PharmCAS

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Normally, the first three schools are free with additional designations costing more with the waiver. For non-waiver applicants, they have to pay for the first three designations ($135 for the 1st one, $40 for each additional designation after that). So, it tells you to list the first three because you will get those for free and then the others will cost money ($40 for each additional one).

As for your other concern, schools don't discriminate based on socioeconomic status. If they did and someone found out, then that school is going to draw heat from people. I think that notification factors into schools granting waivers for secondary application fees, which are uncommon and require contacting the director of admissions for consideration.
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How is everyone getting their science GPA? Does Pharmcas show that after you submit your app or are you guys just calculating it yourself?
 
Brandie28 said:
How is everyone getting their science GPA? Does Pharmcas show that after you submit your app or are you guys just calculating it yourself?
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Normally, I got it from my transcript because I didn't have any science course retakes. PharmCAS does generate a science GPA for you, but I don't remember if it was made available to me on my report. When you finish your application, you should have the option to print out your application. If the science GPA would be anywhere, it would be there. I don't remember it being there, but it has been months since I looked at it and I don't have it anymore.:)
 
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I believe the science GPA shows up after you submit and after PharmCAS has verified what you have entered against all of the official transcripts they receive for you. After all transcripts have been received and verified against what has been entered by the applicant, the cumulative and science GPAs appear on the report.
 
Brandie28 said:
How is everyone getting their science GPA? Does Pharmcas show that after you submit your app or are you guys just calculating it yourself?
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PharmCAS calculates and makes available Sci/Math/Cumulative GPA's. They're available online once your GPA has been verified against your transcripts. They are updated after the Academic Update window and receipt of updated transcripts. You'd see them on the Status>GPAs menu bar at the top of the PharmCAS page after you've logged in to your application. Rarely does anyone post their Math GPA because the science classes are considered more important. (Chem/Bio vs Calc)
 
I am entering in my coursework for pharmcas. I am entering it exactly as it appears on my transcript. Do I have to say that an online course is "distance learning" even if it doesn't say so on my transcript? (It just shows up like the normal, on campus classes do.)
 
Hi, guys~
I have a question about entering course work in PharmCas
first of all, here is my situation.
I took a stat class at community college when I was a junior in HIGH SCHOOL during summer and I ended up dropping it and got W. Of course, I took stat class when I went to the university (my primary college). After I graduate, I went back to that CC and took some classes (some classes that i didn't do too well, etc) and I didn't realized that the grade W was on the transcript until now!!! :( I talked to the counselor about it too but he said even though I took it while i was in high school it stays in my record permanently.
Since I need to report any classes that I completed in pharmcas, I decided to put it in.
Here's the problem.
WHen entering NEW SESSION, what do I choose for ACADEMIC STATUS?
I wasn't even a freshmen when I took that stat class at CC (i was still in high school)
I even though about just ignoring that and just enter classes that I completed later but eventually Pharmcas will see it when they receive the transcript

Please tell me what to do~~~
 
Great question -- I'm wondering the same thing. Anybody?
 
I don't think there is an option such as distance learning or online on the PharmCAS! I took 2 classes online , but it is not mentioned on my transcrit and I don't remember having the option to choose online course, so I just left it as it is. I don't think you should worry about that.
 
I put Freshman for status for college classes taken when I was in High School. There are no other options. But when you put the calendar year it was taken, it shows you were still in high school.
 
I had a similar experience where I took General Biology during my senior year in high school. The key is to get the year correctly.

In reality, it isn't a big deal as long as the class is listed. The people at PharmCAS will double-check your application anyway and pharmacy schools are more concerned about the prereqs being done and the grade is said classes. The time you take a class only matters if you took the class a long time ago where the schools may wonder if its still valid.
 
Well, there is an option to put distance learning under specifications. I'd rather not put it though, since my transcript doesn't even specify.
 
