To be honest, no I hadn't. I was more curious about the motives behind the question than the question itself. So far most of the people who have posted on this thread have been trying to attack Belmont's program or Dr. Hobson directly.
That being said, I went and looked through the PharmCAS website and you are correct. Belmont's accepted vs interviewed is pretty much the lowest percent that I came across(admittingly I didn't look up every school, I looked at about ten of them). I found a few that were in the 30% range, but nothing as low as Belmont's 18%.
I doubt that Dr. Hobson will ever respond to the question though, but I have an opinion on the matter. Belmont isn't fully accredited yet. Whether or not they get full accredidation will be determined in part by the student's they produce. In an effort to get accredited, they are interviewing a larger number of student's to try to get the best classes that they can. Can't blame them all that much in regards to that.
As for the added cost on pharmacy applicants, part of me feels for you and part of me shrugs it off. As I mentioned, I got accepted to 3 schools. I only applied to three schools. It's all the money I could afford. Up until I moved to Nashville, I worked a full time job while I did my pre-reqs. I don't live with my parents, nor do I live off of them. Applying for school was quite the financial burden. But to put it all at the feet of one school would be wrong. How about PharmCAS charging $140 + $40/school. Every school charges approx $100 for a supplemental application, and that's not even a guarantee that you get an interview. Then there's the cost of the PCAT. It adds up in a hurry. In that regards, I can agree with you about Belmont accepting an unusually low percent and it being a strain on students who are applying.....
But, during the three interviews I had, I routinely (I would say that almost 40-60%) of the other people who were interviewing told me that they had applied to 6+ schools. Several of them had been accepted to more than one and had paid their deposit (which would be non-refundable if they ended up not going to that school), but still wanted to see what other schools had to offer. The worst I heard was one guy who had applied to 10 schools, had paid a non-refundable deposit of $1,000 to a school and was still out there applying to different schools to see if he could find something that he really liked. So from this point, I have to shrug about the "added cost to pharmacy students". Before I was accepted to Belmont, I already knew I had been accepted to the other two schools. Thankfully my deposit deadline for the other two schools was after I found out about Belmont, or I probably wouldn't have gone to the interview. Regardless, I still spent money on airfare, hotel, car rental, supplemental application for the other two schools. Which all told means I spent an unnecessary $1,500. But it was a choice I made. I'm still glad that I got into Belmont and decided to go there. But the angle of "being a hardship on applying student's" I just don't buy it. The whole application process, not just Belmont, is a financial strain on students. Sadly, it is the system and I doubt it will change.
