for those who went to UC Berkeley

[sanrevelle]

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so i got a nasty surprise on pharmcas today. i found out that chemistry 3a and 3b (organic chemistry) were listed as INorganic chemistry, though i clearly listed those courses as organic chemistry when i was typing (yes, i triple-checked). it turns out that the official berkeley transcript doesnt specify that the 3a/3b series is organic chemistry; it just says "chemical structural reactivity". pharmcas has a policy saying that if the official transcript doesnt specifically say inorganic or organic, pharmcas will automatically list the course as inorganic chemistry. my application with the mistake was already sent out last week, so basically i have to get the pharmcas application resent to all the schools. needless to say, i am effing pissed. i acknowledge that i should've checked my app more carefully while pharmcas was checking my transcript, but still, i find it infuriating that this happened. i wish pharmcas would CALL US if they are confused about something!! or at least email us. i would not have even known about the mistake had a school admissions board not contacted me today about the mistake.

so Cal students, be extra careful with the chem courses if you havent already finished pharmcas. i guess everyone else should also take my story as a warning to be careful...

 

[kevintech]

I think this is Berkeley's fault. An organic chemistry class should have the word "organic" on your transcripts. I'm sure every other institution does that.

 

[Lo|a]

so i got a nasty surprise on pharmcas today. i found out that chemistry 3a and 3b (organic chemistry) were listed as INorganic chemistry, though i clearly listed those courses as organic chemistry when i was typing (yes, i triple-checked). it turns out that the official berkeley transcript doesnt specify that the 3a/3b series is organic chemistry; it just says "chemical structural reactivity". pharmcas has a policy saying that if the official transcript doesnt specifically say inorganic or organic, pharmcas will automatically list the course as inorganic chemistry. my application with the mistake was already sent out last week, so basically i have to get the pharmcas application resent to all the schools. needless to say, i am effing pissed. i acknowledge that i should've checked my app more carefully while pharmcas was checking my transcript, but still, i find it infuriating that this happened. i wish pharmcas would CALL US if they are confused about something!! or at least email us. i would not have even known about the mistake had a school admissions board not contacted me today about the mistake.

so Cal students, be extra careful with the chem courses if you havent already finished pharmcas. i guess everyone else should also take my story as a warning to be careful...

I think that is the dumbest thing. All the univeristy in my state that I am aware of specifically specify if a chemistry course is organic or inorganic. I think you should talk to the head of the chemistry department at UC Berkeley and make them aware of this.

 

[dianaish]

So, what do you advise Berkeley students to do on the PharmCAS application if we know that we will run into this issue? Do we just have to sit and wait to see if they call it organic/inorganic...or what?

 

[lp0309]

i actually didn't run into any problems with putting chem 3a/3b (CHEM STRUCT REACT, etc) under the subject of organic chemistry. i submitted my application 7/31, and pharmcas verified my transcript on 8/6 without any problems or changes. hopefully they learned from their mistake.

 

[etherealx85]

same here, i am a reapplicant too...pharmcas had the same problem last year when i submitted it...but once i talked to them it turned out fine

 

[Snake Doctor]

I don't get why the folks at pharmCAS haven't picked this issue up. It's not like UCB is a mediocre school. In fact, it has one of the best chem departments (well actually its own College of Chemistry) in the world. The pharm schools know it's o-chem. I don't think the pre-meds @ UCB have this issue with AMCAS...

 

[yellowstarfish]

I just got off the phone with customer service at pharmcas. They said it's not really a problem, once your gpa is calculated if it says 'inorganic chem' for chem 3a/b then just call and they'll manually change it. Can't do it before the gpa is calculated, though, which is what I just tried to do, lol. Just a big pain for everybody. Oh well.

 

[leetodai]

Actually, I never had a problem for pharmcas last year when I put chem3A as inorganic and chem3B as organic chem. I've spoken with advisors and they've informed me that schools accept Chem1A & Chem3A as your two semesters of Inorganic chem while Chem3B and MCB102 (Biochem) as your two semesters of Organic chem.

However, UCSF told my classmate she was missing one semester of organic chem when she filled everything out the same way as I did so it may just be a goof that happens from time to time

(It's very easy to straighten out so I wouldn't be too worried)