Which schools are you speaking of?
Seems like a really open-ended question. Not sure anyone here is really qualified to speak holistically about the application process, but here's a few things:
1. UCSF apparently receives ~1200 applications, and ~120 attend. ~10% yield. Of those, I would guess that around ~150-160 are accepted or are waitlisted and then accepted - more or less. So acceptance rate could be a fair bit higher than yield, maybe up to 15%. Some people fudge up the numbers and conflate yield with acceptance rate. This is for the #1 pharmacy school in the country as per USNWR. 85% of the students who attend are from California (very populous state), so you can expect that a sizeable minority of applications were drawn from a pool of students who sent them to all the CA schools just to try their luck. UNC Chapel Hill, the #2 pharmacy school on that list, has a 27% acceptance rate. That is straight from its website (586 applications, 160 accepted). 87 %ile PCAT, 3.5 gpa average. However, its entering class is ~160 students, so this would be one example where yield is touted as acceptance rate.
2. More schools and dropping # of applications = decreasing selectivity and noncompetitive admissions, naturally. You can be a low GPA and PCAT student but make up for it with plenty of community service and work experience and vice versa. Or some combination. Well-roundedness not a requirement. Essentially a C+ 2.5 gpa student can get into pharmacy school if he/she tries hard enough, doesn't have the personality of a toaster oven, and is willing to pay for it. Last one probably the most important.
3. There are some exceptions to the downward selectivity trend. Cheap 0+6 public schools, possibly, which tend to receive applications from high-achieving high school students from around the area, some of whom apply just because they hear it's a good safety or a good profession from their guidance counselors. Admissions may be getting more selective due to financial tensions with student loans and a guaranteed admission, coupled with HS graduate naivety and current pharmacist salaries quoted by news articles. Maybe some other examples exist but none I can think of currently.
I'll speak from my own experience. When I first applied to Rutgers Pharmacy several years ago, I believe the numbers quoted were ~3600 HS applications, ~800 acceptances, ~225 attendees. Some places quote that Rutgers has a <10% acceptance rate; they are misinformed. Average SAT score for admitted students was 2100; GPA is on a 4.5 honors scale so it's not comparable. Surprisingly, it has since risen to 2200 (could be minorly attributed to Flynn effect, unsure), and I'm guessing has gotten more selective over time as well. The SOP doesn't post other statistics so I'm not sure.
4. University of Maryland (tied for #17) has a ~26% acceptance rate (960 applications and 250 acceptances) while University of Buffalo (#17) has a ~22% acceptance rate (~760 apps, ~170 acceptances). USC (private, tied for #10) has a ~31% acceptance rate while UCSD (public, #23) has a ~7% acceptance rate (~1150 applications, ~60 seats, probably ~80 overall acceptances) All of this suggests that local presence (state population, regional reputation), size of entering class and tuition may be more important than the oft-criticized USNWR rankings when the criteria is strength of entering class and selectivity rather than national reputation seen from the eyes of faculty (which is what the USNWR most closely represents). Pharmacy differs from law in that respect, though it could always change.
To conclude, pharmacy school is easy to get into if the goal is to get into any at all. USNWR is only loosely correlated to selectivity. Any school who quotes you a <20% acceptance rate is a public school with a very strong regional presence and/or small class size. If not, almost certainly not the case. Most top-tier schools aren't even below that figure.
Off-topic: I think it's interesting that most of the the "competitive" schools have an acceptance rate of >20%, closer to 25%.
