Pharmacist

51.20 Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration · SOC 29-1051

⚠⚠ One route: the Doctor of Pharmacy, awarded in Florida's public system by UF, FAMU and USF (about 412 a year). ⚠⚠ Admission turns on two or more years of prerequisite science, not a bachelor's degree: UF's minimum is an associate degree, and more than half of Pharm.D. applications nationally come from people without a bachelor's. Median pay is $140,910 nationally and $135,970 in Florida. BLS expects retail demand to be limited as prescriptions move online and by mail.

Licensure and accreditation

⚠⚠⚠ LICENSED IN FLORIDA (ch. 465, F.S.). Section 465.007 requires a degree from an accredited school or college of pharmacy (ACPE is the accreditor), a board-approved internship of no more than 2,080 hours, an age of 18 or over, and passing the board's examination, which is built on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy's. BLS: "must pass two exams to get a license." ⚠⚠ Only the Pharm.D. qualifies. A pharmaceutical sciences master's does not, and neither does the pharmacy technician credential, which is a separate registration.

⚠⚠⚠ One degree leads here — the Doctor of Pharmacy — and three Florida public universities award it

	Pharmacists (29-1051)
Entry-level education (BLS)	⚠⚠ Doctoral or professional degree — the Pharm.D.
Median, 2025	$140,910
Jobs	325,200
Outlook 2025–35	+5% (+17,100)
Openings a year	about 12,500
Where they work	pharmacies and drug retailers 37%, hospitals 32%, general merchandise retailers 6%

Florida public institution	Pharm.D. awarded, 2023 (IPEDS)
University of Florida	237
Florida A&M University	100
University of South Florida	75

⚠⚠ About 412 Pharm.D. degrees a year from Florida’s public universities. Florida also has private pharmacy schools — AACP’s 2023–24 application table lists Nova Southeastern, Larkin and Palm Beach Atlantic — which this site does not list. ⚠ UF also awards about 300 master’s a year in the pharmaceutical sciences (CIP 51.2099). Those are not a licence route: only the Pharm.D. leads to the pharmacist exams.

⚠ Pharmacy technician is a different job with a different route — a short Florida programme and board registration, not a doctorate. It is covered on the Medical Assistant and Pharmacy Technician page.

⚠⚠⚠ You do not need a bachelor’s degree — the prerequisites decide it

BLS: Pharm.D. programmes “typically require at least 2 years of prerequisite undergraduate courses,” and the programmes “usually take 4 years to finish, although some programs offer a 3-year option. Others admit high school graduates into a 6-year program.” The University of Florida’s own minimum is an A.A. or A.S., or the pre-professional courses plus 36 hours of state general education.

AACP’s national figures for applications to Pharm.D. programmes for fall 2024 show how mixed the backgrounds are:

Previous college of the applicant (2023–24)	Applications	Share
Bachelor’s degree	14,417	39%
Three or more years, no degree	11,390	31%
Associate degree	2,798	8%
One to two years	2,478	7%
No college (direct-entry programmes)	4,321	12%
Master’s or doctorate	1,429	4%

⚠⚠ More than half of applications come from people WITHOUT a bachelor’s degree. AACP counts applications, not people, so one applicant can appear several times. ⚠ AACP does not publish entrants’ majors, and we found no source that does. So this page cannot say which major works best. What it can say: the courses decide admission, not the name of the major. Biology and chemistry majors cover most prerequisites inside the degree; anyone else can take them alongside.

⚠⚠⚠ The prerequisite courses have competing numbers — read the target school’s list literally

Subject	Numbers in use in Florida
General Chemistry I and II	⚠⚠ CHM2045/2046 (16–17 carriers, including UF, USF, UNF, UWF, FAU) against CHM1045/1046 (15 carriers, including FAMU, FSU, FIU, FGCU) — the two families barely overlap
General Biology I and II	BSC2010/2011 (18–20 carriers) against BSC1010/1011 (7–9)
Microbiology	⚠ MCB3020 at eight carriers, mostly universities (UF names it) against MCB2010 (16) and MCB2010C (12) at the colleges
Organic Chemistry I and II	✔ CHM2210/2211, 29 carriers each — settled
Anatomy and Physiology	BSC2085/2086 (20 and 19); BSC2085C as the combined form at seven

⚠⚠ UF’s catalogue says “Equivalent critical-tracking courses as determined by the State of Florida Common Course Prerequisites may be used for transfer students.” So a state-college student is not stuck with UF’s own numbers. But every school sets its own list: check the list of the programme you are aiming at, course by course, before you register.

