Pharmacists are committed to improving the health and well-being of all their patients. While each pharmacist can provide personal care to individual patients, pharmacists also have the ability to care for entire populations. This is why Samford created the joint PharmD/Master of Public Health (MPH) program, to provide you with public health skills that complement your pharmacy degree.

The PharmD/MPH program is a joint initiative between McWhorter School of Pharmacy and Samford's School of Public Health. Through credit sharing, you have the opportunity to earn two degrees in a reduced amount of time. The School of Public Health will apply 12 credits of pharmacy course work to satisfy work required under the regular MPH curriculum. McWhorter School of Pharmacy will apply 4 credits of core public health course work to satisfy the elective course work required under the traditional pharmacy curriculum. As a student in this program, you are required to complete 30 credits of public health course work and 142 credits of pharmacy course work.  The MPH courses are offered online and meet Quality Matters standards.

Students do not need to have a bachelor’s degree to be admitted to this joint degree program, but the bachelor’s degree must be earned to complete more than 12 credit hours of the master’s program.

The MPH program welcomes and encourages students from all academic backgrounds.

General Policies

On graduation, you can receive both the PharmD and MPH degrees in the same semester. In this program, you must complete the MPH within five academic years of the original date of admission to the MPH program.

You will have two separate grade point averages, one for public health and one for pharmacy. Pharmacy school ranking and percentiles will be based on the pharmacy-only GPA. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA in the MPH program to be in good standing. Pharmacy students no longer interested in completing the MPH program must communicate with the McWhorter School of Pharmacy Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Students may register for a maximum of 21 credits per full semester. If desired, you may petition the associate dean of academic affairs to exceed this maximum course load.

You may choose to drop the joint degree in order to earn the PharmD degree earlier. The School of Public Health will accept shared credit from the pharmacy school upon later readmission to the MPH program as long as the student:

  1. Began the joint degree before graduating with the PharmD degree
  2.  Was in good standing with the School of Public Health
  3.  Requests readmission to restart MPH classes within one full semester after PharmD graduation.

Admission Requirements

To be considered for the joint PharmD/MPH program, you must first be accepted to both McWhorter School of Pharmacy and School of Public Health. For detailed information on applying to McWhorter School of Pharmacy, visit our admission page for details on the process and required documentation. To be considered for the MPH portion of the degree program, submit the following materials to the School of Public Health:

  1. A completed School of Public Health joint degree application form
  2. A resume reflecting work experience and other accomplishments. Upload the resume into the application.

The application deadline is April 1.

For questions regarding the application, please contact Amber Kustos, the director of graduate and undergraduate student services for the School of Public Health, at akustos@samford.edu or 205-726-4691.

Plan of Study