What are the factors that will allow me to get accepted to more schools?
Well, if you are trying to get accepted into a top tier school, then your GPA, your science GPA, and your PCAT score should be as high as they can go. Also top tier schools like to see stuff like volunteering with needy people or any sort of pharmacy experience (ie working as a technician.)
If you are just trying to get accepted into a random school, then because schools are pretty much taking anyone, because their admissions are down, it doesn't really matter what you do, you are almost certainly guaranteed to get accepted.
But for any school, if you can make a large benefactor type donation, that will certainly up your acceptance rate 1000%
Also, will majoring in science help me on the exam or in pharm shool?
The more you know about science, the better you will do on the PCAT and in pharm school. (Although I've heard people with pretty low PCAT scores getting accepted, so I wouldn't worry about that.)
Also is the economy affecting acceptance?
Yes, people with other options are realizing the great amount of debt need to become a pharmacist, and the lowering employment odds are a risk they don't want to take, so applications are down, and pharmacy schools are struggling to fill their classes. As long as you have the minimum pre-reqs, it's almost certain you will be accepted somewhere, regardless of your GPA or PCAT score or anything else.
How will employment and trend be for the next few years?
Will the timeline that i take to get my bachelor, and pregreg make an impact. For example, getting bachelor in 6 yrs versus in4 yrs?
Because the output of pharmacists has nearly double in the past 15 years (from new schools and increased class sizes in schools), and the growth of pharmacy jobs has remained relatively unchanged, and because baby boomers aren't retiring because they forgot to save anything for retirement, thinking that the government would just take care of them because they were baby boomers....its expected that pharmacist supply will continue to exponentially increase for at least the next 30 years, and consequently employment opportunities will be vastly decreased.
Certainly, the sooner you can graduate, the better the chances of finding a job, as the unemployment rate for each class is going up each year, and it's expected that will keep going up for at least the next 30 years.
