Pre-Health Titans! Did you know that University of Detroit Mercy offers a 6-year BS to BS-PharmD Program?! The University collaborates with University of Saint Joseph in Hartford, CT that allow students to earn a Bachelor of Science in Biology as well as a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in just six years! Titans in this accelerated program complete their first three years at Detroit Mercy and the last three years at University of Saint Joseph. Two representatives from St. Joseph, Dr. Angela Skyers and Jim Henkel spoke with Pre-Health Advisor, Carmen Gamlin to discuss exactly how this program works. It is also important to note that like University of Detroit Mercy, University of Saint Joseph is a University rooted in the Mercy Traditions. Our universities are two of the 16 Mercy Colleges and Universities.
We already have a 3 year PharmD program. What that means is that your students would spend the first three years of their education on your campus, taking prerequisites an accumulating around 100 credits …. and then in their 4th year, they come here (St. Joseph’s University) and they start their PharmD program. Those credits they take in their first year of pharmacy gets transferred back to Detroit Mercy (for graduation).
1. Please share how the PharmD program is complete in just 3 years and the University of St. Joseph.
University of Saint Joseph’s Representative Jim Henkel explains that their PharmD Program go all-year around with some breaks versus the traditional PharmD program that goes for Fall and Winter Semesters with breaks in the summer. In addition, students in this program are able to take on more credits in a term. The structure of their specific program hold six hours classes a day which allows for one credit of course material to be covered in just a few days versus the traditional 15 weeks.
We do that by using a modular approach. So each of our classes goes six hours a day for as many days as it takes to cover the material.
The students take roughly 20 credits a term, but we don’t just throw [it] all at them at once and say go learn this were going to test you on it. We mentor them very closely. We cover the material and then a certain amount of material in the day saying the morning session will talk for an hour with this lecture discussion. Then we spend a lot of the rest of that morning in small group learning and interactive learning where they practice what we just talked about.
The whole semester will be a series of modules with a few longitudinal ones built in where they go one day a week for five weeks [to] things like the laboratory…Most of the classes that would take a whole semester for a legacy program for a four year program, we can get a two credit course done in about five to six days depending on how it’s configured.
2. Metropolitan Detroit is one of the most diverse locations in the world. Ethnic, Religious and socioeconomic diversity is a perk of what we call home. Please share what a student can expect regarding diversity with the PharmD program and surrounding community.
So we really are a close-knit community here and our culture is so dominant in terms of how supportive we are to each other and when students come in, they naturally fit into that fold.-Dr. Angela Skyers
Dr. Angela Skyers glows about the city of Hartford, which is the Capital of the state of Connecticut and its central location and diversity. It is fairly close to some very popular cities such as Boston and New York and there is truly a place for everyone! They spoke about the coastal towns, farmlands and wineries as well as explaining that Hartford has become more collegiate with many Universities being located in downtown Hartford as well as surrounding cities.
There’s an area in the city that has a whole lot of Latin X restaurants and activities going on….I think there’s a fairly good distribution of many other groups as well as Caribbean….It’s very diverse and you can tell the diversity based on the restaurants we have in the area.
[Referring to the student body] In most years we have no majority. The ethnic diversity there is no majority, there are pluralities…
We celebrate all of the various holidays…That’s one of the things we tell people is that if you come to a place like ours, a place like yours being that we are a Catholic Institution, we understand what faithfulness, faith means so we celebrate all the faiths.
So every month students are celebrated and those that don’t find that what they’d like to highlight isn’t already being focused on, they come to me and I say, let’s do it! Let’s celebrate you as well because you’re important as well. So there’s no lack of diversity initiatives that we will take to make everyone feel included here.
3. Relocating for graduate school may result in relocating to the new home away from home. What is the social life and transportation needs near the University of St. Joseph?
Students coming to University of Saint Joseph in Connecticut will need transportation. Students in the PharmD Program will have rotations in which they will have to ensure that they have transportation to get to.
Especially for the introductory and advanced practice rotations that pharmacy students have to do, one of the conditions is that they have to provide their own transportation.
For free transcript evaluations, Titans can reach out to Dr. Skyers via email: askyers@usj.edu or by phone (860) 231-5869.