GPA and pharmacy school

[Aaronmhahs]

Hello all,

Very simple question here:

When applying to pharmacy school, do they look at your gpa as a whole? or do they accept retaken classes and eliminate the worse grade (D's and F's) i ask this because my first year of college i prettmy much got straight F's (was not focused or prepared) but i returned to school and retook all of those classes and got straight A's.

Will these F's be cuonted in my Cumm. GPA or will they be discarded?

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[veyep]

Hello all,

Very simple question here:

When applying to pharmacy school, do they look at your gpa as a whole? or do they accept retaken classes and eliminate the worse grade (D's and F's) i ask this because my first year of college i prettmy much got straight F's (was not focused or prepared) but i returned to school and retook all of those classes and got straight A's.

Will these F's be cuonted in my Cumm. GPA or will they be discarded?

I beleive if you get one F and retake and get an A it will be considered as a C (the average of the two)

F+A=C

 

[Electrode]

Majority of the schools will definitely include those F's when calculating your cumulative. But don't let it tie your spirit down. Replacing them with A's is a better "ingredient" to your transcript or application package. If you can pull out A's or B's from the rest of your classes/prerequisites, you won't need to worry about those F's.

 

[owlegrad]

(F+A)/2=C
(0+4)/2=2


None of the pharmacy schools I looked at had grade forgiveness (omitting the lower of two scores in the same class). But it is not as bad as it seems - just keep getting A's and B's and you will be fine. Don't forget the other stuff also.

 

[veyep]

Hello all,

Very simple question here:

When applying to pharmacy school, do they look at your gpa as a whole? or do they accept retaken classes and eliminate the worse grade (D's and F's) i ask this because my first year of college i prettmy much got straight F's (was not focused or prepared) but i returned to school and retook all of those classes and got straight A's.

Will these F's be cuonted in my Cumm. GPA or will they be discarded?

you also might have to take a lot of classes not required to increase your cumulative gpa!

 

[owlegrad]

you also might have to take a lot of classes not required to increase your cumulative gpa!

Some schools (e.g. my school) only looks at math/science gpa. Many only look at prereq pga. Not a bad idea, but know what the schools you are interested in look at and plan accordingly.

Edit: I stand corrected - UF looks at science only, not math/science. They either changed their policy or I am misremembering. My bad.

 

[veyep]

Some schools (e.g. my school) only looks at math/science gpa. Many only look at prereq pga. Not a bad idea, but know what the schools you are interested in look at and plan accordingly.

interesting, I've never seen that before? which school does that?

 

[jpribilski]

UF only really looks at the science GPA...
Anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. Take this from someone who's seen a couple Fs in his day: as long as you have been doing well, you keep doing well, and you have a good explanation about what went wrong/how you changed, you're fine.

 

[owlegrad]

interesting, I've never seen that before? which school does that?

UF is one. I seem to recall that there were others, but who can remember?

 

[veyep]

UF is one. I seem to recall that there were others, but who can remember?

How does that work exactly? Can you get straight Cs in all your classes that are not pre-req and they don't mind? I am not sure if that's the best way to look at incoming students! I would want someone that does well in all classes and can manage his time and cares for his education and his grades overall!

 

[owlegrad]

How does that work exactly? Can you get straight Cs in all your classes that are not pre-req and they don't mind? I am not sure if that's the best way to look at incoming students! I would want someone that does well in all classes and can manage his time and cares for his education and his grades overall!

It's not my policy. But I would care quite a bit more about your grade in ORGO than say ArtsyFartsy 102. As you pointed out - nonprereq classes mostly just inflate your overall gpa. Plus your science classes probably better predict your performance in pharmacy school anyway. I think it makes sense.

Edit: To directly answer your question - yes, that is what it means.

 

[jpribilski]

How does that work exactly? Can you get straight Cs in all your classes that are not pre-req and they don't mind? I am not sure if that's the best way to look at incoming students! I would want someone that does well in all classes and can manage his time and cares for his education and his grades overall!

Don't be a goober... they look at everything, but consider the Sci. GPA to be a more important factor. Sci. GPA, by the way, not just prereqs.

 

[veyep]

It's not my policy. But I would care quite a bit more about your grade in ORGO than say ArtsyFartsy 102. As you pointed out - nonprereq classes mostly just inflate your overall gpa. Plus your science classes probably better predict your performance in pharmacy school anyway. I think it makes sense.

Edit: To directly answer your question - yes, that is what it means.

This is strictly my opinion. Performance in pharmacy school is not everthing for me. You see so many awkward and anti social students in pharmacy school that is scary. As a future employer what i am lookin for is if you have the whole package. If you can't communicate with patients i am not going to hire you. Even if you can mention every clinical aspect of everthing in the whole universe. Yes science will make you feel successful in school but in real world you will fail. That is one of the problem with some of the academia... they don't look at diverse and social students. Someone who shows interest in all kind of fields but focus on prepharm I much rather have then someone who just studies all day and is anti social! IMO!

 

[veyep]

Don't be a goober... they look at everything, but consider the Sci. GPA to be a more important factor. Sci. GPA, by the way, not just prereqs.

you wanna be a successful pharmacist...Focus on customer service! Not your science GPA! some of the pharmacist that customers file a complain against are brilliant people but just don't know how to handle peopel!

 

[DrDrugs2012]

Schools set minimum GPA requirements. These GPA requirements are (generally) inflexible and the GPA is calculated by PharmCAS which counts ALL grades (not just the retake grade).

