Downloadable Application


Pharm.D. Completion Program
CCP offers an opportunity for a recent graduate of an ACPE-accredited college of pharmacy other than CCP to earn a Pharm.D. degree from CCP. Depending on an applicant’s qualifications and the availability of places in the class, the student may be admitted to the Pharm.D. Completion Program with or without advanced standing. After four quarters of study, the student can earn a Pharm.D. degree.

Admission Requirements for the Pharm.D. Completion Program
To be considered for admission to the Pharm.D. Completion Program, a prospective student must:

1. Have graduated recently from an ACPE-accredited college of pharmacy. “Recent” is defined as within a four-year period prior to the projected first day of classes for the Pharm.D. Program at CCP. (A student who has been dismissed from a regular academic program at CCP is not eligible for admission to the Pharm.D. Completion Program.)
2. Provide a copy of a valid pharmacist license if he/she graduated with a B.S. in Pharmacy degree at least 12 months prior to the first anticipated day of classes for the Pharm.D. Program at CCP.
3. Satisfy the technical standards (nonacademic abilities) for admission set forth by CCP. This includes possession of coordination, motor, and visual skills required to function in a clinical and laboratory setting; sufficient visual and auditory perception and mental capacity to assimilate technically detailed and complex information presented in lectures and in clinical settings; and possession of sufficient communication skills to present information accurately and effectively. See appropriate section above.
4. Submit a completed official MWU application to the Pharm.D. Degree Completion Program, including two letters of recommendation and transcripts from all institutions attended. Both letters of recommendation must be from faculty, of which one must be a clinical faculty member of a college of pharmacy.

Application Process for Pharm.D. Completion Program
Following receipt of a completed application at the University Admissions Office, the College of Pharmacy Admissions Committee will review a prospective student's application to determine the student's status, according to criteria stipulated by the Admissions Committee.

An applicant to the Pharm.D. Completion Program will undergo an evaluation of his/her baccalaureate curriculum and transcripts for advanced standing to determine if the student has successfully completed any of the didactic courses in the curriculum. If the student cannot satisfactorily demonstrate completion of such coursework, the student must successfully complete such coursework at CCP prior to the first Pharm.D. clerkship rotation.

Admission to the Pharm.D. Completion Program is competitive, and the number of accepted students is limited. Enrollment numbers will be determined on a yearly basis.

Application Deadline for the Pharm.D. Completion Program
The deadline is at the end of March for classes beginning in September of the same year.

Sample Curriculum for the Pharm.D. Completion Program

1. All didactic coursework for the Pharm.D. Completion Program must be successfully completed prior to the first day of rotations.
2. The student must satisfy all of the same eligibility requirements for PS-IV level clerkships as students in the regular Pharm.D. Program.
3. All requests for advanced standing will be handled by the Student Promotion and Graduation Committee, as previously described.

Academic Standards for the Pharm.D. Completion Program
Two distinct grade point averages are calculated for Pharm.D. Completion students: didactic grade point average and rotation grade point average. Didactic grade point average includes grades for all required and elective courses except Pharm 692 (Pharm.D. Seminar). Rotation grade point average includes grades for all rotations and Pharm.D. Seminar. The letter grading system can be used in Pharm.D. Seminar only when the same system is being used in corresponding rotations.

Quarterly didactic grade point average is calculated for each Pharm.D. Completion student and used as the central measure of academic performance. Quarterly didactic grade point average is defined as the grade point average for the didactic portion of a given academic quarter. This means that quarterly grade point averages will be calculated separately for summer and fall quarters of the Pharm.D. Completion Program. The Student Promotion and Graduation Committee assesses didactic grade point average for all Pharm.D. Completion students at the end of each quarter so defined. Those students with quarterly grade point averages less than 2.00 are removed from good academic standing and required to repeat the quarter in question by retaking all courses in which Ds or Fs were earned. This means a delay of one year before beginning rotations. Students repeating a quarter must adhere to the rules and requirements defined for returning students by CCP policy. This includes the requirement that the new quarterly grade point average be at least 2.00. The new quarterly grade point average is calculated by incorporating the grades earned in retakes of courses in which D’s and F’s were originally earned in place of those original D’s and F’s. If a student is given special permission to take additional courses during the returning quarter, grades earned in those courses are not counted in the new annual grade point average.

A Pharm.D. Completion student must have completed all pre-pharmacy requirements and all required CCP coursework (i.e., no pending "incompletes") and be in good academic standing to be eligible to begin rotations. That is, the student must have met the academic standards described above as well as all other didactic performance standards. The Office of Clinical Education may impose other requirements for rotation eligibility (e.g., knowledge assessments, applications, etc). To be eligible for graduation with a Pharm.D. degree, a student must achieve a cumulative rotation grade point average for Pharm.D. rotations and Pharm.D. Seminar of 2.00 or greater and no rotation failures.

Graduation Requirements for the Pharm.D. Completion Program
To graduate, candidates for the Pharm.D. degree must successfully complete all coursework and rotations with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.00 for all credits completed at CCP. At a minimum, the last three academic quarters of professional pharmacy work must be taken at CCP.

