New articulation agreement benefits pre-pharmacy students at EMU

Eastern Mennonite University undergraduate and graduate students who are planning health careers in pharmacy now have an expedited pathway to earning the required Doctorate of Pharmacy degree.

A new articulation agreement with Shenandoah University’s Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacyprovides annual priority enrollment for up to five undergraduate students and five graduate students in EMU’s MS in Biomedicine program who meet admissions requirements.

Criteria include Pharmacy College Admission Test composite score and cumulative GPA requirements, completion of prerequisites required with a specified GPA, two letters of recommendation from EMU program faculty members and a letter from a healthcare provider.

Undergraduate students must also complete an interview and secure a letter of recommendation with the pharmacy school dean or a designee. Completion of an undergraduate degree program is not required; students who have earned at least 63 credit hours are eligible to apply.

“We believe it’s important to form relationships between EMU and local professional health schools such as the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University,” said Professor Julia Halterman, director of the graduate biomedicine program. “Not only does this provide a direct avenue for our students to enter pharmacy school, but it also benefits the local economy by recruiting and training healthcare practitioners here in the state of Virginia.”

Shenandoah University’s School of Pharmacy opened in 1996 in the Health Professions Building on the campus of the Winchester Medical Center. In 1998, the school was renamed for Bernard J. Dunn, a pharmacist in Manhattan, New York. His son, scientist and entrepreneur Bernard J. Dunn Jr., gave a $10 million endowment to honor his father, who died when he was 9 years old.

Other articulation agreements

EMU’s MS in Biomedicine program also holds articulation agreements with Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Mary Baldwin University’s Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences, and Southern College of Optometry, among others.

Undergraduate students from EMU who have completed appropriate prerequisites have opportunities under articulation agreements with Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine and Mary Baldwin University’s Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences for the Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD), Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), and Master of Science in Physician’s Assistant (PA) programs.

Story by Lauren Jefferson