Rate My Chances to Get into a Pharmacy School!

[Greencircle]

Hello all. I would like to know what my chances are for enrolling into a pharmacy institute such as Binghamton University and Touro College of Pharmacy. I am and have been a New York State resident throughout my entire life, thus far.

I am enrolled in a public, 4-year college and have completed a bachelor of science degree in chemistry while pursuing a bachelor of arts in biology. My science and cumulative GPAs are personally unsatisfactory: my cumulative GPA is a 2.99, and my science GPA for chemistry is a 2.7; as well as my current science GPA for biology to which I hope will increase drastically after completing my last set of biology courses in the current semester.

I have no prior experience in a pharmacy work environment; however, I have acquired volunteer work and externship at two local clinics of the same company. Furthermore, I have never worked as a pharmacy technician nor as a pharmacy clerk; however, I plan to attain certification for pharmacy technician after completing the board exam as soon as I finish my last set of biology courses in the current semester.

I have never taken a PCAT exam before; however, I have registered for one that I will sit for soon.

Hence, I would like to know if my chances of acceptance into the institutions of my choice. I am quite aware of the entire admission process, and I would like to know if my credentials would sufficiently impress or bode well for the admission committees of these institutions individually. Please be as detailed as possible.

All responses will be appreciated.

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[874700]

Your GPA might night seems very competitive, but it could definitely get you in for pharmacy school. You should be fine as long as you have a bachelor in chemistry. The admission committee will look at PCAT, letter of recommendations, and personal statement so don't worry about your GPA a lot. Focus on PCAT and apply for the pharmacy trainee license because you don't have to be certified to work in the pharmacy as a technician. Apply for the trainee license online because it is going to take around a month or so to get the trainee license. You are allowed to work for more than two years in the pharmacy without getting certified 🙂

 

[Timbo]

Hello all. I would like to know what my chances are for enrolling into a pharmacy institute such as Binghamton University and Touro College of Pharmacy. I am and have been a New York State resident throughout my entire life, thus far.

I am enrolled in a public, 4-year college and have completed a bachelor of science degree in chemistry while pursuing a bachelor of arts in biology. My science and cumulative GPAs are personally unsatisfactory: my cumulative GPA is a 2.99, and my science GPA for chemistry is a 2.7; as well as my current science GPA for biology to which I hope will increase drastically after completing my last set of biology courses of the current semester.

I have no prior experience in a pharmacy work environment; however, I have acquired volunteer work and externship at two local clinics of the same company. Furthermore, I have never worked as a pharmacy technician nor as a pharmacy clerk; however, I plan to attain certification for pharmacy technician after completing the board as soon as I finish my last set of biology courses for the current semester.

I have never taken a PCAT exam before; however, I have registered for one that I will sit for soon.

Hence, I would like to know if my chances of acceptance into the institutions of my choice. I am quite aware of the entire admission process, and I would like to know if my credentials would sufficiently impress or bode well for the admission committees of these institutions individually. Please be as detailed as possible.

All responses will be appreciated.

Do you want to work in New York after pharmacy school? Even though there is a national surplus of pharmacist overall, I hear New York is one of the most saturated job markets in the country. Check New York’s PDI trend, it has been consistently below 3 for the past 5 years. If you’re willing to move for pharmacist work why not move now for school too?

 

[Greencircle]

Timbo, I am confused about your following question: "[if] you’re willing to move for pharmacist work why not move now for school too?" I suppose that you are implicitly advising me to travel from out of state to another state where the state's PDI rating is high. If so, should I seek for a pharmacy job after attaining a license in New York if the pharmacy job market in New York State happens to be oversaturated? Are you alluding to the statistics of downstate, upstate, or within the New York state? Or the Tristate area?

 

[BC_89]

Timbo, I am confused about your following question: "[if] you’re willing to move for pharmacist work why not move now for school too?" I suppose that you are implicitly advising me to travel from out of state to another state where the state's PDI rating is high. If so, should I seek for a pharmacy job after attaining a license in New York if the pharmacy job market in New York State happens to be oversaturated? Are you alluding to the statistics of downstate, upstate, or within the New York state? Or the Tristate area?

