I need advice!

[booboo_chile]

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Question . . . what do pharmacy schools in CA prefer . . . a low gpa from UCI or a high GPA from a cal-state college? Please let me know . . . I am really worried. Here's my situation . . . In 1998 I was a sophmore at UCI, soc major, with a low GPA of 2.5 and no direction in life. In my third quarter, I withdrew from UCI because I was in a really bad car accident that resulted in a head injury. So, I spent one year to recover and the following year I worked to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I then enrolled in a community college and was able to raise my cumm. gpa to 3.4 now and loving biology and chemistry. Now knowing that pharmacy is the career path for me, I recently went to readmit back into UCI. However; UCI said that my grades from the community college will not count, only units, leaving me with a 2.5 gpa. Worried that I will not be able to bring up my GPA to be able to get accepted to pharmacy school in california, I called Cal-state Fullerton and they said that if I attend their school . . . my 3.5 gpa is transferable. So what should I do?

 

[BMBiology]

Your gpa at UCI, as well as your gpa at the community college will be counted toward your overall gpa when you apply for pharmacy schools. However, your gpa at the cc will not be included in your UCI GPA but it will be included in the overall gpa when you apply for pharmacy schools. This means it does not matter whether you attend UCI or Cal State Fullerton, your overall gpa will be the same.

 

[OoShimmeroO]

UC Irvine is a great school with an excellent reputation in the Biological Sciences but if I was in your situation I'd pick Cal State Fullerton. It's more likely that you'd get higher grades in your remaining classes if you went to Cal State Fullerton. Pharmacy schools do care where you finished your classes but when they're initially screening your application all they care about is your GPA and if that's where your weakness is you should try hard to boost it up. And to make your application stand out, squeeze in a reasonable amount of extracurriculars, leadership positions, undergraduate research, and pharmacy experience (paid or volunteer). Hope that helps.

 

[jjunyi83]

i goto CSUF and about 60% of students in chemistry and biochemistry department are planning to apply to pharmacy school. Also, my undergraduate advisor told me that about 70% of students get into pharmacy program.
I talk to USC pharmacy rep. and they told me that it doens't matter whether you get your undergraduate degree at CSU or UC. But, distribution shows that there are more UC students compare to CSU students. I think this is because more UC students are applying to pharmacy school

 

[BMBiology]

I dont know about UC vs. Cal State but in my class at USC c/o 2007, there are no more than 10 - 15 people out of the class of 190 from Cal state Universities.

If you think you will do well at UCI, then go for it. I graduated from UCI and it was pretty competitive. There is no reason why you should not challenge yourself. There are ample opportunities to do research and to take various classes at UCI but be prepared to study hard as well and if you have time, you can always chill at newport or laguna beach.

 

[booboo_chile]

i goto CSUF and about 60% of students in chemistry and biochemistry department are planning to apply to pharmacy school. Also, my undergraduate advisor told me that about 70% of students get into pharmacy program.
I talk to USC pharmacy rep. and they told me that it doens't matter whether you get your undergraduate degree at CSU or UC. But, distribution shows that there are more UC students compare to CSU students. I think this is because more UC students are applying to pharmacy school

Thanks for the info. Do you know if any of the 70% of students at CSUF were accepted to USC?

 

[jjunyi83]

Thanks for the info. Do you know if any of the 70% of students at CSUF were accepted to USC?

21 people from - UCLA
17 - USC
14 - UCI
8 - UCB
6 - UCSD
3 - CSU Fullerton
3 - CSUN
3 - UCDavis
2 - SDSU
2 - UCR
2 - UC Santa Cruz
1 - Boston U
1 - CSULB
1 -Concordia Univ
1- Islamic Azad Univ of Tehran
1 - MIT
1 - Univ of Colorado
1 - Univ of Denver
1 - Univ of Massachusetts, Boston
1 - Xuzhou Normal Univ
1 - Mount St Mary's
1 - Occidental
1 - Point Loma Nazarene Univ


Total Count: 93


This is from previous sdn post...
I am not sure how many students are going to USC but my guess is 4-5..
Also, our chemistry and biochemistry department is much smaller compare to biological science department