PharmD/PhD???

[lostplato]

Does any one have any experience with the PharmD/PhD track? My eventual goal is to teach at a pharmacy school and I dont know if the combo degree will be more beneficial for that. Does any one know exactly what the benefits are from this??? It is a big commitment, both in time to complete applications and also time to complete the degrees so I need to know for sure what I am getting into. Thanks in advance for any help.

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[patmcd]

I looked into this for a while and what most people told is that its a bit of overkill in most cases. There are plenty of people teaching at pharmacy schools out there with just a pharmd. Doing a research fellowship after your pharmd is sort of a middle of the road option that offers you research experience, but without the 3+ extra years of a phd.

 

[Moxxie]

I looked into this for a while and what most people told is that its a bit of overkill in most cases. There are plenty of people teaching at pharmacy schools out there with just a pharmd. Doing a research fellowship after your pharmd is sort of a middle of the road option that offers you research experience, but without the 3+ extra years of a phd.

👍 👍 Unless you're dead set on research, I'd do as patmcd suggests and focus on getting through your pharmD first. I also have aspirations of teaching someday, but I'll wait until I've gotten a residency or two under my belt.

 

[arroz223]

Does any one have any experience with the PharmD/PhD track? My eventual goal is to teach at a pharmacy school and I dont know if the combo degree will be more beneficial for that. Does any one know exactly what the benefits are from this??? It is a big commitment, both in time to complete applications and also time to complete the degrees so I need to know for sure what I am getting into. Thanks in advance for any help.

I'd say... Get a PharmD/MS degree... It's more bang for your buck and you get out in considerably less time than with a PharmD/PhD. I think it should only add a year if you plan carefully.

 

[lostplato]

Thanks for all the advice...I'm not sure about the MS though. I am completing my masters right now, so I dont know how much benefit I will get from getting two, maybe in another area.

 

[patmcd]

If you are already going to have a masters I would pass on the PhD. Look more into fellowships to gain practical experience.

 

[sweetmurphy]

Thanks for all the advice...I'm not sure about the MS though. I am completing my masters right now, so I dont know how much benefit I will get from getting two, maybe in another area.

I think if you already have a masters, the PHD should take less time? or thats how it used to be...I am also really interested in the program, and some schools will pay for all your tuition (pharmd + phd) and give you a stipend for when you are doing the phd part of the program...coming of out school with no debt, its pretty nice...but the 7 yrs is kinda long 😱

 

[patmcd]

The only reason that having masters prior to getting a Phd will sorten the time needed is by getting you out of some coursework (assuming you've already had it). But if you masters is in something completely difference it will take just as long.

 

[kwizard]

The only reason that having masters prior to getting a Phd will sorten the time needed is by getting you out of some coursework (assuming you've already had it). But if you masters is in something completely difference it will take just as long.

You may want to look into a Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences PhD program. The benefit is that some of your time as a pharmacist/pharmacy student and/or resident will be taken into consideration for expediting the graduation time. Off the top of my head the one I know of would be the program at UK (www.uky.edu). University of MD has a similar track as well. At Univ of Texas in San Antonio they have other similar models that are typically attached on to residency training. Obtaining research training w/ a fellowship usually requuires a residency first and then fellowship program (another 2-3yrs). While you typically get paid while doing fellowship the advantage of the PhD will help significantly when competing for funding/grantmanship. Perhaps you could also do the PharmD/PhD route and gain some extra funding as a fellow via the PhD portion to help create some income. One of the main benefits of PharmD/PhD program is that you always have the PharmD to fall back on and PharmD can potentially increase marketability and job options.

Having said all of this it really depends what type of research you want to do. If you are in to benchwork and/or translational research then you'd be best suited to get the PhD as it is hard to maintain funding w/o such training. However there are various exceptions, but most of these pharmacists did very extensive fellowship training programs after residency programs (~4 yr committment 2yrs of residency +2yrs of fellowship) and often landed in nurturing environments to further develop skills.

However if you are more into outcomes research and/or pharmacoepidemiology than you could perhaps be more equipped to facillitate your research interests via residency training+fellowship (or maybe just one or the other) as your skill set won't require lab techniques and will be more dependent on database management.

So it kind of depends what type of research you want to do.

 

[eddavatar]

Does any one have any experience with the PharmD/PhD track? My eventual goal is to teach at a pharmacy school and I dont know if the combo degree will be more beneficial for that. Does any one know exactly what the benefits are from this??? It is a big commitment, both in time to complete applications and also time to complete the degrees so I need to know for sure what I am getting into. Thanks in advance for any help.

I'm personally going for this path (I'm just starting 1st year this coming fall).

It's very dependent on what you plan to teach and what kind of research you plan to do.

Are you into drug discovery and bench-type research? If so, yes, PharmD/PhD is the way to go. (I'm this type)

Are you into health-care system analysis? If so I think just a PharmD or PharmD/MPH or PharmD/MS Regulartory Science would be fine.

There are also PharmD/JD if you are into Law.

In terms of benefit, well, it definitely looks better on your resume In this day and age of PhDs everywhere, I would like to work on a dual degree of some sort to give myself an edge in the job market and get a job in a better school and better funding for my research.

 

[joygirlx105]

What do you do if you get PharmD/JD?