The tristate area is overly saturated. You are strongly advised to seek multiple state licensures beyond one or two reciprocations around your area.

Depending on the cost, the suggestion is based on going to school in a region (Alaska / Midwest region) where competition is slightly lower and cost of school roughly the same. In the end, you need to come up with a contingency of how your going to pay your six figure debt as well as anticipate how far your willing to move for a job.

 

[princeafrica]

10/10

 

[Greencircle]

Hey, again. I have completed my very first PCAT exam with a 39 composite score. In addition to my previous credentials, I would like to know of my chances in enrolling to a pharmacy institution, particularly those without a minimum PCAT score, such as Binghamton University, Wingate University, or Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science? If not, are there any other institutions that would accept me based on my current academic status by the upcoming term?

1. Would I qualify for a 3-year program in a pharmacy institution? If so, what pharmacy institutes would you suggest, and would I be able to apply to a 3-year pharmacy program within my freshman year in a pharmacy institute?

2. To reduce the number of loans that I may require to withdraw, would it be possible for me to apply to financial assistance programs such as those requiring to provide no combat assistance services to a U.S. military organization or the like?

I will consider all suggestions.

Update: Additionally, I have completed two bachelor degrees of science and arts in biology and chemistry respectively with my cumulative and science GPAs increased very slightly.

 

[princeafrica]

I think in general, with your stats, you can get into almost any school. Many good schools are struggling to fill their seats.

For example, university of Colorado started off with a November 2018application deadline. Then push it to December, then January, then March, and now June. Will probably get pushed to July.

 

[Greencircle]

Hey, again. Recently, I have completed my very first PCAT exam with a 39 composite score. In addition to my previous credentials, I would like to know of my chances in enrolling to a pharmacy institution, particularly those without a minimum PCAT score, such as Binghamton University, Wingate University, or Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science? If not, are there any other institutions that would accept me based on my current academic status by the upcoming term?

1. Would I qualify for a 3-year program in a pharmacy institution? If so, what pharmacy institutes would you suggest, and would I be able to apply to a 3-year pharmacy program within my freshman year in a pharmacy institute?

2. To reduce the number of loans that I may require to withdraw, would it be possible for me to apply to financial assistance programs such as those requiring to provide no combat assistance services to a U.S. military organization or the like?

 

[AC3_PharmD]

A 39 composite is pretty rough...do you think you could retake the exam? I think that overall picture taking into account GPA, PCAT, letters of rec, etc would look pretty poorly. I don't know what the acceptance rates are and what programs are looking for nowadays though so I can't comment I guess.

With those credentials I think it's going to be hard to get into a program where you don't have to take out excessive loans. Heck, I'm at a program that's public and gives pretty good scholarships and I had to take out a lot.

I'd really suggest retaking the exam to get your scores up. That might help with the overall search and application process.

 

[BC_89]

Hey, again. I have completed my very first PCAT exam with a 39 composite score. In addition to my previous credentials

1. Would I qualify for a 3-year program in a pharmacy institution? If so, what pharmacy institutes would you suggest, and would I be able to apply to a 3-year pharmacy program within my freshman year in a pharmacy institute?

2. To reduce the number of loans that I may require to withdraw, would it be possible for me to apply to financial assistance programs such as those requiring to provide no combat assistance services to a U.S. military organization or the like?

I will consider all suggestions

1) You will burnout in a 3 year program if one was to take you. It’s a business program and your chances of surviving 36 straight months of block schedule while giving the institute your gov loans is slim. Your grades reflect poor performance. Some 3 year programs (like mine) require 90% on all exams or your dropped. Something to think about.

