With so many accredited pharmacy schools available these days (100 as of 2008), one of the most helpful resources for uncovering the top pharmacy schools in the country are pharmacy school rankings lists.

Few decisions carry the same impact on ones career as their continued education, or in many cases today, re-education. The U.S. News and World Report is one of the most respected college ranking resources, and although the latest rankings were published in 2008, post graduate pharmacy schools are included. The following is taken directly from the USN website and details the fall 2007 survey criteria that the 2008 rankings are based on:

All the health rankings are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators, and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline. All schools surveyed in a discipline were sent the same number of surveys. Respondents rated the academic quality of programs on a 5-point scale: outstanding (5), strong (4), good (3), adequate (2), or marginal (1). They were instructed to select “don’t know” if they did not have enough knowledge to rate a program. Only fully accredited programs in good standing during the survey period are ranked. Those schools with the highest average scores appear.

The rankings were conducted for 101 Pharm.D. pharmacy programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and 56 percent of those surveyed responded.

Although almost a decade old now, another highly regarded top pharmacy school ranking list is the Annals of Pharmacotherapy list, which was last conducted in 2002. This ranking used perception and quantitative measures based on National Institute of Health (NIH) funding and the number of publications generated by program faculty.

There are a few other pharmacy school rankings lists available, however, the U.S. News and Annals of Pharmacotherapy lists are the most notable and should be most strongly considered.

It should be worth mentioning that your ranking criteria may be very different than the lists above. These lists obviously don’t consider important personal criteria that will influence prospective pharmacy students decision on which school to attend. Examples include:

• Cost – Affordability is obviously the first consideration most students will make
• Competitiveness – What is the likelihood you’ll be accepted?
• Location – What distance is the school from where you live? Are you willing to pay for lodging, food, and other expenses if the school is out of state?
• Content and Duration – Does the school provide the various courses you require and does it’s duration work for you?
• Class Size – A crowded learning environment might not be the best for you.
• Post Graduation Opportunity – How many students were able to quickly find jobs after graduating?
• Continuing Education – Are there any continuing education, internship, or other training opportunities available?

By no means should this be considered a complete or exhaustive list, you may have dozens of other personal criteria to consider when researching potential pharmacy schools.

Another useful resource you may consider is the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) pharmacy school comparison tool.

U.S News Pharmacy School Rankings

See the table below for the U.S. News and World Report 2008 Pharmacy School rankings:

Rank	School of Pharmacy	Score
1	University of California – San Francisco, CA	4.7
2	University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, NC	4.4
3	University of Minnesota – Minneapolis, MN	4.3
4	University of Texas – Austin, TX	4.2
5	Ohio State University – Columbus, OH	4.1
5	University of Kentucky – Lexington, KY	4.1
5	University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI	4.1
5	University of Washington – Seattle, WA	4.1
9	Purdue University – West Lafayette, IN	4.0
9	University of Arizona – Tucson, AZ	4.0
9	University of Florida – Gainesville, FL	4.0
9	University of Illinois – Chapel Hill, NC	4.0
3	University of Maryland – Baltimore, MD	4.3
9	University of Wisconsin – Madison, WI	4.0
15	University of Southern CA – Los Angeles, CA	3.9
16	University of Iowa – Iowa City, IA	3.8
16	University of Tennessee Health Science Center – Memphis, TN	3.8
16	University of Utah – Salt Lake City, UT	3.8
19	University of Kansas – Lawrence, KS	3.7
19	University of Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh, PA	3.7
21	University at Buffalo SUNY – Buffalo, NY	3.6
21	Virginia Commonwealth University – Richmond, VA	3.6
23	University of Colorado – Denver, CO	3.5
24	Auburn University – Auburn, AL	3.3
24	Medical University of South Carolina – Charleston, SC	3.3
24	Rutgers State University of NJ – New Brunswick, NJ	3.3
24	University of Georgia – Athens, GA	3.3
24	University of Mississippi – University, MS	3.3