Pre-Pharmacy at Augustana

There has never been a better time for students to consider a career in pharmacy. The demand for trained pharmacy professionals has increased dramatically in recent years due to the rapid growth of the health and pharmaceutical industries, especially for the growing elderly population. The number of pharmacists in health care services is also increasing as pharmacists become more actively involved in drug therapy decision-making for patients of all ages. The Pharm.D. degree program requires at least 2-years of specific pre-professional coursework at the undergraduate level followed by four academic years of professional study. The majority of first-year students enter a pharmacy program with three or four years of college experience.

SPECIAL NOTES:

• Most pharmacy schools will require the applicant to submit a single application to the centralized application service called PharmCAS, an organization that collates and disseminates the applicants' materials and transcripts to all designated pharmacy programs - this services begins for the 2003 applicants applying to the 2004 entering class. Go to the website for PharmCAS for a description of their services.
• The requirements for admission into a pharmacy program vary. Admission requirements for all U.S. pharmacy programs appear in the AACP guidebook, Pharmacy School Admission Requirements; visit the AACP website for a copy, or for links to all U.S programs.
• Students are typically encouraged to have an 80% or above ranking in each of the PCAT exam sections to be a competitive applicant.
• Augustana has an articulation agreement with UIC's pharmacy program (See below). You do not get an Augustana degree, but transfer into UIC's pharmacy program at the end of your second year. In the end, you get a degree from UIC.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy

Recommended Pre-Pharmacy Curriculum:

General Chemistry, with lab (8 semester hours minimum)

Chemistry 121, 122 and 123 or 200 or 225

Organic Chemistry with lab (8 semester hours minimum)

Chemistry 311, 312, and 313

Calculus (3 semester hours minimum)

Mathematics 219

General Biology, with lab (8 semester hours minimum)

Biology 210 (Cell Biology),
Biology 220 (General Botany)
Biology 230 (Vertebrate Zoology).
Note: For students planning to complete three or four years at Augustana, useful electives are Biology 343 (Microbiology), Biology 364 (Physiology I), Biology 370 (Genetics), and Chemistry 411 (Biochemistry).

Human Anatomy (4 semester hours minimum)

Biology 255 (Human Anatomy)
Plus Biology 356 (Developmental Anatomy)
or Biology 358 (Neuroanatomy)
or Biology 455 (Cadaver Dissection)

Physics, with lab (minimum 8 semester hours)

Physics 101, 102, 103 or 201, 202, 203

General Education: must have one course (3 semester hours) in each of the following areas. One of the courses must be cross-cultural (G or D suffix) to fulfill UIC's cultural diversity requirement.

Written and Speech Communications (8 semester hours minimum): English 101 and Speech 101 plus 3 additional credit hours (i.e., EN 201, 202, or 208)
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Economics or Finance (Economics 201 (Macroeconomics)
or Economics 202 (Microeconomics)
Humanities
Elective

Academic Schedule for Pre-Pharmacy

(2 year Non-Degreed Option with UIC)

Note: This program does not confer an Augustana degree, but allows the student to get all pre-pharmacy requirements completed in two years; summer school can be taken to help facilitate meeting these overall requirements in two years.

First Year

Second Year

Comments:

• Finish year with 60+ credits (62+ optimal)
• Take PCAT