2) No such thing as a non-combat service in the U.S. military. Your prone to deployments like anyone else. If your looking for loan forgiveness you may apply as a military pharmacist in your branch of choice (competitive slots). It’s an exchange of service (ie 3 year obligation for 120k covered pre-tax). Another option is applying to Indian Health Services (IHS) for under served areas in exchange for 20k per year off loans (also a lower pay rate overall).

My Suggestion:

Work as a tech and really see if Pharmacy is what you think it is. Your grades are terrible along with your PCAT score in that it would almost seem to be a disservice for you to go to pharmacy school only to end up failing out with high debt. Should you be accepted, your 225k+ debt will trap you towards graduation since you have little to no networking abilities.

TLDR; if you apply broadly to newer for-profit programs, you’ll get accepted. Work as a tech don’t shadow. Stay away from 3 year programs you’ll fail based on your current studies. Work IHS and gov jobs if you happen to make it to graduation.

 

[Greencircle]

A 39 composite is pretty rough...do you think you could retake the exam? I think that overall picture taking into account GPA, PCAT, letters of rec, etc would look pretty poorly. I don't know what the acceptance rates are and what programs are looking for nowadays though so I can't comment I guess.

With those credentials I think it's going to be hard to get into a program where you don't have to take out excessive loans. Heck, I'm at a program that's public and gives pretty good scholarships and I had to take out a lot.

I'd really suggest retaking the exam to get your scores up. That might help with the overall search and application process.

1) You will burnout in a 3 year program if one was to take you. It’s a business program and your chances of surviving 36 straight months of block schedule while giving the institute your gov loans is slim. Your grades reflect poor performance. Some 3 year programs (like mine) require 90% on all exams or your dropped. Something to think about.

2) No such thing as a non-combat service in the U.S. military. Your prone to deployments like anyone else. If your looking for loan forgiveness you may apply as a military pharmacist in your branch of choice (competitive slots). It’s an exchange of service (ie 3 year obligation for 120k covered pre-tax). Another option is applying to Indian Health Services (IHS) for under served areas in exchange for 20k per year off loans (also a lower pay rate overall).

My Suggestion:

Work as a tech and really see if Pharmacy is what you think it is. Your grades are terrible along with your PCAT score in that it would almost seem to be a disservice for you to go to pharmacy school only to end up failing out with high debt. Should you be accepted, your 225k+ debt will trap you towards graduation since you have little to no networking abilities.

TLDR; if you apply broadly to newer for-profit programs, you’ll get accepted. Work as a tech don’t shadow. Stay away from 3 year programs you’ll fail based on your current studies. Work IHS and gov jobs if you happen to make it to graduation.

I understand...I have been under the impression that a 39 composite score is borderline average (with the threshold being a 40 composite score), according to a Google search. In light of the feedback, what PCAT score should I aspire to qualify me in a broad list of pharmacy institutions? What specific pharmacy institutions would most likely enroll me based on my current academic status?

 

[BC_89]

I understand...I have been under the impression that a 39 composite score is borderline average (with the threshold being a 40 composite score), according to a Google search.

I don’t believe you understand how the scoring works.

Over a span of 5 years, you are scaled based on all other applicants during this period. By interpretation, within a 5 year range sample you scored higher than 39% of applicants in a 5 year period. To be considered average is scoring 50% (better than half the applicants).

In your case, 61% of applicants scored better than you. So roughly of the 65,000 applicants in a given scaled sample, nearly 40,000 of them did better than you. That’s not competitive at all. Yet due to newer programs wanting students, they’ll take you if it means you pull out loans to pay the program a fee...whether you pass your licensure or not doesn’t matter as long as these for-profit schools are getting paid.

In short, yes you may get accepted and yes you may fail out of the program. If it was any other profession you’d get a stern “No chance of acceptance.”

http://pcatweb.info/downloads/Faculty/Interpreting_PCAT_Scores.pdf

 

[rxkrafted]

I understand...I have been under the impression that a 39 composite score is borderline average (with the threshold being a 40 composite score), according to a Google search. In light of the feedback, what PCAT score should I aspire to qualify me in a broad list of pharmacy institutions? What specific pharmacy institutions would most likely enroll me based on my current academic status?

