My GPA is ___, and I am doing/did a Residency/Fellowship

Anything above a 3 is really fine. Your rotations, work experience, cover letter and recommendations letters are the deciding factors after the preliminary 3.0 cut.

Occasionally even less than 3.0 are taken, depending on the rank pool that year.

Good luck

i don't think GPA is all that counts... at least, for me, it didn't really count as long as you have good luggage with you... [past academic achievements, clean records etc etc] for now, i'm looking for a job as pharmacist in NEpal... do you think you can give me some addresses? i've only found an empty pharmacy directory at http://www.drugdelivery.ca/xx-NP-00-A-xx/Nepal-Pharmacy.aspx but i'd really really like to work there.. .any help please?

Nice to see that GPA isn't that only thing that matters at this level. I think its pretty sad that many pharmacy schools place so much weight on GPA in the admissions process.

patmcd said:

Nice to see that GPA isn't that only thing that matters at this level. I think its pretty sad that many pharmacy schools place so much weight on GPA in the admissions process.

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I think pre-pharm GPA can be a great indicator of how someone may do in pharmacy school since you're comparing didactic work to didactic work. GPA isn't as important to get a residency since the true test of any graduate is how they can work with a team and how well they can incorporate what they've learned in school into the real world. I've known a few students who had not so stellar GPA's in their pre-reqs and they had a hard time keeping their grades up in school as well.

For future residency applicants--another thing to be prepared for...

My GPA is decent (3.45), but I do have a few C's on my transcript. At one of my interviews, they actually asked me why I had C's on my transcript and to explain them further! I must have answered pretty well, because I ranked them first and I matched with them today!

I do have a few C's on my transcripts also, but my overall GPA is just like yours. It's the professor!! All my C's come from that same professor. All he does is read the slides word for word and his questions don't even come from the slides. I'm not the only one at my school who has a problem with this particular professor, but I guess I can't use that excuse at the interview. This is gonna be tough for me to explain.

Allure said:

I do have a few C's on my transcripts also, but my overall GPA is just like yours. It's the professor!! All my C's come from that same professor. All he does is read the slides word for word and his questions don't even come from the slides. I'm not the only one at my school who has a problem with this particular professor, but I guess I can't use that excuse at the interview. This is gonna be tough for me to explain.

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I wish I could relate that C to a professor. I have two C's from Therapeutics, so I'm worried that I will have to scramble for my residency spot. I have easiliy gotten A's from pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacoeconomics type of classes, but I just do poorly when it comes to memorizing mountains of information in a short time & regurgitating it exatly on an exam. I have a good long term memory & know random facts about different drugs, so maybe I'll shine in rotations & get a good LOR, but I'll have to see...

Trancelucent1 said:

I think pre-pharm GPA can be a great indicator of how someone may do in pharmacy school since you're comparing didactic work to didactic work. GPA isn't as important to get a residency since the true test of any graduate is how they can work with a team and how well they can incorporate what they've learned in school into the real world. I've known a few students who had not so stellar GPA's in their pre-reqs and they had a hard time keeping their grades up in school as well.

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It's true that pre-pharm GPA is highly correlated with success in the pharmacy program. Although you may say that GPA doesn't matter in the "real world," the reality is that GPA factors into resident candidate rankings. It also helps programs decide who to interview. A few years ago, GPA was not necessarily that important because there were more residency positions than applicants. This is not true today, where there are more applicants than positions. Get your GPA as high as possible! Take no chances.

GPA gets you the interview, YOU get yourself the job against the other candidates interviewing.

legaia said:

GPA gets you the interview, YOU get yourself the job against the other candidates interviewing.

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What he said.

Hels2007 said:

What she said.

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I am a he

legaia said:

I am a he

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Sorry. I automatically associate usernames ending in -a with female gender.

I break the process into two parts as follows:

Part I:
There's no one guideline or standard as to who to select for the interviews. Some programs weigh heavily on GPA, while others don't really care if you have above a certain GPA (e.g. >3.0). The programs usually factor in other extracurricular activities, rec letters, essay, leadership and job experience, etc. They rank you just like how they rank you for the match, and say the top 20 will be invited for interviews. (There are exceptions: some programs will interview you (first come first serve) without even looking at your app package.)

Part II:
Now the interview part. Some programs will take in consideration of your points from Part I, but some don't. For programs that don't, you're starting over again and how well you do during the interview will get you ranked high.

My advice: if you have low GPA, apply to many diverse programs as you can (e.g., 7-10 programs, teaching to community hospitals, rural->non-rural, etc. and of course only the ones you like) since you don't know what their criteria are for interview selection. You'll end up with some invitations, and usually these programs weigh less on GPA or if you have special connections with the programs. Now the next part is just to be well-prepared for the interviews.

Really, don't just try to get the best GPA, but make sure you're well-rounded (e.g., volunteer, leadership, making connections, etc.)