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I used the Kaplan book, and I studied during down-time at my work-study job. I didn't put as much effort into it as I should have, but it all turned out alright!
LOW GPA: Support/Ideas Group
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I used the Kaplan book, and I studied during down-time at my work-study job. I didn't put as much effort into it as I should have, but it all turned out alright!
You going pre-dental (like your status under your avatar) or both dental/pharmacy and seeing what you can get? Either way good luck!
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well to lay it all out there, I applied to 20 dental schools and rejected from 14 with no response from the last 6 (assume silent rejections) so I threw a quick pharmacy app together to see what happens as it has been my 2nd cycle applying to dental and nothing so thought would give pharmacy a shot as had the pre-reqs and reference letters already knocked out. Whats the worst that could happen? They say no too? Anyway if nothing happens I plan to take the PCAT in July for this coming cycle and apply to multiple pharmacy programs (and maybe a couple dental ones too). Thanks, I need all the luck I can get at this point after the way things have gone the past couple application cycles.
Yea that sounds a bit rough, I wouldn't let all the rejection get you down. I worked with a girl that applied 4 times for pharmacy school before she got in. I don't think it was necessarily her grades or anything, she is super nice and sweet.. but she is just really shy. I think she bombed the interview portions because she has difficulty in those types of settings. So she eventually got in and stuck with what she wanted to do. I also suggest if you want to go dental that you stick with that. Nothing is worse than regretting a big decision like that later in life. What I would do is make sure they know that this is your second/third/etc time applying. That shows that you aren't just going to back down and disappear simply because you didn't get accepted the first time. You could work that into your personal statement, your interview, etc. Use it as a plus to set you apart from some of these other applicants. It shows that you really want to be in the program. I think most people try to minimize their weaknesses in the eyes of the admissions committees when in fact you should be showing how you have overcome those weaknesses and how those experiences have made you a better person. If you discuss all of your weaknesses to their face, then they only have your strengths left to look at when it comes time to make a decision.
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I think it's good that you are ambitious and motivated. However, I will say that going to professional school is a big decision that obviously impacts your future enormously. So, I would really think about what you want to do and give it everything you have, whether you retake an entrance exam or retake some classes or volunteer etc. rather than half-a** it. I wouldn't do something because you want to be in professional school now, because without extensive research into the field you want to work in you might end up miserable.
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thank you! 🙂 I feel much better now. I have quite a bit of time to make it up, I just want to know if anyone has gotten an interview on their first year trying with this type of situation! Also, the likeliness that I get an interview if I don't have a degree or anything like that!
Thanks again! 🙂
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I guess you'd need to give us a bit more information specific to your background. Your GPA is just 1 component (albeit a fairly large one) of how you are portrayed to the admission committee. I know a few people that have gotten into pharmacy school with lower than average GPA, one had to go on to earn his masters in order to get his GPA up enough to apply. They all got in eventually. A degree is not *required* for pharmacy school, though many schools these days are now pretty much pushing in that direction. Quite a few now really seem to prefer it. One school I applied to has 90% of their admitted students with a degree, while another I applied to is at 57%.. so some value it more than others. If you don't plan on finishing your degree you'll have to do a bit of research to see which schools you'd have a better shot at getting into.
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Well not to say that I don't care which school I go to, because I do.I would love to go to university of Toledo if I can help it, however,I know there are different preferences of students between colleges. I don't plan on getting a degree and just do it straight through, so that's why I wondered the likeness of me getting in my first year to any college of I don't have a degree beforehand.
Toledo has a BSPS though, but if I do that,I still eventually want to do Pharm d. In the end. So many things to research! How did you guys start deciding which schools to apply to?
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I'd suggest making a list of things that are important to you. For me it was 1) Location, 2) Price, 3) School reputation, 4) Strength of curriculum, 5) School activities, etc.. As you learn more about what you are looking for you should rank your school choices based on what is important to you. The process should be much like the admissions committee does when deciding who to allow into their schools. The market is getting such for pharmacists now where I think it is important to ensure you aren't racking up to much in loans and also that you go to a good school that is recognized for their excellence in the field.
