I Walk the Line

[thenewguy]

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Howdy to yall from San Diego! I am 27 and am thinking of becomming a pharmacist but need someone to scare me out of it. Ill just come out and say the my undergrad degrees are not the best, Econ and Finance with a 2.6 GPA although I have changed my habits since then for the better. I guess my question is, How well must I do on the PCAT to come close to getting a decent PharmD program if / at all possible. Also, which schools are worth looking into with this GPA.
I will have better grades for the Bio Chem Labs that still need next year. (Which Might bring up the GPA a bit.)

 

[Rxgrrl]

I would say that you should try to get at least a 90 percentile PCAT with a GPA that low. My GPA overall is only a 3.2, and my science GPA a 2.9--and my PCAT scores in the past were TERRIBLE (I didn't study)--I hope I did better on the PCAT last month--so you are not alone--there are alot of us with lower GPA's wanting in! 😳

 

[Bill_252001]

with a GPA of 2.6 u don't have much chances, even with 90+ pcat, u will have a lot of explaining to do for ur low gpa. Your application might not even make it due to automatic filtering of low gpa. How about taking more classes to get atleast 3.0???

 

[twester]

The bad news is that your GPA is probably (almost certainly) not competitive. The good news is, with a BS in Finance and Economics, you'll probably need to take many of those science pre-preqs. You have lots of time to improve your GPA. If you do well in your science classes, you'll basically be preparing for the PCAT which will help you along your way.

Adding good ECs like pharmacy experience (paid or volunteer) and other things that show a commitment to community service should also strengthen your application.

And, although SDN is a really good tool, the advice you get here is no substitute for actually going in and talking to the admissions person at a pharmacy school. She or he can give you real advice specific to the school's requirements.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

 

[Farmercyst]

And, although SDN is a really good tool, the advice you get here is no substitute for actually going in and talking to the admissions person at a pharmacy school. She or he can give you real advice specific to the school's requirements.

The good thing about being in San Diego is you have access to the counselors/admissions personnel at UCSD who could give you really good advice about the COP there that could be at least loosely applied to pharm schools in general. Specifically how they look at pharmcas apps, what is important when they look at transcripts, etc.

 

[GreyFox2002]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Pharm schools only look at grades for prereq courses. If you didn't take any science courses when you got your Finance/Econ degrees, you could be in good shape. Take those courses, Ace them, and let PharmCAS calculate your science GPAs. You could surprise yourself and get a high science GPA to satisfy your prereqs.

If anything the school may be impressed that you were able to get a high GPA on science courses after doing poorly in Econ/Finance courses.

As a side note, don't fret. You can always get an MBA and a Masters in Health Administration and make just as much money, if not more, than a pharmacist.

 

[ADN1226]

They mainly look at your pre-req gpa so do really well! And since you've graduated from undergrad a couple years ago they might not look into your BS gpa much esp since its in business. You have good chance if you do well on those pre-reqs.... kinda like starting over again 🙂