Careypotpie said:
Well, there is an option to put distance learning under specifications. I'd rather not put it though, since my transcript doesn't even specify.
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I'm not sure what the issue is with online vs campus-based courses. If you were applying to a school that does distance courses (e.g. Creighton Web based) it could actually be beneficial. I believe it was p 27 on the pharmcas instructions that covers the special conditions including distance learning. I don't have the instructions in front of me, but my guess would be you should mark it distance learning if it was web based, even if it doesn't indicate it on your transcripts. You could always call PharmCAS and ask since they'll be verifying the transcripts anyway they may just say it would cause confusion if you mark distance and it's not indicated that way on the transcript. In that case you'd at least have justification not to mark it.
 
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The community college would have considered you as a freshman based on the number of units completed by you at their school at the time. CC units would be considered lower division (Fr-Soph) by PharmCAS.
 
I just added a second professor to my pharmcas application. The first has been listed since 6/02, yet PharmCAS has not yet sent out the request for a letter. Does anyone know why? Shouldn't they send the letter request within a day or two of me listing a professor with full email/phone etc contact info?
 
If you have not e-submitted your application they won't send the email.
 
jasonargos said:
I just added a second professor to my pharmcas application. The first has been listed since 6/02, yet PharmCAS has not yet sent out the request for a letter. Does anyone know why? Shouldn't they send the letter request within a day or two of me listing a professor with full email/phone etc contact info?
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How did you find out that your first evaluator has not received the LOR email? Did you ask him/her?
 
does pharmcas count B+, B, B- as just 3.0?
 
I did a search and this topic has been mentioned just a few times, but I want to go one or two levels deeper.

As I understand it, the "Total Number Of Hours" section on PharmCAS refers to the cumulative amount of hours you have put in up to that very moment. However, isn't this system flawed for pharmacy schools that review all their applications at once?

For example, UCSF reviews everything starting in November. But, if Applicant A submitted her application on July and answered her "Total Number Of Hours" section only up to July, Applicant A is putting herself at a disadvantage versus Applicant B who submitted his application on say, October 25. Do you get what I'm saying?

I'm just asking because I don't know if I should answer the "Total Number Of Hours" section at all. I think that responding to it by hours up to the very moment makes the measuring stick for applicants inaccurate. Wouldn't it be better if all applicants answered this section by the total number of hours they *WILL* have put in by the time they quit (which would be August prior to matriculation, since I mean, we are all applying to get accepted to pharmacy school...) This method would create an accurate measurement for all applicants. Is it okay for applicants to put in their total number of hours with the amount they will have completed by August 2008?
 
3.3 = B+
3.0 = B
2.7 = B-
 
To be honest, you're really figuratively splitting hairs with this question. Is a person who spends 300 hours in a pharmacy better than a person who only spends 200? Perhaps, but with around 1000 applications to review, the school probably is looking for tangible time spent in a volunteer/ec/pharmacy position more than the exact amount of time. Though I know of schools that use some formula to rank candidates (Wingate I know has a type of system like this), I just think it's too impractical and unverifiable to differentiate the quality of experiences between candidates precisely enough.

My point is, I don't think it matters enough to make or break an application. I highly doubt that your Applicant B would chosen over Applicant A if all other things were equal and B had 200 hours in a nursing home to the point of application while A only had 125 hours in a soup kitchen to the point of the early application. What is more significant to the schools is that both have had ample and consistent experience and if there was an experience in pharmacy if applicable.

Your GPA, PCAT score, prereq progress, and perhaps significant pharmacy experience are the driving factors to getting an interview. Your interview and glowing LORs perhaps are the make-or-break points of your application. Everything else is really filler and supporting materials that won't be reviewed as critically as the aforementioned factors I've mentioned. The extracurricular quality counts of course, but not as deep as you question indicates.
 
chakavak said:
If you have not e-submitted your application they won't send the email.
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That is not right, at least to my own understanding.I'm almost done with my application right and similar thing happened to me.

Immediately you list the names,the computer generated questions goes to the person and an e-mail is sent to your mailbox by pharmcas saying that the person has received whatever it is they are sending.

But just In case you call the professor or phamacist as the case may be and they tell you it was not received,then you can ask for an altenative e-mail from them because sometimes their e-mail recognizes it as a junk mail.

Then you can delete their "old" e-mail address and replace it with the new one. You have until you e-submit your application to change whoever is writing your letters of recommendation.

