Does my major matter?

Question: This question actually has more than one part. First of all, I'm curious as to how important my major is when applying for pharmacy school. I've heard things about med school and I'm not sure if they apply for pharmacy school, such as: It's better to major in something in liberal arts rather that science because your GPA is more important than your major, and it makes you look more well-rounded if you don't major in science.

Secondly, if your major IS important and can be an advantage or disadvantage for you, what would be the best choice of major? My current major is Psychology, for the following reasons: I'm good at writing and I think a liberal arts degree would help my GPA in that sense (it's 3.66 at the moment), I find psychology in itself interesting, it would make graduating in 3 years possible and save my parents some money, and I thought that some of the upper division coursework (namely Psychopharmacology) would be relevant to my application. However, would a science degree be looked on more favorably, or is GPA actually more important than the degree itself?


Answer: Frankly, I don't think your major matters much when I am reviewing a file. Many of our applicants don't have degrees when they are applying, so I wouldn't overthink this one. Of the applicants with a degree, probably 50% have a Chem or Bio degree or something similar (Biochem, Microbio, etc). The others are scattered among things like psychology, exercise science, physics, and plenty of English, Math, etc.

My recommendation would be to find a major that interests you and one that you can use if pharmacy school doesn't work out. If you do well in your prereq courses and your PCAT scores in Chem, Bio, and Quant are above average, your major won't even be mentioned.