Over 110 colleges and schools of pharmacy in the United States offer first professional degree programs (the Pharm.D., or Doctor of Pharmacy degree) accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education, with additional institutions currently in precandidacy status. 

The Pharm.D. is currently the only first professional degree credential awarded in the United States. A B.S. credential was also issued in the past but has been discontinued. Some nontraditional Pharm.D. programs exist that are intended for individuals holding the B.S. credential. Some of these may also be appropriate for individuals who have already earned a pharmacy degree outside the United States and are seeking a shorter pathway to a Pharm.D. degree than is usual.

Almost 10 percent of the over 54,000 individuals graduating with Pharm.D. degrees were international students, according to recent figures from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
Most pharmacy schools require students to complete at least two years of undergraduate study prior to admission to a first professional Pharm.D. program, most students enter after three or four years, and some schools give admissions preference to those who have completed a full bachelor’s degree. A smaller number of schools offer either “0-6” programs that students can apply to immediately upon high school completion or “early assurance” programs through which students are guaranteed admission to pharmacy school following successful completion of two years of pre-pharmacy study.

Even individuals who do hold a bachelor’s and/or other advanced degrees must still complete the four academic years (or three calendar years) involved in a pharmacy first professional degree program in addition to the minimum two years of undergraduate study.
Students interested in pharmacy study should start preparing for entrance to college while still in secondary school. As admission requirements vary, students need to check the catalogs of individual pharmacy schools. By carefully planning their secondary school and preprofessional study, students increase their chances of acceptance to pharmacy school.

Courses in mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics provide essential preparation for pharmacy study. Good written and verbal communication skills are also important.

Students preparing for pharmacy school do not necessarily need to pursue undergraduate study specifically in “prepharmacy.” Chemistry is a common major because the standard curriculum of chemistry programs typically includes all or most of the courses that will be prerequisite for pharmacy school entrance. However, students are admitted from all undergraduate majors. Some pharmacy schools do not accept pre-pharmacy credits from outside the United States, meaning that international students must complete additional U.S. undergraduate study before entering the program.
Factors such as grade point average, completion of prerequisite courses, pharmacy-related work and volunteer experience, letters of recommendation, TOEFL testing for international students, and so forth are typically involved in Pharm.D. application.

More than 75 percent of Pharm.D. programs require students to take the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT). This multiple-choice examination includes multiple-choice sections relating to verbal ability, biology, reading comprehension, quantitative ability, and chemistry as well as an essay section with two writing exercises. The test takes about four hours to complete. It is administered several times a year in the United States and Canada only.

About half of all Pharm.D. programs participate in the PharmCAS centralized application system. Candidate applications are submitted online and the same application form can be submitted to multiple schools.
A large majority of pharmacy schools accept students with foreign degrees into their programs; however, a few schools give preference to individuals from the state/region in which they are located, or only enroll such students.

Pharmacy school admissions requirements vary considerably from program to program and prospective applicants should do research on the Web sites of schools of interest as well as the PharmCAS site before applying.