Find Affordable College Courses

What Do You Want to Study?

Pharmacy Major

Find Schools Near

Pharmacy

3,340 Bachelor's Degrees Annually
1,416 Master's Degrees Annually
#11 in Popularity

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:

undefined
  • 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:

undefined
  • 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:

undefined
  • 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?

2,784 Bachelor's Degrees Annually
67% Percent Women
39% Percent Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
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:

undefined
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.

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.

undefined
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

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.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

Featured Schools

Find Healthcare Schools Near You

Our free school-matching tool matches students with accredited healthcare schools across the U.S