I am a chem major too. Physical chemistry is kicking my butt! I plan on having a 2.98 by next spring. I got a 95 on my PCAT so I am hoping that helps. I still need to get some experience in a pharmacy. As a requirement for graduation from my school I also need to do a research based internship. So that should look good.
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I've heard nothing short of horror stories about Pchem. How does it compare to orgo?
I found PChem to be considerably worse than Organic. Perhaps it was just my crazy Romanian professor who wanted us to use Calc3 (which we were not required to take).
Physical BioChem > Pchem > Ochem > Gen Chem
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the f is physical biochem? stop making stuff up
Heard of a little thing called google? <--- pro tip click this link and it will search it for you.
I'm in the similar situation. I have my Bachelor in Chemistry last year. My overall gpa is ~ 2.5ish with 191 credits taken already. I recently switch to pre-pharmacy because I realized it is what I want after working in the pharmacy. I have three years of experience as a Medical assistant and have been working as a pharmacy clerk for one year. What should I do ? Should I retake classes or take more classes? Should I work on another bachelor? I will be taking the pcat in July. It will probably take be over two years of 100 credits to bring my goa up to a 3.0.
My grades:
Chem 1 A, Chem 2 C+
Ochem 1 A, Ochem 2 C
Bio 1 C
A&P B
Biochem B+
Microbiology C+
What killed my gpa was all the D's and C's I got in Business classes and upper chemistry class.
Thank you ahead of time for reading my post. Plz help me out and give me some advises of what I should do.
My grades:
Chem 1 A, Chem 2 C+
Ochem 1 A, Ochem 2 C
Bio 1 C
A&P B
Biochem B+
Microbiology C+
What killed my gpa was all the D's and C's I got in Business classes and upper chemistry class.
Thank you ahead of time for reading my post. Plz help me out and give me some advises of what I should do.
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At the very least, retake the prereqs in which you got a C+ or lower.
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wow seems like you really have a passion for pharmacy. I mean, dental didnt work, so Ill just randomly apply to pharmacy.
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no it's Pchem> Pbiochem> Ochem 2> Ochem 1 & gen chem
I took pbiochem in my graduate program and it was hard (probably the most intellectually challenging class that I have ever taken) but it is doable. Only cal 1 was required for that class and we only did calculations on the first test. Pchem requires cal 2 at most schools and my brother tells me that it is very much needed to understand the material (he's taken pchem and got B w/o really trying). However most chemist say that passing pchem is a miracle so they take the C and run with it. I also know a lot of ppl that have to repeat the class b/c it's so hard. I laugh at myself when I was taking Ochem & thought it was hard.
Hmm I'm sure it depends on where you are taking it but calc 2 was required for our pbiochem course. It was pretty insane, as it covered such a wide swath of topics in such a short amount of time. Both of our course professors were Harvard grads and one of them admitted that she was into this type of stuff since she was 12 years old (she is a friggen genius). We would actually be made to derive a lot of the calc based formulas we had to use in class and I bet seeing some of these derivations would make most people puke, they would quite literally take up 2-3 full lecture slides for a single derivation. It was really the only class I've ever had to actually try in (slept through calc 1&2, physics, etc and got A's..) as it married quite a few disciplines into one. The average on our exams was ~40% and rarely did someone get better than ~50%. On exams they would have us doing stuff like identifying 16 AA polypeptides directly from MS/MS data and those were the "easier" questions they were surprised no one fully got right. A lot of these people I had taken my other biochem courses with and most of them are very bright individuals.. Without a curve + a readjustment of the curve to the highest point total, the entire class would have failed as our total class point average was below failing. The professors are actually very nice.. they just really get into what they love.
