Pharmacy

Types of Degrees Pharmacy Majors Are Getting

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

Education Level	Number of Grads
Doctor’s Degree	13,508
Bachelor’s Degree	2,784
Master’s Degree	1,995
Graduate Certificate	322
Basic Certificate	61
Associate Degree	34
Undergraduate Certificate	25

What Pharmacy Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to pharmacy and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Pharmacy Majors

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

• 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.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.

Skills for Pharmacy Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to pharmacy:

• 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.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Abilities for Pharmacy Majors

Pharmacy majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• 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.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

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
Marketing Managers	10.1%	$134,290
Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists	13.4%	$84,810
Pharmacists	5.6%	$126,120
Sales Managers	7.5%	$124,220

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmacy?

This is one of the most frequently chosen healthcare majors. It is the 11th most popular in the country with 3,340 students graduating with a bachelor’s in pharmacy in 2021. This major is dominated by women with about 67% 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	581
Black or African American	226
Hispanic or Latino	177
White	1,451
International Students	159
Other Races/Ethnicities	190

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Pharmacy. About 5.7% 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
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	0.9%
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)	0.4%
Some College Courses	1.3%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	3.3%
Bachelor’s Degree	28.5%
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.	4.6%
Master’s Degree	17.2%
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.	0.1%
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.	12.7%
Doctoral Degree	19.2%
Post-Doctoral Training	12.2%

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)	2	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	9	1
Bachelor’s Degree	42	19
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	174	19
Post-Master’s	14	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	116	1
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	143	3
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	1	0

Majors Related to Pharmacy

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

Major	Number of Grads
Nursing	308,114
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants	88,809
Allied Health Professions	85,413
Health & Medical Administrative Services	85,302
Allied Health & Medical Assisting Services	79,189
Public Health	42,551
Health Sciences & Services	35,887
Mental & Social Health Services	31,550
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	29,934
Medicine	29,206
Dental Support Services	25,040
Communication Sciences	23,288
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	19,017
Somatic Bodywork & Therapeutic Services	10,516
Health/Medical Prep Programs	9,413
Other Health Professions	7,387
Dentistry	6,961
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	5,644
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	5,056
Alternative Medicine & Systems	3,431
Chiropractic	2,698
Medical Illustration & Informatics	2,689
Health Aids/Attendants/Orderlies	2,244
Advanced Dentistry & Oral Sciences	1,845
Optometry	1,789
Medical Science	1,090
Ophthalmic & Optometric Support Services	760
Movement & Mind-Body Therapies	468
Alternative Medical Support Services	136
Energy & Biologically Based Therapies	116

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.