Admission Information

² The UBC Science One Program plus 6 credits of English is acceptable in lieu of first-year requirements. Applicants who completed the Science One Program prior to 2022W must also present BIOL 140. Other courses that are credit-excluded or anti-requisites to these courses will also be considered. Consult the Science Credit Exclusion List for more information.

³ CHEM 113, if taken, will be accepted in lieu of CHEM 123. Split courses offered by the UBC Chemistry Department as equivalents to CHEM 111, CHEM 121, CHEM 123 and CHEM 203 will be accepted if lab and lecture components are completed. Consult the Chemistry Department's COVID website for more information. For UBC Okanagan applicants, less than two semesters of organic chemistry will be acceptable if the coursework receives transfer credit for UBC Vancouver’s CHEM 203, or CHEM 233 & CHEM 235.

⁴ WRDS 150 will be accepted in lieu of 3 credits of English. One of SCIE 113, LFS 150, or FRST 150 will also be accepted in lieu of 3 credits of English. Other courses may satisfy the English requirement. If you are unsure of whether or not the course(s) you have taken will fulfill the English requirement, please contact the Office of Student Services by emailing undergrad.pharm@ubc.ca. For UBC Okanagan students, please note that ENGL 109 has been assessed to fulfill 3 credits of the English requirement. You will need to present an additional 3 credits of English coursework in order to satisfy the English requirement.

⁵ English courses used to satisfy the English requirement cannot count toward satisfying the humanities or social sciences requirement.

⁶ Humanities/social science and elective courses completed outside the 10-year timeframe will be considered.

Where direct equivalents to UBC Vancouver courses are available, applicants are normally expected to present these courses. Other courses that are credit-excluded or anti-requisites to these courses will also be considered. Applicants from institutions that do not offer direct equivalents to UBC Vancouver prerequisite courses are encouraged to refer to the course descriptions below to determine if the courses they have taken, or are planning to take, are suitable to satisfy the prerequisites. To check how your prerequisite coursework transfers to UBC Vancouver, please refer to the UBC Transfer Credit Search Tool or the BC Transfer Guide.

Prerequisite coursework must be taken for graded credit and transferable to UBC Vancouver⁷. Due to the complexity of transfer credit evaluations, we are unable to provide a listing of acceptable courses or provide pre-admission evaluations. Applicants will receive a formal evaluation of their academic qualifications after submitting an application for admission to the Undergraduate Admissions Office. The course descriptions in the table should be treated as a guideline and not a definitive or fully comprehensive description of the courses that would satisfy the prerequisites. The Faculty reserves the right to refuse admission if it is determined that the prerequisites have not been met.

⁷ Prerequisite coursework completed for Credit/Pass during the January-April 2020 term will be accepted.

⁸ English courses will not be accepted if offered by the English Department of an institution in a country where English is not the principal language of instruction. If you are unsure whether the course(s) you have taken will fulfill the English prerequisite, please contact the Office of Student Services by emailing undergrad.pharm@ubc.ca.
 
⁹ English courses used to satisfy the English requirement cannot count toward satisfying the humanities or social sciences requirement.

¹⁰ Humanities/social science and elective courses completed outside the 10-year timeframe will be considered.

While we are not able to provide pre-admission evaluations, if applicants are unsure of whether the course(s) taken will fulfill the prerequisite stated above, please contact the Office of Student Services by emailing undergrad.pharm@ubc.ca and provide a course outline or syllabus of the course(s) intended to fulfill the requirement.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a residency declaration form, in which you will be prompted to indicate whether you are a resident of British Columbia and, if so, your BC region of residence. The following are the relevant applicant groups for the interview prioritization process:

BC Residents
Preference is given to qualified applicants who are residents of British Columbia. For the purpose of applying to the Entry-to-Practice Doctor of Pharmacy program, applicants are considered BC residents if they hold a currently valid BC Services Card by the application deadline. Residents will be required to show proof in the form of a valid BC Services Card. 

Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut Residents
Residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut are treated as BC residents and will be required to provide equivalent documentation to the BC Services Card.

Indigenous Applicants
The program welcomes applications from qualified, self-identified Indigenous people. Indigenous applicants who meet the minimum academic qualifications are invited for an interview.

Applicants from Underrepresented Areas of BC
In an effort to serve the health care needs of British Columbians who reside in underserved communities, the program gives special consideration to applicants who come from communities outside of the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley. The program invites all applicants from underrepresented areas of British Columbia meeting a minimum threshold of 70% or equivalent on their admission average for an interview.

Out of Province Applicants
Given the prioritization of BC residents, a small number of out-of-province applicants are invited to participate in admission interviews. Up to 15% of interview spots are offered to the most academically-competitive out-of-province applicants.

• The stated average is the minimum requirement for admission consideration. Given the competitiveness of the program, applicants can expect that a higher admission average will be needed in order to be invited for an interview.
• As stated in the UBC calendar, admission to UBC is competitive and satisfying minimum academic requirements does not guarantee admission. In determining admissibility, UBC may consider the extent to which an applicant has: 
  • excelled, as evidenced by consistently strong grades, and/or the number of courses registered and then successfully completed in any given term;
  • selected courses that are relevant and/or complementary to the program to which admission is being sought;
  • selected a coherent sequence of progressively more challenging courses;
  • pursued studies having close comparability in learning outcomes with courses typically taken within the first two years of an undergraduate program at UBC.
• Only graded transferable undergraduate coursework can be included in the admission average. Grades from coursework that is not transferable to UBC will not be included in the admission evaluation. In-progress grades are not included in the admission average (i.e., grades for coursework taken in the January-April term after the December 1^st application deadline), but are reviewed once completed to ensure that conditions of admission offers, including minimum academic average requirements, are met.
• Admission averages do not include IB, AP, or A-Level exam grades.
• Only coursework completed within 10 years of the desired program start date can be considered, with the exceptions noted above (i.e., if applying to the 2024 Winter intake (September 2024 start date), only coursework taken from September 2014 onwards is eligible to be considered for admission).

In addition to a strong academic background, the Entry-to-Practice PharmD program seeks applicants who possess non-academic traits that are suitable for the practice of pharmacy. Selected applicants have the opportunity to demonstrate these traits by participating in the Pre-Recorded Interview Questions and Scenarios (PIQS). The PIQS process is conducted through an online platform and will require applicants to verbally respond to interview questions and scenarios, as well as provide a written response.

The PIQS will take place on May 4, 2024. All applicants will be notified by early April if they are selected to participate in the PIQS. The PIQS will take place on a designated date, which will be specified in the interview invitation. Due to the nature of the interview, we cannot accommodate requests to reschedule for any reason.