Pharmacy

Types of Degrees Pharmacy Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many pharmacy graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Doctor’s Degree	12,938
Bachelor’s Degree	592
Graduate Certificate	49
Master’s Degree	10
Associate Degree	10

What Pharmacy Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, pharmacy majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Pharmacy Majors

Pharmacy majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• Chemistry - Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.

Skills for Pharmacy Majors

When studying pharmacy, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for Pharmacy Majors

As a pharmacy major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Can You Do With a Pharmacy Major?

People with a pharmacy degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Health Specialties Professors	25.9%	$97,370
Pharmacists	5.6%	$126,120

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy?

This major is dominated by women with about 68% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of pharmacy majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	143
Black or African American	32
Hispanic or Latino	34
White	262
International Students	83
Other Races/Ethnicities	38

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Pharmacy, too. About 14.0% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Pharmacy

Some degrees associated with pharmacy may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for pharmacy careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	1.0%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	1.5%
Bachelor’s Degree	10.7%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	7.6%
Master’s Degree	14.3%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.2%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	25.2%
Doctoral Degree	32.9%
Post-Doctoral Training	6.7%

Online Pharmacy Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	0	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	2	0
Bachelor’s Degree	4	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	3	1
Post-Master’s	4	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	4	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	142	3
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Pharmacy

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to pharmacy.

Major	Number of Grads
Pharmaceutical Sciences	1,792
Other Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration	1,258
Pharmaceutics and Drug Design	553
Industrial and Physical Pharmacy and Cosmetic Sciences	408
Natural Products Chemistry and Pharmacognosy	239
Clinical and Industrial Drug Development	224
Pharmacy Administration and Pharmacy Policy and Regulatory Affairs	216
Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry	211
Pharmacoeconomics/Pharmaceutical Economics	139
Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management	61
Clinical, Hospital, and Managed Care Pharmacy	29

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By {} under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.