Anyone with unsuccessful stories to tell?

[Superzooi]

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anyone that's having a disappointing year? if so, please do share with us. Here's my unfruitful application cycle: I've applied to about 7 schools (U-Pitt, Mercer, Buffalo, Purdue, Minnesota, Kentucky and LECOM Erie) with 88 pcat and 3.1 gpa. My result....0/7

that's all😕

 

[Superzooi]

of course, I'm reapplying next season

 

[R2pharmD2]

anyone that's having a disappointing year? if so, please do share with us. Here's my unfruitful application cycle: I've applied to about 7 schools (U-Pitt, Mercer, Buffalo, Purdue, Minnesota, Kentucky and LECOM Erie) with 88 pcat and 3.1 gpa. My result....0/7

that's all😕

All of those schools are pretty competitive. The average accepted GPAs range from ~3.4-3.7, so even with a very good PCAT I'm guessing that's what held you back. Sorry about your luck man.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

anyone that's having a disappointing year? if so, please do share with us. Here's my unfruitful application cycle: I've applied to about 7 schools (U-Pitt, Mercer, Buffalo, Purdue, Minnesota, Kentucky and LECOM Erie) with 88 pcat and 3.1 gpa. My result....0/7

that's all😕

What does the rest of your application look like? Pharmacy experience, extracurricular/leadership involvement.. do you have a degree? Did you get good Letters of Recommendation?

There's more to an applicant than their GPA and PCAT score. Those two alone don't entitle one to an interview.

Give us the whole story if you want advice.

 

[owlegrad]

anyone that's having a disappointing year? if so, please do share with us. Here's my unfruitful application cycle: I've applied to about 7 schools (U-Pitt, Mercer, Buffalo, Purdue, Minnesota, Kentucky and LECOM Erie) with 88 pcat and 3.1 gpa. My result....0/7

that's all😕

Ouch, that's pretty suprising. Sorry to hear about that. What will you do in the next year? Do you have any pharmacy experience? Did you get any interviews?

 

[amox]

What does the rest of your application look like? Pharmacy experience, extracurricular/leadership involvement.. do you have a degree? Did you get good Letters of Recommendation?

There's more to an applicant than their GPA and PCAT score. Those two alone don't entitle one to an interview.

Give us the whole story if you want advice.

This!

 

[Superzooi]

What does the rest of your application look like? Pharmacy experience, extracurricular/leadership involvement.. do you have a degree? Did you get good Letters of Recommendation?

There's more to an applicant than their GPA and PCAT score. Those two alone don't entitle one to an interview.

Give us the whole story if you want advice.

not that the rest are empty, but it certainly didn't stood out. I had a little bit of volunteer experience and my extracurricular activity is rather limited.

I'm planning on getting my pharmacy tech. licence this summer.

 

[atpsynthase]

Sorry to hear that... did you get any interviews?

 

[UES Girl]

not that the rest are empty, but it certainly didn't stood out. I had a little bit of volunteer experience and my extracurricular activity is rather limited.

I'm planning on getting my pharmacy tech. licence this summer.

That's what probably got you rejected imo - the lack of ecs and a tech license. With GPA at the lower end of spectra, you better have a tech license and an entire variety of EC and volunteer experiences to make up for it, otherwise how do you explain the gpa ?


The best advice I can give you is dont give up and dont settle for a crappy school. When I applied my first cycle, I only applied to two schools and got rejected from both. Everyone was urging me to apply to new uncreditted schools late in the cycle but I didnt feel like going to a bad school and decided to re-apply. During my first cycle, I put practically no ECS on my application because even though I volunteered a lot, a lot of volunteer experiences were dental related and I didnt even know I could use them. My second time
around, I included all my ecs + included all the extra stuff I have done over the year while applying the second time and my application looked very strong. I got 9 interview invites out of the 12 apps I completed and ultimately got accepted to my # 1 choice school.


You have several months to " pat up" your application, definitely get your tech license and tey to volunteer and get involved over the summer as much as you can. If you dont have any teaching ec experiences, maybe see if you can teach a summer science camp for kids or mentor someone, those type of experiences always look excellent on any application. You can also try getting a research internship over the summer, you have to act quick though, the deadlines for these type of things would be april or early may.

 

[tojh1]

That's what probably got you rejected imo - the lack of ecs and a tech license. With GPA at the lower end of spectra, you better have a tech license and an entire variety of EC and volunteer experiences to make up for it, otherwise how do you explain the gpa ?


The best advice I can give you is dont give up and dont settle for a crappy school. When I applied my first cycle, I only applied to two schools and got rejected from both. Everyone was urging me to apply to new uncreditted schools late in the cycle but I didnt feel like going to a bad school and decided to re-apply. During my first cycle, I put practically no ECS on my application because even though I volunteered a lot, a lot of volunteer experiences were dental related and I didnt even know I could use them. My second time
around, I included all my ecs + included all the extra stuff I have done over the year while applying the second time and my application looked very strong. I got 9 interview invites out of the 12 apps I completed and ultimately got accepted to my # 1 choice school.


You have several months to " pat up" your application, definitely get your tech license and tey to volunteer and get involved over the summer as much as you can. If you dont have any teaching ec experiences, maybe see if you can teach a summer science camp for kids or mentor someone, those type of experiences always look excellent on any application. You can also try getting a research internship over the summer, you have to act quick though, the deadlines for these type of things would be april or early may.

I agree to the most part with this. Except about the pharm tech lic. I know plently of ppl who got in without it. Of course it helps you!, but don't get too pressed about it... remember, it's the quality that counts, not the quantity. Doing meaningful volunteering and committing hours to it is WAYYY better.

Also don't think that unaccredited schools are all bad. Do your research first. Who knows...in 5-10 years that school can be a contending top 20 in the nation. In the end you have to choose a school right for you!

 

[30Percent]

Also don't think that unaccredited schools are all bad. Do your research first. Who knows...in 5-10 years that school can be a contending top 20 in the nation. In the end you have to choose a school right for you!

I also feel the new schools aren't all bad, especially when you need a safety net school.

A pharmacist I spoke with told me how Western was the new unaccredited school when he applied. Now they are a well respected pharmacy school that a lot of people want to attend.

 

[UES Girl]

I also feel the new schools aren't all bad, especially when you need a safety net school.

A pharmacist I spoke with told me how Western was the new unaccredited school when he applied. Now they are a well respected pharmacy school that a lot of people want to attend.

That really depends on your personal level of comfort and how much you value your own time, money and effort - who knows if the new school is going to go down the road of former Hawaii COP disaster and what would you do in the situation like that (having been virtually robbed of your tuition, time and left with nothing) ? Look it up if you aren't entirely sure what I am talking about.

No one doubts that new schools are great and provide quality education 🙂, but there definitely are risks associated with them, also seems like there may be difficulties taking out loans and figuring out how to pay for these newly opened schools, so unless there are some obvious advantages - big financial break, desirable location close to family, and etc. it really doesn't make much sense to go to one unless it's the absolute worst case scenario.

Also pharm tech license isn't hard to get - I studied for mine for 2 hrs. Literally, got up around 6 am on the day of the exam - and the exam was at 8 am. I have just browsed quickly through the book and passed the exam with no prior tech experience and minimal volunteer experience at the pharmacy. So, I think the tech license will require minimal effort to get but surely will look nicely on the application 🙂.