How did you know where you wanted to apply to?

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Snamorimba

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Hi everyone!!

I'm an undergrad in CA and am planning to apply for the next cycle of pharm apps.

Growing up in CA, I would prefer to stay in state, but since pharm school is so competitive, I am also considering applying out of state.

Is there any schools out of state that you reccommend? and Why?

I'm looking for a suburban setting, away from the city b/c that's where I've been all my life. I would prefer if the location has low crime rates; more of a friendly city. I also prefer a pharm school with lots of prof/students interactions.. does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you!!! Good luck!
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Snamorimba said:
Hi everyone!!

I'm an undergrad in CA and am planning to apply for the next cycle of pharm apps.

Growing up in CA, I would prefer to stay in state, but since pharm school is so competitive, I am also considering applying out of state.

Is there any schools out of state that you reccommend? and Why?

I'm looking for a suburban setting, away from the city b/c that's where I've been all my life. I would prefer if the location has low crime rates; more of a friendly city. I also prefer a pharm school with lots of prof/students interactions.. does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you!!! Good luck!
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Try some private schools in the south like Campbell and Wingate in NC, Mercer (it's in Atlanta, but north of the main city), Nova is actually in Davie which is a suburb of Ft Lauderdale, PBA is in downtown West Palm Beach, but it's not a big big city, LECOM is in Bradenton, Fl (small town) and it has great tuition for a private school. I would say UF is in a great suburban type college town, but they give preference to Florida residents... anyhow I'd give it a shot if your GPA and PCAT are on the high end.
 
Definitely look at private schools if you are going to be applying out of state, since as mentioned above, public schools give preference to in-state residents. I would just start looking at pharmacy rankings and from there, look at all the schools' websites, statistics, city, etc. and you will kind of just gravitate to a few you feel are a good fit more than others! Good luck!
 
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When I was deciding on what schools to apply to, I checked what the minimum GPA/PCAT were for each school and if I had them and the school wasn't too far, then I applied. I looked at tuition also. I made a spreadsheet of all the schools I applied to and all the prereqs they required and if they had some that I haven't taken (and didn't plan on taking) then I didn't apply there. Hope this helps a little.
 
Moni526 said:
When I was deciding on what schools to apply to, I checked what the minimum GPA/PCAT were for each school and if I had them and the school wasn't too far, then I applied. I looked at tuition also. I made a spreadsheet of all the schools I applied to and all the prereqs they required and if they had some that I haven't taken (and didn't plan on taking) then I didn't apply there. Hope this helps a little.
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That's exactly what I did. I made a list of the most common pre-reqs and went on PharmCAS and started comparing each school's requirements. I already knew I didn't want to take Calc 2 so any school that required it was cut off my list, same with Physics 2. I also disregarded pre-candidate schools but took some candidate schools into consideration because by the time I apply they'll have achieved full accreditation. From there I dwindled the list of schools and ended up with something like 17 schools! Not bad. I think I'll really only apply to like 5 or 6 though because I couldn't see living in some of the places/ wasting application fees.
 
Look on the PharmCAS school directory, it will tell you which public schools prefer its own residents. Most do, but some don't. I printed out an entire list of all the pharmacy schools and based on what I read on PharmCAS's directory, I eliminated schools that were too hard or just not for me. Then kept eliminating schools based on pre-reqs etc... When I narrowed it down to a more reasonable amount, I compared all the programs in depth thereafter. Yeah... it may sound tedious... but worth it when you're thinking of your life for the next 4 years.
 
I also looked at the pre-requisites, average PCAT, average GPA, number of LORs, things used to determine residency of the applicant, etc.
 
I applied to two top tier schools in states where a job would be guaranteed for me. I want to do a residency and go into research, so I only applied to schools that would prepare me for that. They also had to be in states that I could tolerate living in.

Midwestern is my "back up" school.
 
I did not look at the stats much. I figure they would all be similar.

I need to like where I go to school. I looked at the area, demographics, nightlife, diversity. Things like that really get me pumped.
 
Snamorimba said:
Hi everyone!!

I'm an undergrad in CA and am planning to apply for the next cycle of pharm apps.

Growing up in CA, I would prefer to stay in state, but since pharm school is so competitive, I am also considering applying out of state.

Is there any schools out of state that you reccommend? and Why?

I'm looking for a suburban setting, away from the city b/c that's where I've been all my life. I would prefer if the location has low crime rates; more of a friendly city. I also prefer a pharm school with lots of prof/students interactions.. does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you!!! Good luck!
Click to expand...

You might want to take a look at Pacific U. in Oregon, as well as Oregon State. Reasonably close to CA and, like CA schools, neither requires the PCAT; both are in nice, safe areas (Portland's a fantastic, gorgeous medium-sized city, while Corvallis is a bit more rural). Pacific, as a private school, doesn't favor in-staters, and OSU--from what I can tell--doesn't seem to favor in-staters all that much, if at all.
 
Honestly think about where you would end up for four years. I applied to ten schools, but realized halfway through that I probably wouldn't be as happy at those schools...either because I visited them for interviews, which taught me a lot about what I actually wanted and didn't want.
One big lesson was campus culture, I realized I applied to a lot of schools too similar to my undergrad, so I liked it, but felt there was no real need for me to leave.
 
any schools that you guys will recommend if I want to live in the city or close to city? I am planning to apply to UNC, UF, UMaryland, UW, Campbell, Pacific U. Any other schools with great locations (except CA)?
 
I only applied to CA schools, but I thought about applying to Purdue and USN. Both didn't require PCAT, but I hear USN requires it now.
 
