Predicting Academic Performance of Pharmacy Students: Demographic Comparisons

This study examined the predictive power of six independent variables on pharmacy students’ academic performance across demographic variables. The study also developed a profile of pharmacy students who were more likely to have academic success and difficulty. A total of 437 pharmacy students from all three pharmacy schools in Texas participated in this study. Results showed that prepharmacy GPA was the best and most powerful predictor of students’ academic performance for most of the demographic variables. The number of hours contributed to community activities was the best predictor of the academic performance of older and Black students. In comparison with pharmacy students who had higher academic performance (GPA=>3.00), those who had lower academic performance (GPA<3.00) were more likely to be older, have a lower prepharmacy GPA, work more hours during the academic year, study less hours per week, and contribute more hours to both college and community activities.