Thursday, August 6, 2009

My Pharmacy School Admissions Stats

I know when I was judging what was needed to get into pharmacy school, and once I was behind what I needed to do, I had a hard time gaining a complete picture of other applicants. Thus I have decided to share with you all my pertinent data that I am using in my application process.

First here are my PharmCAS calculated GPAs
As I have mentioned previously, I screwed up a ton my first two years in college, but have been trying to make up for it ever since. My science and math GPAs are low due to the fact that I took the majority of those course those first two years. Kind of shitty, no?

PCAT scores can be found here

PCAT 1
PCAT 2

I volunteered at an inpatient hospital pharmacy for 3 hours a week for about five months.

Over the past 8 years I have worked 15,000 hours in a pharmacy. I had to actually figure that out for one application and found it rather amusing. This includes 17 different pharmacies across three states. During that period i also completely redesigned a pharmacy from the ground up. For about two years I was the manager of the out front section of a pharmacy.

I have been certified by the PTCB for four years now and two years ago went through a 20 hour advanced diabetes training course. I've also recieved additional training in orthopedics, compression aids, respiratory aids and mobility aids.

Over this past school year I also worked on an undergrad research project with another student and my microbiology professor. It had to do with isolating and identifying a particular insertion sequence in the E. Coli genome. I have given a presentation at a microbiology conference and the work will be published.

I also have about a twenty year plan in my head to start up my own chain of pharmacies which focuses more on patient care than dispensing since this is the ultimate future of retail pharmacy.

And on top of that I'm a huge pharmacy nerd.

So there you have it, that's what I'm going to look like to the admissions committees at the four schools I'm applying too. Hopefully they will be able to look past my faults and admit me. Only time will tell now...

7 comments:

The Cynical Intern said...

You'll be fine. You actually have a strikingly similar transcript to mine. I had a 2.95 and a 84 PCAT, with four years of extensive, certified work in a very busy pharmacy, leading to glowing LORs which I'm sure you have. You may have to play stressful waiting games with waitlists like I did, but as long as your interviews go well, you'll be just fine.

Anonymous said...

I agree...you will be fine. While my GPA was at a 3.6 my PCAT was way low...64th percentile. I ended up getting accepted to 2/5 schools; I was denied by out of state schools and accepted by all of the in state. So honestly, I can't imagine you having a problem at all. Oh, and I don't have any degree...Good luck! :)

was1 said...

its hard to get into pharmacy school these days. way too competitive. some of the brightest kids don't get accepted and that's sucks. i'd never get in now. i started pharmacy school in 1983 and i don't even think there was a pcat then. my interview with the dean went like this...

dean: here's how it works. you declare your major as pharmacy. we accept you into the program. you keep your grades above a 2.0 and we won't kick you out.

me: ok.

the rest is history.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

I don't know the numbers and their significance, but wish you good luck. I had to overcome a crappy first 2 years in college, too.

Anonymous said...

I had to overcome an entire crappy undergrad by kicking ass in the pharmacy prereq's 6 years after I earned my bachelor's degree. I applied/interviewed/was accepted to 3 of the 4 schools I wanted this spring with an end GPA of 3.35 and PCAT of 88. You'll be fine. Applying multiple places seems to be the key.

PharmD2b said...

I'm in a similar boat with serious struggles early on as I just drank too much. We'll see what happens I spose.

This blog written by an AdCom sure helped me with how to address some of my issues.
www.pharmacyschooladmissions.blogspot.com

Chris said...

Applying for pharmacy school was so intimidating! I had a 3.4, with little pharmacy experience. I applied to a school that did not need the PCAT

GOT IN THOUGH!

-Chris
http://pharmacyschoolforums.com