PharmCAS

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Should I submit my application NOW even though I am still missing a transcript?

I thought I had to wait to submit it until after they had received all of my materials!

What should I do? I am applying ED for VCU and the deadline is Aug 31... All it is waiting on is a transcript....


Also, if by chance I am not admitted ED for VCU, do I have to complete a whole new PharmCAS application? Or can I just go back in and request it to be sent to more schools?

You can submit and wait for your transcript to arrive. But they won't send out your application until they have everything.

You could call VCU and double check their deadline. Is the deadline for when they receive your pharmcas application, or when you submit to pharmcas?
 
Should I submit my application NOW even though I am still missing a transcript?

I thought I had to wait to submit it until after they had received all of my materials!

What should I do? I am applying ED for VCU and the deadline is Aug 31... All it is waiting on is a transcript....


Also, if by chance I am not admitted ED for VCU, do I have to complete a whole new PharmCAS application? Or can I just go back in and request it to be sent to more schools?

I'm not an expert on VCU admissions, but do they require your summer transcripts for your ED application to be complete? I would send it in anyway to shorten any delays that may occur. Do note that if VCU does require your transcript for prereqs or something, then you need to have them receive it by the deadline.
 
i would put pomona

i go to university of illinois but there are 3 campuses, Springfield,Chicago, and Urbana. so i think thats what they mean

I agree with the person who replied above me. ETSU (the school I go to) has the main campus in Johnson City, TN, but also has a Kingsport campus, for example, but they use the same registrar since the campuses are so close. However, at the University of Tennessee, the main campus is in Knoxville, but they also have large branches in Chattanooga and Memphis, which is extremely far away and most likely has its own registrar. I would just put the town of the campus you attend.

Yup....

To expound on this concept further, many institutions are actually systems of institutions. For example, the University of Nebraska system has the Kearney, Lincoln, Omaha, and Medical Center colleges with Lincoln's campus being the flagship campus. I put down Lincoln for my Campus on my PharmCAS application.

PharmCAS asks this question because sometimes the name of the school does not have the city listed in its title. To avoid confusion with satellite schools, they just want you to verify the campus you attended.
 
Is it correct that pharmcas calculated gpa is higher than the actual gpa???
 
Yeah I have an issue like that too where some of my old engineering classes like e-math and differential equations are playing into my GPA, pulling it down. I got a C in Diff EQ and that is DEFINITELY not needed for pharm. Sucks.
 
I just moved to Richmond, and I am taking 15 credits at VCU in the fall. That is the only transcript I am waiting for. I have put my final grades on the Coursework part of the application for my summer classes... I am sure that transcript won't get there in time, but they have a transcript with 2 of the 4 classes from this summer already submitted. I just have to finish my personal essay tonight and I am going to submit it.... Then finish studying for the PCAT and pray for admission!
 
Is it correct that pharmcas calculated gpa is higher than the actual gpa???

It really depends on your personal situation. Unfortunately, it will bring down my GPA a bit because I took a class in high school at a community college. They consider all courses you've taken in a college. I think the pharmcas site explains how they calculate it if you want to get an estimate of yours. I don't think it is possible to get a higher GPA unless you are talking about a subsection, like non-science or science, etc.
 
I scored a 47 the first time I took the PCAT. The second time I took it I scored a 79. Not impressive compared to most peoples scores but shows much improvement. Some people are just geniuses and others are great test takers. I am neither.
 
It really depends on your personal situation. Unfortunately, it will bring down my GPA a bit because I took a class in high school at a community college. They consider all courses you've taken in a college. I think the pharmcas site explains how they calculate it if you want to get an estimate of yours. I don't think it is possible to get a higher GPA unless you are talking about a subsection, like non-science or science, etc.

Yeah, my GPA goes from a 3.238 to 3.14.....I am so sad now....My freshman and senior year's are 3.5 but my 2nd and 3rd year's are <3.0

Well, I'm hoping for the best again. LLU, please take me! 😉
 
PharmCas is an application site. So once you submit your application they send it to your designated schools. Usually those schools have a secondary to complete. To make life more interesting, not all schools use PharmCAS. PharmCAS won't get the scores until about the time you do, so I guess it all depends on how long the school will be reviewing applications for. You can always call the school and they should be apply to tell you if re-taking the PCAT in Jan is okay. Also, I think you might have time to see what you got on the October test before having to sign up for the Jan one. No point in taking it twice if all goes well!

thank you!
 
