Of those people who come to Mercer University as first-year college students and intend to eventually apply to pharmacy schools, many participate in the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program (GAPDP). However, not all Mercer students who go on to attend a pharmacy school participate in the GAPDP, and not all of them enroll at Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS). The text below contains information for students interested in or enrolled in the GAPDP and information for students who intend to apply to pharmacy schools but are not in the GAPDP.
Information About Mercer's Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program
Mercer University offers a Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program (GAPDP) for first-year students in the College of Liberal Arts (http://www2.mercer.edu/NewCLA/default.htm) who intend to apply to the Doctor of Pharmacy program at Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (http://cophs.mercer.edu/). The GAPDP is a rigorous academic program that requires students to take a specific group of classes, and requires that students take all undergraduate coursework at Mercer. Students who successfully complete the requirements of this program will be admitted to the Doctor of Pharmacy program at Mercer University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS) and, after successfully completing one year of studies at the COPHS, will be awarded a Bachelor of Science in Health Science by Mercer's College of Liberal Arts. Detailed information about who is eligible to participate in the GAPDP and what is required of students in that program can be found in the document PrePharmacyGAPDPInfo.doc.
Any student who intends to participate in the GAPDP should make this decision during his/her first semester at Mercer. Students who are interested in the GAPDP should complete the "Request Form for Participation in the GAPDP" and return it to Mercer's pre-pharmacy faculty advisor or Mercer's pre-professional advisor by October of the students' first semester of enrollment at Mercer. This form can be found at the end of the following document: PrePharmacyGAPDPInfo.doc. Students should not complete this form unless they know that they are eligible for the GAPDP.
Like all applicants to Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, students in the GAPDP are required to take the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT). The PCAT measures a student's academic ability in general and his/her knowledge of specific scientific disciplines; the test consists of multiple choice questions and an essay question. More information about the PCAT, along with an online registration form for the test, can be found at the following website: http://harcourtassessment.com/haiweb/Cultures/en-US/Harcourt/Community/PostSecondary/Products/pcat/pcathome.htm.
It is important that each GAPDP student take the PCAT when it is offered in the June just after the end of his/her second year of undergraduate study so that s/he may retake the test, if s/he needs to raise his/her scores, in October and/or January of his/her third year of study.
A student in the GAPDP must complete both a Pharmacy College Application Service (PharmCAS) application and the COPHS supplemental application by August 1 of the summer after his/her second year of undergraduate study. Information about the PharmCAS application can be found at http://www.pharmcas.org/. The COPHS supplemental application is at http://cophs.mercer.edu/SupplementalApplication.shtm.
When completing an application to the COPHS, a student must also provide documentation of 500 hours of experience in a pharmacy setting(s). Students should use the following form to document their experiences in pharmacy settings: GAPDPExperienceCertification.pdf.
More information about the GAPDP can be found at the following website: http://cophs.mercer.edu/gapd.htm.
Alternatives to Mercer's GAPDP for Students Who Are Not Eligible to Participate
Some students, such as those who transfer from other universities rather than beginning their college studies at Mercer or those who do not apply for the GAPDP during their first year at Mercer, are not eligible to participate in the GAPDP (see the following document for information about who is eligible to participate in the GAPDP: PrePharmacyGAPDPInfo.doc). Other students lose eligibility for the GAPDP while participating in the program because they do not complete the required classes as scheduled, because they take summer coursework at a non-Mercer institution, or because they otherwise do not meet the GPA requirements for the program (see the previous link for the requirements to maintain eligibility for the GAPDP). However, such circumstances do not necessarily mean that these students will be unable to attend Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS) or some other pharmacy school.
All Mercer undergraduates are eligible to apply to the COPHS any time after their first year of undergraduate study. While Mercer students who are not participating in the GAPDP will not be guaranteed admission to the COPHS, their applications will receive the same careful consideration that all applications to the COPHS do. If you are interested in this option, please read through the admission requirements on the COPHS website: http://cophs.mercer.edu/requirements.htm.
Mercer students may also choose to apply to pharmacy schools in addition to or besides Mercer's COPHS. The following website has links to all pharmacy schools in the United States: http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/start.htm. Students should familiarize themselves with the admission requirements of each pharmacy school to which they intend to apply.
For more information about applying to pharmacy schools if you are not in the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program at Mercer, read the section below that is entitled "Information for Students Who Are Not in the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program."
The Early Acceptance Program
Before adopting the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program, Mercer University offered an Early Acceptance Program (EAP) for first-year students in the College of Liberal Arts who intended to apply to Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Students who enrolled in the EAP in the fall of 2006 and will complete the program in the spring of 2008 may find useful information about the program in the following document: EAPinfo06.doc. Note that this information is intended only for students who are already enrolled in the EAP; no new students will be accepted into this program.