⚠⚠ BLS expects retail demand to be limited

BLS projects growth of 5%, but it also says: “demand for pharmacists is expected to be limited in retail settings as the industry consolidates and more people fill prescriptions online or by mail.” ⚠ Retail and drug stores employ the largest share of pharmacists (37%), and that is where BLS expects demand to be limited. Hospitals are close behind at 32%. BLS does not name AI in the pharmacist outlook.

⚠ So think past the counter when choosing a programme. If you want to work outside retail, in a hospital or clinic, ask each programme how many graduates go on to post-graduate residencies and where they place.

⚠ Nationally, AACP reports that the number of Pharm.D. degrees awarded “decreased to 11,386 in 2024 compared to 12,639 in 2023,” and that attrition for the class of 2024 rose to 19.7%, a class that started during the COVID-19 pandemic. Roughly one student in five did not finish with their class, so ask any programme for its own graduation and licensure-pass rates.

What Florida pays

Percentile	Florida	United States	Difference
⚠ 10th	⚠ $56,000	$99,290	−$43,290
25th	$125,370	$129,380	−$4,010
Median	$135,970	$140,910	−$4,940
75th	$154,470	$161,840	−$7,370
90th	$166,310	$174,230	−$7,920

⚠ The Florida 10th percentile is far below the national one, while the rest of the table is close. O*NET does not explain it. Annual figures include people working part-time or part of the year, which can pull the bottom of the range down. The median is the better guide to a full-time salary than the floor.

Florida licensure

Section 465.007, Florida Statutes, requires a degree from an accredited school or college of pharmacy (programmes are accredited by ACPE), “an internship program approved by the board” of no more than 2,080 hours, an age of at least 18, and passing the board’s examination, built on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s. BLS: candidates “must pass two exams to get a license”.

Where people come from

There is no single required programme for this path. These are the fields students actually arrive from — each is a place in the catalog you can browse.

40.05Chemistry

⚠ Chemistry — general and organic chemistry make up the largest block of pre-pharmacy prerequisites on UF's critical-tracking list (CHM2045/2046, CHM2210/2211). AACP publishes no data on entrants' majors, so this records where the prerequisites sit, not a proven best major.

26.01Biology, General

⚠ Biology — general biology and microbiology are on UF's critical-tracking list (BSC2010/2011, MCB3020), and BLS names anatomy and physiology. The same caution applies: AACP does not report majors.

Programs that lead here

A program is a field of study, one level above a degree — each page says which degrees it covers and which Florida institutions award them. ⚠ The count is institutions that awarded a credential in the field in 2023; it is not a promise that a school runs this exact degree, and it counts something different from the course-based list further down.

Pharmacy (Doctor of Pharmacy) 3 Florida schools

The programme — the Pharm.D. at UF, FAMU and USF. Read its note on the pharmaceutical sciences master's, which is not a licence route.

Related, but not a route in

Programs worth knowing about if you are considering this career — ⚠ they do not lead to it. Each row says what it is and is not.

Chemistry and Biochemistry 10 Florida schools

⚠ A major that contains most of the prerequisites. It is a route to applying, not a substitute for the Pharm.D.

Biology and Biomedical Sciences 15 Florida schools

⚠ The other major that contains most of the prerequisites.

Pharmacy Technology 30 Florida schools

⚠⚠ A different job. Technician work is useful experience for an application, but it earns no Pharm.D. credit. See the Medical Assistant and Pharmacy Technician path.

Careers similar to this one

Careers filed under the same broad field in the federal classification (HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS) — often they share early coursework, and each row says which group it is filed in. ⚠ Worth reading BEFORE you commit: switching between neighbours is cheap early and expensive late.

Athletic Trainer Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions

⚠⚠⚠ A master's-entry, state-licensed clinical profession paying $62,520 — less than a licensed practical nurse earns on a certificate ($64,400), and less than every associate-degree clinical route on this site except paramedic. ⚠⚠ The profession moved to master's entry in 2022: CAATE states that after the fall 2022 term, baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. ⚠ Florida's statute has not caught up and still reads as though a bachelor's is enough.

Dental Hygienist Dental Support Services and Allied Professions

Dental hygienists are licensed clinicians who assess and treat the gums, remove calculus and stains, take and read radiographs, apply preventive agents, and teach patients to look after their own teeth. ⚠ A median of $98,100 on a two-year associate degree — the highest of any two-year route on this site. ⚠⚠ Florida licenses the work under Chapter 466 and requires THREE separate examinations on top of the degree. ⚠⚠⚠ Admission is the hard part, not the coursework: 18 public programmes in the whole state, all limited-access.