Now, if you meet the minimum required GPA, you run into the problem of being offered an opportunity to interview. Some admissions committees base this decision purely off grades, irrespective of whether you won a Nobel prize for curing cancer (I know people who have significant professional accomplishments, PhD's, >95thPCAT and been denied because of digressions 20 years ago in undergraduate life).

On the other hand, some admissions committees realize that the best students are ones who learned from their mistakes, have discovered what they want and have pursued their goals vigorously and relentlessly.

I politely decline to publicly name which schools are "unyielding", but many of them are "top schools".

For you, at least some years back (haven't looked at their admissions criteria recently) University of Minnesota's requirements were one of two sets of GPAs: either greater than 3.0 cumulative or greater than 3.3 over the most recent 60ish credits (I forget the absolute numbers). To me, that smacks of realistic people! Another school, Maryland, is widely known to be rather forgiving of past academic digressions especially if there is remarkable change (not just grades, but everything... PCAT, extracurriculars, a total life overhaul). I recommend you investigate schools and see which ones are more likely to be receptive to your situation.

Best of luck!

 

[owlegrad]

This is strictly my opinion. Performance in pharmacy school is not everthing for me. You see so many awkward and anti social students in pharmacy school that is scary. As a future employer what i am lookin for is if you have the whole package. If you can't communicate with patients i am not going to hire you. Even if you can mention every clinical aspect of everthing in the whole universe. Yes science will make you feel successful in school but in real world you will fail. That is one of the problem with some of the academia... they don't look at diverse and social students. Someone who shows interest in all kind of fields but focus on prepharm I much rather have then someone who just studies all day and is anti social! IMO!

Oh don't get me wrong - I agree completely. gpa is so far removed from measuring anything helpful that it is crazy how focused "we" are on it. But I digress. Plenty of 4.0 students will not make good pharmacists. Grades are not everything by any means.

But still - a high science gpa probably better correlates to being successful in pharmacy school so I can see focusing on that rather than overall gpa. Now whether high gpa in pharm school translates to success as a pharmacist is a completely different discussion.

 

[Aaronmhahs]

If grade forgiveness really isnt accepted for Pharm school admissions, i should be screwed right?

I have a bunch of F's and D's from my early college carerer. Am i hopeless for getting into pharmacy school? 🙁

I'm trying to find a glimpse of hope for my future

 

[DrDrugs2012]

if grade forgiveness really isnt accepted for pharm school admissions, i should be screwed right?

I have a bunch of f's and d's from my early college carerer. Am i hopeless for getting into pharmacy school? 🙁

i'm trying to find a glimpse of hope for my future

please read my post above!

 

[owlegrad]

please read my post above!

ikr?

 

[chrispharm]

. You see so many awkward and anti social students in pharmacy school that is scary. As a future employer what i am lookin for is if you have the whole package. If you can't communicate with patients i am not going to hire you. IMO!

this is the 1st thing i noticed while i was waiting to take the pcat, how many social awkard people i was trying to small talk with while waiting. They could not hold a decent conversation to save their life and it's not because they were nervous because of the test.

 

[owlegrad]

this is the 1st thing i noticed while i was waiting to take the pcat, how many social awkard people i was trying to small talk with while waiting. They could not hold a decent conversation to save their life and it's not because they were nervous because of the test.

So you are socially competent and you can read minds? Impressive.

Actually I had the same impression from both the PCAT and interview days. But now that I am in pharmacy school it is completely different. Most of my class mates seem perfectly normal to me now (as normal as any cross section of the population would be). We have parties, socialize, talk, gossip, etc. Some are better than others but overall we are normal enough.

Actually after interview days I was 100% sure I was in for four years of hell. Everyone seemed classic type A, socially incompetent, etc. How wrong I was. Pharmacy school would be a nightmare (more so) without my pharm friends.

Edit: My point was also that those days are stressful and you are not seeing everyone at their best, socially speaking. Wait until they are your classmates to start judging. Or just don't judge, whatever works for you.

 

[chrispharm]

So you are socially competent and you can read minds? Impressive.
.

actually i am. 😀

i understand what you are saying your post.

 

[rxlea]

Schools set minimum GPA requirements. These GPA requirements are (generally) inflexible and the GPA is calculated by PharmCAS which counts ALL grades (not just the retake grade).

Now, if you meet the minimum required GPA, you run into the problem of being offered an opportunity to interview. Some admissions committees base this decision purely off grades, irrespective of whether you won a Nobel prize for curing cancer (I know people who have significant professional accomplishments, PhD's, >95thPCAT and been denied because of digressions 20 years ago in undergraduate life).

On the other hand, some admissions committees realize that the best students are ones who learned from their mistakes, have discovered what they want and have pursued their goals vigorously and relentlessly.

I politely decline to publicly name which schools are "unyielding", but many of them are "top schools".

For you, at least some years back (haven't looked at their admissions criteria recently) University of Minnesota's requirements were one of two sets of GPAs: either greater than 3.0 cumulative or greater than 3.3 over the most recent 60ish credits (I forget the absolute numbers). To me, that smacks of realistic people! Another school, Maryland, is widely known to be rather forgiving of past academic digressions especially if there is remarkable change (not just grades, but everything... PCAT, extracurriculars, a total life overhaul). I recommend you investigate schools and see which ones are more likely to be receptive to your situation.

Best of luck!

👍👍👍