Extremely low GPA, any way to get into pharmacy school?

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hopefulap

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I graduated last year with a 2.5 GPA, where I took a lot of classes with 11 A's, 22B's, 23 C's, 7 D's, and 2 F's. I know that sounds horrendous, and I'm so ashamed that I can't even look at my transcript. I got C's in the majority of my science classes as I really lost motivation halfway through college and stopped going to class, even though I was taking around 20 units of tough classes per quarter (70% of my transcript is science related). The D's and F's were in retaking classes, mostly writing and physics, where I skipped/didn't turn in the finals. I graduated with a terrible GPA, lack of motivation, and little experience. I've thought really hard about how much I screwed up in my undergrad. I've also realized how much pharmacy means to me and I would do anything to get there. The worst thing is, I know I was capable of getting A's if I had only studied and went to class. Do you think I can start over or is it impossible at this point?

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Why'd you stop going to class and lose motivation?? That's not gonna work in pharmacy school lol

Since you're lost right now I'm gonna echo what everyone else on here usually says: get a pharmacy job and see if you actually like it. If you still really wanna do it, then retake your prereqs and increase your GPA and then apply. Also, do extremely well on the PCAT. You'll get into a newer school (like I did) with a lower GPA, but you're gonna be paying way too much for it.
 
It will take times to replace the grades. But with the bad job outlook, you are wasting your money. Data science is a huge thing now if you are good with data.

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How do people suddenly see the light and want to do pharmacy?
 
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I graduated last year with a 2.5 GPA, where I took a lot of classes with 11 A's, 22B's, 23 C's, 7 D's, and 2 F's. I know that sounds horrendous, and I'm so ashamed that I can't even look at my transcript. I got C's in the majority of my science classes as I really lost motivation halfway through college and stopped going to class, even though I was taking around 20 units of tough classes per quarter (70% of my transcript is science related). The D's and F's were in retaking classes, mostly writing and physics, where I skipped/didn't turn in the finals. I graduated with a terrible GPA, lack of motivation, and little experience. I've thought really hard about how much I screwed up in my undergrad. I've also realized how much pharmacy means to me and I would do anything to get there. The worst thing is, I know I was capable of getting A's if I had only studied and went to class. Do you think I can start over or is it impossible at this point?

Pharmacy means a lot to you?


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I've also realized how much pharmacy means to me and I would do anything to get there. The worst thing is, I know I was capable of getting A's if I had only studied and went to class.

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You struggled in undergrad. What makes you think you can hack it in pharmacy school?



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If pharmacy is what you really want to do, you should try applying and see where you get in. But make sure to do well on your pcat. You can also try retaking some pre-requisites, like there are also some post-baccs if your willing to do that. In you application really show that you learned from your immaturity and mistakes and are willing to do what it takes to do well in pharmacy school and how it much it means to you.
 
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Bro, let me save you $200k and tell you that maybe pharmacy school is not for you. It makes undergrad look like a tiny hotdog compared to those 14 inch hotdogs you see at baseball games. Do you think you can handle a 14"?

Seriously, if pharmacy is really your passion, then you need to put in the work. Volunteer in a pharmacy, put in the hours to study. You can easily make it with a low GPA if you're passionate about it; it'll reflect on your apps.

If it's your career choice for money purposes, then I highly suggest you look for a new one bruh.
 
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I graduated last year with a 2.5 GPA, where I took a lot of classes with 11 A's, 22B's, 23 C's, 7 D's, and 2 F's. I know that sounds horrendous, and I'm so ashamed that I can't even look at my transcript. I got C's in the majority of my science classes
Let's assume you are still motivated to go into pharmacy and let's assume you will be invited to the interview. Be ready to explain why you got D and F. Expect 100% also they will tell to retake D and F, and if you got C-, also retake. In one of my interview couple people were told to retake classes with C- (organic chem 2 and biochemistry), they were put on conditional acceptance
 
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Maybe if you had a 2.8-3.0 there would at least be a discussion but a 2.5 is way off the map, there's just no way it's going to happen. Pharmacy school is way harder; just be glad you don't have to go through it.
 
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If pharmacy is what you really want to do, you should try applying and see where you get in. But make sure to do well on your pcat. You can also try retaking some pre-requisites, like there are also some post-baccs if your willing to do that. In you application really show that you learned from your immaturity and mistakes and are willing to do what it takes to do well in pharmacy school and how it much it means to you.
Post baccs replace your current gpa ?
 
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Lack of motivation? How do you plan to fix that in pharmacy class? Because I love my science classes and I love working on that stuff. I look forward to it. Ask yourself: Did you enjoy the material?

I honestly think you need to work a job for awhile. Re-evaluate, pre-reqs expire if not taken within 5 years at schools. At that point, you can start over and your GPA will be looked at hopefully individually. Be prepared to explain. Explain why pharmacy is right for you? What steps did you take to correct your problems and be able to connect it to real life.

I am also talking from experience. I pursued a field that I realized I wasn't a great fit for and now I'm back to pursue pharmacy. I dropped out of prepharm because I believed I couldn't do it at 18.

