Im about to graduate this fall with a bs in biology and my transcript looks like garbage. Ive been engaged and cheated on, my cousin passed away, and to top it off a good friend of mine has a rare cancer and is fighting it even though the doctor told her she has a 25% chance of living. My gpa by the time i graduate is going to be a 2.75 and my major gpa a 2.4. I have 7 D's and 4 F's not to mention a couple C's. I really want to become a pharmacist and its breaking me that all this stuff had to happen. What should i do? I love science and biology and all that and I dont want to give up. I only had one semester where everything was fine and I was on the honor list because i aced all my classes then. But before and after that semester, it was bad....helpful advice will be very appreciated
Having been on admissions for 2 years, I can tell you that what you DON'T want to do is blame all of your grade work on any extenuating circumstances. The reason being that a lot of people have gone through hard times and not gotten poor grades and saying things like "well I got a D because of this..." etc. invites the comparison and doesn't show the committee that you've learned anything from the experience. It's important to show that, if hard times befall you again, you will be able to maintain your grades and not just get Ds/Fs again.
You honestly will not believe the number of people who apply with low GPAs and they ALWAYS have some kind of reason for it, legit or not.
Definitely mention the circumstances (usually there is a spot for it in the Pharmcas) but rather than passing them off as excuses, use the opportunity to explain how you've grown, what you learned from the experience, and spin it in a positive way. Then you'll want to have some indication that you are capable of succeeding in the sciences. Either by having a sky-high PCAT score, or taking additional classes after graduation and getting As (I say As because the stark contrast is more effective.) Of course some schools will overlook your GPA if you have a lot of ECs/research/pharmacy experience.
Also...PLEASE do not claim that you've improved your grades since then if you haven't shown much improvement at all. I've also seen that quite a bit..."I've buckled down and improved my grades since X hardship" when they went from C-minuses to Cs. It honestly hurts more than helps your application and makes us wonder if the applicant just has really low GPA standards.
If it's any consolation to you...I went through a lot of crap in college and was too immature to deal with it properly, and ended up with a 2.7 GPA (science GPA was worse). Did a 1 year masters program (3.7 GPA), aced the 3-4 pre-reqs I still had to take, got a 95 PCAT and got into several pharmacy schools, including one that's fairly established (public university). However, I did get rejected across the board in California (woo!). So sub-3.0 GPA is not a brick wall if you really want that pharmacy degree.
Best of luck! Don't give up. And don't hesitate to send me a PM if you need any admissions advice.