But if you still have further questions or you're not satisfied,you canalways call pharmcas to confirm.

Good luck to you
 
jasonargos said:
I just added a second professor to my pharmcas application. The first has been listed since 6/02, yet PharmCAS has not yet sent out the request for a letter. Does anyone know why? Shouldn't they send the letter request within a day or two of me listing a professor with full email/phone etc contact info?
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Did your professors check their spam filters? Sometimes, legit e-mails can find their way there.
 
PharmCAS's website says that they'll email you when they email the professor. I must have gotten caught in the system or such, because today, I got a letter saying that they emailed the professor I listed yesterday, and another email saying the same for the professor I added two weeks ago. I guess whatever it was it's fixed now.
 
chakavak said:
If you have not e-submitted your application they won't send the email.
Click to expand...

While the statement is not entirely accurate, I did find this on the PharmCAS instructions.

EDITING YOUR LIST OF REFERENCES
If one or more of your evaluators is unresponsive or declines your invitation to submit a letter of reference on your behalf, you may edit your evaluator contact information on your PharmCAS application before or after you e-submit your application to PharmCAS. You cannot make edits to your evaluator’s information once the evaluator’s reference is received.
 
hmm.... I just asked for a LOR today, filled in the needed information, and the email was sent to my professor in less than 1 hr. so it seems to be working fine. Maybe you should delete that entry and then fill in the information again? see if that works? good luck!

oh side question: my professor asked me who he should address the Letter of REcommendation to .. does anybody know the answer to this question? I've looked in the FAQ and browsed through this forum but haven't found an answer yet.
 
How about:

Whomever it may concern:
Admissions Committee:
Pharmacy Admissions Dept:
Admissions Board:

Etc. Personally, I like number 2 or 3.

TDTD said:
hmm.... I just asked for a LOR today, filled in the needed information, and the email was sent to my professor in less than 1 hr. so it seems to be working fine. Maybe you should delete that entry and then fill in the information again? see if that works? good luck!

oh side question: my professor asked me who he should address the Letter of REcommendation to .. does anybody know the answer to this question? I've looked in the FAQ and browsed through this forum but haven't found an answer yet.
Click to expand...
 
jasonargos said:
How about:

Whomever it may concern:
Admissions Committee:
Pharmacy Admissions Dept:
Admissions Board:

Etc. Personally, I like number 2 or 3.
Click to expand...

Exactly....

Since the same one letter goes out to all the pharmacy schools, the LOR writers can't really personalize their message any more than this.
 
Is it truly necessary to enter all the coursework into the coursework section of the application. That is so tedious! Sorry - just complaining, but glad that I started early! :(
 
CaliCPhT said:
Is it truly necessary to enter all the coursework into the coursework section of the application. That is so tedious! Sorry - just complaining, but glad that I started early! :(
Click to expand...

it's a pretty crucial part of the app.
 
CaliCPhT said:
Is it truly necessary to enter all the coursework into the coursework section of the application. That is so tedious! Sorry - just complaining, but glad that I started early! :(
Click to expand...

PharmCAS workers will double-check any courses you may have missed, so it may delay your application if you leave out a bunch of courses.

Though I think PharmCAS needs to design a more intuitive input system, it's a necessary burden for us. I had to enter about four years worth of college coursework = not fun.
 
No kidding Omni - I have 4+ years of coursework. Sheesh!!! And to top it all off, I messed it up at first and didn't break it out by the term, so I have to go back and enter it all again. *groan* On the grand scheme of things, this is really a small part of it. :cool:
 
CaliCPhT said:
No kidding Omni - I have 4+ years of coursework. Sheesh!!! And to top it all off, I messed it up at first and didn't break it out by the term, so I have to go back and enter it all again. *groan* On the grand scheme of things, this is really a small part of it. :cool:
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And tedious. I had 8 years of school work 95-96 and 00-07. And four different schools. My planned courses were being taken at two schools simultaneously so that stunk too. By the end though, it's more of a funny memory than a disgruntling one.
 
