Yes, PBA loves applicants from California who for some reason cannot get into UCSF and/or UCSD because those two schools are the most competitive/best (in my opinion) in the whole United States. At UCSD you take the classes with the med school students, so the curriculum is a lot better in my opinion. The more theoretical the curriculum and more science based the better it is for preparing you as a researcher in a more clinical setting.
UCSD is located in a biotech corridor, so although it is a new school, that makes absolutely no diference.
Well, that being said, I recommend that you PM LoKote. She did her undergrad pre-pharm courses at PBA and got accepted there, so I think that she give you some hints/helpful advice.
Well, in summary, I think PBA knows that they can attract very good students from California since their two in-state schools are probably the most competitive to getinto.
But I still believe that one would still need above a 3.0 even from Berkeley to get into anywhere.
I personally had a friend with around a 4.0/5.0 from MIT (which is equivalent to a 3.0 GPA on the 4 point scale, since at MIT 5 = A, 4 = B, 3 = C, 2 = D, 0 = F), and he could not get into med school after three applciations cycles and he settled by going to Northeastern Unviersity Law School.
But I think PBA would be interested in you. They actually have a few students from Africa in their pharmacy classes (at least from a few years ago). And you were formally a doctor, I think in Vietnam?
Anyway, good luck!
