An In-Depth Look at Pharmacy Schools and Their Programs
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Business by LA Times Studios presents a list of pharmacy schools currently operating in California. This list is ranked by the number of degrees awarded in 2024.
Pharmacy schools are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, a nonprofit agency that oversees schools offering PharmD degrees. California has 14 accredited programs, which is the most for any state in the country. Data for the list was provided by the programs themselves with some data compiled from accreditation reports.
The University of Southern California Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is the largest program operating in the state, as ranked by the number of degrees awarded last year. The pharmacy program was founded in 1905 and became the first school in the country to offeraPharmD degree program in 1950. It was renamed to its current name with a $50-million donation in 2022 for student scholarships, faculty recruitment and biomedical research.
The newest school to launch a program in California is UC Irvine, which announced a pharmacy school in 2020. The first class entered in fall 2021 and matriculates this year. However, some schools have had difficulty enrolling students. The pharmacy program at California Health Sciences University in Clovis closed to new students and had its last class graduate in 2024.
On the following pages, you’ll also find in-depth profiles of California pharmacy schools that offer specialized programs and a diverse student body.
Overall, the 14 pharmacy schools in California had more than 1,100 students graduate with a PharmD degree last year.
