AlabamaGator
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Hello. I am an undergraduate student graduating this May and enrolling at University of Florida College of Pharmacy in the fall. I would like to use this thread to talk about my experience through the admissions process in hopes of answering the numerous questions prospective pharmacy students may have about the interview part.
My Background:
My current GPA is 3.69(ish), my PCAT score was 74th percentile composite, I interviewed at five pharmacy schools and got accepted into all five.
Debunking interview myths:
Before I had begun the admissions process, all I ever heard was about how competitive it was from my family and professors. While I do agree it is competitive with the limited number of seats available, I think it sometimes paints the wrong picture in our heads. I was under the illusion that it was so cutthroat that the other people interviewing would ignore everyone else and would lie, cheat, and steal to gain a competitive advantage over everyone else. This is NOT TRUE. I only recall one person that was anywhere close to this. All the interviewees are in the same boat you're in and usually won't hesitate to start a conversation with you in between events or before the interview day starts. When I was on my fourth interview I told the guy sitting next to me that I already had some offers, I wasn't their for anybody's blood, and how nice it would be to have more choices. He concurred and the ensuing conversation likely helped us both do well in the interview. Some people, like myself, also believe that once the interview starts, the questions are designed to trip you up and the faculty conducting the interview is looking for every tiny hole in your answers to weed you out. This was also false. The faculty is extremely nice and respectful and want to get to know you better to decide if you're a good fit for their program. Nobody will bite you! They're going to go out of their way to try to make you feel at home because if they accept you, they want you to accept them.
The Interview Day Summarized:
Each of my five interview days lasted between 4 to 7 hours. During that time applicants will listen to an overview from the dean or chief admissions officer, have a Q&A session with student ambassadors, go on a tour of the pharmacy school building, eat lunch that is provided, the formal interview, the group activity and writing assignment, and usually end with a discussion on financial aid. The actual interview is anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. You will receive a schedule at each of the schools that tells you how long each activity is. Next, I'll talk about the interview questions I was commonly asked as well as the group activities and writing assignments. However, to maintain the integrity of each school's evaluation process, I will not match any specific questions or activities to a particular school.
Interview Questions Most Commonly Asked:
1) Tell us what led you to pharmacy / Tell me about yourself.
- I was asked this question, or some variation of it, at all five interviews. They want to hear a thoughtful, compelling story of why you chose pharmacy. If part of your answer is something along the lines of, "I feel called to use my skills to help people and improve quality of life," they like that. You SHOULD NOT say anything about the six-figure salary as part of your reasoning. Also, never answer this question with "I don't know."
2) Why do you want to come to our school?
- From what I've read, this question can throw people off. Don't let it. Go on the school website and memorize some of their statistics and read some testimonials if there are any, and use this as your answer. All they want to see is that you made an educated decision to apply their by doing some research on the school. Don't fabricate an emotional connection to the school. Don't say I don't know.
3) Talk about the responsibilities of a pharmacist and name one responsibility you may not like.
- Hopefully everyone in this position has done enough research on the job of a pharmacist to answer the first part of the question. The second part can be a little trickier. For the second part I said that dealing with the private insurance companies over the phone sounded like a nightmare. Think about it, a patient's plan may appear to cover their prescription drug, the insurance company says they won't cover it, the pharmacist spends hours on the phone with them and ends right back where they started. Plus, I can imagine how irritated one can get when being transferred a dozen times. It's one big spider web of bureaucracy.
4) Talk about a time you worked on a team project where somebody wasn't pulling their own weight and what you did about it.
- Surprisingly, through four years of undergrad, I don't think I've done one group project for any class. I made references to my experience as a current college athlete and former high school athlete. I also talked about teamwork strategies I use at my workplace. They want to see that you're an effective teammate even when it's not smooth sailing. If you can't point to any class project, tell them that and discuss one of the things I just mentioned. If you did community service with a church group or honor society, that works too.
5) Suppose you are taking an exam and you observe that somebody is cheating. That person cheating just so happens to be your best friend. What do you do?
- This is a question of maturity and academic integrity. Understand that there is no room for cheating when you get to this level because everything you learn from this point on will be used on real people and you have to know what you're doing. So I answered this question talking about how hard it would be to turn in your best friend, and then explained why I think anonymous reporting was the correct course of action.
