What are my chances to get into pharmacy school?

Question: I was wondering what my chances were to get into pharmacy school. My freshmen year i worked 2 jobs, one was working as a pharmacy tech. During the year i made A's, B's, and C's. The following year was hard for me
because I was severely sick so my whole freshmen year is full of F's and W. Of those, only two were pre-req classes, the rest were electives. My Junior year I made all A's and B's. I will also be receiving my bachelors
in Chemistry next year. Is there still hope for me to get accepted?

Answer: I can only suggest that you be very clear in your personal statement that your poor grades were due to issues beyond your control (illness).  After doing so, point out the more successful semesters you had before and after that year.  It would probably be worth your time to find a professor or advisor familiar with your illness who might be able to share with the AdComs what you did to overcome it and how it impacted you.  If you are able to successfully convince the AdComs, I think you stand a decent chance of being offered interviews,  From that point, it's up to you to sell yourself to the school.

Good luck.

Changing careers to pursue pharmacy school - should I retake old courses?

Question: I have been preparing to change careers and hoping to attend pharmacy school. My question is this: I have a degree in Computer Engineering, but I have several D's on my transcript from my studies in that field (Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Material Science). I am concerned that my overall GPA will be weighed down by those poor grades and may not meet the minimum (3.0) for some schools even though my pharmacy pre-req grades are excellent. Should I retake those courses to help my GPA even though they are unrelated to pharmacy? Please advise.


Answer: You make a good point about the minimum GPA at some schools and that should be a consideration.  However, I think it is imperative that you make it very clear in your personal statement that this is a career change and you are focused on pharmacy and are doing well in your pre-pharmacy curriculum. By doing this, I believe many committees will start by looking at your pharmacy pre-reqs and give you the benefit of the doubt rather than dwell on courses that most pharmacists will struggle with. Our goal as an admissions committee is to find applicants who will be successful in this course of study and who fit well in our institution.

Are you certain that retaking difficult courses like those will yield substantially better scores now than previously? Unless you are 100% certain that you can get an A, I wouldn't even consider doing it. Even if I know you would get an A, I may not advise it.

Think of it this way, you could struggle through Linear Algebra and get a B and that would improve you GPA less than if you took a 4 credit course in Astronomy and scored an A. You might consider adding a summer course or two with a high credit value that will be more beneficial to your overall GPA than retaking courses with D's. Just a thought.

Leaving research fellowship to pursue pharmacy school

Question:  My GPA in undergraduate was not good ( 3.0 ). I was awarded a fellowship to
conduct research in Pharmacology and get my PhD, but I decided to leave the program
because I was not into research and development.

Now, I am choosing to go to pharmacy school because I feel that this will
be a better career for me.  Two reasons for choosing pharmacy school : 1) I
still love the science and pharmacology 2) I want to be in an environment
that will allow me to interact with patients.

I fear that my undergrad GPA will hurt me and my lack of experience in a
pharmacy setting will not help either. On the other hand, I feel that my
background in scientific research will benefit me. My graduate school GPA
is 6.0 out of 8.0. What is the best route for achieving my goal on becoming
a pharmacist? Has anybody else taken this route?




Answer: Your path, albeit not typical, will not be a concern for pharmacy schools.  We have all seen plenty of applicants who have pursued other careers and/or been successful in other fields prior to pursuing a PharmD.  Most AdComs will want to hear from you why you decided not to finish your fellowship (your reasons seem legitimate to me) and anytime someone makes a change like this, having some sort of practical experience can bolster your chances.  It's hard for an applicant to explain why they want to make a change to pharmacy without having any volunteer, shadowing, etc to reinforce their belief.

Your GPA will be on the lower end of what most schools admit and I would encourage you to look into and apply to several schools.  Begin contacting admissions counselors now and initiate dialogue with them.  Ask them for their advice - that is my best suggestion in your case.

I hope that helps.

-Admissions

Please use a professional email address when applying to pharmacy school!