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My prof was a biophysicist from John's Hopkins and his emphasis was making sure we understood physically what was going on various topics such as mas spec (which we didn't go too in depth into b/c we have a grad class called mass spec), chromatography, electrophoresis, biocalorimety, proteomics, and my prof's favorite 3D structure determination of macromolecules. No math was needed b/c it is understood that we could do derivatives and you can always look at the original research paper to see the derivation of the equation not to mention that most instrumentation have software that does the math for you. Yes he did use some math to help explain the physics of the different methods (mainly b/c the guys in the room wouldn't understand the concepts w/o it) but there wasn't an emphasis put on math. When students ask for the derivation he would say to stop by his office hours and he would do it for them. I wish we had questions like identify the 20 aa in the ms spectrum (b/c that really does sounds easy) but we had questions like if you analyzed one compound (which was given) using 2 different methods (let's say COSY & NOESY) what would the spectra look like, how are they they same and how are they different in the way that they analyzed the compounds (i.e. explain how it analyzes the compound), what are the advantages & disadvantages of using those techniques, what other tests would you need to conduct to confirm the validity of your spectra (b/c there is no full proof test physically speaking)? Sometimes I did show math in my answer but you can always put into words what the equation is saying. Like I said it was an intellectually challenging class but it can be done w/o having all the math (& I hate calculus nor did I have the cal 2 background). I guess the big difference is I took a graduate level course which places emphasis on concepts which we could take and adapt to our own research or help us troubleshot when we did run into problems.
Yea I believe the reason why Pbiochem at our university is so much harder than regular Pchem is because you had the choice to take either 1 semester of Pbiochem (which at our U is considered a higher division course than Pchem and requires at least calc 2) or 2 semesters of Pchem. Taking Pbiochem basically meant getting 2 semesters of Pchem crammed into 1 semester with a biochemical emphasis layered on top. We covered so much in 1 semester it truly felt like more than 2 semesters worth of information crammed in. I believe the reason why they covered the mathematics so in depth was because they truly wanted us to understand each calculation, that is the components of each calculation and how it intimately related to the problem at hand.. and not just be able to reproduce the formulas and ape their calculations on an exam. Every topic was approached from an angle of deeply understanding the mechanisms, especially for processes that are now automated or done by computers (something that did irk myself and my fellow classmates). Here is one of my profs.. I really admire her as she was very personable and really loves what she does, and she was sympathetic to us lesser humans who didn't quite have a full grasp of the subject material.. haha.
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how many times did you take the PCAT? or did you just take it once? How did you study for it and how long?
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Pre req 2.5
Pcat comp 97 chem 99 bio 97 QA 98
2 years retail (full time)
Great lors
Definitely an uphill battle. My suggestion is only try for schools that won't straight up reject you. Essentially just go through the list of pharmacy schools and look for minimum gpa requirements that are lower. If you're really set on one, speak with the adcom beforehand to okay it. I had interview requests from pretty much all the schools I applied to. And just accepted a spot in the University of Maryland. It's possible, but just realize that the rest of your application has to be stellar to make up for your gpa.
Pcat comp 97 chem 99 bio 97 QA 98
2 years retail (full time)
Great lors
Definitely an uphill battle. My suggestion is only try for schools that won't straight up reject you. Essentially just go through the list of pharmacy schools and look for minimum gpa requirements that are lower. If you're really set on one, speak with the adcom beforehand to okay it. I had interview requests from pretty much all the schools I applied to. And just accepted a spot in the University of Maryland. It's possible, but just realize that the rest of your application has to be stellar to make up for your gpa.
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I just came across this thread. I am in my second year at Creighton University & I am proof you can get into pharmacy school with a horrific GPA. My GPA was around 2.6👎, but I worked really hard on my PCAT and scored a 95😀. I did have 7+ years of pharmacy experience and very strong letters of rec (3 pharmacists & 1 professor).
I did my undergrad in a non-science field and did NOT apply myself. I didn't think it would ever matter, as long as I graduated. Even though I did well in my pre-reqs, those horrible undergrad grades really hurt me. But I rocked the PCAT & worked really hard to find (not an easy program) but one that looked at the whole person and appreciated my passion and experience.
If you are interested in a school, call them up, talk to them, let them know where you're coming from. Most places are pretty honest and will tell you what you need to do to make yourself a stronger candidate. It may take a year, maybe two, but if you're dedicated (and capable), then you shouldn't give up!
