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- Pre-Pharmacy
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Hello -- I am sorry for those who were waiting on me to get back to you regarding the meeting today with Traci Templin. I had to literally rush from the meeting to work and I just got off work. So anyways, I found out a LOT of helpful information. I hope I can help any applicant and any future applicants. I'll post more as it comes to memory:
1. First of all, all applicants that DO NOT have an Organic 1 Chem grade before December (basically you can't take it spring semester), reapply the next year. She said it's a new thing that the dean wants because they've had to take seats away from students who did not pass Organic 1 or 2 in the spring/summer. So they haven't got that information out yet but I bet it will be in next year's pamphlet ...
2. For those of you waiting to hear back from October/November interviews.. someone asked a similar question. Basically, you have up until April to hear from them. If you don't receive an interview or hear from them by April, then.. you know.. but she didn't say when you should receive something. I kept trying to get that answer out. She said that she has a stack of applications that she has received (in time order ) and that she puts them off to the side if she's waiting for grades, PCAT scores or whatever. And that when she gets them (she said she was reviewing some new PCAT scores this morning), that she goes back in timely order. So applications that were on hold that were submitted in September and just got new PCAT scores (and thats what she was waiting on to get a better idea of the application), then they will be getting reviewed before October, November people. Same goes with new transcripts I believe.
3. I asked if she knows of SDN forums. She said yes. I asked so do you peruse them? She said, "If we know about them, what do you think?"
Stupid second question on my part. lol
3. As for the application process goes. She says SHE herself sees the application first (those letters you get with the classes you're missing are FROM HER). She receives the application from pharmcas -- SEND your pharmcas in regardless of whether or not your PCAT scores are in or your transcripts. She said the biggest hold up for people are transcripts, though, so do send them in right away. Anyway, from there she said she looks at #s first. GPA and PCAT scores. Continues to filter and then delves deeper.
4. As SDN encourages, she also strongly encourages to apply EARLY! as its a less competitive application pool.
5. She also said applying to 1 school isn't bad, but it certainly doesn't look good.
6. The absolute cut off is a 2.75 GPA. If you have a 2.74, you're out of luck. She tries to push applications through to the next round but she has regulations she absolutely has to stick by.
7. The max an interview can go is 40 minutes.
8. I asked her what part of the PCAT do they look at the most. She said it completely depends on your interview committee. Some feel that the sciences/math are really important and some feel that the reading/verbal are more important. It totally depends she said.
9. I asked if there are preferential treatment towards in state or out of state students. She said no.
10. She said one of the questions that an interviewer was asking was "if you could hang out with anyone dead or alive who would it be and why?" She said they're not looking for WHO you choose but how you can ARTICULATE yourself and provide a logical reasonable answer. I digress, but she said a student came in for an interview that was a substitute teacher and was referring to his students as "little bastards"... she said NOT good! Another question was how do you relieve stress and a student said partying. She said they all laughed but shouldn't have said that for an interview but because he was being honest they gave him credit.
11. Dress code, as you know, is professional or scrubs WITH lab coat!
12. She said she STRONGLY encourages people to work or volunteer at a pharmacy! It's really good on your app. If you do work at a pharmacy, she said BE PREPARED to be asked about the environment because you WILL be asked. Experienced applicants > non-experienced applicants.
13. Know what a pharmacist does/is and what the field entails. Know other things other than retail/hospital pharmacy. She suggested going to www.aacp.org because there's too much info out that about a pharmacist other than retail and hospital and they really want to know that you know more than retail/hospital.
14. I asked, just for my info, what the average age is for last year for the admitted students. Obviously it changes each year. She said it's been going up but that last year it was about 25-26.
15. She said she encourages you to take EXTRA classes other than the pre-reqs because it CERTAINLY GIVES YOU MORE COMPETITIVENESS over an applicant that didnt. With that being said, bachelors people are more competitive than pre-req people. But numbers still count with all due considerations. She said the dean likes science bachelors though!
16. Waitlisted people are NOT in any order. Basically she gives a list of waitlisted people to the dean and he sends her 3 people he decides on that she can call next. She starts calling waitlisted people if people don't show up to the orientation and so forth. I dont think she mentioned any other times but I think that's kind of common sense.
17. Withdrawals and audits. I asked about that and how it looks on an application. She said if she sees a trend it will definitely be flagged. If you audited a class, she expects you to have a n A/B in the class when you take it. She doesnt want to see multiple withdrawals/audits. If you have to in an emergency or whatever the case, she said explain yourself in the part where you can leave any comments. She does see those and she does understand how it is as she had to withdrawal a few classes one semester herself due to a medical thing.
18. Last year's admitted students' average PCAT was about a 70%
19. Also she said they get about 1500 applications, they give ~400 interviews and 200 get admitted total.
Overall, Traci was very nice. She's young, upbeat, and is ROOTING for you, but she means business! She does everything to push your application, even if you have a 2.75 she said she can still work with it but she said try for 3.0 to stay competitive. If I can remember anymore things, I will definitely post them. Any questions, please ask me because it might help me to remember things she talked about. Basically she was questioned for an hour and 15 minutes. So a lot of information was out there, I just can't recall everything at the moment.