Has anyone had their previous PCAT scores show up on Pharmcas yet?
I received my letter from Harcout stating they had mailed my transcript to Pharmcas on June 4th. I emailed Pharmcas and they stated that all PCAT scores received so far would be posted by the end of this week (Friday, June 22).

Nothing on my test status so far...anyone else?
 
mtgirl said:
Has anyone had their previous PCAT scores show up on Pharmcas yet?
I received my letter from Harcout stating they had mailed my transcript to Pharmcas on June 4th. I emailed Pharmcas and they stated that all PCAT scores received so far would be posted by the end of this week (Friday, June 22).

Nothing on my test status so far...anyone else?
Click to expand...

I also received the very same letter but it has not yet been posted on my PharmCas page too.

So you are not alone.
 
CaliCPhT said:
No kidding Omni - I have 4+ years of coursework. Sheesh!!! And to top it all off, I messed it up at first and didn't break it out by the term, so I have to go back and enter it all again. *groan* On the grand scheme of things, this is really a small part of it. :cool:
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So did I.i I messed it all up by not breaking them in tersm and I ad to go back and start all over.

It's worth it though
 
Trackster said:
So did I.i I messed it all up by not breaking them in tersm and I ad to go back and start all over.

It's worth it though
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One of the biggest problems with PharmCAS is that it doesn't allow you to visualize what you have entered for each semester so you're sort of blind to any errors unless to click back to the main course page every so often.
 
CaliCPhT said:
Is it truly necessary to enter all the coursework into the coursework section of the application. That is so tedious! Sorry - just complaining, but glad that I started early! :(
Click to expand...

Oh, GAWD! I know. I have a degree already (history) from one university. Started bio at another-ended up transferring to a 2nd--I think I have over 200 hrs to enter! :eek::scared::(:mad:
 
A

High school accolades no longer matters in college, even though the National Merit Scholar thing segues into college.

Some people do suggest listing a Deans List entry once and just using the description box to state the number of times awarded.
 
nahmytbf said:
Ok, then how about a university-sponsored scholarship, which is full-tuition, and includes with it a program that gives scholars several extracurricular experiences throughout their 4 years in college? ...would this also count as a "high school accolade", since technically I got it before entering college?

As for the Dean's List, I thought it would be obvious in my case since I have a 3.98 GPA and haven't made below an A-.
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With a 3.98 GPA, I don't think it matters either way.;) But I would put the university-sponsored scholarship since that would be more college-based. I assume that high grades are required to renew the scholarship so its more pertinent to college IMO. Given your GPA, I don't think schools care either way.
 
omnione said:
With a 3.98 GPA, I don't think it matters either way.;) But I would put the university-sponsored scholarship since that would be more college-based. I assume that high grades are required to renew the scholarship so its more pertinent to college IMO. Given your GPA, I don't think schools care either way.
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Besides, I believe pharmcas instructions advise you to list Dean's list in ECs anyway. If you've got room there, you wouldn't have to worry about it. (Check the "application" thread, I put in the link, and what the instructions said on this issue)
 
I'm having trouble deciding which course subject to put for:
-biostats (math?)
-public health (general non-science?)
-psychobiology (social/behavorial science?)
-GE cluster classes (general non-science? or do i specify if one's literature based (english/lit?) and the others as history/sociology based? (social sci? or gen non-sci?))
-general chem (other science?)
-psych (behavorial sci?)
 
Normally, most colleges like to crosslist course numbers across multiple departments. So for courses like biostatistics, it is often crosslisted as a biology and statistics. For your question though, it's important to make the right decision as choosing between a non-science and science designation for a course, like biopsychology, affects your PharmCAS science GPA.

The rule of thumb I use when deciding is to determine the main department teaching the class. Even though a class may be crosslisted, often times really one department provides the instructors for it. For example, The biopsychology class at my school was taught by a psychology professor every semester and is considered by many to be more of a psychology class than a biology class. So, I didn't apply the biology designation to this class.

So for you:

1. Biostatistics: Look it up. At my school, this tends to be taught by biology professors, but it may differ at your school.