Good luck!
I did my undergrad in a non-science field and did NOT apply myself. I didn't think it would ever matter, as long as I graduated. Even though I did well in my pre-reqs, those horrible undergrad grades really hurt me. But I rocked the PCAT & worked really hard to find (not an easy program) but one that looked at the whole person and appreciated my passion and experience.
If you are interested in a school, call them up, talk to them, let them know where you're coming from. Most places are pretty honest and will tell you what you need to do to make yourself a stronger candidate. It may take a year, maybe two, but if you're dedicated (and capable), then you shouldn't give up!
Good luck!
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I understand how a lot of you feel, as I was one of these students due to poor academics when I first went to college. I failed many courses, changed career track, graduated, worked for 2-3 years, went back to school for pharmacy.
GPA was working against me already. I planned that it may take me two years of applying to get in.
Did EVERYTHING I could - worked, became president of the pre-pharmacy association, volunteered.
I applied to 6 schools (was stubborn and didn't want to apply out of state, which I strongly encourage you all to apply to as many as your financial budget allows). Received 2 interview invites and 1 acceptance.
I'm thankful for the opportunity. If this is truly what you want to do, do not lose site of your goal. Know that afterwards, it is all about your work ethic and how well you communicate/work.
Would also help to begin incorporating grammar. What is it with the younger generation now?
GPA was working against me already. I planned that it may take me two years of applying to get in.
Did EVERYTHING I could - worked, became president of the pre-pharmacy association, volunteered.
I applied to 6 schools (was stubborn and didn't want to apply out of state, which I strongly encourage you all to apply to as many as your financial budget allows). Received 2 interview invites and 1 acceptance.
I'm thankful for the opportunity. If this is truly what you want to do, do not lose site of your goal. Know that afterwards, it is all about your work ethic and how well you communicate/work.
Would also help to begin incorporating grammar. What is it with the younger generation now?
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I had a 2.70 PharmCAS and 2.55 Science GPA, but a 96th %ile PCAT. I got into Maryland, UGA, TTU, and Incarnate Word. I am currently waitlisted at Minnesota.
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You got into UGA as an out-of-state applicant? They must be really high on the PCAT. You must of had a flawless personal statement too. I hear they are strict on out-of-states.
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I don't think they have a preference for in-state v. out-of-state. It may seem that way because there is such a high percentage of in-state students. But this skew really reflects the fact that Georgia students wish to attend UGA more than out-of-state students. One reason for that is very obvious: the much higher tuition. In fact I am leaning toward turning down my offer because of the cost. Anyway check out the PharmCAS School Page for UGA: http://schoolpages.pharmcas.org/publishedsurvey/1746#10
That seems to indicate that there is no admissions preference for in-state students.
I was lucky that I had a friend who is a screenwriter for TV edit my personal statement. He really helped me polish my statement. I sincerely urge people to have a friend edit their statement.
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Thought I would drop by and give some hope to the sub 3.0ers out there.
My undergrad story is very similar to a lot of the previous posters. I screwed up my freshman year and did mediocre my sophomore year and then decided to work full-time and attend school part-time. I got my CPhT license and started working at a hospital pharmacy. I think actually working at where I wanted to be motivated me to succeed in school. I considered college "paying my dues" in order to eventually earn those initials after my name. I changed majors from pre-pharmacy to Biochemistry with a minor in Bio. About 5 years later I had my degree but only a 2.9 cGPA despite earning A's and B's due to my freshman transgressions.
So armed with a mediocre GPA, an 88% PCAT, and 5 years of experience I took a chance and applied. I will forever be thankful to the University of Tenn. for giving me a chance and looking past a number. This May I will be graduating with honors and will start as a resident this coming July at my first choice.
It is an uphill battle and the incline is very steep, but conquerable. The work history I have had has benefited me greatly by giving me an intern position as a P1-P4 and also setting me apart from other residency candidates. Would not trade that experience for anything. Best of luck to you guys.