 

[patmcd]

Work in industry, for the government or teach. Basically what you might imagine....legal issues with pharmacy.

 

[thaliagoo]

I'm personally going for this path (I'm just starting 1st year this coming fall).

It's very dependent on what you plan to teach and what kind of research you plan to do.

Are you into drug discovery and bench-type research? If so, yes, PharmD/PhD is the way to go. (I'm this type)

Are you into health-care system analysis? If so I think just a PharmD or PharmD/MPH or PharmD/MS Regulartory Science would be fine.

There are also PharmD/JD if you are into Law.

In terms of benefit, well, it definitely looks better on your resume In this day and age of PhDs everywhere, I would like to work on a dual degree of some sort to give myself an edge in the job market and get a job in a better school and better funding for my research.

wow edd, you're in for the long haul 😳

 

[luke77]

I'm personally going for this path (I'm just starting 1st year this coming fall).

It's very dependent on what you plan to teach and what kind of research you plan to do.

Are you into drug discovery and bench-type research? If so, yes, PharmD/PhD is the way to go. (I'm this type)

Are you into health-care system analysis? If so I think just a PharmD or PharmD/MPH or PharmD/MS Regulartory Science would be fine.

There are also PharmD/JD if you are into Law.

In terms of benefit, well, it definitely looks better on your resume In this day and age of PhDs everywhere, I would like to work on a dual degree of some sort to give myself an edge in the job market and get a job in a better school and better funding for my research.

So what is the difference between a PharmD/Phd and just a straight PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences? Is the joint prorgam just a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a PharmD tacked on - and if so, does it take an additional 4 years to complete?

 

[patmcd]

Doing the combined program you would get the same degrees as if you did them seperatly. The main benifit to the combined programs is they usally take about a year less to complete then doing them seperatly.

 

[Sosumi]

My best friend is currently doing the Pharm.D./Ph.D. program at my school. He will go graduate in 4 years to get his Pharm.D. while using up his 3 experiential elective months to work in the lab to help do research for his fellowship, as well as doing his Ph.D. coursework to count toward his Pharm.D. elective coursework. Unlike M.D./Ph.D.'s however, his education isn't subsidized for the entire 7 years or so to get the dual degree. After his 4th year when he's completed his Pharm.D., he will be paid a stipend as well as full tuition reimbursement while he's in grad school. It will take him an additional 2 to 3 more years to earn his Ph.D. depending on how long it'll take him to complete and defend his thesis. Thus he'll save about 2 years if he didn't do the dual degree program.

We have 3 professors who hold Pharm.D./Ph.D. Getting an academic job for a Ph.D. who wants to do bench research is very difficult these days, so having the Pharm.D. will give you an edge at pharmacy colleges. Having the Ph.D. will also qualify you for N.I.H. grants. Although I've known a few professors who got really nice pharmaceutical industry jobs by just having a Pharm.D. with extensive residency training, you'll have a leg up if you want those research or industry jobs. One of our professors who holds both degrees left last year for a research job in the pharmaceutical industry and is making over twice as much money as she had as a professor.

 

[nominator84]

To Sosumi,
What did your prof have a PhD in and what was his/her research about. Also, what type of extensive residency training is phrma looking for and what types of jobs do these pharmacists get. Any insight on salary? Just trying to gauge industry as a career option, appreciate your info

 

[mpag13]

My best friend is currently doing the Pharm.D./Ph.D. program at my school. He will go graduate in 4 years to get his Pharm.D. while using up his 3 experiential elective months to work in the lab to help do research for his fellowship, as well as doing his Ph.D. coursework to count toward his Pharm.D. elective coursework. Unlike M.D./Ph.D.'s however, his education isn't subsidized for the entire 7 years or so to get the dual degree. After his 4th year when he's completed his Pharm.D., he will be paid a stipend as well as full tuition reimbursement while he's in grad school. It will take him an additional 2 to 3 more years to earn his Ph.D. depending on how long it'll take him to complete and defend his thesis. Thus he'll save about 2 years if he didn't do the dual degree program.

We have 3 professors who hold Pharm.D./Ph.D. Getting an academic job for a Ph.D. who wants to do bench research is very difficult these days, so having the Pharm.D. will give you an edge at pharmacy colleges. Having the Ph.D. will also qualify you for N.I.H. grants. Although I've known a few professors who got really nice pharmaceutical industry jobs by just having a Pharm.D. with extensive residency training, you'll have a leg up if you want those research or industry jobs. One of our professors who holds both degrees left last year for a research job in the pharmaceutical industry and is making over twice as much money as she had as a professor.

I know this is a pretty old thread, but i've had a really hard time finding info on this since so few people want to pursue the joint degree. I'm deciding between pharmacy schools for Fall 08 and i'm also interested in the pharmd-phd. I hope somebody can clarify this for me: if you are interested in preclinical bench-type research and want to work in drug development, would a pharmd-phd be more useful than only a phd? I can imagine it would give you an edge when applying for research or industry jobs, but how much would the pharmd (completely clinical, patient-based) help you if you are doing basic research, like on the test tube or animal level? Does anyone know people who work in jobs with that combination? I'm thinking about going that route, and was told it is possible, but I've never heard of any precedents.

And Sosumi, i noticed you are from baltimore. does your friend attend UMB? If so, who's lab is he/she working in? was he/she really able to finish both in 7 years?