VCU news

By Mary Kate Brogan
School of Pharmacy

Starting this fall, Virginia Commonwealth University will begin offering an accelerated program that will allow students to graduate with a bachelor’s degree and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in less time and enter their career sooner. While earning a bachelor’s and a Pharm.D. at VCU typically takes eight years, this offering will allow students to earn both their undergraduate and graduate professional degrees in just seven years.

The accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program is an offering of the VCU School of Pharmacy’s Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences program, which opened to new students in 2024. Starting in fall 2025, students in this accelerated program can complete their required bachelor’s courses in their first three years to get a jump on their four-year pharmacy school journey in the Doctor of Pharmacy program at VCU.

“We recognize the need for students to have options to earn their degrees in the most efficient and cost-effective way without sacrificing quality,” said K.C. Ogbonna, Pharm.D., dean of the VCU School of Pharmacy.

“Not only will this program help reduce students’ potential debt,” Ogbonna said, but it will also help students become practicing pharmacists sooner, addressing health care professional shortages and the increase in “pharmacy deserts,” both in Virginia and across the country.

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, demand is outpacing the supply of pharmacists, and by 2037, the U.S. will face a shortage of 17,030 pharmacists. Giving students a more efficient path to a career in pharmacy will help them enter the workforce sooner, increasing the number of qualified pharmacists practicing in the U.S., Ogbonna said.

This accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program will expand the more than 50 accelerated bachelor’s-to-graduate options available to VCU undergraduate students. It also opens up an accelerated path to a professional degree for more VCU students. This new seven-year accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program will be open to all current first-year and incoming undergraduate VCU students majoring in pharmaceutical sciences, making it the first bachelor’s to first professional accelerated program that is open to VCU students. It allows students to complete courses and explore career paths across both pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy practice as they progress through their studies. Currently, VCU’s Honors College offers a six-year guaranteed admission program to complete a Pharm.D. without a bachelor’s.

“Some students know exactly what they want to do in their first year of college; others need more time to decide. This accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program caters to both these types of students,” said Laura Morgan Frankart, Pharm.D., associate dean for academic and faculty affairs at VCU School of Pharmacy. “Students in this program will get ahead by completing their first year of pharmacy school before earning their bachelor’s degree, and they will have new career opportunities available to them at the end of their fourth year when they graduate with a bachelor’s in pharmaceutical sciences.”

In VCU’s accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program, students will complete their coursework in the Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences program in their first three years at VCU and apply for pharmacy school in their third year. In their fourth year at VCU, accepted students will start pharmacy school as a first-year student in the Doctor of Pharmacy program and, at the end of that year, they will earn their bachelor’s degree. They then complete their remaining three years of pharmacy school.

“This new program is designed to balance giving students the flexibility they want with the skills they need to be successful in their lives and careers,” said Keith C. Ellis, Ph.D., program director for the B.S. in pharmaceutical sciences at VCU School of Pharmacy. “If a student decides they’d like to pursue employment in pharmaceutical sciences after four years while they complete pharmacy school, they can do that without worrying whether they’re qualified; they’ll have the degree to prove it.”

In addition to allowing students to pursue employment while they finish their degrees, the accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program will open up additional paths for students graduating with their Pharm.D. who are interested in careers as pharmacists in the pharmaceutical industry.

"Since the pandemic, pharmaceutical industry careers are one of the fastest-growing opportunities for pharmacists. Students are increasingly looking to learn about the education, training and fellowships necessary to pursue careers in pharmaceutical industry," Ellis said in a December 2024 interview with VCU School of Pharmacy. With the experiential learning from the bachelor’s program and the clinical training of pharmacy school, this new accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program is one of several expanded offerings that will give students the best of both worlds, Ellis said.

For more information about the accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program, visit the accelerated B.S. and Pharm.D. program website.