I need a second opinion!!!!

[uncinmyheart]

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Here is my situation. I completed my pre-reqs at a community college, and i didn't do as great as I know I could have. I got mostly B's and C's and some of the courses I repeated from a grade lower than a C. I transfered to a 4-year university, and because my pre-req's grades kinda sucked 'cos i didn't try so hard, i decided i would pursue a B.S before i apply to pharmacy school. My junior year was worse, i messed up big-time because of some issues i had at home, and now I'm repeating some classes (not my pre-reqs but classes to do with my degree). So my GPA suffered big time.

I know I have some major things I have to sort out on my own. But this is what I am thinking about: I need to pull up my GPA to at LEAST a 3.0 before I apply. And I want to graduate with my B.S with at least a 3.0. I have one more year till I graduate. How should I do this? Should I:
1) Take a fifth year and bust my butt(or at least another half semester, like a minor)?

2) Or should I just graduate on time then take post-bac (like take some graduate level classes and work hard on getting good grades on those) ?

Or what else??? I am open to any suggestions/comments. And I am dead set on going to pharmacy school. I do not want to pick any other field.

 

[blergh]

UM... I think it depends on what else you have going for you, right? Where are you in terms of leadership roles, work/volunteer experience, pcat scores, etc?

 

[fenixtnlfan]

Well graduate level courses are going to be harder, so it would definitely take a lot more work to do good in them. On the plus side, doing well in graduate courses would improve your credibility as a good student more than just taking more undergrad classes. I think you would have to be accepted to a graduate program to do this though, which would take at least two years for a masters. Some professors will let you take grad courses as an undergrad but I think you must get special permission.

 

[omnione]

Well graduate level courses are going to be harder, so it would definitely take a lot more work to do good in them. On the plus side, doing well in graduate courses would improve your credibility as a good student more than just taking more undergrad classes. I think you would have to be accepted to a graduate program to do this though, which would take at least two years for a masters. Some professors will let you take grad courses as an undergrad but I think you must get special permission.

Yeah, check with the school as many treat graduate classes differently. At my school for example, I took many "dual" graduate courses where the course level was such that graduate and undergraduate students were in the class together. Such a course applies to a graduate program but can be taken by undergrads. Also, my school allows for an "at-large" graduate student where one can take graduate courses without being bound to a degree track. Such a path should be the preferred path for pre-health students as some schools will not take applicants who are in a graduate degree program (M.S, M.A, PhD).

Personally, I just took another year of undergrad to pick up a psychology minor just in case I needed a career change couple with some emotional issues in my fourth year where I didn't really apply anywhere. Such a pathway doesn't hurt but you still want to challenge yourself during that fifth year and not give adcoms the impression that you took another year of undergrad to inflate your GPA. Conversely, you don't want to delve into graduate courses and find that you don't like having to do research and take courses that are more specific to your undergrad major while not being related to pharmacy school courses. Personally, getting a mediocre graduate GPA looks worse than taking undergrad courses in a fifth year as long as you don't revert to taking freshman courses.

 

[uncinmyheart]

Yeah, check with the school as many treat graduate classes differently. At my school for example, I took many "dual" graduate courses where the course level was such that graduate and undergraduate students were in the class together. Such a course applies to a graduate program but can be taken by undergrads. Also, my school allows for an "at-large" graduate student where one can take graduate courses without being bound to a degree track. Such a path should be the preferred path for pre-health students as some schools will not take applicants who are in a graduate degree program (M.S, M.A, PhD).

Personally, I just took another year of undergrad to pick up a psychology minor just in case I needed a career change couple with some emotional issues in my fourth year where I didn't really apply anywhere. Such a pathway doesn't hurt but you still want to challenge yourself during that fifth year and not give adcoms the impression that you took another year of undergrad to inflate your GPA. Conversely, you don't want to delve into graduate courses and find that you don't like having to do research and take courses that are more specific to your undergrad major while not being related to pharmacy school courses. Personally, getting a mediocre graduate GPA looks worse than taking undergrad courses in a fifth year as long as you don't revert to taking freshman courses.

So you suggest taking a 5th year instead of taking graduate courses?? I'm thinking about it a lot, and it would probably be easier for me than to take graduate courses and do mediocre in them. It's interesting though that you said getting mediocre graduate GPA is worse than taking a 5th year. I'm considering either minoring in nutrition (which i really love) or microbiology if i do decide on taking that 5th year, and maybe some more courses that are more related to pharmacy as much as possible.

I had heard some people who didn't do so great on their undergrad attempt to take a few graduate-level courses, without actually pursuing a masters (and that's exactly what i meant by that; i don't want to get a masters, i just want to take graduate courses), to demonstrate to the pharmacy school admissions that they are mature and capable of handling graduate-level courses (cos pharmacy school is like that). I didn't know if anyone here knows anyone who did this, and what it was like, and how true it is.

 

[uncinmyheart]

UM... I think it depends on what else you have going for you, right? Where are you in terms of leadership roles, work/volunteer experience, pcat scores, etc?

Well, I'm a CpHt, I've been working at a pharmacy for over a year and a half. I haven't taken the PCATs yet. I'm in the biology and pre-health club at school so I've done some volunteering. I've worked in the chemistry lab as a workstudy at my cc for one academic year. i did an intensive science program last summer at UNC which is where I wanna go to pharmacy school (it's the only place i want to go for pharmacy school). And I've done other small programs here and there through my university.