I am P2 and aspire to do a residency. My GPA is 3.9 and I intern at CVS. I don't really have any leadership positions in my school organizations. I have participated in couple of clinical competitions but that's about it. I was going through rough phase in life doing first 2 years and had to put all my effort to make sure I be in school. Didn't really had that energy to work 3 days a week and survive in school and take leadership positions. How much would this hurt my chances ? What can I do from now onwards to make myself a better candidate for residency ?
Getting into residency without good ECs
- Thread starter PFK
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I am better now. Can grind it out and be more positive.
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I hope you are correct. I will put my life in perspective - I finished 4th in my class of 105 - had a GPA of 3.9. I worked full time because I didn't have a silver spoon in my mouth and had to pay everything on my own, but did very very little in regards to "extra stuff", organizations, research, presentations etc. I woul have had a hard time getting an interview. I did not do a residency, but if I did, I would have to search out the smaller, newer programs that are more likely to grant me an interview, and once I got that interview, I would be confident I would nail it and go from there.
Now flip the coin, I help select and interview residents. We only itnerviewed approx 15% of our applicants for our residency (and we are far from a "brand name" residency). You probably would not have gotten an interview at my institution. Now if you had worked full time, I would have stood up and fought to give you a chance, but I saw several applicants similiar to you. Books smart, but it appears that all you did was sit in your room and study (not saying that is what you did, but that is what your CV will make it look like).
What can you do going forward? Join organizations, but don't just join, be active, do research, ask one of your profs to take a long and do grunt work on a paper so you get to say you were published. Get a job - perferably at a hospital if you want to do a hospital residency. If you cannot get a job, volunteer at a hospital pharmacy (we just interviewed a student who did just this) - it will not get you the job, but it will allow you a chance to give off a favorable impression.
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You get used to running at full steam after a while.
Go for the high-yield stuff as much as possible.
You can sleep when you're dead
Go for the high-yield stuff as much as possible.
You can sleep when you're dead
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Volunteer at clinic every other saturday, go to healthfairs and other service events, do research over the summer along with taking electives, scholarship chair of an organization (review sessions). I don't know what else I can do P2 year.
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that is a very good start - healthcare related service events are a big bonus. Try getting a job as well (that was not meant to sound snooty) but that will help you get a foot in many doors - many many new pharmacist get their first job as a pharamcist were they worked as a tech
