Pharmaceutical Sciences M.S.
Thomas Abbruscato, Ph.D., GSBS Senior Associate Dean and Chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D., GSBS Associate Dean and Chair, Immunotherapeutics and Biotechnology
Abraham Al-Ahmad, Ph.D., Graduate Program Advisor
Laurence Wood, Ph.D., Assistant Graduate Program Advisor
About the Program
Click Here to View Program Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Sciences
Pharmaceutical Sciences (offered on the Amarillo and Abilene campuses) encompass all those areas of pharmacy research that pertain to drug design, delivery, formulations, therapeutics and immunotherapeutics, and biotechnology. The faculty members of the department exhibit research interests and expertise in drug design and delivery, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, drug receptor modeling, molecular biology, biochemistry, pathophysiology, immunology and cancer biology and therapy, and medicinal chemistry. The graduate program in pharmaceutical sciences is designed to educate students for careers in pharmaceutical industry, academia, and federal agencies including the FDA and NIH. Admissions requirements include a degree in pharmacy, chemistry, biology, or related areas. Teaching and research assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis.
The departmental courses are listed below. For more information contact Teresa Carlisle, graduate program coordinator, 806.414.9329 or email teresa.carlisle@ttuhsc.edu.
Admissions
Applicants apply on the GSBS application website, http://www.bioraider.com where they create an account and choose the program application and campus.
All completed applications received by the application deadline are reviewed by the Pharmaceutical Sciences Admissions Committee. Committee membership is comprised of six members selected by a nomination/election process by the program faculty.
A completed application consists of the following items: submitted application, unofficial transcript(s) from all U.S. institutions attended and/or course-by-course transcript evaluation from all international institutions attended, GRE, English Proficiency exam (for international applicants) at least two letters of recommendation, essay/statement of purpose, resume/CV, application fee.
Incomplete applications at the application deadline are not and will not be processed or reviewed for admission. No exceptions are made.
Committee members conduct a holistic application review. Members submit a rubric evaluating applicants on personal essay, letters of recommendation, prior research experience and work history. The numerical rating is compiled into a weighted composite score to arrive at a final admission score.
Select applicants are interviewed and after the interview, the committee discusses the applicant (which includes the application, required supplemental items and interview) and votes to either forward to the GSBS Admissions Committee or deny admission. Voting requires a simple majority of committee members present, and a quorum is required for a meeting.
All applicants recommended for admission are forwarded to the GSBS school-wide admissions committee for consideration for approval.
99-Hour Rule
Purpose: To define enrollment limits sanctioned by the Texas Legislature and outline the process masters student approaching maximum limits.
Students who accumulate more than 99 credit hours may be required to pay non-resident tuition. Master's students may not reduce hours unless they are designated by the GSBS office as "off-campus" students. Students who are designated as off-campus students should review the guidelines under "semester of graduation" within the Enrollment section. Reduced enrollment hours may affect financial aid status and/or payroll FICA exemptions. Students are encouraged to check with the financial aid office and the payroll office before taking the reduced hours. International students should also check with the TTUHSC DSO to verify hours for compliance with the Department of Homeland Security. Typically, international students may only reduce hours in their last semester. Any exceptions must be approved and updated in SEVIS.
Thesis
The master’s thesis is expected to represent independent work by the student, conducted under the supervision of the committee, and to be written clearly and concisely. As soon as the student’s area for thesis research has been determined, an advisory committee will be appointed by the GSBS Office upon the recommendation of the advisory Chair. The committee must consist of at least three members of the TTUHSC Graduate Faculty. More than one disapproving vote from the committee members shall constitute failure of the examination. The student must earn a grade of B or better on thesis work to qualify for graduation. A copy of the thesis should be presented to the committee members and the Dean’s representative at least two weeks prior to the defense.
Grading
Thesis hours are graded with a CR except for the last semester in which a letter grade is assigned. At the instructor’s discretion, a letter grade may be assigned to the last 6 hours of thesis.
Hours
Registration for at least 6 hours of 6000 is required for the master’s thesis. Once thesis hours have begun, a student must be enrolled in such courses every semester until graduation unless granted an official leave of absence. Students may not enroll in thesis courses before formal admission to a degree program by the GSBS Office.
Reference Manual
Students may reference the Thesis – Dissertation Manual. All manuscripts must conform to the published policies. The final copy of the thesis must be submitted electronically to the GSBS office. Theses must be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 350 words.
GSBS does not require a bound copy, although additional copies may be required by the advisory committee. The GSBS Office recommends utilizing www.thesisondemand.com to purchase bound copies, however any bindery is acceptable.
ETD – Electronic Thesis & Dissertations
The final copy of the thesis must be submitted electronically to the GSBS office along with the ETD Account Information for HSC Students. Detailed instructions for completing the ETD account information is available on the GSBS website. The GSBS will forward the documents to the TTU Library for archival on the ETD website.
Fees
Early in the semester of graduation, the candidate will pay the HSC Bursar’s Office a document fee to cover the cost of uploading and storing the thesis to the ETD website.
