This is an archived copy of the 2014-16 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.utexas.edu/.

Admission and Registration

Admission

Admission to the University

For the College of Pharmacy's Pharm.D. program, admission and readmission are the responsibility of the dean of the College as delegated by the University's director of admissions. Students accepted to the Pharm.D. Program will be processed for admission to the University (if not already enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin).

Admission to the Professional Curriculum

Admission to the University in no way implies or guarantees admission to the professional curriculum. No student may begin the professional curriculum until he or she has been admitted to the professional curriculum in pharmacy by the dean, following recommendation by the Admissions Committee of the College of Pharmacy, according to the procedures outlined in this section regarding admission. All students must meet the admission requirements given in the catalog in effect at the time of application. If the number of eligible applicants to the professional curriculum exceeds the number that available facilities can accommodate, final selection is made by the college Admissions Committee and the dean.

The College of Pharmacy uses PharmCAS, the national Pharm.D. application system. All student applications must go through PharmCAS, and those accepted for enrollment in the college will be processed for direct admission to the University.

Students who are enrolled in a pharmacy program at another institution and who wish to transfer to the University should follow the normal Pharm.D. application process. Upon admission to the University and the professional curriculum, the student may request advanced standing in the pharmacy curriculum. Placement is contingent on availability of space and on transcript evaluation to determine University equivalencies for the student’s coursework.

As a condition of admission to the college, each student must sign a statement that he or she agrees to accept assignment to any one of the college’s experiential (internship) regions throughout the state. Cooperative arrangements for pharmacy education exist with academic units and health care institutions in the following internship regions: Austin/Temple/Waco, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso, Galveston/Houston, the Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio. Experiential regions may be added or deleted at any time based on the availability of resources.

Students assigned to San Antonio and students from UT El Paso and UT - Pan American in Edinburg who are in the Cooperative Pharmacy Program must spend the last two years of the professional program in those regions. Students assigned to the other regions spend only the final year of the program (the fourth professional experiential year) in their assigned region.

Students are assigned to experiential regions through a computer-generated random assignment system that takes students’ ranked preferences into account. Since most students relocate to experiential regions outside the Austin area, region assignment occurs during the latter part of the first professional year to allow students adequate time to make personal and financial arrangements. There are no exceptions to the region assignment process. If a student fails to agree to accept assignment to any region, he or she will not be admitted to the college.

The Cooperative Pharmacy Program is available to highly qualified high school seniors entering the University of Texas at El Paso or the University of Texas - Pan American. The program offers these students an alternate pathway for admission to the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy once they complete the requirements of the program at the Cooperative Pharmacy Program campus. Additional information is available from the UT El Paso Web site  or at (915) 747-8535, and from the UT - Pan American Web site  or at (956) 318-5255.

Admission to the First Professional Year

Admission to the professional curriculum is competitive. The application process is conducted via the national Pharm.D. admissions program, PharmCAS, as specified on the PharmCAS Web site  and linked via the College of Pharmacy .

Basic Admission Criteria
  1. Scholarship, as indicated by grade point average and Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) scores, including writing sample scores, are submitted via PharmCAS. Scores more than three years old are not accepted.
     

    In evaluating the applicant’s academic record, the Admissions Committee pays particular attention to the courses required for admission. Ideally, the applicant will have a grade point average of at least 2.80 in prerequisite coursework. Typically, more than 90 percent of successful applicants have grade point averages greater than 3.00, and more than 50 percent of successful applicants have grade point averages greater than 3.60. The applicant typically will have a PCAT composite score in at least the 70th percentile, a score in at least the 70th percentile in each area, and writing scores at the 70th percentile of the national mean (rubric score 0-6). Typically, more than 75 percent of successful applicants have a composite score in the 70th percentile or better, and more than 50 percent of successful applicants have a composite score in the 85th percentile or better, as specified in the PharmCAS application process.

  2. Essays as specified in the PharmCAS application process.
  3. Letters of recommendation submitted via PharmCAS from people who know the applicant well professionally, especially pharmacist employers.
  4. Transcripts of all academic work submitted via PharmCAS.
  5. A résumé submitted via PharmCAS that provides details about the applicant’s professional, organizational, volunteer, and service experience.
Additional Personal Factors

The information specified below is submitted either via PharmCAS or through the college's supplemental application.

  1. Pharmacy and other related work experience
  2. Organizational, service, and volunteer activities that demonstrate community involvement and leadership potential
  3. Teaching, tutoring, and mentoring experience
  4. Research experience
  5. Honors and awards
  6. Interview. Applicants are screened for interviews based on academic record, direct work experience in the profession, special life circumstances, and any other compelling factors. If the applicant is invited for an interview, then other factors are considered; these include but are not limited to the following:
    1. Knowledge of and motivation for pharmacy as a career
    2. Lifelong learning strategies
    3. Critical thinking skills
  7. Special life circumstances; these include but are not limited to the following:
    1. Single parent
    2. Socioeconomic status of family
    3. First generation attending college
    4. Overcoming adversity
    5. Resident of an underserved area of the state or an area of Texas with a health professions shortage
    6. Race and ethnicity
    7. Cultural background

Because the University is a public institution, preference is given to applicants who are legal residents of Texas and to applicants from states without colleges of pharmacy. Applicants are strongly encouraged to examine the admission statistics published by the college on its admissions Web site .

Application Deadlines

The deadline to apply for admission to the college is specified on the PharmCAS Web site and linked via the College of Pharmacy .

