Start your career in Pharmacy
UIC's Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSPS) program is for students who are interested in pharmaceutical, biomedical, and other healthcare fields, and/or who plan to enroll in a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program to become a licensed pharmacist.
Courses cover a broad range of sciences that relate to the discovery and development of new drugs and therapies to improve people's lives. Studying pharmaceutical sciences is a great preparation for any professional healthcare field or PhD program in the sciences. Industries that seek our graduates include pharmaceutical companies, chemical manufacturers, laboratories, biomedical and bioengineering facilities, professional consulting, as well as retail pharmacy*.
*Please note that completing the bachelor's program by itself does not qualify you to become a registered pharmacist; you must go on to complete the PharmD program to do so.
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Two Program Pathways Heading link
All students are admitted to the BSPS program in their third undergraduate year or upon meeting all the requirements. Students apply to BSPS in the Spring semester and choose between the BSPS/PharmD Combined Pathway (for future pharmacists) or the BSPS Pathway. Admitted students begin their studies in the following Fall semester of their junior year.
BSPS Pathway
Students who choose the BSPS pathway will not seek admission to the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program. They may choose to work in the industry after graduation, pursue another professional program besides Pharmacy, or pursue graduate studies (PhD or master’s).
BSPS/PharmD Pathway
Students who are admitted to the BSPS/PharmD pathway will also seek admission to the PharmD Program. Students who choose this pathway reduce their total time spent on both degrees by one year. Once BSPS/PharmD pathway students are admitted to the PharmD Program, they are considered professional PharmD students during their fourth/final year of their bachelor’s degree.
Please note that admission to the BSPS Program does not automatically guarantee admission into the PharmD Program. If you are a high school student looking for a guaranteed admissions program for PharmD, please check out our college’s Guaranteed Professional Program Admissions (GPPA) program.
Explanation Heading link
BSPS graduates are prepared for careers in the pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical research, pharmaceutical administration, and pharmaceutical sales, biotechnology, drug manufacturing, regulatory affairs, and many other related fields. It also situates the graduate perfectly for additional study at a professional school or graduate school.
Graduates with the BSPS/PharmD will be more competitive than other non-bachelor’s PharmD graduate in Illinois and in the region for employment, residencies, fellowships, and graduate school.
Coursework Heading link
In the first three years as an undergraduate, BSPS students take courses in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) in subjects like mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, and statistics. Many of these courses are also prerequisites for the PharmD program.
In addition to the LAS coursework, BSPS students take two required courses taught by College of Pharmacy faculty and complete two semesters of undergraduate research with Pharmacy faculty.
In the fourth year of the BSPS Program, students take courses that would typically be taken during the first year of the PharmD program such as integrated physiology, pharmaceutics, fundamentals of drug action, biomedicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, and drug information. For students who choose the BSPS/PharmD pathway, this fourth year also overlaps with the first year of the PharmD program (known as P1), which reduces their time to the earning the PharmD by one year.
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