Personal statement help!!! For pharm schools

Started by Calitech
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Calitech

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Okay, so i know its kind of late to be working on my personal statement at this time of the year when my application for pharm school should've been done by now, but hey, it is better late then never and im hoping to be done real soon. I turn to you, my fellow sdn bloggers for HELP with this stressful task of composing one of the most important compositions i NEED to accomplish. I have been stuffing my face, cleaning my room, working out, listening to music, pretty much everything one does when trying to avoid writing this piece. Most of my concern with this essay is the fact that pharmacy schools WANT to hear about how I, a once full-time student with aspirations, now an emotionless 9 to 5 drone, came to the dreamy realization that 'oh my, its been my life-long dream to become a PHARMACIST'. Sure i have sad stories of relatives dying that can be used to draw readers into providing me with sympathy and the desire to want to fulfill my 'life-long dream,' by accepting me into their program, but is 'their' sympathy genuine if they've heard the sobs stories a million times? Most importantly did my relatives' lives really inspire me to want to consult irate patients about why the tin-foiled covered suppository tasted waxy for the rest of my life. I've been true to myself my whole life and as i ask myself why i want to become a pharmacist and what it is that inspires me to do so, i come to the conclusion that its the next step for me. I've worked as a pharmacy clerk for 7 years straight out of high school and through college. After graduating college i couldn't get a job with my biology degree, lol yea money down the drain, i became a certified pharmacy technician and been so for the past two years. So here i am stuck as a tech unless i become a pharmacist. Hence the application process. Now im stuck on what to write in my personal statement. Could someone please assist me by telling me how i can write an effective and affective personal statement that would persuade the admissions board that i DO have the desire to become a pharmacist, not due to a life changing event or an epiphany, if i spelled that correctly, but rather it just coming about. OR should i be untrue to myself and fabricate this desire with a heartfelt sob story that's so cliche and tiring, lol or how fergie put it 'soooo 2 thousand and late? Who knows maybe all these sob stories have truth in them, but not for me. PLEASE HELP A BROTHA IN NEED

Calitech
 
You are not behind all that much on your application, I personally submitted my pharmcas November 28th and was accepted at a handful of schools. As for the rest of your post, I refuse to read it until you break it up into paragraphs, sorry but I hate a huge block of text.
 
I dont think I know anyone who's life long dream was to become a pharmacist. Most of us just found to profession in our own ways. In my PS I basically laid out in a more structured and eloquent way "I worked as a pharm tech. I liked it. I'm applying to pharmacy school."
 
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It sounds like you have talents that would benefit the profession and you can accomplish a lot more as the pharmacist than as the tech. Isn't that a good enough reason? You can spend your essay talking about why you would be an asset to pharmacy. You could try the sob story approach but if you aren't sincere that is likely to come across in the essay.
 
I started my PS by talking about a experience I had with a pharmacist when I was younger, because I had never worked at a pharmacy when I applied for Pharmacy school. But since you worked at a pharmacy, you might want to begin your PS with a story about some patient/event that left an impression on you?

Or if you don't want to begin by lying, you could write something to the effect of:

"I wish I could say that being a pharmacist has always been a life long dream for me, but it wasn't. My decision to become a pharmacist was one that was long and filled with detours.............."

and continue on with what you did in university, why you came to the decision to become a pharmacist technician, maybe an event during your time as a pharmacist techinician that really encouraged you to apply to become a pharmacist or something that make you feel like pharmacy is a job that you will feel comfortable doing for the rest of your life. And sort of conclude with why you would be an asset to the field and why you think that you would be successful during pharmacy school and how much being a pharmacist means to you?

or something like that....if it helps at all...just random brainstorming, so sorry if it doesn't help that much. and good luck
 
better to turn in an essay of truth that you can talk about in an interview than an essay of BS that you probably won't remember the details or can't make the details up on...and i would take the advice of the posters above me, there is some sound advice there