clinical interview and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2. If results are inconclusive, additional testing may be required at the department’s expense.9Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Cadet Selection Procedures
Academy Training and Cadet Pay
Resident training at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey runs approximately 28 weeks.13Pennsylvania State Police. What To Expect The curriculum covers Pennsylvania crimes and vehicle codes, law enforcement principles and practices, and firearms and special equipment training. Cadets maintain their rooms, personal appearance, and issued equipment to inspection standards, and rotate through duties including kitchen service, kennel and stable maintenance, and staffing the communications desk.14Pennsylvania State Police. Academy Life
Cadets are paid during training at $1,627.20 biweekly before deductions, based on the most recently published rate.15Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. PSP Cadet Position Information Some cadets wash out on fitness, academics, or conduct, so arriving in strong shape with solid study habits matters.
Trooper Salary and Retirement
After graduation, a trooper’s starting base salary is $71,647. It increases each year during the first five years of service, reaching $96,225 in the fifth year. Shift differentials and overtime add to that base.16Pennsylvania State Police. Salary/Benefits
Retirement is administered through the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System. State Police officers with at least 20 years of credited service qualify for a special retirement benefit regardless of age: 50 percent of their highest year’s earnings at 20 to 24 years of service, and 75 percent at 25 or more years.17Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System. Retirement Benefits Available to Pennsylvania State Police Officers That 20-year threshold shapes most trooper career planning, and reaching 25 years raises the pension percentage sharply.