Doctoral Program in Pharmacy Education Entrance Requirements

While the DPE doctoral program is designed as a 4-year curriculum for students with a bachelor’s (BS/BA) degree in a related field of study, students with other backgrounds may be eligible. Transfer credits will not be accepted. However, students may be given special consideration as detailed below:

  1. Students with a terminal professional or graduate degree featuring pharmacology or education coursework, or LECOM doctoral students are also eligible for the DPE program and may be permitted to enroll in a 3-year accelerated version of the curriculum.
  2. Students who have completed courses in LECOM’s MSMEd program within 5 years of their acceptance into the DPE program may be given credit for completed courses towards doctoral degree requirements, which may permit acceptance into the 3-year accelerated curriculum.
  3. Students with a terminal professional degree may be permitted to take only a single final comprehensive exam in lieu of taking core pharmacy courses if they meet one of the following criteria. The student has:
    1. Taken and passed (with a grade of B or better) similar graduate or doctoral level core pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacotherapeutics courses. Courses must have been taken within, or the student must have maintained professional practice within the past three years to qualify. Transcripts will be required for documentation of coursework. Whether the previously taken courses are acceptable to meet coursework requirements is at the final discretion of the DPE director.
    2. Significant teaching experience in one or multiple core pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacotherapeutics courses. A letter from the course director/supervisor must verify participation and document lecture hours. Whether the previous teaching experience is an acceptable substitute is at the final discretion of the DPE director.

Pharmacy courses for the DPE program must be completed at the LECOM Erie or Bradenton campus, or through the pharmacy distance education pathway (students taking distance education courses are also required to be on-site). Special consideration may be given for faculty holding doctoral degrees and full-time appointments in the DPE programs for Journal Clubs, Research & Thesis courses.

Upon successful completion of all required course work, research proposal, qualifying exam and successful public defense of the thesis project, students will be awarded a Doctoral Degree in Pharmacy Education.