I'm going to be reapplying to pharm school this year, I applied last fall with a 3.7 gpa, a lot of pharmacy experience and volunteer work, but I think a really bad PCAT score was the main reason for the rejection. Is it necessary to write a whole new personal statement or would it be ok to use the same one?
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Personal Statement
Started by pharmnut
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pharmnut said:
I'd have more people critique the one you have, and if necessary, I'd just spruce it up a bit.
Make sure you write something to tell your audience(adcom) about what have you done during the year in between, and what have you learned. And remember, don't put any negativity or bitter tone in your personal statement. Good luck! I know it's hard to squeeze an interesting story to fit the ### characters limitation in Pharmcas space.
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vafcarrot said:
A really bad PCAT score would be in the 60th percentile or lower. However, I would definitely retake the test if you scored in the 70's. It's not that hard of a test and if someone has a 4.0 but a 70th percentile, that says something about their undergrad preparation.
50th percentile, by definition, is an average score. If you score in the 50s you can still get into a school that uses the PCAT as long as you excel in ther areas of the application.
bananaface said:
50th percentile is an average score of those who took the exam, but certainly not an average score for those who were accepted to pharmacy school. I'm sure it's possible to get accepted with a 50, but I would not say that it's a favorable or competitive score by any means. I had a 96, and I was only accepted at half the schools that I applied to.
One factor we are not considering is the interview. I would presume that pharmnut got to the interview level because of the good stuff on the application. If you only had a decent interview, you will be under the pile relative to people who had stellar interviews. That blew it for me the first time around. I also applied to just one school the first time. I learned a whole lot in the meantime too. So, I'm glad I got put off for a year, in retrospect.
I just revised my personal statement slightly, to reflect myself at the moment, since the prompt question was the same. Once I had a better interview, I was in to my school of choice. I did not mention in my personal statement that I had gotten rejected the year before. I thought it would sound like whining and keep me from being percieved as having a positive attitude.
I just revised my personal statement slightly, to reflect myself at the moment, since the prompt question was the same. Once I had a better interview, I was in to my school of choice. I did not mention in my personal statement that I had gotten rejected the year before. I thought it would sound like whining and keep me from being percieved as having a positive attitude.
That was actually another question I had about the personal statement?.whether or not to bring up the fact that I did get rejected. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll just update it slightly to include what I've done in the past year...without the whining. And actually, no I didn't even get the interview. I heard that MW-Glendale was really relying heavily on the PCAT scores due to the overwhelming number of applicants. I could be wrong though.
