Double Major/Pharmacy School Acceptance Rate

[LuvCaramelFraps]

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I have a couple of questions:

When pharmacy schools list their statistics like overall GPA, science GPA, expected GPA, etc. are the majority of the people who these statistics are trying to represent are they mainly single majors - B.S. or B.A. (most likely a science)?

What's the advantage of being a double major? I graudated from UCI last year with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Biological Sciences and my overall GPA was 3.38 (I did a rough pharmcas gpa calculation and assuming I did it right my GPA isn't too far from my UCI GPA - maybe like a 3.3). How does that GPA translate to the adcom - is that just an "okay" GPA or is it slightly better because I double majored? I know that there are other factors that determine if you get accepted or not but I was just wondering if just based on GPA alone and the fact that I have two B.S. degrees, is my GPA decent, slightly better, or sucky?

Thanks for your help!

 

[binghamkid]

I have a couple of questions:

When pharmacy schools list their statistics like overall GPA, science GPA, expected GPA, etc. are the majority of the people who these statistics are trying to represent are they mainly single majors - B.S. or B.A. (most likely a science)?

What's the advantage of being a double major? I graudated from UCI last year with a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Biological Sciences and my overall GPA was 3.38 (I did a rough pharmcas gpa calculation and assuming I did it right my GPA isn't too far from my UCI GPA - maybe like a 3.3). How does that GPA translate to the adcom - is that just an "okay" GPA or is it slightly better because I double majored? I know that there are other factors that determine if you get accepted or not but I was just wondering if just based on GPA alone and the fact that I have two B.S. degrees, is my GPA decent, slightly better, or sucky?

Thanks for your help!

Advantages? None really, although if you have two degrees with that GPA, it's pretty good. I think the great thing is that you can demonstrate you are passionate about two areas of study, and that if you can tie both in to your study of pharmacy, it may present lots of new opportunities and new perspectives which will help you. I wouldn't worry too much about it if your PCAT score is good.

 

[BelmontUSOP2]

Speaking as one who selects applicants for interview, let me reassure you that double major is something that distinguishes you from the crowd. It says that you are focused, yet not in isolation (you have more than one focus); you can carry high loads and still be successful. More than that, however, I see someone with a broader perspective than is ususal...something that is extremly valuable as a student, but, more importantly as a practicing professional and member of the community.

I'm always looking for differentiators such as prior degree, military experience, teaching experience, multi-majors, authentic leadership/service (selflessness) as I review application files. There's a lot of "vanilla" in the application pool; I'm looking for the "chunky monkey" and "moose tracks" in the pool, because I know that these students are important additions to a class and to the profession.

BTW, yours was a great kind of question.👍

Good luck,

Eric H. Hobson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean
Belmont University School of Pharmacy