personal statement and app quesitons

[dtmbmw]

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Hi, im asking this for a friend.

How would one go about explaining surpar sciences grade on their personal statement?

And, does having compounding pharmacy experiences benefit your overall application / increases your chances in comparison to retail experiences?

Thank you

 

[DrDrugs2012]

When it comes to poor academic performance, the most important thing to discuss is not explaining reasons for why they occurred but what you have done to rectify the situation. With every cause of bad grades, one can come away with a negative impression. Even if you failed classes because you fell ill, one can easily conclude that a mature decision could have been preemptive withdrawal from the semester. So in trying to explain why bad grades occurred, one can find deficiencies in your decision-making... so trying to explain away bad grades is a non-starter. But to show your maturity, be able to unquestionably and tangibly point to changes you have made in your decision-making and academic performance which puts the school at ease and helps them see that you are a) a good student and b) not likely to make the same academic mistakes again.

As far as compounding is concerned, it doesn't give you any leg up on anyone else, but it may give you a different perspective which, if enlightening, you could discuss. Schools want to know that you are not entering pharmacy school clueless about the profession. Having more experience is always a good thing and explaining how your additional experience has developed your view of the profession can be useful to you on application.

 

[xtsukiyox]

DrDrugs2012, good answers. I particularly like the way you answered the first one - I believe that's the most effectively I've seen it done. 👍

 

[lfruhling]

I am a compounding technician right now, and while I don't think it gave me an advantage during my interview, I was told that compounding experience helps drastically in pharmacy school, especially in lab.

 

[dtmbmw]

thank you...i will relay your response to my friend!

 

[Yazdi990]

Still not sure if this was the best way to go about it but i also have some "subpar" science grades on my transcript and when i couldn't figure out how to explain them, I just didn't talk about it. It was kind of a gamble because I wasn't sure if schools would have wanted to hear about them or not.

It ended up working in my favor because my grades were never mentioned. I later asked the faculty of the school i'm attending on their thoughts on mentioning bad grades and they said that unless there is something so glaring on your record that absolute cannot be ignored, you don't have to mention in.