AASU PRE-PHARMACY PROGRAM

Advisor’s Notes

3-in-1 Advisement (Preparing the student to apply to all three Georgia schools):

If a student fulfills the UGA pre-pharmacy requirements plus PHYS 1111, ENGL 2100, BIOL 2081 and BIOL 2082 and PSYC 1101, then he/she will have fulfilled the pre-pharmacy requirements for all three Georgia schools.

Timing and Strategy:

Applications should be made in late summer or early fall of the year before the student plans to begin pharmacy school.  Pre-pharmacy students should apply to several pharmacy schools to maximize their likelihood of being accepted.  There are 90 schools of pharmacy in the U.S.  Students are encouraged to apply to any pharmacy school they would be willing to attend.  A list of the pharmacy schools by state can be found at www.aacp.org (the website of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy).  Pharmacy schools only admit new classes once a year so having to wait a year to re-apply costs one year's salary (which is about $80,000).  Try not to worry about tuition costs when deciding where to apply.  There are many sources of funding open to students in professional programs--especially one that is in high demand like pharmacy.  Grants, low-interest government loans, traditional loans, scholarships, agreements to work for pharmaceutical corporations and/or health systems are some of the ways you can cover the costs of going to pharmacy school.  Apply and get in and THEN worry about paying for it.

Georgia Pharmacy School Admission Criteria:

Acceptance to pharmacy school is based on your GPA, your scores on the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) and experience in a pharmacy. 

The three Georgia pharmacy schools calculate the student's GPA in different ways:

UGA calculates the GPA from the pre-pharmacy courses only.  All grades for a repeated required course are included in the computation.  If more than one course may fulfill a requirement (for example, HIST 2111 or 2112 fulfills the American History requirement), only the course with the higher grade is included in the computation.

Mercer calculates the cumulative GPA including all college work.

South calculates three GPAs:  one is the pre-pharmacy GPA which includes only the pre-pharmacy courses, the second is the science GPA which includes all the math/science courses and the third is the cumulative GPA.

Pre-pharmacy students should take the PCAT during the fall prior to the fall they wish to begin pharmacy school.  Information about the PCAT can be found at www.pcatweb.info.