Last issue, I highlighted employment outcomes for our Doctor of Pharmacy students. This week, I would like to continue our focus on graduation outcomes by sharing some of the wonderful things that are happening for the students in our master’s and doctoral programs.
As you may already know, the College of Pharmacy offers PhD specializations in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Translational Science. Students in these disciplines typically go on to employment in the pharmaceutical industry, government agencies and academia.
While these specializations generally have smaller enrollments, they produce very strong graduates who benefit from close mentoring relationships with college faculty in the research-rich environment at The Ohio State University. Since 2010, 40 students have graduated from our PhD programs; 95 percent of them have secured employment before graduation or within six months after graduation.
We also offer a Master of Science in Health-Systems Pharmacy Administration, a 24-month program that works in conjunction with ASHP-accredited administrative residency programs to develop leaders in hospital and health-system pharmacy. We enroll up to 11 students annually in this program, and have graduated more than 200 students since 1961.
Mentoring from residency directors and faculty, along with participation at national professional meetings help our students achieve high levels of placement into post-graduate PGY2 residencies and employment. More than 50 current directors of pharmacy are alumni of the program. Since 2011, 96 perecent of our Health-System Pharmacy Administration graduates have accepted positions with hospitals and health systems in Ohio and across the United States.
Ms. Mary Kivel, our Graduate Studies Coordinator, shared some additional highlights of our recent graduate students’ outcomes:
- since 2011, graduates from the Health-Systems Pharmacy Administration program have accepted positions with The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Wake Forest Baptist Health, The Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, OhioHealth, Mount Carmel Health System and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, to name a few.
- since 2010, 72 percent of PhD graduates have gone on to postdoctoral fellowships and research positions with government agencies, research hospitals or universities across the country, including the Mayo Clinic, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Cancer Institute, St. Jude’s Research Hospital, the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Some students have opted to stay local, accepting postdoctoral positions at Ohio State and at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
- 15 percent of our PhD recipients accepted positions in the pharmaceutical industry, working as research scientists for Akorn, Inc., Tate & Lyle, Ricon Pharma, Genetec and Lee’s Pharmaceuticals (China).
- 10 percent of our PhD graduates have gone on to positions in academia, nationally and internationally.
- two students opted to pursue further education: one student enrolled in medical school following the completion of his PhD, another student continued with a degree in public health following completion of her Health-Systems Pharmacy Administration degree.
As these highlights show, our graduates are using their talents in a variety of capacities and they continue to represent both Ohio State and the College of Pharmacy well. These talented students have bright prospects and possess skills attractive to employers in Ohio and around the country. We are proud of the accomplishments of our PhD and master’s students, and look forward to all that they will continue to contribute to pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences and health care.
Best,
Katherine Kelley