I will start out with a hello to the SDN community.
If you're still reading after skimming the length of this, thank you. Here is my situation. I have seen similar threads but I'm not sure if the cause is similar.
I started out as a psychology major but switched to biology after thinking of pharmacy. This however was during emotionally hard times. The three lecture/lab classes a semester were not being focused on too much because of my state of mind.
This was throughout the 2007-2008 school year, which resulted in crappy grades, including one C,D and a withdraw. It got so bad in the fall of 2008 that I had to withdraw from the university completely on the advice of my mental health workers.
My school has a withdraw policy that makes it virtually impossible to drop a class without "serious and compelling" issues that they state on the deadline sheet. They require proper documentation for dropping, and even then it's difficult to convince them. Anyway, that made me have around 5 withdraws that semester in various classes.That included general ed courses and others that I was getting good grades in. Additionally, I can't forget about that other W because the class meeting time interfered with my partial hospitalization.
How heavily will the adcoms look at these withdraws, given my circumstances?
Because I spend too much time obsessing over my school schedule and what major I should do, my MHWs want me to get done with my undergrad as quickly as I can, so we decided to switch my major back to psychology in order to graduate this spring.
The thing is, when I graduate, my academic adviser at the university said I couldn't take the science courses over again, even as a "post-bacc". She recommended the local community college, which I attended for 3 years (the third year 2006-2007 was a "cooling off" period when I took chemistry and not much else). I would actually prefer the community college for not only financial reasons, but also because the difficulty is actually greater than my current university (from what I've heard).
I figured a rigorous school year of retaking those classes would help me prepare for the PCAT, as well as showing pharmacy adcoms that I can handle a full load. But that brings about a question: how would I bring up the point that the CC classes were more demanding than the university classes? I don't want to make it look like a cop out. Am I better off going to a different university to retake those classes?
Should I apply to pharmacy school while I'm retaking the classes? Keep in mind that I have six withdraws on my transcripts. Would it be better to wait for the makeup grades at the CC to be given, then apply with the makeup grades on the transcript?
Lastly, should all of these issues be addressed in the personal statement? Or are there spaces in the application that ask for an explanation?
Thank you for reading.
If you're still reading after skimming the length of this, thank you. Here is my situation. I have seen similar threads but I'm not sure if the cause is similar.
I started out as a psychology major but switched to biology after thinking of pharmacy. This however was during emotionally hard times. The three lecture/lab classes a semester were not being focused on too much because of my state of mind.
This was throughout the 2007-2008 school year, which resulted in crappy grades, including one C,D and a withdraw. It got so bad in the fall of 2008 that I had to withdraw from the university completely on the advice of my mental health workers.
My school has a withdraw policy that makes it virtually impossible to drop a class without "serious and compelling" issues that they state on the deadline sheet. They require proper documentation for dropping, and even then it's difficult to convince them. Anyway, that made me have around 5 withdraws that semester in various classes.That included general ed courses and others that I was getting good grades in. Additionally, I can't forget about that other W because the class meeting time interfered with my partial hospitalization.
How heavily will the adcoms look at these withdraws, given my circumstances?
Because I spend too much time obsessing over my school schedule and what major I should do, my MHWs want me to get done with my undergrad as quickly as I can, so we decided to switch my major back to psychology in order to graduate this spring.
The thing is, when I graduate, my academic adviser at the university said I couldn't take the science courses over again, even as a "post-bacc". She recommended the local community college, which I attended for 3 years (the third year 2006-2007 was a "cooling off" period when I took chemistry and not much else). I would actually prefer the community college for not only financial reasons, but also because the difficulty is actually greater than my current university (from what I've heard).
I figured a rigorous school year of retaking those classes would help me prepare for the PCAT, as well as showing pharmacy adcoms that I can handle a full load. But that brings about a question: how would I bring up the point that the CC classes were more demanding than the university classes? I don't want to make it look like a cop out. Am I better off going to a different university to retake those classes?
Should I apply to pharmacy school while I'm retaking the classes? Keep in mind that I have six withdraws on my transcripts. Would it be better to wait for the makeup grades at the CC to be given, then apply with the makeup grades on the transcript?
Lastly, should all of these issues be addressed in the personal statement? Or are there spaces in the application that ask for an explanation?
Thank you for reading.
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