omniah-elmorshedy

Omniah Elmorshedy, PharmD, NTPD Graduate

“One thing this program taught me was how to approach different patient scenarios, how to check and follow guidelines and provide evidence-based recommendations, and how to communicate with my patients. It taught me how to be a better provider.

lokendra-upadhyay

Lokendra Upadhyay, PharmD, NTPD Graduate

“I’d been out in the working world for several years and then I thought to myself, ‘I need to get a PharmD because I need to be relevant and I’m a working person, I have a family, so I needed something flexible.'”

irene-croswell

Irene Croswell, PharmD, NTPD Graduate

“Most of my career has been in community pharmacy so this program has exposed me to more practice settings, use of technology, and kept my knowledge current.”

The NTPD Program requires the completion of 35 semester credit hours of didactic coursework and 30 credit hours of experiential training in advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs), or rotations, for a total of 65 semester credit hours. Learn more about the didactic curriculum and experiential training in the tabs.

All students have six years to complete the program requirements. To offer maximum flexibility, the 65 semester credit hours can be completed in a part-time or full-time format. The NTPD Program encourages students to complete, at a minimum, four to six credit hours per semester for a part-time format.

Upon admission into the NTPD Program, all students will schedule an advising call. During the advising call, every student will receive an individualized plan defining how and when the student will complete the didactic and experiential requirements. Any student can request an advising call at any time during the semester.

The didactic curriculum for the NTPD Program is composed of 35 credit hours. Students fulfill the credit hours through five foundation courses and pharmacotherapy courses. Each didactic course is delivered in a format which will require about one to two hours of “class time” per credit hour each week, plus one to two hours to complete assignments. Additional study time is student specific.

Foundation Courses: foundation courses support the pharmacotherapy courses and develop skills that are important to the effective functioning of clinical pharmacy practitioners:

  • Clinical Skills Foundation
  • Health Economics
  • Evidence-Based Pharmacy Medicine & Literature Evaluation
  • Instructional Methods
  • Public Health
  • Interprofessional Educational Development

Pharmacotherapy and Application Courses:  Pharmacotherapy courses form the core of the didactic curriculum and each course addresses the pathophysiology, advanced pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacokinetics and professional skills development for two to three body systems.

  • Example topics include: Cardiovascular, Renal, Gastrointestinal, Oncology, Neurology, Psychology, Pulmonary, Infections and other diseases.
  • Pharmacogenomics
  • Clinical Problem Solving Skills
  • Clinical Capstone

Elective Course (complete one):

  • Innovation Entrepreneurship
  • Pharmaceutical Industry Fundamentals
  • Critical Care
  • Pediatrics
  • Integrative Health & Medicine

The NTPD Program experiential training curriculum includes 30 weeks or 1200 hours of advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) in the following practice areas:

  • Ambulatory Care – Required
  • Health-System Pharmacy/Inpatient – Required
  • Elective One
  • Elective Two
  • Elective Three

The required APPE rotation practice areas are ambulatory care and health-system pharmacy/inpatient. In addition, there are three elective APPE rotations. Elective APPEs may be selected from a variety of medicine subspecialties, such as neurology, oncology, nutrition, infectious disease, critical care, psychiatry and pediatrics. Students can choose from other elective rotation choices including: pharmaceutical care projects, community pharmacy, education, administration, industry, managed care and clinical research.

The APPEs can be accomplished by performing live rotations on a full- or part-time basis and in cooperation with the rotation preceptor.

In addition, the APPEs may also be completed through a combination of live rotations and challenging some APPEs for academic credit through a credit-by-challenge submission, within the APPE guidelines of the program. All students must perform three patient-centered live APPE rotations.

Students have increased flexibility in how they complete the APPE rotations. Students should read through the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience policy to learn more about this upcoming change.

The North American-Trained PharmD (NTPD) Program is open to pharmacists who are licensed in the United States or Canada and are in good standing with the licensing agency, provided the following requirements are met: 

  • The applicant received a baccalaureate degree from a five-year pharmacy program accredited by ACPE or Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs (CCAPP) and holds a valid license to practice pharmacy in the United States or Canada; or
  • The applicant received a pharmacy degree from a non-United States or non-Canadian program and holds a valid license to practice pharmacy in a United States jurisdiction, having passed the FPGEE/FPGEC from the NABP, assuring education equivalency to an ACPE-accredited program.
  • Please Note: The Distance Degrees and Programs (DDP) Office offers two ACPE accredited PharmD programs: the NTPD Program and the International-Trained PharmD (ITPD) Program. All licensed pharmacists who are not licensed to practice pharmacy in the United States, or are licensed to practice in Canada but were educated outside of Canada (ie, a non-CCAPP-accredited school) are encouraged to review the admissions requirements for the ITPD Program.

In addition to the categories listed above, there is no minimum grade point average (GPA) to apply to the NTPD Program. University policies require background checks for all students upon admission. The Admissions Committee reserves the right to consider exceptions to admissions policies on a case-by-case basis. 

Students may begin the NTPD Program in the fall or spring semester. Applications are accepted at any time for the NTPD Program, provided the applications are received prior to each semester's deadline. The deadline for the fall semester is April 15, and the deadline for the spring semester is October 15.

If the deadline falls on a weekend or United States holiday, then the deadline will be the next business day. Please contact the DDP Office if there are concerns about meeting the application deadline. Otherwise, applications received after the semester's deadline will be considered for the next admissions cycle. Students may request to defer their admission up to 1 year after their initial admission term. Students who fail to enroll in any course within that year may be required to reapply. Admission extensions to the NTPD program will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

As a student of the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, all NTPD students are subject to all school and program policies as our entry-level PharmD students, including the ethics and conduct code and academic advancement policies. A full list of these policies is located on the Policies and Procedures webpage.

To apply to the NTPD Program, applicants must complete ALL of the application materials listed below. All application materials are reviewed by the School of Pharmacy Admissions Committee.

Application Materials

Tuition and Fees

New tuition rates are established each spring and normally go into effect fall semester. An outline of the current tuition and fees (US dollars) is located below in the tuition tab.

Once students have registered for classes, a bill for tuition and fees will be generated through the Bursar’s Office; students will not receive a paper bill. All tuition and fees are due within 30 days of the first day of class.

Students will not be able to register for subsequent semesters unless the bill from previous semesters has been paid in full. Once the payment is received and processed, an official statement of payment will be available online for use with taxes or for employee reimbursement programs.

Refunds - Students who drop a class within the guidelines specified below will receive an adjusted tuition bill. The drop/add date is located on the DDP academic calendar. Any refunds due will be processed automatically by the Bursar's Office.

Drop DateRemaining Course LoadTuition DueTuition Refund
Before Drop DateZero or any course load0%100%
After Drop DateZero or any course load100%0%

Scholarships and Financial Aid

Scholarships sometime become available for students. An email will be sent to each student's UCDenver email account to inform students of any scholarship opportunities. In addition, scholarship information may be included in the News section of the School of Pharmacy website.

Financial aid information is available from the Anschutz Medical Campus Financial Aid & Scholarships Office.

For more information contact: