The chemistry program provides education and training so you can pursue a career in chemistry, biotechnology, medicine, dentistry, allied health fields, science teaching, environmental science, materials science, or engineering. Chemistry is considered the central science because it is required for a full understanding of many other sciences as well as medicine. The Chemistry Department offers courses for general education and for majors in chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nursing. Besides the chemistry major and minor programs, the department also has concentrations in biochemistry, green chemistry and environmental chemistry, materials science and inorganic chemistry, and bioinformatics. The department offers opportunities for undergraduate research in organic chemistry, bioanalytical chemistry, nanoscience, and molecular modeling. The Chemistry Department promotes green chemistry in its curriculum and research. Majors in chemistry may be eligible for the Accelerated Pharmacy Program with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. In addition, students may opt to major in chemistry with a concentration in pre-medicine.
Certification by the American Chemical Society: The Chemistry Department at Worcester State University is among the programs approved by the American Chemical Society (ACS). The chemistry curriculum is reviewed by the ACS Committee on Professional Training on a 5-year cycle, and reports are made to the ACS annually.
Undergraduate chemistry majors who have demonstrated academic excellence and interest in research may participate in the Chemistry Honors Program. The department also has a chapter of the Gamma Sigma Epsilon National Honor Society in chemistry for those who qualify.
The ACS, with its more than 160,000 members, is the major professional society in the United States for practicing chemists. The ACS sponsors major professional meetings and publishes a large number of scientific journals. Through its Committee on Professional Training, the ACS evaluates undergraduate professional education in chemistry throughout the United States. Students who successfully complete an undergraduate curriculum that meets the ACS guidelines receive certification by the society. These guidelines are lengthy but basically require 400 clock hours of traditional classwork in chemistry courses covering the fundamental areas of the discipline, and 500 clock hours of formal laboratory experience in chemistry. Math and physics courses are also specified.
Complete details of the ACS guidelines for degree certification may be found below:
Guidelines for Bachelors Degree Programs
All chemistry majors who complete the BS curriculum will be nominated by the Department to receive certification by the ACS.
BA majors who desire to qualify for American Chemical Society certification for their degree must complete the following courses:
The research project must culminate in a written report. Students who carry out chemistry-based research in other departments may petition the Undergraduate Committee to count this research toward ACS accreditation.
Certification by the ACS is viewed favorably for admission to graduate or professional programs. Certified graduates are eligible to become members of the society after graduation; other chemistry graduates may become associate members after graduation, and members after 3 years of professional experience in chemistry or chemical engineering.
Study chemistry as it relates to living organisms. Through lectures and labs, you will learn about organic chemicals such as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids, and you will study how drugs work and the science and technology of modern drug discovery.
The purpose of this interdisciplinary concentration is to prepare you to enter the computer-intensive field of bioinformatics, computational biology, computational chemistry, or molecular modeling, including genomics and proteomics. With the ever-increasing number of fully sequenced genomes, including the human genome, databases such as GenBank and EMBL have grown at such a rate that storing, organizing, indexing, and ultimately mining the data have become key to answering biological questions.
Questions of gene expression have led to computational biology, the process of analyzing genomic sequences, and to the field of proteomics, the understanding of protein structure and function. The information obtained by computational biology and computational chemistry is used in the design of new drugs to treat a variety of diseases. Major drug and biotechnology companies are seeking people trained in bioinformatics.
View requirements and timeline
Worcester State University (WSU) and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science (MCPHS) have a formal affiliation agreement that admits students into an articulated program that begins with 3 years at Worcester State in one of 3 science tracks (biology, biotechnology, or chemistry) and concludes with the 3-year accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy program at MCPHS’s Worcester or Manchester (NH) campus. After successfully completing the first year of required coursework in the PharmD program at MCPHS, you will earn a bachelor of science degree from Worcester State. The first 3 years at Worcester State offer a blend of liberal arts and sciences that meet both the MCPHS general education curriculum requirements and the specific science track requirements at Worcester State. MCPHS provides the coursework needed for you to earn the bachelor of science degree from Worcester State at the end of the first year of professional study and the professional education required to earn the doctor of pharmacy degree at the end of 3 years at MCPHS.
MCPHS shall accept up to 10 qualified Worcester State students each year into the first year of the pharmacy program. If more than 10 students meet the established requirements and wish to transfer under the terms of this agreement, the 10 students determined by the MCPHS Worcester/Manchester Pharmacy Admissions Committees to be the best qualified will be assured transfer admission, with the remaining students accepted on a space-available basis.
Students who qualify (at the end of 3 years at Worcester State) for the accelerated pharmacy program with MCPHS must:
Students who transfer to Worcester State from another college are not eligible for this program but can apply to MCPHS via the traditional application process.
Students applying to the MCPHS accelerated pharmacy program must:
Study the chemistry of the atmosphere, soil, and natural water systems and observe air and water pollution, water treatment, and hazardous waste and pollution control. Conduct sampling and analysis of environmental materials.
Study concepts of inorganic chemistry such as quantum theory, chemical bonding, spectroscopy, molecular structure, and computational molecular modeling. Laboratory work deals with methods of physical measurement of chemical systems and their application to the determination of molecular structure, spectroscopy and thermodynamic data, among other practices.
This concentration is intended for chemistry majors who aspire to attend medical school, dental school, or veterinary school after completing their undergraduate degree. The concentration is a means to ensure that you have the best possible academic preparation and advising as you prepare for one of these post-graduate programs. The pre-medical concentration requirements include courses that are not part of the chemistry major but are designated as core prerequisites for these professional schools as well as some additional courses that are not part of the core prerequisites but are strongly recommended.
The concentration curriculum also includes a 1-credit seminar taken during the sophomore or junior year that is designed to familiarize you with the requirements for admission to medical, dental, and veterinary schools. The seminar will help you develop personal plans for fulfilling these requirements so that you have the best possible chance of admission to post-graduate study. A first-year seminar targeted at pre-medical students is offered, but not required, for completion of the concentration.
