Rolling Admissions

[PrepharmKID]

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Ok, so there is a school i'm interested in, UH Hilo, and they have a rolling admissions(first come first served). I believe they have minimum requirements of 2.8 GPA, not sure about PCAT scores; I saw their average was 78 i think. Anyway, my question is this, lets say I get mid 80's or higher on PCAT, but my GPA is a 3.0, would i be accepted if i applied as soon as i was able? If i qualify and they dont have someone else ahead of me, then wouldn't I get an interview if it's a rolling admission? I mean otherwise they would have their GPA minimum at 3.5 or something. Does that make sense?

And yeah, I know my GPA is crap, parents made me start out at university i didn't want to go to and i had to work full time = crappy grades. i have since retaken those classes and actually have a 3.65 GPA if you take out all the previous classes. Pharmcas of course doesn't care, they look at everything.

Anyway, if you could answer the question up top, that would be great.

 

[fenixtnlfan]

No one can guarantee you will get an interview. While you do meet the minimum qualifications, there are a lot of other things that go into who gets invited. If there are more qualified people who apply at the same time, you might not get that interview. That being said, you do have a better chance of an interview if you apply earlier because you will be ahead of most people applying.

 

[PrepharmKID]

Ok, well yeah obviously those with better stat's will be ahead of me. So someone with the bare minimum may very well get accepted assuming they haven't filled the spots with people ahead of me....

 

[mrblah]

Ok, well yeah obviously those with better stat's will be ahead of me. So someone with the bare minimum may very well get accepted assuming they haven't filled the spots with people ahead of me....

Lets clear some things up, If you get a interview at any school, you are usually considered a qualified candidate. Also, most if not all schools start giving out or reserving seats for the top candidates of each interview session (usually top 10 percent or 5 out of 50 interviewee per session). So everybody wants first dibs at interview dates because there are more seats available, and that means more chances.

Regular admissions means they wait till all the applications are in, and then score/grade the applicants, and from that score, they begin to offer them first choice in interview dates until all dates are filled.

Rolling admissions just pools applicants from specific dates (say nov.1 to dec. 31), and then score/grades the applicants, and from that score, they begin offering them first choice in interview dates until all dates are filled and they move on to the next pool of applicants. You have to remember, that there are always more applicants than interview spots. ALWAYS. So if early on, most of the applicants are more qualified than you, they may move on to the next pool without ever giving you a interview no matter how early you applied.

So with rolling admissions, the pool of applicants may be smaller, so you may have a better chance of getting a interview if you are a "qualified" or "competitive" candidate, but I highly doubt you will get any advantage if your gpa/pcat/lor/ec/PS is borderline, because you don't know how adcom is grading/screening applicants.