Note: This is a reprint of an email received a couple of years ago by a colleague at another school.  I wanted to repost it as I probably saw a dozen inappropriate email addresses again this cycle.



Suggestion: I am on the admission review committee at _______ (name of school removed), and we enjoy this website - several items have made me chuckle. I have a suggestion to make regarding the use of email addresses when applicants are registering through PharmCas. Applicants - please use your school/university issued email address or one that is professional in nature. Occasionally, we see applicants using semi-inappropriate names and words in their email addresses and it does make us question the maturity of the applicant.

I would suggest not using slang terms, nicknames, or body descriptions in an email address that you are using to apply for professional school. Don't use: sexybaby@ _____mail.com or whosurdaddy@ _________mail.com. You get the idea.

Will you be rejected for using such an email address? Undoubtedly, no. But, please be professional in your approach.


Thank you and keep up the good work.

Response: Thank you for the advice. I agree 100%.

Question about Letters of Recommendation (LOR) for pharmacy school

Question: I am applying to multiple schools through Pharmcas.  Some require 2 letters and others require as many as 4.  How do I choose what schools get the right letters?

Answer: Simple answer - you cannot.  If you are applying to a school through PharmCas that requires 4 LORs, each of the PharmCas schools will see all four letters even if they only require two.

Hope that helps.

Questions about getting into pharmacy school

Question: I didn't do to well in high school, and i decided to take some college courses at the same time. They were only electives and my college allows u to retake the class and replace it with the higher grade.Do pharmacy schools look at repeat attempts as a bad thing? Also my first semester of college i only took 2 classes per term but now i started taking 5 almost every semester. Will my first year of college be frowned upon? My science and math GPA is a 3.6 and my overall is a 3.7 and i am at a community college with on of the top science programs in the state, do pharmacy schools care if you finished your pre reqs at a community college and are you favored more if you went to a university? I am finsished with 2/3 of my chemistry and biology and done with math, would now be a good time to apply for pharmacy school? I would appreciate your advice on all of this, please and thank you.

Answer: There are a lot of questions here and I will do my best to answer them piece by piece:

-Do pharmacy schools look at repeat attempts as a bad thing? It depends. 
 If I see an applicant has taken Organic Chemsitry 4 times because he/she failed twice and then withdrew before passing the course, it is safe to say that this would have a negative impact on the applicant. We look at an entire transcript, so even though your school might replace a low grad with a higher one, your transcript will show them all and everything will be factored into our decision.

 -Will my first year of college be frowned upon?
The courseload you take is important and many of us feel that an applicant is more apt to be successful if he/she is accustomed to completing a rigorous schedule as you will face in pharmacy school. It sounds like your more recent semesters would provide enough evidence that you are capable.

-do pharmacy schools care if you finished your pre reqs at a community college and are you favored more if you went to a university? I am finsished with 2/3 of my chemistry and biology and done with math, would now be a good time to apply for pharmacy school?
Yes and No. This is a tricky question. What we are concerned about is the applicant's ability to successfully complete our program. If your grades and test scores are close to what the average admissions statistics are for a given school, you should be competitive and applying now would make sense.

 Good luck and please keep us posted.

Can I overcome poor grades and get into Pharmacy school?

Question: I recently saw your blog and decided to ask for your opinion. I still have a lot of pre-reqs I need to take, however, my GPA is extremely low right now and I feel as if my transcript has to be one of the worst I've heard of in a while. I'm not sure what my exact GPA is as I have transcripts from a few different schools (i'm a military spouse and we've had to relocate many times) and have never put them together. The main worries about my transcript: I have 6 C's three are in elective classes, another is in General Chemistry (I retook this class and originally had a D), one in Economics, and the last was in a Pre-Calculus course but that one isn't considered a prerequisite. I got an F in General Biology so I'm obviously retaking this course soon. I also have 4 W's all which have valid reasons for. I am currently taking Anatomy & Physiology I but from how things are going it seems like I'll be getting yet another C. As this is quite embarrassing, I am in desperate need of advice. My first question: With my Anatomy course, should I add it to the list of C's or should I drop it and receive another W? I still have all of the other science pre-reqs to take and I still have not taken the PCAT. ANY advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated. I just don't know where to go from here, or even if I should continue. Please help!