Where do you expect to go with a composite score of 39 ... ? Where on earth did you hear that this was borderline average ? I don't want to hurt your feelings but you need to study and score higher if you plan on making it through pharmacy school. Your GPA of 2.99 definitely does not help either. If this is the new standard for the applicants for pharmacy school, I feel embarrassed for my profession.

 

[zona2016]

Constructively speaking your game plan should be the following:

1) Boost your gpa as high as you can. Keep taking science courses even if at a community college to boost science and general gpa.
2) Look at your scores and see what areas need to be improved on. Is it chemistry, biology, math or reading.
3) Buy practice books such as Kaplan and Dr. collins. You can overcome low scores in the pcat if you can work at it.
4) Take practice tests to look where can you improve. For example, I needed to review a lot of biology and some chemistry but by reading and reviewing on youtube videos I was able to raise my biology practice score a little bit higher.
5) Look for paid pharmacy experience. This will help you really see if its a good fit for you as a career.
6) Look into more than 2 programs near you. Find one that will minimize costs and improve chances of post-grad employment.
7) as a 3rd option, apply to non-pcat programs and see what happens.

 

[874700]

Hey, again. I have completed my very first PCAT exam with a 39 composite score. In addition to my previous credentials, I would like to know of my chances in enrolling to a pharmacy institution, particularly those without a minimum PCAT score, such as Binghamton University, Wingate University, or Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science? If not, are there any other institutions that would accept me based on my current academic status by the upcoming term?

1. Would I qualify for a 3-year program in a pharmacy institution? If so, what pharmacy institutes would you suggest, and would I be able to apply to a 3-year pharmacy program within my freshman year in a pharmacy institute?

2. To reduce the number of loans that I may require to withdraw, would it be possible for me to apply to financial assistance programs such as those requiring to provide no combat assistance services to a U.S. military organization or the like?

I will consider all suggestions.

Update: Additionally, I have completed two bachelor degrees of science and arts in biology and chemistry respectively with my cumulative and science GPAs increased very slightly.

I know few schools that accepted students with low PCAT scores and GPA. Midwestern University in Arizona and Roseman University of Health Sciences in Nevada. Today, pharmacy schools want to fill their seats; they even extend the application deadline so more students can apply.

 

[PharmtoCS]

It's well known that all you really need to do is to secure $200k+ in student loan money to be accepted into pharmacy school. The real problem is being able to find a job in this saturated market after you graduate so you pay off those loans.

 

[Jacquejam1234]

Hello all. I would like to know what my chances are for enrolling into a pharmacy institute such as Binghamton University and Touro College of Pharmacy. I am and have been a New York State resident throughout my entire life, thus far.

I am enrolled in a public, 4-year college and have completed a bachelor of science degree in chemistry while pursuing a bachelor of arts in biology. My science and cumulative GPAs are personally unsatisfactory: my cumulative GPA is a 2.99, and my science GPA for chemistry is a 2.7; as well as my current science GPA for biology to which I hope will increase drastically after completing my last set of biology courses in the current semester.

I have no prior experience in a pharmacy work environment; however, I have acquired volunteer work and externship at two local clinics of the same company. Furthermore, I have never worked as a pharmacy technician nor as a pharmacy clerk; however, I plan to attain certification for pharmacy technician after completing the board exam as soon as I finish my last set of biology courses in the current semester.

I have never taken a PCAT exam before; however, I have registered for one that I will sit for soon.

Hence, I would like to know if my chances of acceptance into the institutions of my choice. I am quite aware of the entire admission process, and I would like to know if my credentials would sufficiently impress or bode well for the admission committees of these institutions individually. Please be as detailed as possible.

All responses will be appreciated.

Why in the world do you want to go to pharmacy school?? The job market is terrible. This career is a joke go do something else.

 

[wldnjs960220]

Retake the pcat. 39 is too low and I know someone even got rejected for interview from binghamton with 30-40 pcat score