Good luck.
-Crystal Costa
1. First of all, all applicants that DO NOT have an Organic 1 Chem grade before December (basically you can't take it spring semester), reapply the next year. She said it's a new thing that the dean wants because they've had to take seats away from students who did not pass Organic 1 or 2 in the spring/summer. So they haven't got that information out yet but I bet it will be in next year's pamphlet ...
2. For those of you waiting to hear back from October/November interviews.. someone asked a similar question. Basically, you have up until April to hear from them. If you don't receive an interview or hear from them by April, then.. you know.. but she didn't say when you should receive something. I kept trying to get that answer out. She said that she has a stack of applications that she has received (in time order ) and that she puts them off to the side if she's waiting for grades, PCAT scores or whatever. And that when she gets them (she said she was reviewing some new PCAT scores this morning), that she goes back in timely order. So applications that were on hold that were submitted in September and just got new PCAT scores (and thats what she was waiting on to get a better idea of the application), then they will be getting reviewed before October, November people. Same goes with new transcripts I believe.
3. I asked if she knows of SDN forums. She said yes. I asked so do you peruse them? She said, "If we know about them, what do you think?"
Stupid second question on my part. lol3. As for the application process goes. She says SHE herself sees the application first (those letters you get with the classes you're missing are FROM HER). She receives the application from pharmcas -- SEND your pharmcas in regardless of whether or not your PCAT scores are in or your transcripts. She said the biggest hold up for people are transcripts, though, so do send them in right away. Anyway, from there she said she looks at #s first. GPA and PCAT scores. Continues to filter and then delves deeper.
4. As SDN encourages, she also strongly encourages to apply EARLY! as its a less competitive application pool.
5. She also said applying to 1 school isn't bad, but it certainly doesn't look good.
6. The absolute cut off is a 2.75 GPA. If you have a 2.74, you're out of luck. She tries to push applications through to the next round but she has regulations she absolutely has to stick by.
7. The max an interview can go is 40 minutes.
8. I asked her what part of the PCAT do they look at the most. She said it completely depends on your interview committee. Some feel that the sciences/math are really important and some feel that the reading/verbal are more important. It totally depends she said.
9. I asked if there are preferential treatment towards in state or out of state students. She said no.
10. She said one of the questions that an interviewer was asking was "if you could hang out with anyone dead or alive who would it be and why?" She said they're not looking for WHO you choose but how you can ARTICULATE yourself and provide a logical reasonable answer. I digress, but she said a student came in for an interview that was a substitute teacher and was referring to his students as "little bastards"... she said NOT good!
Another question was how do you relieve stress and a student said partying. She said they all laughed but shouldn't have said that for an interview but because he was being honest they gave him credit.11. Dress code, as you know, is professional or scrubs WITH lab coat!
12. She said she STRONGLY encourages people to work or volunteer at a pharmacy! It's really good on your app. If you do work at a pharmacy, she said BE PREPARED to be asked about the environment because you WILL be asked. Experienced applicants > non-experienced applicants.
13. Know what a pharmacist does/is and what the field entails. Know other things other than retail/hospital pharmacy. She suggested going to www.aacp.org because there's too much info out that about a pharmacist other than retail and hospital and they really want to know that you know more than retail/hospital.
14. I asked, just for my info, what the average age is for last year for the admitted students. Obviously it changes each year. She said it's been going up but that last year it was about 25-26.
15. She said she encourages you to take EXTRA classes other than the pre-reqs because it CERTAINLY GIVES YOU MORE COMPETITIVENESS over an applicant that didnt. With that being said, bachelors people are more competitive than pre-req people. But numbers still count with all due considerations. She said the dean likes science bachelors though!
16. Waitlisted people are NOT in any order. Basically she gives a list of waitlisted people to the dean and he sends her 3 people he decides on that she can call next. She starts calling waitlisted people if people don't show up to the orientation and so forth. I dont think she mentioned any other times but I think that's kind of common sense.
17. Withdrawals and audits. I asked about that and how it looks on an application. She said if she sees a trend it will definitely be flagged. If you audited a class, she expects you to have a n A/B in the class when you take it. She doesnt want to see multiple withdrawals/audits. If you have to in an emergency or whatever the case, she said explain yourself in the part where you can leave any comments. She does see those and she does understand how it is as she had to withdrawal a few classes one semester herself due to a medical thing.
18. Last year's admitted students' average PCAT was about a 70%
19. Also she said they get about 1500 applications, they give ~400 interviews and 200 get admitted total.
Overall, Traci was very nice. She's young, upbeat, and is ROOTING for you, but she means business! She does everything to push your application, even if you have a 2.75 she said she can still work with it but she said try for 3.0 to stay competitive. If I can remember anymore things, I will definitely post them. Any questions, please ask me because it might help me to remember things she talked about. Basically she was questioned for an hour and 15 minutes. So a lot of information was out there, I just can't recall everything at the moment.
Good luck.
-Crystal Costa
