Sorry to start another "what should I do?" thread but I would appreciate everyone's input.
I think I may be reapplying for next year so I'm trying to come up with a game plan to make my application stronger.
I could:
1. Take summer classes full time and volunteer at a local hospital part time. This would allow my to graduate with my BS after the fall semester in december.
OR
2. I could work in a pharmacy part time, get more experience and work in one of my professor's labs doing microbio research along with a couple volunteer jobs I like to do and take full loads in the fall and spring. If I did this I wouldn't be able to graduate until april.
I would kind of like to take the summer off since I've been going to school year round the last two years but I'd also just like to be done with it. I would appreciate an outside view.
having gone through the application process and being successful in getting into the schools of my choice, I would like to share my experience with you. Take it for what it's worth but it's really up to you to figure out what works best for your schedule.
I would suggest taking summer off to focus on gaining more experience in pharmacy, research, and volunteering activities. I was in a similar situation last summer and decided to take summer school (2 science classes) to boost up my GPA because it was only average so I wanted to retake the science courses over. Although it did help my GPA, taking 2 science at the same time is alot of work and it left me with no time to work on my application. by the time i was finished with class, august rolled around and it was time to start my fall semester. So the result: I turned in most of my application near the deadline/on the deadline AND some of them were not my best writing because I was pressed for time.
You on the other hand have an excellent GPA so you dont have the same problem as I did. Note that the number of prereq that you completed is taken into consideration so if you barely completed any prereq it would be helpful to work on that during the summer. Otherwise GPA and mcat scores are used to weed people out, once you pass a certain GPA theshold, which i'm certain your GPA qualifies, they look to other aspects that differentiate you from other candidates ie your pharmacy experience, motivation, support of your commitment, leadership skills, etc. So that's where your outside activities comes in. At all of the schools that I interviewed at, there was no mention of grades or test scores during the interview(they know you already have the necessary grades and test scores to be invited to the interview in the first place). What helps in interviews is to have things to talk about such as your various experiences and what you have gained from them because it will show that you are an "active" student. Honestly my interviews and my activities were what got me accepted.
Finally, about getting a bachelors degree. You can get it now( dec) or later (in april ) but i dont think it makes much of a difference. I dont know if this is universal for all schools but one of the schools that i applied to told me that people who will earn a Bachelor's or have already earned one are given the same extra point...as long as you get it before you start the pharmD program. So why not spend your summer beefing up your resume, apply with your excellent GPA (without the possibility of lowering it with your accelerated summer courses), and have an adequate amount of time to work on your secondary essays.
You'll have an entire summer after you've been accepted to do whatever you want so you dont need a semester on top of it.
hope that helps. if you have questions, ask away!
