How to Apply

Please upload Part 1 and Part 2 into the Supplemental Information section of the Online Application.

Part 1 – Essay answering the following prompt, maximum one page: Please tell us about an incident in your research where you experienced failure. Include what you did about it and what you learned from the experience.  Note: This essay is separate from the Statement of Purpose.

Part 2 – A simple rank-ordered list of six faculty members in our department with whom you would be interested in doing research. The list should be ranked 1 through 6, with “1” being the faculty member with whom you are the most interested in doing research in our department.
Important note: Although the research areas covered by the participating faculty are broad, the most concentrated areas of research strength are in neuropharmacology and signal transduction. Because of our strong focus on neuropharmacology, applicants interested in clinical pharmacology or cancer pharmacology may wish to apply elsewhere. In particular, the Tumor Biology Program at Georgetown is very strong.

The program requests that applicants forward the following instructions to letter writers:

• Rate the applicant as: Exceptional, Outstanding, Very Good, Above Average, or Below Average.
• Comment on the applicant’s ranking compared to other students you have mentored. E.g., The student is in the top 5 students of the 50 students I mentored over the last 30 years.
• Comment on the applicant’s drive, creativity, independence, and resilience

Effective starting the 2017-2018 application cycle, we have decided to remove GREs from our PhD application process for Pharmacology & Physiology.  A growing literature makes it abundantly clear that GREs are poor predictors of graduate student success (see: Hall et al. (new window) and Moneta-Koeler et al.).  Moreover, GRE scores consistently disadvantage women and individuals from underrepresented groups in science.  Thus, given the poor predictive value of the GRE, we feel it only serves as an access barrier to applications as significant time and money are required for the examination and subsequent score reporting. If you submit GRE scores with your application, they will be removed/redacted from the file circulated to our admissions committee.

Unofficial transcripts are required from every US institution where you have earned credits and grades, including both degree and non-degree coursework. This allows the admissions committee to have a more complete picture of your academic preparation for graduate study.

Do not send electronic or paper copies of your official transcripts before receiving an offer of admission.

An acceptable transcript upload is a photocopy or electronic copy of an official transcript produced by the institution. This includes:

• Scanned copies of paper transcripts issued by the institution
• Electronic (PDF) transcripts issued by the institution

An unofficial transcript we do not accept includes the following:

• We do not accept screenshots or photos
• We do not accept downloads of the “student’s view” from your institution’s website

NOTE: Applicants who are offered admission will be required at that time to submit official transcripts directly from each institution for verification prior to enrolling. 

If you have any transcripts from outside the US (any undergraduate or graduate institution attended or currently attending where you received a degree), we require it to be evaluated for equivalency with U.S. standards and submitted with your application by December 1st.

The preferred place for this evaluation is the World Education Services (WES). WES charges a fee and requires an original transcript sent directly by the school. Please have WES send their evaluation(s) directly to the Office of Admissions at Biomedical Graduate Education.

English translations of international transcripts cannot substitute for transcript evaluations.  Degrees earned in English-speaking countries or at institutions abroad where English is the primary language of instruction are also required to be evaluated for equivalency with US standards, preferably by WES.

Due to processing time, applicants with degrees earned abroad are strongly encouraged to submit their transcripts to WES by October 15th to best ensure delivery to us by the December 1st deadline. If your WES evaluations will arrive more than a few days after our December 1st deadline, we do not recommend that you submit an application this year.

TOEFL: Georgetown University Code is 5244. The minimum TOEFL score for admission is 80 (Internet-based test) and 550 (paper test).

IELTS: Select “Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.” The minimum IELTS score for admission is 7.0.

All applicants are required to demonstrate a level of proficiency in the English language sufficient to meet the admission requirement of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Proficiency can be demonstrated by the receipt of a bachelor’s or advanced degree from an accredited institution of higher education in the United States or from a university where English is the primary language of instruction (please note that applicants receiving degrees at universities in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, are required to submit the TOEFL or IELTS unless the primary language of instruction at the institution is English).

Applicants with external (third-party) funding sources guaranteed for the entirety of their PhD program (ie, scholarships, sponsorships, or fellowships through governments, employers, or any organization) should include a copy of their award/sponsorship letter with their application.  If the sponsorship is awarded after submitting your application, please send a PDF copy of the letter to Mary Wells at mary.wells@georgetown.edu to be added to your application file.

Note: All students admitted to the PhD in Pharmacology are offered tuition scholarship, annual stipend of $31,000 and health insurance, unless they have guaranteed external funding as described above. There is no separate application for our internal funding from the university.