Pharmacy School

Today, there is a growing demand for qualified pharmacy workers, which range from a pharmacy aid to a Doctor of Pharmacy.  Regardless of the position, when job hunting, the company is going to look at the type of education, experience, and other dynamics to choose the best candidate.  If you are interested in becoming a pharmacist or some other pharmacy position, it is important to get the best education possible.

One way of getting a good education so you can work for the best companies and make good money is to look at pharmacy school ratings.  After all, not all schools are created equally.  While there are some excellent options to consider, schools do vary.  When looking at pharmacy school ratings, you will need to check both brick and mortar schools, as well as online schools.

Now, keep in mind that in the United States, there are more than 100 accredited pharmacy schools now in operation.  This means you have tremendous opportunity.  To look at pharmacy school ratings, there are actually a number of lists created that use a variety of criteria to come up with the numbers.  However, one of the best and most reliable of all lists for pharmacy school ratings is the US News and World Report, which focuses its attention on graduate level programs.

The latest publication of this report was in 2005, which took information from educational experts and academic faculty to include directors and deans, to come up with a comprehensive list.  Each of the experts interviewed provided input on a five-point scale after which time the scores were analyzed and averaged.  When it comes to looking at pharmacy school ratings, this list is by far the best.

Now, another possibility for pharmacy school ratings comes from the Annals of Pharmacotherapy publication.  One of the things that make this list a little different in that in addition to taking input from educational professionals, it also uses a number of other measurements to come up with the list.  For example, quantitative measures from the National Institute of Health among others were used.

Both of these lists for pharmacy school ratings are excellent and considered the favorite. However, there are others that you could review.  If you want to view ratings that come from user submissions, which can give you an entirely different viewpoint, then two websites are good.  The first is www.studentsreviews.com and www.uspharmd.com.  Again, the information found on these lists for pharmacy school ratings has nothing to do with educational experts but solely on visitors to the website who provide input.

In addition to scouring different lists for pharmacy school ratings based on different criteria, we also recommend you do some investigation on your own.  Obviously, the lists provide you with a good overview that can help you narrow down possibilities but from there, you need to base your decision on factors important specifically to you.  This might include geographical location, tuition cost, and the size of classes, length and content of programs, percentage of graduates being placed for hire, program admittance likelihood, internship opportunities, and overall reputation.

The bottom line is making a final decision on where you want to attend school for the pharmacy industry can be challenging.  Therefore, one of the best tools at your disposal is lists for pharmacy school ratings.  Other online resources to consider in gaining information so you can make a firm decision include the following:

• AACP (American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy) – www.aacp.org
• PharmCatalyst – www.pharmcatalyst.com
• Pharmaceutical Journal Online – www.pjonline.com
• AFPE (American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education) – www.afpenet.org
• NPhA (National Pharmaceutical Association) – www.npha.net

Although there is financial aid available for attending college, going for a pharmacy degree is not cheap.  For this reason, you owe it to yourself to do the required research, which involves pulling several lists for pharmacy school ratings together.  Of course, in addition to the information provided on the lists and your own research, you will need to sit down with school counselors to further discuss your goals.

Typically, after you have identified three to four school possibilities, we suggest you make appointments to visit each.  This way, you can actually walk the halls, talk to faculty, staff, and even other students, and in some cases, sit in on a class to see if the school aligns with the type of education you are most interested in.