Interview at Wisconsin!

[evilolive]

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Just received the invite today! Does anyone know what percentage are admitted from those that are interviewed?

 

[BadgerFan]

They only receive around 400-500 apps for a class of 130. They give preference to in-state students. I think they usually accept around 15 out of state. I got my BS there and although I love the school and the city, I wasn't really impressed with interviewing process for pharmacy school. They just started interviewing last year so I think they have some bugs to work out. Good luck.

 

[evilolive]

Yea I'm out of state - I hope I get one of those spots. Part of why I'm applying is because it's significantly cheaper than Michigan. I just have to see if the two programs can offer the same. Money really isn't a factor, but it's nice to just spend less if all things are equal, you know?

 

[RoyalBean]

I believe the answer may be 100%. Last year I think everyone who at least met the qualifications got an Interview. Last years interviews were very stress free, they just asked two very broad questions and that was it. They maybe be limiting the number of people they interview this year because I noticed they only have three dates posted for interviews this year, while last year they had a LOT more than that, which doesn't make much sense since I am sure they got more applications this year. Another change is a writing sample, they didn't have that last year either, so maybe everything is changed and I don't know what I am talking about...

 

[jbird3984]

Hi, I also applied to wisconsin. I was just wondering what you got for PCAT scores and grades if you dont mind me asking? Thanks!

 

[RoyalBean]

My Pcat was 95 (June 05), and my GPA (four years, I got a BS first) was 3.4, and I had never stepped foot in a pharmacy (to work or volunteer or shadow) and I had no extracurriculars. Its really hard to judge whether you will get in here, their admission statistics just seem to weird, let me explain: the GPA for 2005 was almost 3.7 and for 2004 was an astonishing 3.8. The only weird thing is that people must be discourage from applying or something, because they only recieved less then 400 app. each of those years, making their acceptance rate about 33%, which is pretty high when comparing other schools (look at that aacp.org website). My theory is that #1: They don't do pharmcas, #2 They don't budge an inch on their prereq's (I could go on about that for a while...No it doesn't matter if you have a BS in biology and had AP credits that let you skip freshman bio in college, you still need to go and take that....), anyway, they are also very specific about other things, like their LOR have to be from specific types of people, filled out only on their specific form. #3 is a big one, they accept almost no out of state students, so unless you have a gpa of like 4.0 an out of stater isn't going to go jump through all their hoops to apply when they have very little chance.

Sorry for the long answer but I know last year I had trouble trying to find any admission statistics besides the vague averages on their website. My advice do something to boost what they call your "cultural competance." At Wisconsin, they would admit my pet goat if I could proove that he was well adapted to diversity and had a lot of cultural competance. Anyway, high cultural competance will cause them to overlook almost anything.

 

[evilolive]

How do you like the campus? How are the academics? Ultimately I have to decide which school I would like to go to, as I'm currently deciding between Michigan, UCSF, USC, UIC, and UNC Chapel Hill and Wisconsin (all things equal assuming I am accepted to each of course), but how do you rate your experience there? What's the faculty like, and does the class feel like a family? A closely knit pharmacy class is very important in my search for schools. Do you feel that your peers are highly competent? Is there a research hospital?

 

[RoyalBean]

..... how do you rate your experience there? What's the faculty like, and does the class feel like a family? A closely knit pharmacy class is very important in my search for schools. Do you feel that your peers are highly competent? Is there a research hospital?

I do like it here, but I don't have much to compare it too other than my old school, I did my undergrad at Michigan Tech, and if you know anything about that school you would understand it is very hard to compare they two schools... Anyways, I do like most of the Faculty, but I don't like every professor of course, at least one professor stands out as one of the best I have ever had and another one stands out as one of the worst I have ever had. The class does seem very much like a family. This starts at orientation; they have a rather long orientation where you get a chance to interact with pretty much everyone in your class. By the end of about the first month you will at least be able to recognize everyone in your class. Another thing that helps you feel like a family is that you all have the same schedule pretty much. You just have to sit in the lecture hall and the professors come to you, you literally don't have to get up if you don't want to (at least for the classes in the SOP, this is not so for the few undergrad classes you have to take your first year which are typical of a ginormous school like Wisconsin, ie pre printed power point notes and no interaction with professor.) It also feels a lot like a family because since we are all in the same lecture hall before and after noon, we all eat together, usually right in the lecture hall, or in the atrium outside.

You feel like you are in good company, they often remind you that there are a lot of people that would like to be in your seats. They emphasize professionalism, and even make you take a "professionalism pledge." People generally dress nicer than they did in undergrad, and starting the second year professional attire is required for most of the labs. It is also apparent after your first exam how smart everyone is. The first few exams are pretty hard, to try and scare you or something, I don't know, but the averages end up in the 80's, when it felt like the average should be around 50 (after 4 years in school, I got pretty good at predicting the class average, but now I am way low each time on my estimates).

The pharmacy building is connected to the UW Hospital (which is a research hospital), which also makes for a unique feeling. We are physically separated from the rest of the campus, so the school feels a lot smaller than it is. The new Health Sciences Learning Center, where the med students and nursing students have classes is also connected to the pharmacy building, so it makes it seem like the program is more interdisciplinary, since we see med and nursing students a lot every day. A couple of our classes are in the HSLC at least in the second year. Another nice thing about the HSLC is that there is a library just for Med, pharm, and nursing students, and it is brand new, and really fancy. And in my opinion its just nice not having to be close to the undergrads, I don’t know why it just is, I guess since so many undergrads really don’t take school seriously. Oh, and the pharmacy building is only 5 years old itself, so it is pretty nice. In general, there is a lot of research going on, the pharmacy building is mostly research labs. One of my professors is trying to start a 5 year PhD/PharmD program in the next few years. There are also PhD and Masters students in the school.

The instruction methods definitely took me all semester to get used to. The format of all the classes is: Powerpoint with pre printed slides or class notes. I had only taken one class in my 4 years of undergrad where powerpoint was used in anyway, and I never was given any type of prepared notes or anything like that, so I took me a while to figure out how to learn with that format. I think this format blows, but it seems most people are used to it, so if you already spent time at a university where they used powerpoint, it won’t be a big deal. Another difference is that for all of my classes, I had professors change either 1/3 or ½ through the semester, that took a little getting used to. I have had experience with the some of the faculty and staff and they always seemed helpful. You will have to take a few undergrad classes your first year where the professor is rather distant, but for all the other professors, you can make appointments to seem them pretty much whenever, you don’t have to go through TAs. There are TAs, but they mainly grade stuff and teach labs or discussions.