Professional Degree Program: Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)

The PharmD program at Rutgers gives students aspiring to careers in pharmacy the singular opportunity of studying at a research-intensive pharmacy school within one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive academic health centers. In our classrooms and laboratories, and in a wide variety of pharmacy practice settings, our students are mentored by world-class clinical and research faculty while learning alongside their peers within Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, including students of medicine, nursing, and public health, among others.

By studying pharmacy in Rutgers’ academic healthcare division, our students are educated for the realities of 21st-century pharmacy practice: patient centered, outcomes oriented, and increasingly partnered with other healthcare professions. And, by being part of the larger Rutgers community, our students get early exposure to the many career pathways in pharmacy, including basic research, public health, health outcomes and economics, pharmaceutical industry management, and more.

The six-year PharmD program begins with two years of pre-professional study and moves seamlessly into four years of professional training. Because ours is one of the country’s few 0-6 programs, students can enter directly from high school or transfer from a two- or four-year college into the first professional year.

Looking for more details? Check out information for prospective students.

All the Resources of Rutgers

The pharmacy school is part of Rutgers–New Brunswick, the university’s research flagship, and has a prime location on its health sciences campus, Busch Campus, in Piscataway. As one of eight schools comprising Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, our school is a full partner in fulfilling the education, research, and patient care missions of Rutgers’ healthcare division. Pharmacy students also have full access to the unlimited opportunities of the Rutgers–New Brunswick community, a Big Ten school with more than 65,000 students from all 50 states and 115 countries.

A Pharmacy-Focused Community

The Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy provides students with a close-knit, mission-driven professional school within the larger Rutgers community. With a student body of only 1,350 students, our school nurtures close relationships among students and faculty through shared experience: research, clinical rotations, community outreach, and student pharmacy organizations. Our school is one of the nation’s premier pharmacy schools, ranked among the top recipients of federal pharmacy research funding and connected to more than 1,250 clinical practice sites around the country.

Special Student Opportunities

Pharmacy students at Rutgers, a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, thrive in our challenging scholarly environment. They may be invited to join the residential Honors College, an innovative living/learning community of high-achieving Rutgers students. They may conduct research alongside pharmaceutical scientists in our PharmD Honors Research Program or our Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program.  And they may learn to advocate for patients and our profession through leadership roles in nearly 20 student pharmacy organizations.

Exciting Career Pathways

With pass rates near 100% on the pharmacy licensure exam, our PharmD graduates are well positioned to launch rewarding careers or to pursue advanced study at the nation’s best graduate and professional schools. Innovative dual-degree options for PharmD students provide accelerated pathways to careers in the healthcare professions and in the pharmaceutical industry. Students nearing graduation might also consider our postgraduate professional programs, including pharmacy residencies in clinical and managed-care settings and industry fellowships with more than 20 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.