Answer: I am going to be honest - you have an uphill battle in front of you. It will be impossible for any committee person to overlook all of courses that you seem to have struggled with. When I see a W or a D in a class, I can live with that. However, multiple W's and poor grades spells trouble for an applicant. The concern would be that once in pharmacy school, you don't have the option of withdrawing and trying again - it's pretty much sink or swim.

It is not my position to tell you that you can't get admitted, but pharmacy school is very competitive and you've placed yourself at a disadvantage. My sincere suggestion would be to contact the nearest school of pharmacy (or one that you might want to apply to) and ask to meet with an Admissions counselor. Bring your transcripts and ask him/her for an honest assessment of what your chances would be at that school.

Good luck.

How do pharmacy school admissions view young applicants?

Question: I am going to apply to pharmacy schools at the end of this year,
and I was wondering, how does the committee view young applicants? I
went through a program which allowed me to finish
my junior and senior year of high school at a community college, while
earning college and high school credits at the same time. My first
year and a half was pretty rough--I was immature. But life changing
events occurred and I grew up; so now my grades have been great, my
GPA over the last 4 quarters has been a 3.7, pulling my cumulative GPA
to a 3.5. I received my Associates of Science within two years and by
the end of this year, my third, I will be done with all pharmacy
pre-reqs (except for 2 classes). I am currently 18 years old and by
the time I apply I will be 19, so I am wondering, do pharmacy schools
have concerns about my age? And will this negatively affect my chances
of getting into pharmacy schools?


Answer: Good question. As a committee, we have this discussion every now and then and I don't think there is a simple answer. Obviously, we cannot use age when making decisions.

Here is an example where age may be considered:

A young applicant writes a personal statement that sounds immature and lacks depth. He/she has no pharmacy experience, however, his/her grades and test scores are acceptable. There is concern that he/she may not be ready for pharmacy school.

Should we look at the academic prospects and admit him/her or encourage the applicant to gain some experience and mature another year or two? I usually assume (sometimes incorrectly), that the applicant will "get it" once they are immersed in pharmacy school, but I have colleagues who feel otherwise. If a 40 year old applicant writes a personal statement that sounds immature, I'm less likely to give him/her the same benefit.

In summary, if you present yourself as a mature applicant who is capable of successfully managing the rigors of pharmacy school, age should not be an issue.

Good luck.

Question about pharmacy school prerequisites

Question: I have noticed some schools state you must receive a grade of C or better in all prerequisite courses as one of the admissions requirements.. Can I assume that for the schools that don't say this would accept prerequisite courses with a grade lower than a C, as long as you did not fail the course? For example, if you had received a D in biology, would a school accept this as a completed prerequisite course if they do not state on their website you must receive a C or better? I hope this makes sense. Thanks for your time.


Answer: My recommendation to you and everyone with a question about what satisfactorily meets a prerequisite requirement is to call the school and ask an Admissions counselor. Every year we see applications that do not meet our criteria because the applicant simply overlooked something or didn't take the time to ask a question. Keep in mind - every school is different and we all have different criteria, so don't assume School A is the same as School B.

Thanks for your question and good luck.

I've been accepted, but my grades this semester are my worst yet

Question: I was accepted to my top choice pharmacy school and I am really excited to start in the fall.

However, this quarter my grades are the worst they've ever been. This is my last quarter as an undergraduate and my last final is a week tomorrow. Superficially, the school might look at my transcript and interpret my low grades as senioritis.

Since my sophomore year, I've managed to get on the quarterly dean's list. This quarter I'm not even sure if I'll pass all of my classes. My grades this quarter aren't consistent at all....

How do I approach the school about this? I sincerely value my acceptance and don't want to be dropped.. What should I do?

Answer: Unless you are in danger of not passing a prerequisite course, I do not believe you should have any concern if you have already been admitted.