Prospects for 09 Admissions

[GT500]

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I would greatly appreciate, especially if you are a pharmacy student, if you could give me an honest and forthright assessment on what my chances are to get an interview and to get accepted into my top choices for fall 09. I am an IL resident and limiting myself to in-state schools.

Midwestern CCP
(2400 applications received possibly more in 08: 200 accepted)
Typical Academic Stats of those accepted: 3.42 GPA, 82 PCAT
Rolling Admissions

UIC
Typical Academic Stats of those accepted: 3.5+, 80-90 PCAT, 70% of those accepted have a B.S. degree
Non-rolling admissions
Smaller class size

I might apply to Chicago State University also.

My Stats
3.72 GPA, 3.64 sGPA, 58 PCAT, BS in Biochemistry Spring 09

I am entering into my senior year in college and I have only participated in one club, science club, which probably will not help me very much. I do not have any pharmacy experience and currently I am studying to improve my PCAT score, especially my vocab and reading scores which are low, in June. I will have strong recommendations from my science professors. My chemistry professor I have known for 2 years because I have taken general chem and P. Chem with him. I have done really well in Gen Chem I and II (got an A both semesters) and in P. Chem got an (A, A-), not sure if taking P. Chem will matter to adcoms though. It looks like the PCAT is holding me back and I intend to study about 4-5 hours a day for it until June 21st using a variety of books and practice questions for each section. I wanted to give the whole story and situation so you could give me a better assessment and maybe provide some advice. Thanks for your support.

 

[RxWildcat]

PCAT and ECs are going to be your downfall if anything, but the GPA may be just enough to get you the interview. At that point I'd say its gonna be very tough to get in with the current PCAT. Your plan sounds like you know your weaknesses and you are going to improve them. If you get that PCAT >80 then you should be pretty competitive.

 

[esrodems]

Just my 2 cents. You have a very good GPA but 2 58 on the pCAT is on the low side. I would def retake that and at least get it into the 70s. 80s would be even better. I would also highly recommend getting some pharmacy experience even if its just volunteering. If you do this it shows that you have thought about your decision. When I went for interviews that was one of the questions that all my interviewers were very interested in...my pharmacy experience.

 

[HolyLights]

Your GPA seems competitive enough, but yes work on the PCAT and also get some experiences at a pharmacy. That would help to boost your application because people on here have been denied of their first choice due to lack of experiences at a pharmacy. They just want a well rounded individual, so getting some experiences will help. As for the PCAT, you are already studying, so i don't need to say more about that. Good Luck 🙂.

 

[AbsoluteEthanol]

you must make a fair assessment of where you went wrong on the PCAT, I don't think that anyone with a 3.75 should ever get a 58 on the PCAT. I think you can easily get a 70-80 if you bring up your weakest score. if you KILL your personal statement and have killer E.C's and letters of Rec I think you can still have a great shot at getting into those schools with your statistics

 

[GT500]

As I mentioned AbsoluteEthanol, my verbal and reading composition are really low (in the 40s). I have no idea if my study methods will guarantee anything but I have been trying to memorize GRE words from Kaplan books and I am using a variety of practice problems found online and in certain study guides to use as reinforcement. I am probably going to train all summer to improve my PCAT score.