Pre-Pharmacy Program - Required Courses

This program meets the requirements of most pharmacy colleges but especially those of the University of Minnesota (UMN) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). Students planning to attend other schools should consult the pre-pharmacy advisor and respective catalogs and/or web sites.

In addition to the academic course requirements listed below, pharmacy colleges generally expect at least a semester of experience working in a pharmacy setting (ideally as a pharmacy technician).

BIOLOGY - 15 s.h. (UMN) or 11 s.h. (UW)

For Both Schools
BIOL 241 Basics of Life (4)
BIOL 209 or BIOL 409 Microbiology (3)

For the University of Minnesota
BIOL 201 Human Anatomy (4)
BIOL 323 General Physiology (4)
BIOL 211 and 212 may be substituted for 201 and 323

For the University of Wisconsin-Madison
BIOL 242 Organismal Diversity (4)

CHEMISTRY - 21 s.h. (UMN) or 17 s.h. (UW)

For Both Schools
CHEM 212 Principles of Chemistry I (4)
CHEM 213 Principles of Chemistry II (4)
CHEM 350 Principles of Organic Chemistry I (4)
CHEM 351 Principles of Organic Chemistry II (5)

For the University of Minnesota
CHEM 400 Biochemistry I (4)
BIOL 308 or 310 may be substituted for CHEM 400

MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS- 11 s.h. (UMN) or 15 s.h. (UW)

For Both Schools
MATH 160 Calculus I (4)
STAT 210 Statistics (3)

For the University of Minnesota
PHYS 221 University Physics I (4) (or PHYS 201 and 202)

For the University of Wisconsin-Madison
PHYS 201 General Physics I (4) (or PHYS 221)
PHYS 202 General Physics II (4) (or PHYS 222)

SOCIAL SCIENCES - 6 s.h. (UMN) or 9 s.h. (UW)

For the University of Minnesota
choose any two of the following:
PSY 210, 325; SOC 150, 340; ECON 201, 202

For the University of Wisconsin-Madison
PSY 210 General Psychology (3) (or PSY 325)
ECON 201 Principles of Microeconomics (3)
SOC 150 Human Society (3) (or SOC 340)
SOC 340 counts also as ethnic studies

LANGUAGE SKILLS - 6 s.h. (UMN) or 4 s.h. (UW)

For the University of Minnesota
ENG 210 Advanced Expository Writing (3) (or ENG 211)
CMST 191 Fundamentals of Speech (3) (or CMST 282 or 387)

For the University of Wisconsin-Madison
ENG 111 College Reading and Writing (4)
May be tested out of. See UW website.

OTHER - 8 s.h. (UW)

For the University of Wisconsin-Madison
One course related to ethnic studies is required. Choose from:
POLS 225, 330, SOC 340 and 423, ENG 220, HIST 235, and COMM 286. In addition, one history course (2 s.h.) and one humanities course (3 s.h.) are recommended to be taken prior to enrollment at UW.