PhORCAS

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KARM12

KARM12

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New residency centralized application service for residency candidates. Site is not open yet, but here is the info from ASHP.

http://www.ashp.org/phorcas
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minette said:
It seems like it will make the residency application process less stressful for students
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And more expensive.

We were talking the other day about the fees, and people are gonna have to pay more now for residency apps because of PhORCAS.
 
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I would have gladly paid more because the time to get stuff put together was just annoying.

I wonder if this will just increase the # of applicants to programs due to the ease of sending another application off.
 
rxlea said:
How many is too many?
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The largest I've ever heard was 27. This is too many. The guy was a re-applicant, but at the end he decided that he didn't really want to do a residency unless he got into one of his top choices so he didn't even end up ranking that many.

I applied to 9. I think 8-10 is a good number, with 12 being OK. Probably anything over 12 is too much.
 
rxlea said:
How many is too many?
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bacillus1 said:
The largest I've ever heard was 27. This is too many. The guy was a re-applicant, but at the end he decided that he didn't really want to do a residency unless he got into one of his top choices so he didn't even end up ranking that many.

I applied to 9. I think 8-10 is a good number, with 12 being OK. Probably anything over 12 is too much.
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I'd also say this depends on the quality of the programs you're applying to vs the quality of your application. If your app is great and you're only applying to good programs, I'd say 5 would be sufficient. If I were applying to some more middle of the road programs (or my app was better :p ), I'd apply to less. But I'm sticking with competitive programs with a few safeties so I'm going 10-12
 
Apply broadly...programs are so different in what they look for in candidates. It is hard for me to judge the number because it is so different than when I was a student...I think the ~10 range is good. Chances are you won't get interviews at all of them.
 
KARM12 said:
Apply broadly...programs are so different in what they look for in candidates. It is hard for me to judge the number because it is so different than when I was a student...I think the ~10 range is good. Chances are you won't get interviews at all of them.
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Can you tell when students don't consider your site number 1 or 2? and do the less competitive programs rank what they perceive to be more competitive students lower if they think the student won't pick them? I know sometimes that happens with med schools. I know students and sites aren't supposed to "game" the system but have you heard of something like that happening? Can residency sites ask a student how many residencies they applied to?
 
rxlea said:
Can you tell when students don't consider your site number 1 or 2? and do the less competitive programs rank what they perceive to be more competitive students lower if they think the student won't pick them? I know sometimes that happens with med schools. I know students and sites aren't supposed to "game" the system but have you heard of something like that happening? Can residency sites ask a student how many residencies they applied to?
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I've been asked where I applied, but that doesn't really mean I like one program better than others. I guess if you apply somewhere really competitive and you interview at a small community hosp, it might come into play.
 
rxlea said:
Can you tell when students don't consider your site number 1 or 2? and do the less competitive programs rank what they perceive to be more competitive students lower if they think the student won't pick them? I know sometimes that happens with med schools. I know students and sites aren't supposed to "game" the system but have you heard of something like that happening? Can residency sites ask a student how many residencies they applied to?
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We still put the best candidates toward the top... if we don't like an applicant, we simply don't rank them. It isn't to anyone's advantage to try to outsmart the system because if the top candidates pick someone else, you simply just keep moving down the list. Top applicants at one site may not be a top aaplicant at another site. This year we got a handful of our top applicants and then a lot in the middle to bottom range. But we were really good about throwing out any applicant that we didn't want instead of risk getting them by ranking them...it worked well this year, so far some of those "bottom" applicants are proving to be better residents than their higher ranked co-residents. You can only tell so much from an interview

We don't usually ask where else people have applied. To me it doesn't matter...but I did have programs ask me this when I interviewed. I think they like to know that other programs see you as a competitive applicant.
 
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Interesting. I'm going to apply broadly in my region of interest and in state. I have been looking through the various programs and talking to residents. I'm not going to apply to any that I think I wouldn't be happy at. But it's hard to tell from what's posted online. And even harder to know what they are looking for.
 
bacillus1 said:
I've been asked where I applied, but that doesn't really mean I like one program better than others. I guess if you apply somewhere really competitive and you interview at a small community hosp, it might come into play.
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That's what I'm worried about. I like rural health as much as I like a large, academic teaching institution. So I'm probably going to apply to both.
 
rxlea said:
That's what I'm worried about. I like rural health as much as I like a large, academic teaching institution. So I'm probably going to apply to both.
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Would the residency be helpful along with your PhD. I never even thought about getting one because I feel that I already have a better clinical background compared to my peers in my field. A residency would be a little.. overkill. If I remember correctly, your area of interest was comparative research and health discrepancy.
 
hereticmnk said:
Would the residency be helpful along with your PhD. I never even thought about getting one because I feel that I already have a better clinical background compared to my peers in my field. A residency would be a little.. overkill. If I remember correctly, your area of interest was comparative research and health discrepancy.
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considering I'm not 100% sure what I want to do with my life, I'm going to cover all my bases. Plus, my PhD isn't going to teach me how to manage hypertensive crisis or how to treat yersinnia pestis.... And my PharmD isn't going to teach me how to analyze large data sets to translate all those hypertensive crises and yersinnia pestis infections into reported health outcomes nor will it teach me pharmacoeconomic modeling.

