Deciding Which Courses to Take

Student Affairs

Deciding What Courses to Take

Each semester, there are a certain number of required courses you must take. These courses are filled in for you on your Plan of Study. But you also have space to take a certain number of elective courses. How do you decide which are right for you?

Check the School of Pharmacy's catalog for general information on courses.
The course offering for Spring 2010, Fall 2009 or Winter 2010 shows course masters, enrollment limits, CRNs and class restrictions at a glance.
There are syllabi for each course in the School of Pharmacy portal that can give you a better idea of what the course covers.
Each curricular pathway has recommended courses.
Talk to other students who have taken the course.

Remember that each course may have prerequisites that you need to meet. Some courses require you to have reached a certain year in the PharmD program, while others require that you have taken other courses. The syllabus for each course, available in the portal, is the best reference to these prerequisites.

There are also a number of experiential courses you need to take during your academic career. These courses describe a general topic; in a separate process from course registration, you will be assigned a specific site and preceptor by the Experiential Learning Office.

Next: Creating Your Plan of Study

Courses At Other Institutions

Full-time students in good academic standing are allowed to take up to six credits at the graduate level from a four year institution during their academic career. See "Transfer Policy."

To take a course at another University of Maryland institution, you must complete an Inter-Institutional Registration Form, available in the Student Affairs office, and have it signed either by your advisor or the Associate Dean for Student Affairs. This form is on carbon paper, so it cannot be completed electronically.

Once you have completed this form, Student Affairs will take care of registering you for the course in SURFS.

You may also take graduate or professional classes at four-year institutions outside the University of Maryland system, but you must have permission from both your advisor and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Fees for fall and spring courses will be added to your School of Pharmacy tuition, but you will be billed by the external institution for any winter or summer courses you take.