We Don’t Talk About Admissions, No, No, No: The Need to Educate Pre-Health Advisors

By: Jenna Brophy, BS, PharmD Candidate and Katie F. Leslie, PhD, MS

Academic pharmacy has been harboring an enrollment secret. For classes entering in 2023, PharmCAS institutions saw the mean number of applicants per program at an all-time low.¹ It is a top issue for deans and faculty concerned about the future of their programs.^2,3 Recently, we’ve seen individual programs remove barriers to admission and a national elimination of the PCAT.² Yet, many PharmD programs are unable to fill their cohorts while maintaining rigorous admission standards. While the Academy recommended increased outreach to undergraduate pre-health advisors, it is unclear if these strategies are implemented across pharmacy schools nationwide.^4,5 This is challenging, as pre-health advising structures vary among undergraduate institutions, as both professional staff or science faculty may work with students preparing for careers in the health professions (medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, etc.). 

In 2020, Brown identified four factors placing some PharmD programs at greater risk of enrollment challenges: private institutions, schools not within an academic medical center, schools opened after 2000, and accelerated (three-year) programs.² Through advanced efforts to increase communication with pre-health advisors, Sullivan University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (SUCOPHS) saw a 44% increase in enrollment from the class entering in 2022 to 2023, despite being four-for-four on Brown’s risk factors and a 4.9% decrease in PharmCAS applications nationally.¹ Additionally, 15% of the entering 2023 class were not pre-pharmacy at least 18 months prior to matriculation. SUCOPHS attributes this uncharacteristic recovery, in part, to enhanced regional pre-health advisor engagement and knowledge. 

My Experience: From Unknowing to Advocate 

As an undergraduate student, my advisor strongly suggested that I NOT pursue pharmacy because the field was saturated and overly competitive. As an academically strong student, I was disheartened by this, but did not want to spend money pursuing a deadend. I began a long journey investigating other career opportunities, but none felt quite right. In 2020, I found myself applying to Physician Assistant (PA) programs, ironically, one of the most competitive programs. The SUCOPHS admissions office contacts competitive students who were not granted a seat in their PA program, gauging applicants’ interests in healthcare and redirecting to pharmacy with discussions on the current state and future directions of the field. Having been one of the students who received this call, I initially thought it was a joke or a scam. 

Fast forward three years and I am in my last year of the PharmD program, anticipating to graduate with honors. After finding my home in pharmacy, I serve as an Admissions Ambassador, often speaking with prospective students and pre-health advisors. In my conversations with most students and advisors, their understanding of the current enrollment environment is limited and the concept of what a pharmacist does is decades outdated and often negative. 

Strategies for Advisor Engagement

So how can pre-health advisors, a graduate program’s number one admission ally, be educated on the current enrollment environment?  SUCOPHS has implemented several initiatives to promote advisor education about pharmacy admissions and the changing landscape of the profession. In 2021, SUCOPHS began hosting an annual, day-long symposium on campus to provide educational sessions for professional and faculty pre-health advisors from regional undergraduate institutions. While a variety of pertinent topics regarding the pharmacy profession and application processes are shared, the crux of the session is to focus on PharmD enrollment trends. National data from AACP and PharmCAS are clearly presented (application numbers and declines, national GPA trends, and applicant to seat ratios) and contrasted against other health professions enrollment trends. Additionally, strategies for conducting difficult conversations with pre-health students who were unsuccessful in admission to other health professions programs and identifying potential students for redirect to the pharmacy profession are discussed. SUCOPHS faculty also travel to campuses with the Dean to enhance advisor relationships via Lunch & Learns and is now connected with over 100 pre-health advisors within a 150 mile radius of campus. 

Clearly, not all advisors are up-to-date on the state of pharmacy enrollment or the role of the pharmacist on the healthcare team, a common challenge to our profession. Again, we need a national strategy for educating pre-health advisors, but that means we must have honest conversations about our enrollment environment and the challenges and opportunities facing the profession.⁵ Pre-health advisors work with undergraduate students interested in an array of health careers. They have the ability to reach thousands of students who are already interested in health care and guide them to our profession. We just need to talk to them.  

 References:

1. Bruce K, Erdner D. 2023-2024 CAS updates and policy review. American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. July 6, 2023. Accessed August 1, 2023.
2. Brown DL. Years of rampant expansion have imposed Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest conditions on US pharmacy schools. Am J Pharm Educ. 2020;84(10):ajpe8136. doi:10.5688/ajpe8136
3. Antrim A. Despite rapid growth of institutions, pharmacy school applications decline. Pharmacy Times. 2023;17(1). Accessed May 10, 2023.
4. Wall AL, Aljets A, Ellis SC, et al. White paper on pharmacy admissions: Developing a diverse workforce to meet the healthcare needs of an increasingly diverse society: Recommendations of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Special Committee on Admissions. Am J Pharm Educ. 2015;79(7):S7. doi:10.5688/ajpe797S7
5. Pruitt S, Darley A, Dennison E. Increasing the PharmD pipeline, encouraging student success, and supporting the underserved through pre-pharmacy advising. Am J Pharm Educ. 2023;87(2):ajpe8854. doi:10.5688/ajpe8854

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Author Bio(s):

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Pulses is a scholarly blog supported by a team of pharmacy educators.