A shopper's market; economy brightens job picture for professional school graduates

Black Issues in Higher Education, July 23, 1998 by Ronald Roach

"The market in health care administration has been very good," Moses says.

Dr. Robert Thomas, associate dean at the Xavier University College of Pharmacy in New Orleans, says virtually all of Xavier's 1,998 pharmacy graduates -- there are approximately 140 pharmacy doctoral candidates a year -- had jobs by graduation this past spring. The college trains a quarter of the nation's Black pharmacists.

Thomas estimates that pharmacists graduating from six-year doctoral programs like Xavier's earn between $50,000 and $60,000, on average, in their first year. At Xavier, as at other institutions, pharmacy students enter as college freshmen, complete two years of pre-pharmacy studies, and spend the next four years earning their doctoral degree.

Job prospects for pharmacy students are generally high even in bad economic times.

"There's never been an oversupply of pharmacists," Thomas says.