6) What trends have you seen in the field of pharmacy? What direction do you see the field going?
- This one is more likely to come up with the higher ranked schools that are extra selective. They want to see if you've kept up with the news in pharmacy. The best advice I can give you is to google "trends in pharmacy" or "pharmacy news" and study up on a topic. I talked about how some west coast states like California and Oregon had laws in their books allowing pharmacists to write prescriptions for common diseases such as diabetes. I also took a position saying that should be the law in all fifty states. I simply think that's a good idea.
7) Pharmacy school has a heavy workload. Discuss your strategies for managing your time.
- Sometimes they may ask about stress management. For me, if I manage my time wisely, my stress levels are held in check as well. This answer is entirely individual.
8) Talk about any volunteer work you've done.
- Ladies and gentlemen, this was the worst answer I ever gave and I don't want you to make the same mistake as I did. I basically said I didn't have much volunteer experience. That wasn't true though. I did have experience but they didn't come to mind when I needed them. At the end of the day, it didn't matter, but have some volunteer experiences in the back of your mind to talk about. Looking back, I botched an easy question.
9) Name some character traits a good pharmacist should have.
- Think of three words to describe a good pharmacist and give examples of each to the interviewers. If you can't think of specific examples you can explain why you believe these character traits are important. On the flip side they may ask about some character traits to describe you. Hopefully, if you want to be a good pharmacist, the answer to that would be close to the same.
10) What do would you bring to __________ school of pharmacy?
- I can't answer this one for you. This is an opportunity to talk about some skills you have outside academia that would translate well into the field of pharmacy.
Group Activity / Writing Assignment:
The purpose of the group activity is to assess your teamwork skills. The evaluators are less concerned about correct answers and more concerned with whether or not you and your group can come to a consensus. One thing they absolutely don't want to see is one person dominating the whole conversation. Don't be that person. There's usually not any right or wrong answers. Most of them are subjective. One activity involved a list of scenarios of about two sentences each. At the end of each scenario, they asked whether it was plagiarism. If it was, they wanted to know what course of action we would take. Another activity asked us to build a free-standing structure out of uncooked spaghetti noodles, masking tape, and a marshmallow. The marshmallow had to go on top. This next one is the most odd-ball assignment I ever had. The scenario said there was a third world war, everyone was going to die except 6 people, who would live in an underground tunnel with enough food, water, and air for six people for three months. We had to choose from 10 people. We knew all their occupations but not all the genders. The moral of my story is to not be intimidated by the group assignment. It's not hard.
The writing assignment is only hard for students who aren't guided by a set of morals, beliefs, or principles. I actually received the same prompt twice. The prompt was to discuss what professionalism means to me and why it's important in the field of pharmacy. They may ask the same thing with a different word. The reason I said it would be hard for a student not guided by morals and principles is because these prompts put those morals and principles to the test.
Final Tips:
1) Ask plenty of questions to the students during the Q&A. I don't believe they were part of the evaluation but you never know. I had one student write me a personal card with my acceptance letter. I had only met that student that day. While it was a very thoughtful gesture, it gave me a sense that maybe he was part of the decision-making process and we just didn't know.
2) Ask as many questions as you have time for at the end of the formal interview. The worst thing you can do is not ask anything. This is a way for them to gauge your interest level. An applicant who doesn't ask questions can be deemed disinterested by the committee and get rejected or waitlisted.
3) Google pharmacy school interview questions, print those out, answer them, and practice answering them to a real person. If you can't sign up for a mock interview, ask a parent or friend to read you the questions in no particular order and practice conveying your answers.
4) At no point will you be asked a technical question about pharmacy. They understand that you don't know a whole lot and that you're applying their to learn. So don't get scared of that.
5) You're going to be nervous. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can write here that's going to change that. However, I have found that the tensions are reduced as the interview day goes on. The formal interview was usually towards the end of the day. That could be by design. Hopefully you're applying to four or five pharmacy schools like I did because you will improve with each interview.
6) Don't write yourself off or assume you're in until you've seen the decision. You never truly know what the interviewer thinks about your answers. You also don't know how your evaluation and application stacks up against everyone else that was there. You could leave thinking you did fantastic, and not get in. On the flip side, you could leave feeling terrible about it, and get in. You truly never know until the decision's been made.