Questions to ask self: What happens if I become unmotivated in pharmacy school? How would I fix that situation? Do I realize that I need to continue to study and learn for the rest of my life in the pharmacy profession? Why pharmacy? Am I ok with going to a lower tier school and paying more money? Should I be evaluated by an educational psychologist?
 
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Why'd you stop going to class and lose motivation?? That's not gonna work in pharmacy school lol

Since you're lost right now I'm gonna echo what everyone else on here usually says: get a pharmacy job and see if you actually like it. If you still really wanna do it, then retake your prereqs and increase your GPA and then apply. Also, do extremely well on the PCAT. You'll get into a newer school (like I did) with a lower GPA, but you're gonna be paying way too much for it.

Thank you for your opinion and advice. To be short, I feel like I basically lived in a bubble all my life, and once all the experiences hit me in college, including the deaths, heartbreaks, failing grades, etc., I did not handle it well.
 
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It will take times to replace the grades. But with the bad job outlook, you are wasting your money. Data science is a huge thing now if you are good with data.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I'm unfortunately probably terrible with data.
 
How do people suddenly see the light and want to do pharmacy?

I can't speak for everyone, but in my case, I remember thinking about pharmacy high school, then losing sight of it in college, or maybe feeling like it was a far reach after my first failing grade in lab.
 
I didn't mean that to come off the way it did, probably more realistic to say I could've gotten at least a B if I worked hard. I only wanted to give an idea of the extent I felt like I screwed up. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
 
You struggled in undergrad. What makes you think you can hack it in pharmacy school?



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I guess I want to believe I could've succeeded if I had worked harder, and that I am capable of it. It's tough to give up on something you really want to do.
 
If pharmacy is what you really want to do, you should try applying and see where you get in. But make sure to do well on your pcat. You can also try retaking some pre-requisites, like there are also some post-baccs if your willing to do that. In you application really show that you learned from your immaturity and mistakes and are willing to do what it takes to do well in pharmacy school and how it much it means to you.
Thank you very much for the advice. Immaturity definitely described me in college.
 
Bro, let me save you $200k and tell you that maybe pharmacy school is not for you. It makes undergrad look like a tiny hotdog compared to those 14 inch hotdogs you see at baseball games. Do you think you can handle a 14"?

Seriously, if pharmacy is really your passion, then you need to put in the work. Volunteer in a pharmacy, put in the hours to study. You can easily make it with a low GPA if you're passionate about it; it'll reflect on your apps.

If it's your career choice for money purposes, then I highly suggest you look for a new one bruh.
Thanks for the post and advice. I can definitely say it's not for money purposes.
 
Maybe if you had a 2.8-3.0 there would at least be a discussion but a 2.5 is way off the map, there's just no way it's going to happen. Pharmacy school is way harder; just be glad you don't have to go through it.
Do you really think that?
 
Lack of motivation? How do you plan to fix that in pharmacy class? Because I love my science classes and I love working on that stuff. I look forward to it. Ask yourself: Did you enjoy the material?

I honestly think you need to work a job for awhile. Re-evaluate, pre-reqs expire if not taken within 5 years at schools. At that point, you can start over and your GPA will be looked at hopefully individually. Be prepared to explain. Explain why pharmacy is right for you? What steps did you take to correct your problems and be able to connect it to real life.

I am also talking from experience. I pursued a field that I realized I wasn't a great fit for and now I'm back to pursue pharmacy. I dropped out of prepharm because I believed I couldn't do it at 18.

Questions to ask self: What happens if I become unmotivated in pharmacy school? How would I fix that situation? Do I realize that I need to continue to study and learn for the rest of my life in the pharmacy profession? Why pharmacy? Am I ok with going to a lower tier school and paying more money? Should I be evaluated by an educational psychologist?
I really appreciate your thoughts and advice. I love science and psychology. I also love school, as strange and contradictory it may sound. Thanks for the post.
 
With your current stats,

No, no way in hell. Maybe if you get some work experience, do well on the PCAT, and apply broadly then maybe. Most schools have a GPA cutoff at 2.75 for both cGPA/sGPA anyways unless this has changed in the past few years.


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If you REALLY want to do pharmacy school spend a whole year retaking classes to get your GPA up to a 3.0. Remember than Pharmcas doesn't do grade replacement... so replacing a C with an A just averages it out to a B. Not to mention you already have a ton of credit hours so it's even harder to bring it up. That's why you need to literally do a full semester or two of retakes... and you really can't afford anything less than an A in every class. If you do that it will not only bring your GPA up but pharmacy schools will also recognize the "upward trend" in grades and see that you were motivated enough to actually retake the classes and are capable of getting A's in them. But even with a full year of all A's I'm not even sure you would be at a 3.0. There were many students in my class who went this route and I'm sad to say many of them didn't make it past year one of pharmacy school either.

Secondly you need to get a job as a pharmacy technician and have at least 6+ months of experience by the time you apply. This is a MAJOR plus on an application and it will also benefit you in your actual pharmacy school classes too. Not to mention you can get LORS from the pharmacists who work there which is a nice bonus.