Information for Students Who Are Not in the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program
As noted above, most Mercer students who plan to eventually apply to pharmacy schools enroll in the Guaranteed Admission Plus Degree Program (GAPDP) that will, if the students meet all the requirements of the program, guarantee their acceptance at Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS). However, there are many other paths for a student who is not in the GAPDP to follow if s/he wishes to apply to pharmacy schools: (1) s/he may complete the pre-pharmacy requirements for Mercer's COPHS and apply to the COPHS before finishing a bachelor's degree; (2) s/he may apply to enroll at the COPHS after completing a bachelor's degree at Mercer; (3) s/he may apply to other pharmacy schools after completing those schools' pre-pharmacy requirements at Mercer but before earning a bachelor's degree; or (4) s/he may complete a bachelor's degree at Mercer before enrolling in another university's pharmacy school.
Choosing a Major
Undergraduates who eventually intend to apply to pharmacy schools, and thus are taking "pre-pharmacy" classes, should be aware that "pre-pharmacy" is not a major; it is a track, or group of classes, that students must complete in order to be eligible for admission to a pharmacy school. The courses that are required for admission to Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences can be found at this link: http://cophs.mercer.edu/requirements.htm. Be aware that the courses required for admission to Mercer's COPHS do not, in all cases, match those required by other pharmacy schools; students interested in applying to other pharmacy schools should familiarize themselves with the requirements of those schools.
As noted above, "pre-pharmacy" is not a major. Thus, students who intend to earn a bachelor's degree before enrolling at a pharmacy school must declare a major and complete the courses required for the major, as well as the courses required by the pharmacy school(s) to which they intend to apply. There is no recommended major for students who plan to apply to pharmacy schools; any major is acceptable as long as a student completes the classes required by the pharmacy school(s) to which s/he intends to apply. Thus, a pre-pharmacy student should select a major area of study about which s/he is passionate, since the student's passion about the subject matter will help propel him/her to perform well academically and, as a result, be a more competitive candidate for admission to pharmacy schools.
Note that, while most pharmacy schools do not currently require students to have bachelor's degrees before enrolling in pharmacy school, many pharmacy students do have bachelor's degrees, and more and more pharmacy schools are requiring bachelor's degrees for admission. There are advantages to earning a bachelor's degree before enrolling in a pharmacy school: (1) if a student does not apply to pharmacy school until after completing three years of undergraduate study (rather than one or two years, like students who don't intend to finish a bachelor's degree), the student will likely have taken most or all of the classes s/he needs to prepare for the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) before having to take the test, and (2) the student will have a degree and be more employable if s/he does not get accepted at a pharmacy school or decides not to complete a pharmacy degree.
A new option for students who attend Mercer as undergraduates and then enroll at Mercer's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is the "three-plus-one" bachelor's degree. To earn this degree, a student must complete three years of undergraduate study before enrolling at the COPHS. The student must have completed at least 90 credit hours as an undergraduate (which have not been applied to another bachelor's degree), be accepted to the COPHS, and successfully complete one year of study at the COPHS to qualify for this option. If all requirements are met, Mercer's College of Liberal Arts may confer a Bachelor of Science in Health Science on the qualified student.
Work Experience
It is advisable that pre-pharmacy students gain some experience in pharmacy settings before applying to pharmacy schools. A pre-pharmacy student may gain experience by working in a pharmacy and/or shadowing (preferably in an extensive fashion) someone who works in the field of pharmacy. Experiences such as these will help a student to make a knowledgeable decision about whether a career in pharmacy is truly for him/her, and such experiences will also demonstrate to pharmacy schools that a student is truly dedicated to pursuing a career in pharmacy.
The Application Process
Students who intend to apply to pharmacy school(s) should take the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT). The PCAT measures a student's academic ability in general and his/her knowledge of specific scientific disciplines; the test consists of multiple choice questions and an essay question. The PCAT is offered a limited number of times each year (future test dates will be in October of 2008 and January of 2009). Students should take the test early enough in the application process so that they may re-take it, if necessary. More information about the PCAT, along with an online registration form for the test, can be found at http://harcourtassessment.com/haiweb/Cultures/en-US/Harcourt/Community/PostSecondary/Products/pcat/pcathome.htm.
Most pharmacy schools require students to complete a Pharmacy College Application Service (PharmCAS) application. Information about the PharmCAS application can be found at http://www.pharmcas.org/. Many pharmacy schools require a supplemental application in addition to the PharmCAS application, so students should familiarize themselves with the specific admission requirements of each school to which they intend to apply.
In Georgia, the following institutions have pharmacy schools: Mercer University (http://cophs.mercer.edu/); South University in Savannah (http://www.southuniversity.edu/campus/Pharmacy/); and the University of Georgia (http://www.rx.uga.edu/). For information about the admission processes and academic programs of other pharmacy schools, see the following website for a list of links to all pharmacy schools in the United States: http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/start.htm.
More Information
For more information about preparing for and applying to pharmacy schools, contact the pre-professional advisor in the Office of Academic and Advising Services (478-301-2250).