I scored a 47 the first time I took the PCAT. The second time I took it I scored a 79. Not impressive compared to most peoples scores but shows much improvement. Some people are just geniuses and others are great test takers. I am neither.

some people are booksmart but people dumb. it all balances out 😛
 
I e-submitted on 8/11...it still doesnt have a mailed date listed. Anyone know how long it takes?
 
on the PharmCAS website it says that it can take up to 4 weeks to process. However, I believe the earlier you submit the quicker it takes to process due to fewer number of applications. mine took 2 weeks and i e-sbmitted in the second to last week of july. however, i added a couple more schools a week ago and have yet to receive a mailing date.
 
just to let you know that the second batch of my applications (which I sent out around the time you e-submitted) were sent out today. my transcripts and LORs were recieved in july though.
 
I submitted on 8/8 and it was mailed to the schools on 8/20.
 
just to let you know that the second batch of my applications (which I sent out around the time you e-submitted) were sent out today. my transcripts and LORs were recieved in july though.

yeaaa..mine were sent out today too. the status says "new". does the status change to indicate that the school's received it?
 
From my experiences last year, I would say that the arrival time of your PharmCAS application materials range in between 1-2 weeks. You should start keeping up with schools regardless though to make sure that mail loss did not occur.
 
yeaaa..mine were sent out today too. the status says "new". does the status change to indicate that the school's received it?

no. my status still says "new" and i have recieved emails from some of my designated schools saying they recieved all of my materials
 
Should I send all my transcripts to PharmCas before e-submit the application?
 
Would they misplace my transcripts if I send them in before e-submit the app? I know it takes them about 5 weeks to calculate the gpa, so I thought by the time I e-submit the application, they would have all the transcripts to calculate the gpa.
 
I've never sent any of my PCAT score to pharmacas , but somehow under test score I saw both pharmcas already received my PCAT scores. I did really bad on the first try, that's why I did not want to send them my score. Is there any way that I could request the score of the first PCAT not posted?
 
i doubt they'd misplace it..but don't qoute me on that.
also i wouldn't think that they'd start working on your application if you haven't even e-submitted it yet..you should probably call them about these questions

and no, there's no way you can withdraw your scores once you've taken the exam
 
Hi,

I was looking at the honors and scholarships portion on pharmcas and was trying to think what I could possibly put there. I'm 26 now and the last scholarship I received was when I graduated from high school back in '99 and I don't even remember how much it was for anymore. Do you recommend I put this down? Also, what about such honors such as most valuable freshman in the marching band? That I got my freshman year in high school but that's going way back. Do I even bother putting this stuff in my application? Has anyone ever left this portion completely blank? What about honors I've received at work where I get like a $25 amazon gift certificate or a small cash amount, sort of equivalent to a gold star? Does this count? I don't know but I'm sort of grasping at straws here? Any advice? Thanks!
 
I am 26 also and earning my 2nd Bachelors. I listed two scholarships I received in 99. But I remebered them, and was able to list them accurately. I didn't list anything from high school, though. I didn't list anything from work either-although I think employee of the month would be a worthwhile listing.
 
I wouldn't worry about leaving this part blank if you need to. I think it's hard for a lot of people to have anything for this section. I wouldn't include anything from high school, but anything after should be okay. I feel employee of the month type awards are fine...shows you are a good worker, which is always a plus!
 
Leaving it blank is not a big deal. If you don't have a scholarship, you don't have one, it's kinda hard to get one just to put in the app. I guess you can put frivolous honors like a $25 gift card but I doubt it would make a difference if you put them in or not in getting accepted to a school. If it does, I'm putting down that my mom gave me a $100 gift card because I was her best son. 🙂
 
If you have any way of looking up that scholarship information, you should list it. The information might be available through your previous college's financial aid office, if it was applied toward your tuition and if they keep records from that far back.

As for high school, I'm including one award from back then, but only because I won a statewide competition and figure it's worth mentioning. Just use your best judgment.
 
on the PharmCAS website it says that it can take up to 4 weeks to process. However, I believe the earlier you submit the quicker it takes to process due to fewer number of applications. mine took 2 weeks and i e-sbmitted in the second to last week of july. however, i added a couple more schools a week ago and have yet to receive a mailing date.

From my experiences last year, I would say that the arrival time of your PharmCAS application materials range in between 1-2 weeks. You should start keeping up with schools regardless though to make sure that mail loss did not occur.