I think they complement each other perfectly and a residency will give me the clinical knowledge/foundation I'll need to truly understand the meaning of all those reported outcomes. Besides, what they teach in school isn't always what you see in practice. I think it's important to have the practical knowledge.

And I love patients. Even medicaid babies. :D
 
rxlea said:
considering I'm not 100% sure what I want to do with my life, I'm going to cover all my bases. Plus, my PhD isn't going to teach me how to manage hypertensive crisis or how to treat yersinnia pestis.... And my PharmD isn't going to teach me how to analyze large data sets to translate all those hypertensive crises and yersinnia pestis infections into reported health outcomes nor will it teach me pharmacoeconomic modeling.

I think they complement each other perfectly and a residency will give me the clinical knowledge/foundation I'll need to truly understand the meaning of all those reported outcomes. Besides, what they teach in school isn't always what you see in practice. I think it's important to have the practical knowledge.

And I love patients. Even medicaid babies. :D
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Oh God lea, its too early for shots!
 
joetrisman said:
Oh God lea, its too early for shots!
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True! But damn do I feel like having some today. It's going to be another loooong day.

PS since I banned myself from fb, I haven't had the chance to read/respond to your message but I'll look at it today. I SHOULD ban myself from SDN but then I'd miss all the fun.
 
rxlea said:
considering I'm not 100% sure what I want to do with my life, I'm going to cover all my bases. Plus, my PhD isn't going to teach me how to manage hypertensive crisis or how to treat yersinnia pestis.... And my PharmD isn't going to teach me how to analyze large data sets to translate all those hypertensive crises and yersinnia pestis infections into reported health outcomes nor will it teach me pharmacoeconomic modeling.

I think they complement each other perfectly and a residency will give me the clinical knowledge/foundation I'll need to truly understand the meaning of all those reported outcomes. Besides, what they teach in school isn't always what you see in practice. I think it's important to have the practical knowledge.

And I love patients. Even medicaid babies. :D
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The direction I am going involves little clinical knowledge. My university has access to tons of data sets in Medicaid patients and we have been exploiting that like crazy.We have like 4-5 papers due on that this semester alone based on Medicaid data sets. You are obviously excited for what you are doing so I am not going to be a Betty Downer. I am pretty much going the econ route so I don't see much utility in my clinical skill-set and might be biased a little bit. But if you go the epi route, then your clinical skills might be useful. When are you done with your PharmD?
 
hereticmnk said:
The direction I am going involves little clinical knowledge. My university has access to tons of data sets in Medicaid patients and we have been exploiting that like crazy.We have like 4-5 papers due on that this semester alone based on Medicaid data sets. You are obviously excited for what you are doing so I am not going to be a Betty Downer. I am pretty much going the econ route so I don't see much utility in my clinical skill-set and might be biased a little bit. But if you go the epi route, then your clinical skills might be useful. When are you done with your PharmD?
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2014. Getting there. The long days are no fun though. Didn't leave school until just now
 
rxlea said:
2014. Getting there. The long days are no fun though. Didn't leave school until just now
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I didn't realize you had that long to go.The PhD program is going to be easier than pharmacy school, so just endure the last few years of pharmacy school. It gets better :D
 
rxlea said:
Uh no. PhD is harder. By a long shot.
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Hmmm.. well it depends on what you end up doing. My first semester seems a little easy, maybe it will get worse, who knows. I am very familiar with the faculty in your college and would be interested to know who you end up picking as your major professor.You have some great people to chose from. One of your faculty members has a very active role in our online program and has a great reputation as a pharmacoeconomist :)
 
hereticmnk said:
Hmmm.. well it depends on what you end up doing. My first semester seems a little easy, maybe it will get worse, who knows. I am very familiar with the faculty in your college and would be interested to know who you end up picking as your major professor.You have some great people to chose from. One of your faculty members has a very active role in our online program and has a great reputation as a pharmacoeconomist :)
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I already know! I can tell you elsewhere though as we don't want to hijack this thread anymore. So PM me if you want to discuss more. I've already started some projects and took a PhD class last semester, 3 this semester. Biostats is my nemesis because of STATA...which I'm not very good at :p
 
rxlea said:
I already know! I can tell you elsewhere though as we don't want to hijack this thread anymore. So PM me if you want to discuss more. I've already started some projects and took a PhD class last semester, 3 this semester. Biostats is my nemesis because of STATA...which I'm not very good at :p
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Ewwww don't learn stata.. Spend your time learning SAS instead and lol I agree on your suggestion to stop hijacking the thread. Can't PM on ma phone so check your PMs soon :D
 
Any idea on when this is actually going to launch?? I'm ready to get this show on the road and start uploading stuff to phorcas! Especially with the whole LOR thing and problems with waiting till the last minute to get one, you'd think they'd already have it up.
 
joetrisman said:
Any idea on when this is actually going to launch?? I'm ready to get this show on the road and start uploading stuff to phorcas! Especially with the whole LOR thing and problems with waiting till the last minute to get one, you'd think they'd already have it up.
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I think I heard sometime in October.
 
