I'm currently several years out of school and would like to start up a different career. I graduated with a very low gpa 2.7 (with several repeated classes not averaged in) as a business major so I understand applying to PharmD is not possible. My questions is if I go to a local college for Pre-Pharm and do well would have have a good shot at a good PharmD program? Would they look at my old GPA or just the new Pre-Pharm one for the application process?
My crazy plan? Possible 2nd career?
- Thread starter samnyc
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Honestly, nothing crazy about your plan ( don't worry
) - just read up on SDN - there is plenty of people on here who had a change of heart well into their 30s even 40s and decided to change their career.About your GPA - it's very low yes, so you'll have to work hard in your pre-pharm classes to show to the adcoms that you are ver determined to go to pharmacy school . Your overall GPA will certainly be considered - not just the pre-pharm GPA - so that's why you'll have to work extra hard.If you have questions about GPA go to pharmcas website and do some research about how they calculate it.
Also get a job at a pharmacy/volunteer - I've noticed from my personal experience - it's very tough to apply to pharmacy school when you have 0 pharmacy experience.
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At some schools it is this way, at others it is not.
so if its over 5 yrs I basically dont need to add it to the application? This is rather critical since, after viewing the PharmCAS website, I noticed my GPA would be lower than the req 2.5 when all the repeats get averaged in. It took 200 credits to graduate so I imagine Pre-Pharm wouldn't even dent my old gpa.
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Contact the schools you want to apply to be sure - like someone mentioned some do, others don't.
Also I want to say - do not be discouraged by the obstacles, considering your GPA - your pathway to pharmacy school certainly won't be easy. However, GPA isn't everything. Read up on SDN and you'll see that there are people with low GPAs - by low I mean 3.0s who got interviews at schools like UCSF. Raise up our GPA as much as you can but don't forget about pharmacy experience, volunteering and Ecs. It will be difinately heck of a lot harder for you to get in than for majority of applicants - might even take you 3-4 years of applying - but if you really want to do pharmacy - you can do it.
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No you still need to put EVERYTHING on Pharmcas. Some schools require you to retake certain science classes if it's been more than 5-7 years or so. But that depends on the school, so just look up the school's prereq requirements. I only know of one school with the academic forgiveness policy and that's USN. I believe you have the option on your app to only count the past 5 years of schooling. Hence, if you take all your pre-pharm classes and get a 4.0, you'll have a 4.0 on your application. Good luck with the applications. I would suggest to be competitive, you should have at least a 3.3 or so, and it's definitely important to have pharm experience.
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Your situation sounds very familiar! I also graduated with a business degree and a GPA around 3.0, worked for a few years, was insanely miserable, reassessed, and started doing prereqs and working in a pharmacy. Even though my GPA for pharmacy was only 3.38, lots of colleges like to see improvement and focus on a specific goal. My first time in school I didn't really have that. You absolutely CAN get into a PharmD program if you research the programs you're interested in, maintain focus and work hard at the prereqs, and show your life experience in the interview. (Note: my degree in business, if anything else, really equals a degree in interviewing, so you're probably set there!)
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I was a career changer too with a lower gpa. I just got accepted for Fall 2008. Work on your PCAT, talk to the school and see what they think about old grades and the effect they will have on your application status. Retake whatever classes you need or finish whatever prereqs you need.
As long as you show that you are better now, the past can somewhat be forgotten. Work on your personal statement. Personal statement and PCAT can get your foot into the door somewhere, the only question is if that somewhere is the school you want to be at. If you are ok with going anywhere, personal statement and PCAT will get your foot in the door somewhere.
Then work on your interview, especially explaining how you are no longer like your past self and that you have grown to be a much better candidate then your gpa indicates.
It's not crazy. It's possible, you just got to be ready to work for it. I did it, my roommate did it, you can do it.
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I graduated with business degress in 2001 and a 2.9 cum. I went back to CC part-time in 2005 to do my sci prereq's while working full-time and I got in no problem. Unless you count stress, anxiety and sleep loss as problems
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go for it .. u never know
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About the prepharm classes won't make a dent. . . You know prepharm has more prereq's than most of the pre-health classes. Maybe you should look into this a little better.
You could also look into schools who only look at your pre-pharm GPA, so you will start a new slate if you have never taken the required math and science classes already. Some schools actually only look at the highest grade when you repeat classes also so that could bring your GPA up some more too. There's a pharmacy school out there for everyone, you just have to do your research!
HTH
HTH
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