Pharmacy admissions

[PharmDr.]

For those who have been accepted to a pharmacy school, when did you apply and what classes were completed at time of applying. I am confused about the number of classes that should or would look good for admissions.

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[28657]

I applied for 2003 application cycle and sent in my application December 2002. I had almost 150 semester credit hours, but no degree. So that means I had a lot of extra classes beyond the pre-reqs including Genetics, Cell Biology, Calc II, A & P,... a lot of them being upper division courses.
The more science/upper division classes you've taken and done well in, the better your chances will be for acceptance.

The classes I took the Spring before pharmacy school included one pre-req the dreaded communications course, and some other upper division science classes. So I also think that the more pre-reqs you complete before filling out your app, the better your chances are too.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

76 credit hours.

Spring '03 schedule:
Organic Chemistry II
Physics II
Microbiology
Humanities Elective
Geography

Accepted to WVUSop in late May '03 with a 3.27 GPA.

 

[spacecowgirl]

I had a BA in psychology and had completed calc, stats, o-chem I, bio I, chem I & II and of course all the electives with a 3.89 GPA. I had 140 credit hours before applying (162 before starting pharm school once I finished all my other prereqs like anat I & II bio II, physics I & II, econ), job experience (in academia as a lab instructor at a private college and as a pharm tech for years), and three research grants (two from my universtiy, one from the NSF) and numerous EC activities. I had studied abroad in Italy for a semester as an ESL teacher and had been a TA for a couple of classes. I think my app was well rounded with all my other activities which made up for the fact that I didn't have all my pre-reqs done before applying.

When I finish my PharmD I'll have something like 268 credit hours That's a lot of studying and a lot of lectures

 

[pharmd-08]

Submitted my pharmcas on December 1st, 2003 for this year's cycle. It was not until December 19th that Pharmcas sent my material to the schools. Then completed the supplemental one by one by the end of December till end of January. Started to received interview invitations on first week of January. Started my first interview on January 31st.
At that time I had all the big ones (Chem, Bio, Calc, Physics, O-Chem, Microbio, Anatomy, Econ, Sociology) completed. So now I'm completing the remaining classes ( psycho, eng comp, lib ed) before fall semester starts.
My advice:
1. Finish as much (hard) science classes as possible.
2. Pharmcas was slow and uncheckable while putting in my transcript, so send that as early as possible with a prayer and wait until it appears on your status.

 

[Roxicet]

I submitted my Pharmcas app on 8-11-03 for Fall 2004 admissions. I only applied to one school, which didn't require a secondary app, but I did have to send two letters of rec, and I sent those on 9-5-03. I was applying for the early admission cycle, for which the deadline was October 1st. I think you can start you Pharmcas app as early as June.

At the time of my app, I had a bachelor's degree in microbio, with 158 semester hours. I still needed speech and 3 hrs of anatomy or physiology, so I had enrolled in anatomy II that summer, and took speech the following fall.

I took the PCAT in October, and to my surprise, I received an interview invitation in November before they saw my PCAT scores. I'm not sure if that meant that they really don't care about PCAT scores, or that my other research and volunteer experience impressed them enough. I got my acceptance letter the last week of December.

 

[Glycerin]

I was applying for the early admission cycle, for which the deadline was October 1st. I think you can start you Pharmcas app as early as June.

I took the PCAT in October, and to my surprise, I received an interview invitation in November before they saw my PCAT scores. I'm not sure if that meant that they really don't care about PCAT scores, or that my other research and volunteer experience impressed them enough. I got my acceptance letter the last week of December.

I was under the impression that if you applied to a school during Early Admission, then they had to let you know something by Oct 31 so that you could apply to other schools if conditions weren't favorable? Did I misunderstand?

 

[Roxicet]

I was under the impression that if you applied to a school during Early Admission, then they had to let you know something by Oct 31 so that you could apply to other schools if conditions weren't favorable? Did I misunderstand?

For some reason, Midwestern participates in regular Pharmcas, but not in their early admission decision. If you look at the Pharmcas directory, it says "no" under "participates in early decision," and states that the deadline for MWU is Feb 1. But on the MWU webpage, it says:

Early Admission Cycle
Not more that twenty percent of the seats in the entry class are available for candidates applying by the early admission cycle deadline (October 1st). Students who are not selected for early admission will be reconsidered during the standard cycle. To be eligible for the early admission cycle, the prospective student must take the PCAT examination no later than October of the current year, submit a completed PharmCAS application and two Letters of Evaluation by October 1st . The Director of Admissions and the Admissions Committee then review the application to determine the student?s interview eligibility. Eligible students interview in November, with admission decisions made by January 1st.

If a school does participate in the Pharmcas early decision, then you are right:
Early Decision Program (EDP) Applicant: Some participating colleges and schools offer ?Early Decision? (ED) status through PharmCAS. The Early Decision program is a binding option for applicants who have decided that a particular pharmacy degree program is their first choice and that they will enroll if accepted. As an Early Decision applicant, you can apply to only one pharmacy degree program.

The Early Decision application deadline is SEPTEMBER 1, 2003. In addition to completing the PharmCAS application, you must arrange for PharmCAS to receive all of your transcripts by the September 1 deadline. Contact your selected pharmacy program directly for information on Early Decision eligibility requirements. You may be offered early admission, denied admission, and/or deferred to regular applicant status. If you are offered admission as an Early Decision applicant, you are obligated to accept the offer and you will not be permitted to apply to other pharmacy institutions. If, however, you are denied admission as an Early Decision applicant, you may apply to other PharmCAS institutions for an additional fee. Refer to the PharmCAS application fee schedule to determine the cost to apply to each additional program. PharmCAS institutions will announce early decisions as soon as possible, but no later than October 31.

 

[goheel]

Does anyone know which school participate in the Pharmcas early admission? I know UNC has early admission, but their deadline is Oct 1st, so I guess they don't participate in the Pharmcas early admission program.

 

[LVPharm]

Does anyone know which school participate in the Pharmcas early admission?

http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/AAGEDPT.htm

 

[moobymaster]

I had a BS in Business and an MBA and by the time I sent the app to UF I was taking Organic I, Biology II, and Gen Chemistry II and was accepted. My last class is Organic II which I'm taking right now. Overall undergrad GPA is around 3.7 and my sciences is 4.0. No pharm experience though...and I'm an old (relatively) geezer.

 

[GatorRX]

I had a BS in Business and an MBA and by the time I sent the app to UF I was taking Organic I, Biology II, and Gen Chemistry II and was accepted. My last class is Organic II which I'm taking right now. Overall undergrad GPA is around 3.7 and my sciences is 4.0. No pharm experience though...and I'm an old (relatively) geezer.

Have you been accepted to UF? I am also planning on applying there, and have pretty much the same undergrad stats (no Masters degree tho). Are you going to one of the satellite campuses?

 

[moobymaster]

Yep, starting at the Orlando campus this fall.

 

[GatorRX]

Yep, starting at the Orlando campus this fall.

Great! I plan to apply for the Orlando campus as well. Where are you taking your prereq science classes? I went to UCF for my undergrad, but still need some more science classes to finish up this year. Taking Org. Chem I and A&P in the summer, then Bio 2, Org. Chm 2, and A&P 2 in the Fall.

 

[moobymaster]

Most of sciences were done at Seminole CC. Took a few at Valencia to fit them into my time frame and also a couple in Manhattan before I moved down. Seminole seems to have the better science department by far.