It is going to drive you crazy waiting to submit. My though it is probably best to wait to submit until after Midyear if you are attending. That way you get a chance to talk to some of the programs first before applying. That is another 2 months and then another 1-2 months to wait to hear if you got an interview....
 
KARM12 said:
It is going to drive you crazy waiting to submit. My though it is probably best to wait to submit until after Midyear if you are attending. That way you get a chance to talk to some of the programs first before applying. That is another 2 months and then another 1-2 months to wait to hear if you got an interview....
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It already is driving me crazy :p More than anything, I was excited about Phorcas launching as I could get my LORs in line. But apparently it seems they don't start taking reference letters till Nov 19th.
 
joetrisman said:
It already is driving me crazy :p More than anything, I was excited about Phorcas launching as I could get my LORs in line. But apparently it seems they don't start taking reference letters till Nov 19th.
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Also looks like residencies can't see applications until Nov 19th if I am understanding these directions correctly. That gives me some time to get all my ducks in a row.
 
Phorcas requires all transcripts from all colleges attended (apparently this is the same with pharmcas but I never used it). Due to a transfer, a summer class, and my mba, I need 5 transcripts and each require a special form be sent with the transcript. Ugh :scared:

I guess it could be worse, I could have AP classes to track down...
 
2 of my transcripts can't be easily sent because
1) university doesn't send to PO box addresses
2) other university only sends electronically; therefore I can't include the Phorcas form
 
lactonerx said:
2 of my transcripts can't be easily sent because
1) university doesn't send to PO box addresses
2) other university only sends electronically; therefore I can't include the Phorcas form
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Yup, uber lame. I'm sending out the transcript requests today as I anticipate the odds are against not having any hiccups. I'm also writing a rough draft of my letter of intent to send with my CV and notes about my interactions to professors, etc for my LORs. I'm sending that out probably the beginning of next week even though its not open on phorcas, but I'm doing it to give more than ample time to everyone and tell them to be watching for the phorcas email request around Nov 19th. :thumbup:
 
One question I've had to ask every time I've applied to an academic program: Do I need to submit my SMART (college credit equivalency for military training) transcript? Any time you deal with their office, it's a pain. :rolleyes:

I mean, I have like 12 hours in AC/DC theory. That's pertinent, right? :smuggrin:
 
Oh I hope this transcript requirement can be waived on our end such that we only want your pharmacy school transcripts...we've never required anything else.

Looking at other transcripts could get annoying.
 
confettiflyer said:
Oh I hope this transcript requirement can be waived on our end such that we only want your pharmacy school transcripts...we've never required anything else.

Looking at other transcripts could get annoying.
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But don't you care about that Criminal Justice class I took back in 2002? :smuggrin:
 
It'll make it easier/harder for prospective residents. Yeah, you can compile all your information easier, but it will make it easier for programs to quickly look through and throw out applications with low GPAs. It'll make it harder from the days when you could wow them with your CV/talk your way into it.
 
Sparda29 said:
It'll make it easier/harder for prospective residents. Yeah, you can compile all your information easier, but it will make it easier for programs to quickly look through and throw out applications with low GPAs. It'll make it harder from the days when you could wow them with your CV/talk your way into it.
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That's the idea...can weed through efficiently.
 
How much do you think they will consider undergrad GPA? Mine sucked.

I can't open the FAQ pdf for some reason.
 
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pharm B said:
Haha, we sound like pre-allo people.
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Hey, a little neuroticism can go a long way :D

I've been advised that academia pretty much requires a residency so I need to figure out what hell I'm doing and fast. Not sure how much being halfway through a PhD is going to matter at all. My leadership is Meh but I'm working on it. I just don't want to do things I'm not really into, you know?
 
rxlea said:
How much do you think they will consider undergrad GPA? Mine sucked.

I can't open the FAQ pdf for some reason.
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I had a not so stellar first half of my undergrad. I had a lot of growing up to do (and finding something I was interested in). I'm hoping that they'll notice the grades that are 5-10yrs old are worlds apart from the grades than were within the last 5 years (last half of undergrad was never less than 3.7 and pharm cum gpa 3.8)

In any event, I'll be the guinea pig for you kids that still have a year or two :thumbup:
 
rxlea said:
Why should it be easy for someone who has a sub 2.0 because they played video games the night before exams?
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Sub-3.0*

Obviously, exams are the absolute fool-proof way to test someone's knowledge of a subject. :rolleyes:

If the grades were calculated the way they should be (based on labs and in-class assignments/case-studies), then I would have gotten a 3.5+.

Pharmacy is not a profession where you need to be able to remember every single detail off the top of your head.
 
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