2. Public Health: Sounds right....definitely not science

3. Biopsychology: Probably psychology (social science) but check with your school.

4. GE Cluster: General non-science because the course sounds like it was intended to be a more general collection of courses. So, social sciences would be too specific.

5. General Chem: That is a true science course you have there.;)

6. Psychology: Social science, behavioral....any of those works whatever PharmCAS has listed on there.
 
omnione said:
Normally, most colleges like to crosslist course numbers across multiple departments. So for courses like biostatistics, it is often crosslisted as a biology and statistics. For your question though, it's important to make the right decision as choosing between a non-science and science designation for a course, like biopsychology, affects your PharmCAS science GPA.

The rule of thumb I use when deciding is to determine the main department teaching the class. Even though a class may be crosslisted, often times really one department provides the instructors for it. For example, The biopsychology class at my school was taught by a psychology professor every semester and is considered by many to be more of a psychology class than a biology class. So, I didn't apply the biology designation to this class.

So for you:

1. Biostatistics: Look it up. At my school, this tends to be taught by biology professors, but it may differ at your school.

2. Public Health: Sounds right....definitely not science

3. Biopsychology: Probably psychology (social science) but check with your school.

4. GE Cluster: General non-science because the course sounds like it was intended to be a more general collection of courses. So, social sciences would be too specific.

5. General Chem: That is a true science course you have there.;)

6. Psychology: Social science, behavioral....any of those works whatever PharmCAS has listed on there.
Click to expand...


PharmCAS instructions give a breakdown of your options and gives a list of classes that fit that designation.
http://www.pharmcas.org/docs/Instructions200708.pdf
bottom of p 26-top of 27
Some of your classes (general chem and psych at least) are listed in that breakdown, so that should help you put them in what PharmCAS considers the correct category. I'd check for a few others. Anything not listed in their breakdown, I'd follow Omniones reasoning or perhaps call PharmCAS if you think it's crucial.

I know my Chemistry Seminar classes didn't really fit anywhere and I sorted them by emphasis. 1 Seminar class was a presentation, the other was a writing assignment. I made one public speaking and the other English. Even though they were both classified in the chemistry department.
 
Quick question, I just moved to South Florida, and I already have an AA from my old community college..Im just taking a couple classes, like physics and literature before I enter in to pharm school in 08 (gotta be optimistic ;) and i am tryin to enter all my coursework into pharmcas. how do they want you to specify which classes you WILL BE taking? Im not recieving or seeking a degree from this new school, I just have like 3 classes I want to take. So when i put in non degree seeking etc for all the fields and hit save, it just takes me back to the screen where I have my institutions that i've attended. Do i just update this upon completion of the courses and go ahead and submit my app to pharmcas?? thanks for the help!
 
hey guys i've got a question... i am applying for fall of 08, currently working on pharmcas. i am taking two classes this summer and they are both pharmacy prerequisites (one of them to almost every school, one of them to a lot of schools). im trying to figure out if i should go ahead and input my grades and send transcripts to pharmcas right now, or wait until i have the grades for the summer courses. i am doing well in the summer courses and should get two A's, but it won't affect my gpa much (move it from 3.35-3.37 or 3.38). however, i thought since they are both prereqs, it might be better to have them in there.. also pharmcas doesn't submit to schools until aug 1. and i will get the grades probably a week or two after that so it will set my application back maybe one month? what do you guys think i should do? one more thing, i am taking the august pcat, so they won't have my pcat scores and complete file until the grades get sent to them. so maybe there is no point in me doing it now and i should just wait until the summer grades come out? also, if my file isn't complete until september, do you think i will be at a disadvantage? i've got a 3.35 completed a double major in genetics and biology, but not much pharmacy experience (a little bit of shadowing) and not much volunteering. but i've been a ta for biology and worked at a hospital and done research.. just nothing i wasn't getting credit for or that was unpaid
 
I would wait and add your summer classes before submitting. Otherwise, you cannot add them until December. Pharmcas will go ahead and send out your application to your schools after receiving your transcripts. They will then forward your PCAT score after it comes in.
 
is it beneficial in any way to have your file sent to the pharmacy schools earlier if your pcat scores are not yet included?
 
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