Diagnostic Medical Sonographer Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions

Sonographers produce and interpret the ultrasound images physicians diagnose from — deciding in real time which views answer the clinical question, and recognising the difference between healthy and pathological tissue on a screen nobody else is watching. ⚠ A median of $96,590 on a two-year degree, second only to dental hygiene among the two-year routes on this site. ⚠⚠⚠ And a regulatory fact worth knowing before you enrol: Florida does NOT license sonographers, because the statute is written about radiation rather than about imaging.

Health Care Administrator Health and Medical Administrative Services

Running the non-clinical half of health care — budgets, staffing, quality, compliance, revenue, regulators. $123,860 median, 616,200 employed, 62,100 openings a year, growing much faster than average. ⚠⚠ There is no required major: Census microdata puts HEALTH first at 169,319 people, BUSINESS second at 75,396 and PSYCHOLOGY third at 47,154. ⚠⚠⚠ But Florida statute puts a price on the choice — on the nursing home side, a health administration major halves the required training programme from 2,000 hours to 1,000.

Health Information Technician, Coder and Medical Office Administrator Health and Medical Administrative Services

⚠⚠⚠ Three different routes wear this name in Florida, they are taught at roughly the same number of institutions, and only ONE of them leads to the field's professional credential. Health information management — 31 institutions, and the associate degree is what makes you RHIT-eligible. Billing and coding — 37 institutions and the largest output, all clock-hour certificates, none of which does. Medical office administration — 36 institutions into an occupation of 850,000 people with no credential ladder at all. ⚠⚠ Choosing wrongly does not waste a term; it forecloses the credential.

Licensed Practical Nurse Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants

LPNs give direct nursing care under an RN or physician — medications, wounds, vital signs, assessment — and supervise aides. ⚠ It is the widest-taught credential on this site (48 Florida institutions, 1,322 completions a year), a median of $64,400, and the one field where Florida law publishes each programme's licence-examination pass rate before you enrol. Look it up.

Medical Assistant and Pharmacy Technician Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services

Two of the largest short-certificate routes into health care in Florida, paying within $60 a year of each other and taught at the same technical colleges — and the state treats them completely differently. ⚠⚠⚠ Florida writes down in statute exactly what a medical assistant may do, including venipuncture and administering medication, and requires NO licence, certificate or training to do it. It requires a pharmacy technician, working behind a counter, to register with the Board of Pharmacy and complete a board-approved programme. ⚠⚠ And the medical assisting programme has FOUR labelled exit points you can leave on and be hired at — the pharmacy technician programme has none.

Medical Laboratory Scientist Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions

Medical laboratory scientists produce the results a diagnosis is made from — haematology, clinical chemistry, microbiology, immunology and the blood bank — and catch the result that is wrong before a physician acts on it. ⚠⚠ Florida is one of the few states that LICENSES this work: you may not report a clinical laboratory result here without a licence. ⚠⚠⚠ Read the wage section before you commit: this is a four-year degree paying less than three of the two-year health paths on this site, and that trade-off is the honest centre of this page.

Nurse Practitioner and Advanced Practice Nurse Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing

⚠⚠⚠ Florida grants nurse practitioners autonomous practice — and almost every account of it omits the limit that matters. Autonomous registration covers PRIMARY CARE ONLY. It does not let you practise your specialty without a physician protocol, and only certified midwives are excepted. 11,201 APRNs were registered for autonomous practice as of the 2024 legislative analysis. ⚠⚠ The occupation itself is nearly twice the size of the physician assistant profession — 320,400 employed, 29,500 openings a year, $132,300 median.

Occupational Therapy Assistant Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services

Occupational therapy assistants deliver the treatment that gets people back to doing ordinary things — dressing, cooking, writing, working, playing — after injury, stroke, developmental delay or mental illness. ⚠ A median of $72,300 on a two-year degree, growing 21%. ⚠⚠⚠ And the finding worth acting on: it pays MORE and grows FASTER than the physical therapist assistant, and Florida trains a QUARTER as many. Four institutions, 57 graduates a year. This page covers the assistant, the aide and the therapist.

Paramedic Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions

Paramedics are the highest level of prehospital care — assessing and stabilising at the scene, administering drugs, managing advanced airways, reading ECGs and running a cardiac arrest before the patient reaches a hospital. ⚠ Median $60,600, reached through a certificate rather than a degree, and stacked on top of a short EMT course most people complete first. ⚠⚠ In Florida this is substantially a FIRE SERVICE credential: departments pay for it and pay extra for holding it. ⚠⚠⚠ And the accreditation rule here is the strictest on this site — the wrong programme leaves you unable to certify at all.