Advanced Standing
All requests for advanced standing by newly admitted, transfer, re-admitted, or enrolled students are processed on a course-by-course basis by the Student Promotion and Graduation Committee. The Dean’s Office provides staff support for such evaluations. To request such consideration, a student should submit a letter of request to the Dean of CCP in which the student lists a course(s) previously taken at an accredited college or University , which might be similar in content to a professional course(s) that he/she is scheduled to take. The student is advised to provide an official course description(s) and a syllabus (syllabi) of the course(s) previously taken, as well. For some courses, a student may be required to take a comprehensive challenge exam. All requests must be submitted at least three weeks prior to the start of the course being considered. For rotations, all requests must be submitted at least six months prior to the first day of the specific rotation that the student is seeking to be excused from. The decision of the committee is forwarded to the Dean of CCP as a recommendation to either grant or deny advanced standing.

Advanced standing will be considered for coursework taken in which a letter grade of C or better has been achieved. No advanced standing credit will be awarded for professional pharmacy coursework completed at a foreign college of pharmacy.

Pharm. D. Completion Program students are also eligible for advanced standing for up to two clerkships, if they have completed an ASHP accredited pharmacy practice residency. Petitions for advanced standing for clerkships must be submitted to the Dean’s Office at the time of matriculation. The petition must include a letter to the Dean and a notarized copy of the certificate of completion from their residency program.

Grades
The following includes all grades, grading options, numerical equivalents, and corresponding definitions that may be issued within the Chicago College of Pharmacy. Individual CCP faculty have the prerogative to use +/- letter grades or straight letter grades. No "D" grades are used for PS-IV level rotations. The following letter grades are not used for didactic courses: C-, D+, or D-.

CCP students are subject to the policies regarding academic monitoring, academic standing, and academic probation in force at the time of enrollment.

Credits, Quality Points, and Grade Point Averages
Courses are recorded in terms of quarter hour(s) of credit. One quarter hour of credit represents one hour a week of lecture throughout the quarter. In laboratory courses, however, three hours of laboratory work a week per credit prevails in different departments. In case discussion, workshop, or recitation, two hours of meeting time a week per credit holds.

Multiplication of the credits for a course by the numeric value for the grade awarded gives the number of quality points earned for a course. Dividing the total number of quality points earned in courses by the total number of credits in those courses gives the grade point average.

Grades reported as W, WF, and P are recorded on a student’s permanent record but are not used in the calculation of a student’s grade point average. Similarly, a grade of I may be assigned and is used only when special/extenuating circumstances exist (i.e., prolonged illness, family crisis, etc), which prevent a student from completing the necessary course requirements on time in order to receive a grade. Under such circumstances, the student is responsible for providing the department with a written request notifying the department of the circumstances, documenting the problem(s), and asking for authorization to extend the time allotted to complete the unfurnished coursework.

Any request for an extension to complete required course or rotation requirements must be approved first by the course coordinator responsible for the course or rotation.

Unless otherwise specified, a grade of I must be resolved within 10 calendar days starting from the last day of final exams for the quarter or the incomplete grade is automatically converted into a grade of F, which signifies failure of the course. It is the responsibility of the student when receiving an incomplete grade to complete all of the course requirements within this period, unless otherwise specified.

If a student receives an F grade in a course, that grade will be recorded on his/her transcript. This deficiency may be corrected as recommended by the Student Promotion and Graduation Committee in one of two ways: repetition or remediation of the course. The decision to permit a student to repeat or remediate the course rests with the department offering the course and the Committee. Following either successful remediation or repetition of the course, the permanent record of the student will be updated to indicate that the failing grade has been successfully corrected.

If course remediation was completed, a grade of D, or P if the course is a pass/fail course, is registered in place of the F, and the student's cumulative grade point average will reflect the change. If a student repeats a course, the course is entered twice in the permanent record of the student. The grade earned each time in the course is recorded, but only the most recent grade is used in the computation of the student's cumulative grade point average.

Academic Policies in the Professional Program

1. Candidates for the Pharm.D. degree must resolve all incomplete letter grades in didactic coursework before beginning experiential rotations.
2. A minimum grade point average of 2.00 for all didactic coursework is a prerequisite for the first experiential rotation.
3. The maximum length of time to complete all requirements for the Pharm.D. degree is four calendar years.
4. NTPD students receive an MWU mail account when they matriculate into the program. Students are responsible for all administrative information and course specific information that is sent to students via MWU mail. This will be the only e-mail address that College faculty and administrators will use to electronically communicate with students.
5. Should a student earn a failing grade in a didactic course while enrolled in a Longitudinal Ambulatory Care Rotation, their continuation in the rotation is subject to review by the NTPD Student Promotion and Graduation Committee.

Dean's List
Following each term, the Dean's Office recognizes all students in the Chicago College of Pharmacy who achieve a GPA of 3.25 or better for the previous term. This applies for didactic coursework only and to those students who are enrolled in five or more quarter hours.

Graduation Requirements for the Pharm.D. Completion Program
To graduate, candidates for the Pharm.D. degree must successfully complete all coursework and rotations with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.00 for all credits completed at CCP. At a minimum, the last three academic quarters of professional pharmacy work must be taken at CCP.

Licensure Requirements
Information on specific examinations and licensure requirements for the 50 states in the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, New Zealand, eight Canadian provinces, and four Australian states can be found by contacting the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), 700 Busse Highway, park Ridge, IL 60068; phone 847-698-6227; fax 847-698-0124.