Thirdly you simply have to get an 80+ on the PCAT; preferably a 90+. I was able to get a 90 just using the Dr. Collins study guide for 1-2 months. I took each practice exam 4-5 times (with the exception of English/writing/verbal) until I reached the point where I was only missing 1-2 questions each run.

I had a 3.0, 90 PCAT, and a year of experience as a tech. I applied to 5 schools and got into 4 of them. One of them that I was accepted into was a top 5 school, but my interview invite was very late in the cycle so my stats were definitely close to the cutoff line. The school that I didn't get into never sent me an interview invite or a denial letter or anything so I'm really not sure what happened with them.
 
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There are still many things that come into consideration besides your GPA.
Do well on your PCAT. There will be some schools that will consider you if your PCAT is somewhat higher than what they expect.
Try not to get F's anymore or resign from a class. Finish whatever you have started.
 
I had worse stats coming out of undergrad. For admissions, I think the key for me was that I killed the PCAT, got a 4.0 in my post-bacc courses while working as a lab manager in a good basic science research lab, and volunteered in a hospital pharmacy affiliated with a pharmacy school. I got into a good pharmacy school, and I'm wrapping up my fourth year now. I'll be doing an industry fellowship next year. I found pharmacy school challenging from a time-management perspective, but I did very well academically and found it to be less didactically challenging than undergrad. I don't think my experience is typical, but I'm just saying it's possible.

I never really questioned my ability to succeed in pharmacy school. Perhaps I was naive in that respect, but I felt confident that I had the intelligence. I had lots of fear about the pharmacy job market coming into pharmacy school, and I knew I could use that as motivation to succeed and do whatever I could to set myself apart. I am happy with how I approached pharmacy school, and I think that I had the emotional maturity to work hard the entire time. That was radically different than how I approached undergrad. But I had a real chip on my shoulder and wanted to prove that I could do well.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I just wanted to give you hope. Either way, I urge you to do some serious reflection to ensure you know what you're getting yourself into. My experience is and will be wholly separate from your experience.


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I'm glad it worked out for you. Did you work for a bit before starting your postbac?
 
Where are you looking to apply? There are probably schools that will take you, especially if you have a decent PCAT, good recommendations, and some good personal and life circumstances essays to explain your situation. Have you completed all pre-reqs with a C or better? If not, you'll have to re-take those anyway. I graduated with a 3.3 GPA but because of a couple of bad semesters at another University my PharmCAS GPA was around a 2.7. My PCAT score was an 86 because I knew I had to make up for my bad grades. I ended up getting accepted with a $6000 a year scholarship. However, I will say, I explained in detail the cause of my bad grades (which was essentially due to me having to take care of parents through some serious health and personal issues). Likewise, I am in Maine and because I want to stay in Maine, my only options for school were Husson Univ. and the Univ. of New England (both of which are less than competitive on the national level). I ended up deciding on Husson because the scholarship really cuts the cost of tuition a good amount (down to $28,000 a year). I would recommend you look at less competitive pharmacy schools, check out their incoming class profiles, and compare yourself. The best thing you can do is study like a crazy person for the PCAT, retake any pre-req courses that you have low grades in (this may also help you get some good letters of recommendation for school), and volunteer at a local pharmacy and work on getting a letter of recommendation from a Pharmacist as well. Good luck!
 
I'm in the same boat as you. At times I feel like I'm the only one who screwed myself over this way, but I'm not. Don't lose hope, there's always a way out.
 
This is so inspirational. Do you mind letting us know some tips of how to explain past bad greases in an interview

I had worse stats coming out of undergrad. For admissions, I think the key for me was that I killed the PCAT, got a 4.0 in my post-bacc courses while working as a lab manager in a good basic science research lab, and volunteered in a hospital pharmacy affiliated with a pharmacy school. I got into a good pharmacy school, and I'm wrapping up my fourth year now. I'll be doing an industry fellowship next year. I found pharmacy school challenging from a time-management perspective, but I did very well academically and found it to be less didactically challenging than undergrad. I don't think my experience is typical, but I'm just saying it's possible.

I never really questioned my ability to succeed in pharmacy school. Perhaps I was naive in that respect, but I felt confident that I had the intelligence. I had lots of fear about the pharmacy job market coming into pharmacy school, and I knew I could use that as motivation to succeed and do whatever I could to set myself apart. I am happy with how I approached pharmacy school, and I think that I had the emotional maturity to work hard the entire time. That was radically different than how I approached undergrad. But I had a real chip on my shoulder and wanted to prove that I could do well.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I just wanted to give you hope. Either way, I urge you to do some serious reflection to ensure you know what you're getting yourself into. My experience is and will be wholly separate from your experience.


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but it was my dream!

Pharmacy is my dream. Pharmacy has always been my dream.
(since 6 months ago when I read on the news on how you can earn $120k/year and get provider status)

^Orwellian quote for you if you read one of his books
 
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