Hi, I am applying this year for 2012 admission. I have taken the PCATs already and I know PHARMCAS open in early June. I was wondering what should I be doing right now? writing my personal essay? requesting letters of recommendations? compiling my transcripts? If you can provide any advice on what I should start doing and a general timeline I should know of?....that would be great. THANKS!
Applying 2011 for 2012 admission...advice on what should I be doing?
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I'd start working on your personal essay asap. It took me a long time to finish my letter and you want it to be perfect. Have a few people prof read it for you. I had one of my English professors read mine. I also brought it to the writing center on campus for help.
I'd also request letters of recommendation asap so they have time to work on them. I'm sure the people you want to ask are busy, and the last thing you want is a rushed recommendation letter that isn't very good.
Having a copy of your transcripts will be helpful while filling out your application, since you have to enter every class you have taken.
You want to have your application done as early as possible because some schools use rolling admissions. Basically first come first serve.
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👍 Yup exactly!
Definitely request LORs! I actually had a professor go out of town for a while so make sure you know they will be available and meet your deadline!
When I ask for a letter of recommendation, should I give the people I ask, my resume and my pharmacy personal statement? and when I ask them, chat to them about why I want to go to pharmacy school?....or do I just ask?
Just wondering if I needed to do any prep work before I ask for LORs.
Just wondering if I needed to do any prep work before I ask for LORs.
You may want to bring with a resume. My professor asked for one, but the pharmacist I worked with did not. My professor asked for it so he could get a better idea of what I did outside of school, whereas the pharmacist I worked with is a person I go golfing with often, so he knew me well. I think the main thing is they know you well enough to write you a great letter.
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This thread is relevant to my interests.
Not to thread jack or anything, but what if my list of LOR candidates is running one or two long? Any tips for who I can ask or do I need to bring my teachers some chocolate ASAP ?
Not to thread jack or anything, but what if my list of LOR candidates is running one or two long? Any tips for who I can ask or do I need to bring my teachers some chocolate ASAP ?
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You can't have *too many* LOR references if you think they are all beneficial to you. Just know which ones to use as appropriate because some schools might like research more while a professor/employer could be an alum from another school.
I'd ask for whatever people you need that hits the common denominator of most schools. That would typically be a science professor, a pharmacist, and an employer/professor/researcher/volunteer coordinator (basically the 3rd one is a wild card). Just have plenty of time to get them to write it.
A subject I haven't seen very often here is the use of an online "banking" system to use for letters and whatnot. Unless I am mistaken, Interfolio.com ships to the pharmcas for LORs and everything but you can bank letters for up to 5 years and have them re-sent multiple times for multiple programs (i.e you are a re-applicant, recent grad doing post-bac, employee leaving to go back to school, finishing research, etc.)
Get a teacher who you think can write a decent LOR. I have a bio teacher who interviews his students, gets a CV and uses that along with his experience in class to write a good letter. This is because he isn't very available for after class but is a nice guy who loves teaching. So just try to get people you think can do you a service for LORs.
There are some LOR services where you can send them your LOR and they will evaluate the LORs depending on the strength of recommendation and overall advantage they give to your profile. This helps since you often cannot read the LORs anyway. This is very commonly found for med schools. This also helps because the companies will tell you if the LORs are on official letterheads, have all the required info, etc. You don't actually read the LORs either so the confidentiality is still held.
I'm not a big fan of the LOR evaluators but some people feel they are a great help. That is up for you to decide.
Hope this helps!
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Even if your deadlines for schools are not for many months in the future, get your information complete in PharmCAS as soon as possible.
Why?
If the deadline to complete your applications is January 1, 2012, PharmCAS does not release the information to the schools for review until much later. PharmCAS reviews your information and performs their own verifications prior to releasing the data to the schools. As the application cycle goes on, their time demands increase significantly resulting in delays in releasing data to schools. Some schools with a January 5 deadline did not receive some applicants information until the end of March, long after they had 'completed' their interviews!!!!
If there is no good reason to wait on submitting PharmCAS, DONT!!!!
As for what you should be doing right now, working on your personal statement, begin contacting individuals to see who would be willing to write you an enthusiastic recommendation, and beginning your legwork on narrowing your list of schools. If you know where in the field of pharmacy you want to end up (e.g. a specific career/subdiscipline), then research the schools known to have strong programs in those areas. If you are completely unsure, then try and discover the schools that will give you a wide range of solid opportunities. Remember these opportunities are not just hospital and community - they are managed care, wall street, military, public health service, advocacy, pharmaceutical industry, consulting, compounding, and so on...
Why?
If the deadline to complete your applications is January 1, 2012, PharmCAS does not release the information to the schools for review until much later. PharmCAS reviews your information and performs their own verifications prior to releasing the data to the schools. As the application cycle goes on, their time demands increase significantly resulting in delays in releasing data to schools. Some schools with a January 5 deadline did not receive some applicants information until the end of March, long after they had 'completed' their interviews!!!!
If there is no good reason to wait on submitting PharmCAS, DONT!!!!
As for what you should be doing right now, working on your personal statement, begin contacting individuals to see who would be willing to write you an enthusiastic recommendation, and beginning your legwork on narrowing your list of schools. If you know where in the field of pharmacy you want to end up (e.g. a specific career/subdiscipline), then research the schools known to have strong programs in those areas. If you are completely unsure, then try and discover the schools that will give you a wide range of solid opportunities. Remember these opportunities are not just hospital and community - they are managed care, wall street, military, public health service, advocacy, pharmaceutical industry, consulting, compounding, and so on...
I suggest picking the 3 LOR candidates that know you best as a person, and one or two back ups. It's always better having a letter written about who you are as a person and not just your goals, work ethic, or academic performance.
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Not to hijack the thread either...but assuming that someone is taking the July pcat...what do they do about the pharmcas thing, do they just wait until they get their score back or what?
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Good question... I am also wondering the same thing. I am taking my PCAT in September... Will I be able to submit my Pharmcas BEFORE I receive the scores or even take the test?
Also, would I be able to submit my application to schools that don't require PCAT first (such as the ones in CA), and then apply to the ones that require it later on? Or does Pharmcas just submit everything all at once?
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You can add additional schools after esubmitting, but not modify your app. I believe they will pass to the school test scores and LORs as they receive it, but it's up to the schools if it meets deadlines and so forth.
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They do NOT send things to school on time. EVER. Do NOT make the mistake of thinking that because you submitted everything to PharmCAS by the January 1 deadline (hypothetical) that your schools will have the complete application on January 2.
Hello everyone, so I am applying for Fall 2012 as well, I looked at the requirements, but I didnt' see anything such as personal essay? Is that different from schools to schools? I am applying to UMB, early decision. The only thing i've done is registering for the PCAT
Pharmcas requires you to submit a personal essay. I believe it's the same each year as to why pharmacy.
If the school doesn't use pharmcas then it may be different.
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