Baltimore Welcomes New Pharmacy School

Congratulations, Baltimore! You are now home to the first pharmacy school in the United States to be established on an all-women’s college campus. That college in particular is the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, and its new School of Pharmacy is already creating quite a buzz. College communication director Theresa Wiseman, who spoke to Baltimore Sun blog columnist Dan Roderick, mentioned that “nearly 500 students applied for the 70 openings in [the school's] inaugural class.”

Wiseman spoke further to Roderick in the article, elaborating on the excitement of opening a pharmacy school at a time when health care careers are in hot demand. “Pharmacy is a hot, growing field,” she stated. “Starting salaries are $100,000. There’s a shortage of pharmacists nationwide, one that is expected to grow significantly in the years to come. The former dean at the University of Maryland predicted a shortage of 157,000 pharmacists by the year 2020.”

The four-year program rewards students with a Pharm.D — the professional doctorate degree for pharmacists — and though Notre Dame of Maryland is a women’s college, the pharmacy school’s website assures students that the major will be open to both men and women. The program has also been in the making since it was first approved in 2006. Now its doors are on the verge of oficially opening, and if the buzz is correct, there will be good things in the future for this rising star of pharmacology.

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