Is this 2 weeks after they calculated your GPA or 2 weeks after you e-submitted (including time taken to calculate GPA)?
 
Is this 2 weeks after they calculated your GPA or 2 weeks after you e-submitted (including time taken to calculate GPA)?
my gpa was calculated long before I actually submitted because getting my transcripts to pharmCAS was one of the first things I did, before even writing my personal statement. so to answer your question, it is 2 weeks after i e-submitted. i think it takes longer if pharmCAS as to calculate your GPA
 
And how about doing your own work? If you posted what YOU thought and asked for people's input, that might fly. Why don't you ask people to fill out your entire application AND write you personal statement and maybe interview for you, too?
 
This came up earlier this year (April/May I think). At that point in time, the consensus appeared to be that participation in SDN forums did not constitute a valid extracurricular activity. There are a few reasons for this. 1st, it's anonymous. There's no real way they could verify your claim (even if you gave a username, they have no way to verify that it's really you) 2. As you've listed above, there are a lot of categories that aren't cut and dry. I may spend 3 hours on SDN, my "participation" in discussion varies.

Having said all this, when my interviewer at USC asked if I had any recent volunteer experience (since most of volunteer hours had been 5 years ago or better) I did mention my advisor status on SDN and what that entailed. I don't know if it was beneficial or not, but I got accepted, so it doesn't appear to have been too detrimental to my application. If you think that it's worthwhile, you don't have anything (and I do mean ANYTHING) else, then sure, go ahead. But it may be taken as a weak attempt at volunteerism at best, and embarrising attempt at worst.
 
One of the schools I am applying to regards "extensive research about pharmacy careers" to be extremely important for those applicants who do not have prior pharmacy work or volunteer experience. Therefore, I think it might be a positive thing to place SDN on the extracurricular page to show that in my free time I am networking with other pre-pharmacy students, pharmacy students, pharmacists, pharmacy techs, etc., as in a school-ased Pre-Pharmacy Club. For those of you that do not think it is silly to put down the SDN forum as an extracurricular, how did you describe it in terms of:

Name of Organization

Position Title/Brief Description

Is the extracurricular activity related to pharmacy or health care?

If yes, select the health care professional or profession most closely associated with activity

Select the primary setting for pharmacy or health care experience:

Total Number of Hours Over Span of Experience (0-99999)

Average Weekly Hours (0-999)

Hi there, I agree with you on the rudeness, I totally think somebody is just very bitter and thats their problem. I do think ur idea is actually very interesting. Techniquelly, I don't find any problem with putting SDN down as ur EC activities.
 
My payment showed as received since last week....and my gpa has been calculated...so when will they mail it to the schools?
 
...so when will they mail it to the schools?

I don't know, but he wait is killing me!

I submitted my Pharmcas (and it was verified) on 8/21. It is now 9/03 and they still haven't mailed my sh#t out!! Seriously, they need to hurry up.
 
What does it mean when it says "was" under "Early Decision Status" in the Designations section?? I did apply ED. Thanks!
 
I was kind of curious myself. I figure if no one has an answer, I'll ring them tomorrow and ask a live person.
 
I applied ED too and have the same question. Just out of curiosity, what schools did you all apply to?
 
I know.....I just want it to be sent and over with already lol
 
I think it is bullsh*t how PharmCAS doesn't do weekly mailings!

I've been calling PharmCAS on a routine basis to inquire about the mailing of my application and, from what I understand, they do mailings about every other week (if that). IMO, they wait for a certain number of applications to be submitted before doing a mailing (perhaps it saves money).

Either way, they need to do hurry up, I have completed and mailed in six out of my ten supplemental applications so far....
 
I have already e-submitted my PharmCAS application and have a calculated GPA but I don't have a mailing date from them yet. Should I wait to receive a mailing date to the schools I applied to on PharmCAS before I submit any supplemental materials such as the USC online supplemental? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
What does it mean when it says "was" under "Early Decision Status" in the Designations section?? I did apply ED. Thanks!


I was going to ask the very same question as I checked my pharmcas page this morning.it said the same thing and I was wondering what it means. I also applied ED.

I will think its not a bad thing.This is funny cos since morning that I saw it,I've been trying to formulate a word that goes with WAS and I could not find any.At one point,I was guessing maybe it means "WAITING on ADMISSION STATUS" hahahha!!!!.

I'm as curious as you guys to know what it means. If anyone gets a hang of it,pls let us know.
 
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