My undergrad story is very similar to a lot of the previous posters. I screwed up my freshman year and did mediocre my sophomore year and then decided to work full-time and attend school part-time. I got my CPhT license and started working at a hospital pharmacy. I think actually working at where I wanted to be motivated me to succeed in school. I considered college "paying my dues" in order to eventually earn those initials after my name. I changed majors from pre-pharmacy to Biochemistry with a minor in Bio. About 5 years later I had my degree but only a 2.9 cGPA despite earning A's and B's due to my freshman transgressions.
So armed with a mediocre GPA, an 88% PCAT, and 5 years of experience I took a chance and applied. I will forever be thankful to the University of Tenn. for giving me a chance and looking past a number. This May I will be graduating with honors and will start as a resident this coming July at my first choice.
It is an uphill battle and the incline is very steep, but conquerable. The work history I have had has benefited me greatly by giving me an intern position as a P1-P4 and also setting me apart from other residency candidates. Would not trade that experience for anything. Best of luck to you guys.
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It is important to discuss your individual situation with a school to find out if there is any leniency to the school's requirements. Often times they are lenient and accommodating.
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It's actually possible to get in if you're below the minimum. Counterintuitive, but possible.
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That is exactly what I am saying. They do not flat out reject a candidate simply because their GPA is below their stated requirement. I thought it was also set in stone, but to my surprise this is not the case. Therefore, I recommend to anyone to not be deterred from applying to a school based on the school's specific parameters. Instead, contact the school directly and proceed from there.
Yea,
I emailed every school to see if they would consider a gpa below 2.75, and I got quite a few responses saying it's ok.
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Some schools do their own calculation-- they might give more weight to science pre reqs or look at the last 60 credits. Some schools calculate a gpa based only on their pre req requirements. So the PharmCAS gpa is not the be all end all. Mine was sub 3.0 but I was accepted to Minnesota. I was offered interviews at other schools but withdrew my apps/declined the interviews after being accepted to my school, which is also a top 10. I was rejected by MCPHS, though 🙄
GPA isn't everything and admissions committees know that. My GPA in pharmacy school is much higher than undergrad. My PhD GPA is perfect.
So, all ths nonsense about low gpa students not being fit for pharmacy school (or not being fit to be pharmacists) is all a bunch of crap IMO.
I've seen some 4.0/Rho Chi students make the most ridiculous recommendations during case studies and for OSCEs. I've also realized how much they forget after using pump/dump style "learning".
"Isn't it ironic...dontchya think?" 😀
finished undergrad with a 2.348 (this includes 5F's 6D's and 5W's ALL IN SCIENCE CLASSES)
A year worth of post-bacc at a local CC with a 4.0
pharmcas calculated overall 2.78, science 2.80
pcat comp 92
applied to 20 schools, which was a complete waste, interviews offered to 16 of them and only went to two of them.
definitely an uphill battle but seems pretty easy when looking back.
A year worth of post-bacc at a local CC with a 4.0
pharmcas calculated overall 2.78, science 2.80
pcat comp 92
applied to 20 schools, which was a complete waste, interviews offered to 16 of them and only went to two of them.
definitely an uphill battle but seems pretty easy when looking back.
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That is awesome for you! Did you retake any of those classes at CC post-bac? And how long ago before applying did you graduate? Just curious since I think some schools kind of overlook bad grades if x years ago before applying. (Not trolling just wondering haha)
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I have like a 2.78 also but I was wondering I have a C- in gen chem 1 which was a long time ago and my advisor never said anything bad about it not being accepted will it I have since taken biochem and p chem because I am a biochemistry major will schools take a C- I am applying this fall?
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C- is not accepted at most, if not all, schools. You're going to have to retake it.
It's accepted at u of Maryland Iowa and Minnesota fyi
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Geez I need to hurry up and retake this in the summer then because I am applying soon how will it be updated once I start pharmcas. I don't know why my advisor never told me I go to school in TN
Hmm ya I just checked.. didn't think a C- would have been accepted but you're right =D
