Scholarships, donations highest in history at UC's College of Pharmacy

A new streamlined scholarship application process at the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy resulted in a record number of scholarship applicants for the 2019-20 academic year, which in turn resulted in a record number of scholarships awarded. 

According to Kelly Epplen, PharmD, associate dean of admissions, 80 students applied for scholarship assistance, with the college awarding a total of $147,000 for the 2019-20 academic year. 

“Students were permitted to apply for as few or as many scholarships as they liked if they believed they met the scholarship criteria," says Epplen, adding that the applications were then scored, ranked and discussed for candidacy by those committee members.    

For example, she says, scholarships can be based on many factors: academics, diversity, service, need and/or leadership, and the college has committees dedicated to each of these topics. Previously, there was not a systematic application process.

“The new process provides a standardized, electronic application. All students have access to scholarship information and are notified of selection criteria for each," Epplen says.

Scholarship amounts vary from one time distributions to recurring, dependent on factors such as grade point average, and range from $1,000 per year to $5000 per year, which is the highest amount awarded.

First-year student Prince Ampem of Toledo, Ohio. received $5,000 per academic year from the Koffenberger Scholarship, one of two scholarships available to first-year students. One Koffenberger scholarship is awarded to an incoming student each year; recipients must be Ohio residents who demonstrate academic excellence and potential for future scholarship.

“It will not only be of great help to lighten my financial burden, but will also motivate me to study harder and excel academically,” says Ampem.

The second scholarship available to first-year students is the Gayle Hoblitzell scholarship.  First-year student Grace Phan of Cincinnati was awarded $1,500 from this fund and Phan says that “every bit counts, no matter the amount.”

“Now with $1,500 I don’t have to worry about books or the accrued loan interest on that amount,” she says.  

There were 15 scholarships offered in total:  Two for incoming students and 13 for current students.

The increase in applicants and scholarship distributions is directly related to growth in the generosity of donors, says Epplen and the college’s development director Brian Hurst. Over the past five years, Hurst says the college has seen a substantial increase in both the number of endowments and the total value. Since 2013 the value of the college’s endowments has increased from $10.7 million to $12.5 million in 2019.

"Nearly a two million dollar increase in five years for a small college is very remarkable and says a lot about the importance our donors place on making a pharmacy education financially attainable for our students,” says Hurst.

The university, however, has a 4% cap on how much money can be withdrawn from an endowment so some scholarship monies have to come from general funds, such as the dean’s discretionary fund.

Scholarship endowments, Hurst says, are essential and not only a way of supporting the students, but supporting the profession by being able to attract top candidates and send highly qualified graduates out into the health care field.

“The landscape of our profession is changing and it is an exciting time to become a pharmacist.  Our students are an integral part of the health care team: We promote interprofessional collaboration and encourage our students to accept responsibility for the medication-related outcomes of their patients. The scholarship process is one way we can continue to attract the best and brightest students into our program,” says Epplen. 

The cost to attend pharmacy school at UC per credit hour for the 2019-20 academic year is $1,221 for full-time Ohio residents, $1,461 for the Metropolitan rate, and $1,867 for full-time non-Ohio residents (including all fees). Tuition here ranks the fifth lowest out of the seven pharmacy schools in Ohio and is considerably below the average PharmD tuition cost in the state.