Pharmaceutical Sciences Minor

Pharmaceuticals are a major part of the health industry. The minor in pharmaceutical sciences is designed to expose undergraduate students to core areas of pharmaceutical science in preparation for advanced degrees in the health science professions, pharmaceutical sciences research, and graduate programs in fields such as chemistry as well as careers in pharmacy, pharmaceutical research, biomedical sciences, or the pharmaceutical industry. Students will learn the foundations of pharmaceutical discovery, development, disposition, and application.

Upon completion of the pharmaceutical sciences minor, students should be able to:

• Identify methods in which pharmaceuticals are researched and developed
• Describe how pharmaceuticals interact with the human body
• Compare methods of formulation, manufacturing, and testing of pharmaceutical dosage forms
• Explain how basic sciences play a role in the development of modern therapeutics

Admissions 

The minor is available to all undergraduate students. Students must fulfill specific prerequisite requirements (see Requirements tab) and submit an application. Applications will be accepted each year in the first six weeks of the fall semester. The application requires the following information:

• GPA (minimum 3.0)
• Grades for any courses already completed in chemistry, math, and biology
• A brief statement (approx. 500 words) explaining why you are interested in the field of pharmaceutical sciences

Requirements

In addition to the program requirements listed below, students must:

• take at least nine hours of their minor "core" requirements at UNC–Chapel Hill
• earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.000 in the minor core requirements. Some programs may require higher standards for minor or specific courses.

For more information, please consult the degree requirements section of the catalog.

Admission Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Students must complete the following courses:
CHEM 261	Introduction to Organic Chemistry I H	3
MATH 231	Calculus of Functions of One Variable I H, F	4
Students must complete or be enrolled simultaneously in the following courses:
CHEM 262	Introduction to Organic Chemistry II H	3
It is also strongly advised that students have already completed the following courses:
BIOL 252	Fundamentals of Human Anatomy and Physiology (or comparable course) H	3
BIOL 240	Cell Biology H	3

Program Requirements

¹

These courses have prerequisites that are not required for the minor.

²

Only two seminars will count toward the minor. Each seminar can only be taken once, regardless of grade received.