Program Overview

LIU Pharmacy - The Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences - offers a six-year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree program to prepare students for entry-level pharmacy practice. The Doctor of Pharmacy is classified as a "doctor's degree-professional practice" by the U.S. Department of Education. The program consists of two years of preprofessional studies (offered through LIU Brooklyn's Richard L. Conolly College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and four years of professional studies.

Dramatic changes taking place in the health-care system are creating many new and exciting roles for pharmacists. The pharmacist is now not only responsible for the safe and effective distribution of prescription and nonprescription medication, but is also assuming the role of pharmaceutical therapy advisor and manager, having increasingly more patient-care responsibilities.

The entry-level pharmacist is expected to participate fully in the team-based management of the patient, including the rendering of independent clinical judgments. The pharmacist must be proficient in the search for and retrieval of information from the scientific literature, utilization of complex pharmacokinetic models to determine appropriate doses, development of individualized pharmaceutical care plans, communication with patients and health professionals, documentation of pharmaceutical interventions taking into account patients' knowledge, beliefs, and behavior, pharmacoeconomic analysis of alternative pharmaceutical interventions, and justification of services billed to managed health-care organizations and other payers

Pre-Pharmacy Phase (P1-P2)

The pre-professional phase of the program, offered through Richard L. Conolly College, consists of a minimum of four semesters of coursework in the liberal arts and sciences. Successful completion of two years of pre-professional study (P-1 and P-2) provides the foundation for admission to the professional pharmacy curriculum. The course sequence for the pre-professional phase is listed below. For course descriptions, please refer to the LIU Brooklyn undergraduate bulletin.

Credentials of students attending other colleges for the pre-professional phase of the program will be evaluated on an individual course basis, and transfer credit will be granted for those courses meeting the requirements of LIU Pharmacy. Only those pre-professional students who meet the progression requirements, as outlined under the Admissions section of this website, will be admitted to the first professional year of study at LIU Pharmacy.

While the pre-professional phase of the program is designed to be completed in two academic years, students requiring proficiency and skills courses may have a lengthened course of study.