High School Junior with a Question

[Darvocet]

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I am currently a junior in high school and I was looking to get into a 6-year program pharmacy program once I graduate high school.

I have a 3.7/3.8 GPA and my PSAT and pre-ACT scores have been pretty good, top 20 %. I have yet to take the actual ACTs. I took plenty of honors courses all through high school and right now I'm taking 2 AP courses, history and English. I have also been working as a pharmacy technician for roughly eight months.

My problem is that I received a D in Algebra II honors my sophomore year. And this is the reason why I am worried that I would not get accepted to any 6-year programs.

I guess my real question is what are my chances? Do schools really pay attention to grades or do they look more closely at GPA, ACTs, and experience.

No need to try to make me feel better, give me the brutal reality guys. 🙁

Thanks SDN.

 

[bananaface]

How have you done in subsequent math courses? If you have been getting good grades since then, I doubt a school would worry much about the single bad grade.

 

[pharmer_john]

I am currently a junior in high school and I was looking to get into a 6-year program pharmacy program once I graduate high school.

I have a 3.7/3.8 GPA and my PSAT and pre-ACT scores have been pretty good, top 20 %. I have yet to take the actual ACTs. I took plenty of honors courses all through high school and right now I'm taking 2 AP courses, history and English. I have also been working as a pharmacy technician for roughly eight months.

My problem is that I received a D in Algebra II honors my sophomore year. And this is the reason why I am worried that I would not get accepted to any 6-year programs.

I guess my real question is what are my chances? Do schools really pay attention to grades or do they look more closely at GPA, ACTs, and experience.

No need to try to make me feel better, give me the brutal reality guys. 🙁

Thanks SDN.

Well the program I am familiar with is at the St. Louis Collge of Pharmacy and your stats are probably in the ball park. I think the Average stats they are quoting now are about 3.7 GPA and top 10% ACT/SAT for their high school entrants last year, and I hear it is expected to go up a little again this year as expected by the demand and number of applicants. I would say work on getting in that TOP 10% on the ACT/SAT, maybe do a preparation course and plan to retake it at least once. Often your score will improve a little the second time just based on familiarity/comfort. But also keep in mind these are average scores of their admitted, so some are getting in with stats lower than the average, so don't get discouraged.

I don't have any information as to what a D would do on your transcipt but I agree with Bannanaface that you should probably treat it the same as is often discussed here about C's on pre-reqs. That is be able to show improved grades (clearly you have them to keep your GPA high) in math and be prepared with an explanation. I think a strong Math score on the ACT/SAT would help as well.

One last suggestion: If you are sure about Pharmacy consider Early Acceptance if the school you want to attend has it. Many students and parents are not comfortible with making the committment that early in the senior year (fall) of High School (for good reasons unless you are absolutely sure). Because of this I think the reglular admission is sometimes the most competitive. From what I understand at STLCOP this year I believe around 80% of the spots were taken by the Early Acceptance pools, leaving less slots for all the people waiting for regular acceptance. This is second hand info but I believe it is true.

Good luck!

 

[ghabpharm]

As far as i know, its not a 6-year program, its 5-year program. (You can get pre-pharm done in 2 years anyway)
I think Toledo has one, and m/b Boston.

 

[pharmer_john]

As far as i know, its not a 6-year program, its 5-year program. (You can get pre-pharm done in 2 years anyway)
I think Toledo has one, and m/b Boston.

Stlcop is definitely a 6 year program, I know it is. There are several 6 year programs that admit high school students. Check out the FAQ: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=1700947#post1700947

There are also 1+5 programs like UMKC were you can get admitted out of high school with guaranteed admittance after completing your 1 year of pre-reqs. UMKC admits something like 25-40 freshmen this way. I think I have seen several other schools mentioned in these threads that do the same.

 

[shaun009]

In high school, I received two C's in College Algebra and Precalculus... In college I received an A in Calculus I. No worries man, just show them that you can do well in more difficult classes and then it won't even matter that you received a D in Algebra.