I hope that this long thread was helpful and I hope all candidates reading this gets in everywhere they want to go and can achieve their dreams.
My Background:
My current GPA is 3.69(ish), my PCAT score was 74th percentile composite, I interviewed at five pharmacy schools and got accepted into all five.
Debunking interview myths:
Before I had begun the admissions process, all I ever heard was about how competitive it was from my family and professors. While I do agree it is competitive with the limited number of seats available, I think it sometimes paints the wrong picture in our heads. I was under the illusion that it was so cutthroat that the other people interviewing would ignore everyone else and would lie, cheat, and steal to gain a competitive advantage over everyone else. This is NOT TRUE. I only recall one person that was anywhere close to this. All the interviewees are in the same boat you're in and usually won't hesitate to start a conversation with you in between events or before the interview day starts. When I was on my fourth interview I told the guy sitting next to me that I already had some offers, I wasn't their for anybody's blood, and how nice it would be to have more choices. He concurred and the ensuing conversation likely helped us both do well in the interview. Some people, like myself, also believe that once the interview starts, the questions are designed to trip you up and the faculty conducting the interview is looking for every tiny hole in your answers to weed you out. This was also false. The faculty is extremely nice and respectful and want to get to know you better to decide if you're a good fit for their program. Nobody will bite you! They're going to go out of their way to try to make you feel at home because if they accept you, they want you to accept them.
The Interview Day Summarized:
Each of my five interview days lasted between 4 to 7 hours. During that time applicants will listen to an overview from the dean or chief admissions officer, have a Q&A session with student ambassadors, go on a tour of the pharmacy school building, eat lunch that is provided, the formal interview, the group activity and writing assignment, and usually end with a discussion on financial aid. The actual interview is anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. You will receive a schedule at each of the schools that tells you how long each activity is. Next, I'll talk about the interview questions I was commonly asked as well as the group activities and writing assignments. However, to maintain the integrity of each school's evaluation process, I will not match any specific questions or activities to a particular school.
Interview Questions Most Commonly Asked:
1) Tell us what led you to pharmacy / Tell me about yourself.
- I was asked this question, or some variation of it, at all five interviews. They want to hear a thoughtful, compelling story of why you chose pharmacy. If part of your answer is something along the lines of, "I feel called to use my skills to help people and improve quality of life," they like that. You SHOULD NOT say anything about the six-figure salary as part of your reasoning. Also, never answer this question with "I don't know."
2) Why do you want to come to our school?
- From what I've read, this question can throw people off. Don't let it. Go on the school website and memorize some of their statistics and read some testimonials if there are any, and use this as your answer. All they want to see is that you made an educated decision to apply their by doing some research on the school. Don't fabricate an emotional connection to the school. Don't say I don't know.
3) Talk about the responsibilities of a pharmacist and name one responsibility you may not like.
- Hopefully everyone in this position has done enough research on the job of a pharmacist to answer the first part of the question. The second part can be a little trickier. For the second part I said that dealing with the private insurance companies over the phone sounded like a nightmare. Think about it, a patient's plan may appear to cover their prescription drug, the insurance company says they won't cover it, the pharmacist spends hours on the phone with them and ends right back where they started. Plus, I can imagine how irritated one can get when being transferred a dozen times. It's one big spider web of bureaucracy.
4) Talk about a time you worked on a team project where somebody wasn't pulling their own weight and what you did about it.
- Surprisingly, through four years of undergrad, I don't think I've done one group project for any class. I made references to my experience as a current college athlete and former high school athlete. I also talked about teamwork strategies I use at my workplace. They want to see that you're an effective teammate even when it's not smooth sailing. If you can't point to any class project, tell them that and discuss one of the things I just mentioned. If you did community service with a church group or honor society, that works too.
5) Suppose you are taking an exam and you observe that somebody is cheating. That person cheating just so happens to be your best friend. What do you do?
- This is a question of maturity and academic integrity. Understand that there is no room for cheating when you get to this level because everything you learn from this point on will be used on real people and you have to know what you're doing. So I answered this question talking about how hard it would be to turn in your best friend, and then explained why I think anonymous reporting was the correct course of action.
6) What trends have you seen in the field of pharmacy? What direction do you see the field going?