Phlebotomist Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science/Research and Allied Professions

The shortest formal route into health care Florida operates. ⚠⚠⚠ Of 772 phlebotomy credentials awarded by 29 Florida public institutions in 2023, EVERY ONE was a certificate of under twelve weeks — about 165 clock hours, most of it at a district technical college. It pays $45,230, essentially the same as a medical assistant or a pharmacy technician on ten times the training. ⚠⚠ And Florida's clinical laboratory licensing statute names phlebotomists in its EXCLUSION, one rung below two occupations the same statute licenses.

See every career in HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS →

Courses along this path

Selected, not exhaustive — the courses specific to this path plus the foundations it is built on. A course number does not identify a course in Florida: always check your own institution's catalog and take a syllabus to an adviser.

CHM2045 —General Chemistry I Guide

General Chemistry I — 16 carriers, including UF, USF, UNF, UWF and FAU. The first course on UF's pre-pharmacy critical-tracking list, and the start of the chemistry sequence the whole Pharm.D. builds on.

⚠ ⚠⚠ Fifteen other institutions, including FAMU, Florida State, FIU and FGCU, number the same course CHM1045 (and CHM1046 for part II); the two families barely overlap. UF accepts state common-prerequisite equivalents for transfer students, but read your target school's list literally.

CHM2046 —General Chemistry II Guide

General Chemistry II — 17 carriers. Equilibrium, kinetics, acids and bases: the chemistry behind how a drug dissolves, is absorbed and is stored.

⚠ ⚠ CHM1046 at the CHM1045 institutions.

BSC2010 —General Biology I Guide

General Biology I — 20 carriers, and on UF's pre-pharmacy list with its lab (BSC2010L).

⚠ ⚠ BSC1010 at seven institutions, including FAMU and FAU. The subject is the same, but the numbers differ.

BSC2011 —General Biology II Guide

General Biology II — 18 carriers, with its lab. Organisms and physiology: the ground that pharmacology and anatomy build on.

⚠ ⚠ BSC1011 at nine institutions.

CHM2210 —Organic Chemistry I Guide

Organic Chemistry I — 29 carriers under one number, the settled course in the sequence. ⚠⚠ Drug structure is organic chemistry. UF names it on its critical-tracking list.

CHM2211 —Organic Chemistry II Guide

Organic Chemistry II — 29 carriers, with its lab (CHM2211L on UF's list). Reactions and synthesis, completing the chemistry that medicinal chemistry in the Pharm.D. assumes.

MCB3020 —Microbiology Guide

Microbiology — eight carriers, mostly universities; UF names it. Pathogens and antimicrobials, the scientific ground for anti-infective therapy.

⚠ ⚠⚠ The state and technical colleges teach microbiology as MCB2010 (16 carriers) or MCB2010C (12). UF's catalogue says equivalent courses under the State of Florida Common Course Prerequisites may be used by transfer students, so confirm which your target programme accepts.

BSC2085 —Anatomy and Physiology I Guide

Human Anatomy and Physiology I — 20 carriers. BLS names anatomy and physiology among typical Pharm.D. prerequisites.

⚠ ⚠ BSC2085C is the combined lecture-and-lab form at seven institutions and completes the course the same way. ⚠ The APK-numbered anatomy taught in kinesiology departments is not reliably accepted where BSC is named.

BSC2086 —Anatomy & Physiology II Guide

Human Anatomy and Physiology II — 19 carriers: the cardiovascular, respiratory and renal systems, where most drug actions and dosing adjustments happen.

PHY2053 —College Physics I Request a guide

General Physics I — 19 carriers. BLS names physics among typical Pharm.D. prerequisites. The algebra-based sequence is the usual pre-health choice.

⚠ ⚠ PHY2053C is the combined form at ten institutions.

STA2023 —Elementary Statistics Guide

Elementary Statistics — 39 carriers, and on UF's critical-tracking list. BLS names statistics among typical prerequisites. Reading a drug trial is statistics.

MAC2311 —Calculus I Guide

Calculus I — 39 carriers. Some Pharm.D. programmes require calculus. ⚠ Check whether yours does, and whether it accepts business calculus (MAC2233) instead.