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koercive said:
I only applied to CA schools, but I thought about applying to Purdue and USN. Both didn't require PCAT, but I hear USN requires it now.
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Purdue is an awesome school but nearly impossible to get in if you're out of state. :(
 
Where do they have asians ? besides cali
 
Snamorimba said:
Hi everyone!!

How did you know where you wanted to apply to?
Click to expand...

I found it to be a pretty simple decision for myself.

I looked at school reputation, distance from home, overall atmosphere and feel (can't spend 4 years where you won't be happy), and cost (important but not the most important to me)

That essentially left me with the 2 well established schools that were within a few hours drive (makes for short and cheap trips home over breaks). I didn't waste my time or money on non-accredited schools or schools I wouldn't choose to attend, even if I was accepted. It was an extremely cheap application process :thumbup:

Like you, I grew up in a big city so I was looking more toward the small town feel. That's how I ended up here and I'm happy with my choice :)

As for selecting out of state schools, I wouldn't let cost deter you too much. Some of the CA schools cost more than paying out of state tution at several other schools. If there are specific cities or areas of the country that you think you'd enjoy, see if there's a pharm school nearby and check it out.
 
88888888 said:
Where do they have asians ? besides cali
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LOL When I interviewed in Philly, there were about 20 people and I would say about 10 were Asian. And then I interviewed at Nova and 2 out of 4 of us were.
 
Im also interested in applying school with some asians...it's sad that Rutgers only accepts students with a GPA 3.5 or above
 
rochi said:
Im also interested in applying school with some asians...it's sad that Rutgers only accepts students with a GPA 3.5 or above
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Is that out of personal preference or what?
 
crazybob said:
Is that out of personal preference or what?
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And places with a significant population of asian students tend to have nearby asian communities ... Real asian food plus 'oh, just another asian' instead of 'oh, the asian' from your 95% white school lol. I've seen it happen. If there's an asian in a predominantly white class, then people start referring to him/her as 'the asian' because they don't know him at first ... then it just sticks. Another point is schools with larger asian student populations tend to be more diverse in overall student population. Many people value their heritage and culture and would feel more comfortable sharing their experiences with someone with the same values and culture. e.g. Frat boy culture. Frat boys love fraternizing with other frat boys. Many times it's part of their culture to exclude others (even within work culture). It's partially people segregating themselves within their own sub-cultures.

It's dumb but its how the human mind works. It categorizes everything and everyone to make thoughts easier to remember and process.


edit: another reason could be the differences in values each culture holds. Traditionally and stereotypically, Asian cultures are more reserved, more communal and family based. Currently 'white' culture within America is very individualistic judging from the direction politics, finances, media, and businesses have moved in the past 20 years. 'white' culture is more out-going, more bold, more flamboyant. It's a far cry from traditional oriental asian cultures. Plus most people are rather ethnocentric ... they would rather think their way is the best haha
 
Last edited:
Snamorimba said:
Hi everyone!!

I'm an undergrad in CA and am planning to apply for the next cycle of pharm apps.

Growing up in CA, I would prefer to stay in state, but since pharm school is so competitive, I am also considering applying out of state.

Is there any schools out of state that you reccommend? and Why?

I'm looking for a suburban setting, away from the city b/c that's where I've been all my life. I would prefer if the location has low crime rates; more of a friendly city. I also prefer a pharm school with lots of prof/students interactions.. does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you!!! Good luck!
Click to expand...

Midwestern CCP is location in a very nice and crime free suburb. The surrounding cities are considered very wealthy.
 
Apply to "top-tier" programs.

Although there is debate on the current ranking system, a majority of the lay-people (public) only know or follow US-NEWS ranks.

The top 5 (I believe) are public schools and are fantastic all around programs.

Or you could simply apply to the top 2-3 schools from the states where you're looking to live.

I feel far down in the future, where you graduated from might pay off a little. :xf:
 
What is this pharmaCA directory? Where can one get it and how will it be useful?
 
I wanted to get into the best in-state school I could to avoid high tuition costs. I checked all the in-state schools for required pre-reqs and made sure to complete all of them. I kept a sufficient GPA + PCAT to make sure I would get into where I wanted.
 
I started with location. I went to pharmcas and picked my state school and others that were within drivable distance. Then I spent a lot of time over several separate sessions, creating a google spreadsheet of the school, admission type, pre-reqs, GPA, deadline dates, interview dates, application fees etc. I went to each school website, and by finding the info. on their admissions I cut and paste all this within my spread sheet. This way, I was hunting specific info. and also creating a grid of information I needed. I also was familiar with the school by looking at their specific website. Then, the details on pre-reqs for courses yet to be completed, and I made notes on that. Based on the deadlines, I applied through pharmcas. And when I found my PCAT score, combined with my GPA, this gave me a better gauge of what to apply to. Then, I submitted all schools I was interested through pharmcas and the supplemental.



Additional Notes: Besides location, I also kept in mind that state schools have more funding for research. So even if the location was out of drivable distance (within 1 day of driving) I still applied. But the basis of location was for me, an important way to figure out what I wanted. Also, I had a preference for more established programs and ones with potential for dual degrees. And, I kept an eye out for anything on SDN about schools. Also, I think that if you have pharmacy friends etc., ask them about other schools. They would probably know and I realize that would have helped saved some time for me. SDN is a useful tool, but it's not everything; always keep that in mind. Talking to real people ie professors, pharmacists, students etc. is something that you can get a lot of information in a fairly short amount of time.
 
Thank you everyone!!

I was already getting stressed out about applying, but all your recommendations and suggestions really helped ease my burden!! :D

Good luck with any interviews! :D
 
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