The Office of Admissions at Union’s School of Pharmacy recently introduced the Pharmacy Early Admissions Program for undergraduate students.The new program is open to all students; however, freshmen automatically qualify. Other students must have completed one full academic year and fulfilled a minimum of 28 hours to be eligible.
“The undergraduate programs at Union, particularly the sciences, have long had a reputation of preparing students well for professional and graduate education,” said Sheila Mitchell, founding dean of the School of Pharmacy. “Our longterm vision is one in which most of our incoming
pharmacy students are Union undergraduates.”
PEAP was created with the goal of increasing the number of Union undergraduate students who matriculate into the pharmacy program, because faculty members are confident they will be well-prepared for the School of Pharmacy’s rigorous curriculum.
Planning for the new early admissions program actually began when the School of Pharmacy opened at Union in 2008.
The Executive Leadership Team and the Admissions Committee of the School of Pharmacy meticulously created a program that would be a “good
fit” for the pharmacy school and Union, in general, Mitchell said.
“We have spent the last five years working to design a program that would attract high-quality students with a desire to become pharmacists to
Union University as undergraduates who would then transition into our pharmacy school,” Mitchell said.
Students such as Lauren Cherry, freshman, and Monica Barrett, sophomore, both pre-pharmacy majors, took advantage of the new program.
For Cherry, Union’s PEAP program stood out to her more than other schools because of the school’s more personal relationship with students.
Cherry also said she recognized that the program would drive her to excel academically as an undergraduate.
“[The program] will push you to do well in all of your classes,” Cherry said. “It’s not just based on how many science classes you have – it’s
how well you did in the classes that you took.”
Throughout the planning process for the new program, the planning team hoped to incorporate certain aspects of the essence of Union, such as what makes Union special; what students love about Union; and what a pharmacy school formed under the four core values of this distinctively different university looks like.
“The end result is a school that cares about its students, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and physically,” said Kristina Martin, pharmacy
admissions coordinator. “Our faculty and staff invest of themselves to mentor, educate and train our students to care for patients in a Christ-
honoring manner.”
For students such as Barrett, this is crucial to her college experience.
“[Union] is a place of outstanding academics partnered with a godly purpose,” Barrett said. “As I have looked into pharmacy schools, none have
compared to the environment that Union provides, and I know that when I leave Union, I will not only be prepared to be a great pharmacist in terms of knowing my specific job duties, but also in knowing how my position plays an important role as a means of ministry.”
In order to remain in PEAP, students must maintain a cumulative GPA of at least a 3.30 and a science GPA of at least 3.00.
Prior to the student’s matriculation into the School of Pharmacy, the requirements include an ACT score of greater than or equal to 22; completing all pharmacy prerequisites with a grade of “C” or higher in each course; attending one announced School of Pharmacy event annually; meeting each semester with a pharmacy mentor; and registering for and completing a minimum of 14 hours per semester at Union while in the program.
“In choosing these requirements, we wanted to give students a level of expectation that would require diligence and hard work, eventually resulting in a level of preparation that would make the transition into pharmacy school as smooth as possible,” Martin said.
This fall, the School of Pharmacy has enrolled 15 students in PEAP. As the number of undergraduate pre-pharmacy students grows, a fixed percentage of students admitted via the program may be considered, Martin said.