ECO2023 —Principles of Microeconomics Guide

Microeconomics — 39 carriers. Some programmes list an economics course among their prerequisites; confirm on your target programme's list. ⚠ Drug pricing, insurance formularies and pharmacy benefit management are daily economics in the profession.

PHA3003 —Pharmaceutical Science I Request a guide

Pharmaceutical Science I — FAMU and Florida Polytechnic. ⚠ One of the few undergraduate PHA courses: a look at pharmaceutical science before committing to a four-year doctorate. The professional PHA courses are Pharm.D.-level and are taken after admission.

Where you can take these courses in Florida

39 Florida public institutions teach courses on this path. The count is how many of the 14 listed courses each one carries — it shows where the path is best covered. It is not a statement that a school offers this as a degree; for that, check the institution’s own programme list.

USF

University of South Florida

13 of 14

Hillsborough College

12 of 14

SFC

Santa FE College

12 of 14

SPC

St. Petersburg College

12 of 14

SCFMS

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota

12 of 14

Broward College

11 of 14

College of Central Florida

11 of 14

FAU

Florida Atlantic University

11 of 14

FIU

Florida International University

11 of 14

FLPOLY

Florida Polytechnic University

11 of 14

University of Florida

11 of 14

UWF

University of West Florida

11 of 14

FAMU

Florida A & M University

10 of 14

GCSC

Gulf Coast State College

10 of 14

MDC

Miami Dade College

10 of 14

TSC

Tallahassee State College

10 of 14

FGC

Florida Gateway College

9 of 14

FSU

Florida State University

9 of 14

IRSC

Indian River State College

9 of 14

SJRSC

St. Johns River State College

9 of 14

FSWSC

Florida Southwestern State College

8 of 14

PBSC

Palm Beach State College

8 of 14

UCF

University of Central Florida

8 of 14

NCF

New College of Florida

7 of 14

PHSC

Pasco-Hernando State College

7 of 14

PESC

Pensacola State College

7 of 14

SFSC

South Florida State College

7 of 14

UNF

University of North Florida

7 of 14

FGCU

Florida Gulf Coast University

6 of 14

EFSC

Eastern Florida State College

5 of 14

NFC

North Florida College

5 of 14

SSCF

Seminole State College of Florida

4 of 14

DSC

Daytona State College

3 of 14

FSCJ

Florida State College at Jacksonville

3 of 14

LSSC

Lake-Sumter State College

3 of 14

NWFSC

Northwest Florida State College

3 of 14

PSC

Polk State College

3 of 14

CFK

The College of the Florida Keys

3 of 14

Valencia College

3 of 14

Sources

Requirements change. These are the authorities that decide them — check them directly before committing to a route.

BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Pharmacists — $140,910 median (2025), 325,200 jobs, +5% for 2025–35, about 12,500 openings a year; doctoral or professional entry; 37% in pharmacies and drug retailers, 32% in hospitals. Retail demand "expected to be limited" as the industry consolidates and prescriptions move online or to mail. No mention of AI.
O*NET — Pharmacists (29-1051.00) — Job Zone Five; 78% of respondents report a doctoral degree required; faster than average growth for 2024–34.
O*NET — Florida wages for 29-1051.00 — Florida median $135,970 against $140,910 national; Florida 10th percentile $56,000 against $99,290, which the source does not explain.
AACP — Profile of Pharmacy Students, Fall 2024 — 36,833 applications for 2023-24; by applicants' previous college: 39% bachelor's, 31% three or more years with no degree, 8% associate, 12% no college. Pharm.D. degrees awarded fell to 11,386 in 2024 from 12,639; class-of-2024 attrition 19.7%. Florida application counts: UF 633, USF 349, FAMU 190.
UF Catalog — Pharmacy, preprofessional — 63–66 preprofessional credits; critical tracking includes CHM2045/2046, BSC2010/2011, STA2023, CHM2210/2211 and MCB3020; state common-prerequisite equivalents accepted for transfer students.
UF College of Pharmacy — Pharm.D. admission requirements — Minimum A.A. or A.S., or the preprofessional courses plus 36 hours of state general education; preferred minimum science GPA 2.5; prerequisites complete by the August before entry.
s. 465.007, Florida Statutes — licensure by examination — Degree from an accredited school or college of pharmacy, a board-approved internship of no more than 2,080 hours, age 18 or over, and the board's examination.
IPEDS completions — Florida, CIP 51.20 — Pharm.D. (51.2001): UF 237, FAMU 100, USF 75 in 2023. Pharmaceutical sciences (51.2099): UF 301 master's, USF 26, FAMU 7.

Last updated 23 September 2026.