[1] Introduction
Depending on the professional institution, the prerequisite course work for pharmacy school ranges from approximately 61 to 64 credit hours. These include basic science and mathematics courses as well as humanities courses. Pre-pharmacy at UCA is a non-degree program.
In Arkansas a four-year professional program is available at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) School of Pharmacy in Little Rock and at Harding University in Searcy. The pre-pharmacy program for UAMS is currently a minimum of 61 semester hours, whereas the program for Harding is 64 hours. The successful student will receive a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree upon graduation from pharmacy school.
The following courses are those offered at UCA which specifically fulfill the requirements for admission to UAMS. A student seeking admission to Harding also needs CHEM 4320 Biochemistry I. A student who decides on a school other than UAMS or Harding should contact that particular school to find out the pre-professional course requirements.
Pre-Pharmacy requirements do change, and frequent consultation with the advisor is strongly encouraged.
[2] Required Courses
Core Courses
[Note 1]
Biology (12 hours): BIOL 1440 Principles Biology I and BIOL 1441 Principles Biology II; BIOL 2411 Microbiology or BIOL 3420 General Microbiology [Note 2].
Chemistry (16 hours): CHEM 1450 and 1451 College Chemistry I and II; CHEM 2401 and 3411 Organic Chemistry I and II.
Mathematics (3 hours): MATH 1390
Non-Core Courses
English Composition/Academic Writing (6 hours): WRTG 1310 Introduction to College Writing and WRTG 1320 Academic Writing and Research
Public Speaking/Oral Communication (3 hours): COMM 1310 or COMM 1300
Economics/Accounting (3 hours): ECON 1310 Modern Political Economy, ECON 2310 Global Environment of Business, or ACCT 2310 Principles of Accounting I.
Statistics (3 hours): MATH 2311 or PSYC 2330
Psychology (3 hours): PSYC 1300
Cultural Humanities (3 hours): World Cultures (multiple choices), World History HIST 1320, Anthropology ANTH 1302, SOC 1300 Sociology, Foreign Language (multiple choices), American Sign Language CSD 2303
Selectives (minimum of 9 hours, minimum of 3 classes) [Note 3]: Anatomy BIOL 2405, Physiology BIOL 3411, Biochemistry CHEM 4320, Cell Biology BIOL 3402, Genetics BIOL 2490, Quantitative Analysis CHEM 3520, Physical Chemistry CHEM 4450 or CHEM 4460, Calculus 1 MATH 1496 or Applied Calculus for Life Sciences MATH 1491, College Physics I PHYS 1410 or University Physics 1 1440, Critical Thinking PHIL 2305, Logic PHIL 2310
Note 1:
CORE Courses: no more than 8 hours of CLEP, AP credit, and/or credit by examination; NON-CORE: no more than 6 hours of CLEP, AP credit, or credit by examination
Note 2:
Requires BIOL 2490 Genetics
Note 3:
Any of the listed courses will count, but courses are listed in order of recommendation for pharmacy college preparation.