2017 Student Applications, Enrollments and Degrees Conferred are now available from the AACP!

[Kevin.Mero]

Pharmacy Student Tipping Point Accelerating / Every Metric DOWN Except Attrition Rate - Highest EVER

Profile
2017 - 6,600 faculty, 63,800 students enrolled in professional programs, and 5,8000 individuals pursuing graduate study.

Fall Enrollments
2017 - 63,087 students were enrolled in the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.1) as the first professional degree programs, 0.8% decrease from fall 2016

Number of accredited U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy
2017 - 142 (140 submitted data) / Accredited 138 (Full or Candidate Status) / Pre-candidate Status 4

Applications
2017 - 72,941 7.06% Decrease over 2016 AND 4 More Schools since 2016! Applications submitted to first professional degree programs at schools and colleges of pharmacy.
2016 - 78,514 2.53% Increase over 2015 BUT 4 More Schools since 2015! Applications submitted to first professional degree programs at schools and colleges of pharmacy.
2015 - 76,525 10.7% Decrease! Applications received by colleges and schools of pharmacy for every one entering student enrolled is no longer being tracked and/or published.

Enrollment (Enrollments in all professional years decreased 0.8%; however, the number of first professional year enrollments decreased another 0.7% after 2016's 1.5% decrease.)
2017 - 14,502 Degrees Conferred, 0.0372% decrease. Tipping point reached!

Attrition rate
2017 - 12.1% The attrition rate includes academic dismissals, student withdrawals, and delayed graduations. Increasing for the last 15+ years from near zero in early 2000’s!

Pharm.D. degrees conferred to individuals already holding a professional baccalaureate in pharmacy
2017 - 217 Decreased by 33.5% from 2016-17

Number of individuals enrolled in postbaccalaureate Pharm.D. Decreasing over last 6 years!
2017 - 773 The number of individuals enrolled in postbaccalaureate Pharm.D. 2 programs decreased by another 8.0% to 773 from 840 enrolled in fall 2016.

M.S. degrees conferred Decreased 6.0 percent in 2016-17!
2017 - 962 The number of M.S. degrees conferred decreased 6.0 percent in 2016-17 and the number of Ph.D. degrees conferred (n=537) decreased 1.8 percent.

First professional degrees conferred No significant change
2017 - 61.9% Women & 38.1% Men

AACP PROFILE OF PHARMACY STUDENTS FALL 2017
Student Applications, Enrollments and Degrees Conferred

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[PharmtoCS]

Now we just need to wait for the number of degrees conferred each year to drop by about half for us to each equilibrium. There are still 4 schools or so in California that just graduated or will soon graduate their first classes.

To pre-pharms: I wouldn’t hold your breath on expecting the market to get better. The market can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent with $200k+ in loans that accrue at 5%+ interest each year.

 

[Kevin.Mero]

Now we just need to wait for the number of degrees conferred each year to drop by about half for us to each equilibrium. There are still 4 schools or so in California that just graduated or will soon graduate their first classes.

To pre-pharms: I wouldn’t hold your breath on expecting the market to get better. The market can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent with $200k+ in loans that accrue at 5%+ interest each year.

I definitely agree that the # of degrees conferred needs to drop, and quickly, but it may not have to drop by even 50% to reach equilibrium. The problem though is that 1. no one knows what that # should be, and 2. we know there are 4 schools in pre-candidate status and who knows how many schools still waiting to reach pre-candidate status? Pharmacy employment was so stable for so long but now everything seems to be in a state of flux!!