Why Do Pharmacy Schools Have So Many Prerequisites

[Neurotonin]

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I was browsing through some foreign pharmacy graduate programs and noticed that the number of their prerequisite requirements are, for the most part, comparable to medical school prerequisites. Many don't even require Calculus and/or Organic Chemistry. Yet, a lot of American pharmacy schools require up to senior-level prerequisite courses like Microbiology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, etc. Is there really a need for this amount of prerequisites.

A pharmacy student friend showed me what she is currently learning in school and they're exactly similar to many of undergraduate classes I'm currently taking.

 

[Kag01]

In the US we have high standards. Please note that the minimum degree to become a licensed pharmacist in the US is a DOCTORATE.

We also have something called saturation.
In the future schools may be adding even more requirements.

 

[Neurotonin]

What does job saturation have anything to do with prerequisites?

I don't know why or how schools would add more prerequisites seeing as most of them already have every undergraduate classes that are relevant to pharmacy schools as a requirement. I think a couple of schools require Calculus II which my health and science professors found ridiculous.

 

[nutripharma]

What does job saturation have anything to do with prerequisites?

I don't know why or how schools would add more prerequisites seeing as most of them already have every undergraduate classes that are relevant to pharmacy schools as a requirement. I think a couple of schools require Calculus II which my health and science professors found ridiculous.

In order to help the saturation issue, having many difficult yet important prereqs are put in place. A few of the pre-reqs are to weed students out. If they aren't cut for organic chem and physics, they aren't cut for pharmacy. There aren't even that many pre-reqs so I'm not sure what schools you are looking at.

 

[Neurotonin]

Sorry, but I still don't see how prerequisites is involved with job saturation much less help it. From my knowledge, pre-requisites are intended to create a foundation for courses encountered in pharmacy school. I'm sure organic chemistry and physics are not primarily intended to just weed students out, they must be relevant to every schools' curriculum to some degree.

The 2 schools I read that require Calculus II are UCSF and Purdue College of Pharmacy.

Yikes! Purdue also requires Immunology. Might as well get that bachelor's degree.
I don't mind the extra prerequisites, but my adviser likened it to prerequisite inflation.

 

[radio frequency]

Undergrad immunology would be helpful in pharmacy school, actually. Calc II...not so much? O chem is really necessary, as is microbiology. Undergrad biochem is also helpful.

I truly think it would be hard to pass your pharmacy courses without the majority of the science prerequisites.

Also...don't listen to your adviser unless they're amazing. Most of them know nothing.

 

[Corpseman]

Is this a serious thread?

How would adding difficult classes help with saturation? Hmmmm..... Let me think.....

Why do they make us go through all these classes so that we can be well rounded students, because let's face it.... None of this actually applies to pharmacy school.

Statistics are just lies, immunology is for the birds, biochemical ain't no pills deal with biology or dat chemistry, math? Wtf... We count by five' saint hard. Microbiology, that **** is too small to care about so we don't need it. Anatomy and physiology? Now there's a good one. We need it so we can think about the hot woman at the counter and what's really going on under there.


But school, forget school. Why they make us take so many classes! It ain't hard, give me a stick and I count by 5's.

 

[nutripharma]

Sorry, but I still don't see how prerequisites is involved with job saturation much less help it. From my knowledge, pre-requisites are intended to create a foundation for courses encountered in pharmacy school. I'm sure organic chemistry and physics are not primarily intended to just weed students out, they must be relevant to every schools' curriculum to some degree.

The 2 schools I read that require Calculus II are UCSF and Purdue College of Pharmacy.

Yikes! Purdue also requires Immunology. Might as well get that bachelor's degree.
I don't mind the extra prerequisites, but my adviser likened it to prerequisite inflation.

If you can't complete a pre-req, you won't get in.... that means you won't graduate with the degree... It's that simple.
Med school has just as many if not more pre-reqs so I don't see why you're complaining. Most med students are required to get their bachelors and do post bacc to become a doctor. No one else is complaining. If your top schools require more pre-reqs, it says something about the students and the school's integrity. They are highly regarded.

 

[gwarm01]

In order to help the saturation issue, having many difficult yet important prereqs are put in place.

I'm pretty sure the pre-reqs have been around since well before saturation was a thing. Organic chem, physics, calculus were all required when I went to school in the early 2000's.

 

[Kag01]

I'm pretty sure the pre-reqs have been around since well before saturation was a thing. Organic chem, physics, calculus were all required when I went to school in the early 2000's.

The schools that I'm familiar with have changed some of their requirements since the early 2000's. For example , courses like biochemistry , microbiology, genetics , etc. have to be taken now instead of just the usual lower level courses. So, in other words, junior and senior level prereqs are more common now.

 

[gwarm01]

The schools that I'm familiar with have changed some of their requirements since the early 2000's. For example , courses like biochemistry , microbiology, genetics , etc. have to be taken now instead of just the usual lower level courses. So, in other words, junior and senior level prereqs are more common now.

Ah, okay. Those were considered "selectives" at my school, so most of us did them to be competitive but they weren't a hard requirement. I have no idea if that has changed now.

 

[bananaface]

Saturation has nothing to do with it. Before the pharmacy school boom roughly the same caliber of prerequisites were in place.

Pharmacy school builds on the upper level science pre-requisites. The ore you gave, the better off you are in the program. Prerequisites elevate your potential for success. Calculus is generally not necessary for the program itself. But, if you can't do well in math at that level, you may not get all the concepts that you need to in pharmacology. It's less about math and more about what you take home from calculus and can conceptualize after.