Apply to The Ph.D. Program in Molecular and
                Medical Pharmacology

Qualified students who have completed a BA or BS degree in engineering, physical or life sciences are admitted to the program in the Fall quarter. Completed applications must be received by the end of December. Earlier submissions are encouraged due to the large number of applicants for a limited number of positions. You may want to bookmark this site before leaving to UCLA's on-line admissions webpage.

APPLY ONLINE: Applicants must first submit an application to UCLA. The Major Code for the Molecular and Medical Pharmacology Department is 639.


The application to UCLA is only done online HERE.

Your application to the Department of Pharmacology Graduate Program will continue once your application fee is processed. You will receive an email from Pharmacology indicating that your application is processed and a link will be included in the email for the Pharmacology supplementary application website. The online supplementary application website will collect your Statement of Purpose, Curriculum Vitae, and allow you to send a request for an online letter of recommendation to your recommenders.

Required Application material:

By Mail:Two official transcripts - required from all colleges and universities attended mailed to UCLA Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, 23-120 CHS, Box 951735, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1735.

On Line:

Statement of Purpose - should be precise and brief. It should include but not limited to personal history, academic background, reasons for applying to graduate school, research or work experience, and future plans and career goals. The statement is also a means of helping us match your academic and research interests with those of our faculty and should only contain details that will aid the Admissions Committee in evaluating your application.

Three letters of recommendation - should be from academic references. If the academic references cannot be obtained, the letters should be from people who can comment on your professional achievements.

GRE scores (general test only) - Institution code=4837, Department code=0216. If you have taken the GRE exam within the last three years, you may send a photocopy of the results, pending receipt of the official scores from the Educational Testing Service. (Call ETS (609) 771-7670 for further information).

Fellowship Application - required for those who want to be considered for financial support. Research assistantships, fellowships, and teaching assistantships may be available.

Financial statements (foreign applicants only).

TOEFL - for foreign students whose first language is not English. Institution Code is 4837 and the Department code is 47.

ALTERNATE PhD ENTRY PROGRAMS:

ACCESS program (major code: 001) -- The ACCESS Program's course of study for your first year at UCLA is a combination of general survey courses, topical seminars, and lab rotations. 12 Ph.D.-granting departments will be made available to you, along with 268 UCLA faculty that have grouped themselves according to their research interests. This gives you ACCESS to a broad range of topics but allows the selection of specific areas of research. When it is time to pick a topic and mentor for your thesis work, you will be able to make the most informed choice possible as to the subject area, laboratory and program for the remaining four years of your graduate studies.

The MSTP (Medical Scientist Training Program) -- This M.D./Ph.D. program, in collaboration with California Institute of Technology (Caltech) -- selects students, also accepted into the Medical School at UCLA, to pursue a Ph.D. at UCLA or Caltech while completing their medical degrees. The Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology also administers the MSTP program for UCLA.

The UCLA STAR (Specialty Training and Advanced Research) program trains physician-scientists -- physicians who aspire for Ph.D.s -- to enhance their basic research. This program offers an opportunity to combine clinical fellowship training with advanced research training in order to complete a Ph.D. degree.

VISTA (Veterinary Investigation in Scientific Training and Advancement) was established to further the scholarship of veterinarians with a DVM degree. The Department offers the option to earn a Ph.D. or postdoctoral fellowship, combined with residency training. The goal is to foster the veterinarian as an independent academic investigator who will work side-by-side with basic scientists and clinicians to study the biology of disease and develop novel therapeutics.

Because of the diverse professional backgrounds of the faculty of the department, there are also graduate students who carry out dissertation research with our faculty, but will obtain their degree from other graduate programs such as Biological Chemistry, Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, Neurobiology, Pathology and Laboratory Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biomathematics, Biomedical Physics, and various departments in the School of Engineering.

 

 

Pharmacology vs. Pharmacy

IMPORTANT! If your goal is to be able to dispense drugs as a pharmacist, you want PHARMACY school, not Pharmacology. The following schools have Pharmacy programs in California:

USC (University of Southern California) (323) 442-1474
UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) (415) 476-2732
UOP (University of Pacific, Stockton) (209) 946-2487
Western University of Health Sciences (909) 469-5500