- This one is more likely to come up with the higher ranked schools that are extra selective. They want to see if you've kept up with the news in pharmacy. The best advice I can give you is to google "trends in pharmacy" or "pharmacy news" and study up on a topic. I talked about how some west coast states like California and Oregon had laws in their books allowing pharmacists to write prescriptions for common diseases such as diabetes. I also took a position saying that should be the law in all fifty states. I simply think that's a good idea.
7) Pharmacy school has a heavy workload. Discuss your strategies for managing your time.
- Sometimes they may ask about stress management. For me, if I manage my time wisely, my stress levels are held in check as well. This answer is entirely individual.
8) Talk about any volunteer work you've done.
- Ladies and gentlemen, this was the worst answer I ever gave and I don't want you to make the same mistake as I did. I basically said I didn't have much volunteer experience. That wasn't true though. I did have experience but they didn't come to mind when I needed them. At the end of the day, it didn't matter, but have some volunteer experiences in the back of your mind to talk about. Looking back, I botched an easy question.
9) Name some character traits a good pharmacist should have.
- Think of three words to describe a good pharmacist and give examples of each to the interviewers. If you can't think of specific examples you can explain why you believe these character traits are important. On the flip side they may ask about some character traits to describe you. Hopefully, if you want to be a good pharmacist, the answer to that would be close to the same.
10) What do would you bring to __________ school of pharmacy?
- I can't answer this one for you. This is an opportunity to talk about some skills you have outside academia that would translate well into the field of pharmacy.
Group Activity / Writing Assignment:
The purpose of the group activity is to assess your teamwork skills. The evaluators are less concerned about correct answers and more concerned with whether or not you and your group can come to a consensus. One thing they absolutely don't want to see is one person dominating the whole conversation. Don't be that person. There's usually not any right or wrong answers. Most of them are subjective. One activity involved a list of scenarios of about two sentences each. At the end of each scenario, they asked whether it was plagiarism. If it was, they wanted to know what course of action we would take. Another activity asked us to build a free-standing structure out of uncooked spaghetti noodles, masking tape, and a marshmallow. The marshmallow had to go on top. This next one is the most odd-ball assignment I ever had. The scenario said there was a third world war, everyone was going to die except 6 people, who would live in an underground tunnel with enough food, water, and air for six people for three months. We had to choose from 10 people. We knew all their occupations but not all the genders. The moral of my story is to not be intimidated by the group assignment. It's not hard.
The writing assignment is only hard for students who aren't guided by a set of morals, beliefs, or principles. I actually received the same prompt twice. The prompt was to discuss what professionalism means to me and why it's important in the field of pharmacy. They may ask the same thing with a different word. The reason I said it would be hard for a student not guided by morals and principles is because these prompts put those morals and principles to the test.
Final Tips:
1) Ask plenty of questions to the students during the Q&A. I don't believe they were part of the evaluation but you never know. I had one student write me a personal card with my acceptance letter. I had only met that student that day. While it was a very thoughtful gesture, it gave me a sense that maybe he was part of the decision-making process and we just didn't know.
2) Ask as many questions as you have time for at the end of the formal interview. The worst thing you can do is not ask anything. This is a way for them to gauge your interest level. An applicant who doesn't ask questions can be deemed disinterested by the committee and get rejected or waitlisted.
3) Google pharmacy school interview questions, print those out, answer them, and practice answering them to a real person. If you can't sign up for a mock interview, ask a parent or friend to read you the questions in no particular order and practice conveying your answers.
4) At no point will you be asked a technical question about pharmacy. They understand that you don't know a whole lot and that you're applying their to learn. So don't get scared of that.
5) You're going to be nervous. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can write here that's going to change that. However, I have found that the tensions are reduced as the interview day goes on. The formal interview was usually towards the end of the day. That could be by design. Hopefully you're applying to four or five pharmacy schools like I did because you will improve with each interview.
6) Don't write yourself off or assume you're in until you've seen the decision. You never truly know what the interviewer thinks about your answers. You also don't know how your evaluation and application stacks up against everyone else that was there. You could leave thinking you did fantastic, and not get in. On the flip side, you could leave feeling terrible about it, and get in. You truly never know until the decision's been made.
I hope that this long thread was helpful and I hope all candidates reading this gets in everywhere they want to go and can achieve their dreams.