Admission Requirements

  1. The applicant must have completed at least sixty-six semester hours in total, and must have completed the following forty-five hours in prerequisite courses prior to enrolling in the professional pharmacy curriculum:
    1. Nine hours of biology, including cellular and molecular biology, structure and function of organisms, and genetics
    2. Eight hours of general chemistry with laboratory
    3. Three hours of freshman-level rhetoric and writing
    4. Three hours of sophomore-level survey of American, British, or world literature
    5. Three to six hours of calculus (to include both differential and integral calculus)
    6. Three hours of statistics
    7. Eight hours of organic chemistry with laboratory
    8. Four hours of microbiology with laboratory
    9. Four hours of physics with laboratory

    The remaining twenty-one semester hours should be the Core Curriculum .

  2. The applicant must remove all deficiencies in high school units by the means prescribed in General Information before seeking admission to the professional curriculum.

Admission Procedures

  1. All applications for the Pharm.D. program will be handled through the national Pharm.D. admissions system, PharmCAS. Students must adhere to the deadlines for admission specified. The PharmCAS application process will include a supplementary application to the college (with a nonrefundable supplementary application fee) necessary to acquire additional academic information for University admission. Candidates will be notified if additional information is required.
  2. Selected applicants will be asked to appear for a personal interview.
  3. The applicant is considered on the basis of overall academic performance, with emphasis on grades in the required Pharm.D. prerequisite courses. In accordance with University policy, courses in which the applicant earned a grade of D+, D, D-, or F at another institution are not transferable and may not be used to fulfill any degree requirements. However, courses in which the student earned a grade of D+, D, or D- are considered when the student’s admissibility to the professional curriculum is determined.
  4. Applicants who have been offered admission to the University and to the Pharm.D. program will be asked to pay a nonrefundable enrollment deposit to the University. If the student does enroll in the program that fall, the deposit will be applied to the semester’s tuition bill.
  5. All students accepted for admission in the Pharm.D. program will be processed for admission to the University of Texas using the information in the PharmCAS application. Additional materials for University admission may be required:
    1. A high school transcript, if the applicant’s foreign language requirement was completed in high school. Official transcripts must be sent to the University’s Office of Admissions .
    2. Scores on the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) test (or an appropriate assessment test), if and only if the student is required by state law to take this test.
    3. Credit earned by examination. These reports should be sent directly to the Center for Teaching and Learning—Student Testing Services at the University. This would be done if and only if the student had not previously claimed credit showing on the transcript.
    4. Official transcripts for all colleges/universities attended.
  6. An applicant who has been admitted to the University and to the professional curriculum but fails to enroll in either, and who wishes to enter the professional curriculum in a subsequent fall semester, must reapply both to the University and to the College of Pharmacy and must meet all requirements in force at the time of reapplication.
  7. An applicant who has been admitted to and enrolls in the professional curriculum but subsequently withdraws, and who wishes to reenter in a subsequent fall semester, must apply for readmission to the professional curriculum and must meet all requirements in force at the time of reapplication. A student who has been out of the University for a semester or more must also apply for readmission to the University.

Technical Standards

“Technical standards” are the observational, communication, sensory/motor, and intellectual skills, the behavioral and social attributes, and the ethical values required for the completion of the professional curriculum and for the practice of pharmacy. These standards are described on the College of Pharmacy’s Web site . Each applicant must attest that they have read and understand the technical standards. Any applicant who believes he or she may have difficulty meeting them should contact the college’s director of admission.

Registration

General Information gives information about registration, adding and dropping courses, transfer from one division of the University to another, and auditing a course. The Course Schedule  published before registration each semester and summer session, includes registration instructions, advising locations, and the times, places, and instructors of classes. The Course Schedule and General Information are published on the registrar’s Web site, http://registrar.utexas.edu/ .

Registration as a Student Pharmacist-Intern

Upon matriculation to the first professional year, each student must register as an intern-trainee with the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. This is accomplished through completion of the Application for Student-Intern Registration. Each student must be registered first as an intern-trainee and subsequently as a student-intern in order to complete the academic requirements for the degree.

Additional information regarding intern registration and pharmacist licensure is given in the section Legal Requirements for Professional Practice . Requirements and regulations are subject to change by the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. Every attempt is made to inform students of changes as they occur.

Professional Liability Insurance

Professional liability insurance is required of all students each year of the professional pharmacy curriculum. Coverage in the amount of two million dollars for each claim and six million dollars in the aggregate per year is provided through the insurance policy. The annual premium is less than $20.00 is subject to change, and is payable by the student. The policy covers the period September 1 through August 31 and must be secured each year of the program through the University of Texas System.

Medical Clearance Requirements

In addition to the University’s immunization requirements, students must meet additional immunization requirements for students in healthcare programs as articulated in Title 25 of the Texas Administrative Code, Rule 97.64, and as mandated by the practice sites in which students participate in practicum experiences.

Immunization requirements are subject to change. Every effort is made to notify students promptly of any changes. A current list of vaccination requirements can be found on the College of Pharmacy's Web site .

Although not a College of Pharmacy requirement, students may be subject to other health clearance requirements mandated by health care facilities for practicum.

Student Health Insurance

Students must procure health insurance to cover treatment for injuries or illness, and must provide proof of insurance each year of the curriculum. This is especially important for the experiential components of the curriculum, spanning all four professional years, when students have frequent contact with patients in a number of different health care environments.

The Student Health Insurance Plan, operated under the auspices of University Health Services, offers optional low-cost insurance for students who are not covered by other programs. Information about this plan is available through University Health Services at http://healthyhorns.utexas.edu/ .