Thinking of going to pharmacy school in fall 07

[oladejow7]

HI everyone, am a junior studying biochemistry in a 4 year college but i did transfer from a community college. Although i do not have any extracurricular activities on my resume but i do work in the lab doing research study in my school. I do have quite good grade unless for one C in english comp 1. I have applied to pharmacy in Northeastern before right before i transfered to a 4 year college and they never took me for no reason at all. I just decided to finish my Bs and move right on to pharmacy. What other things do you think i should do to further improve my chance of gaining an admission into pharmacy school. I already finished all my pre-req...what if i have a BS by june 08, what level will they put me? I just need a better guidance and i believe this is where to get it...tell me all u can please and let me also know which pharmacy schools are more linient and considerable....God bless

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[gators14]

well getting a B.S. will make u compettive for sure. Good grades? how good are we talking about? usually ur state schools would be the easist to get into. ANy out of state school will be difficult as they do not take as many students for sure. Most pharmacy school averages are around 3.4-3.5 science GPA

 

[oladejow7]

science GPA meaning they would calculate GPA for only the required courses..and not the rest. As am looking at it, i do have a 3.54 from all my pre-req. and right now i got 3.13 last semester...watchu think

 

[sdn1977]

Honestly....there are more people wanting to get into pharmacy school than there are slots available. You not only need to apply broadly, you need to broaden yourself.

Ask yourself - what do you have to offer the school? They are looking for those people who will reflect back on themselves.....what will you reflect?

You've not done any extracurriculars - so.... how can they assess if you have any leadership skills or an ability to work with others?

Have you done any volunteering or shadowing in the profession - how can they assess if you really want to pursue this very expensive venture (for you & them???)

You work in a lab - perhaps that is where you find your own success? If that is so...perhaps pharmacy is not the place for you???

Think about yourself & think - why would a school choose me over one of the other candidates with equal stats? After thinking about that...can you really say that Northeastern rejected you for no reason at all???? Perhaps they didn't give you one, but there might have been one.

 

[oladejow7]

thanks...there were circumstances to this but i will try to make up for the volunteer activity. Does anyone knows how i can secure a pharmacy volunteer position especially in Boston or somewhere in the vicinity?

 

[yeeseng]

volunteer pharmacy positions are rare. i find it easier to just apply massively during the middle of a school year for pharmacy jobs in retail stores. if you apply by the beginning of the summer, so will other ppls since school is gettin out. so keep in mind the timing.... and make sure u let the pharmacist know that you are pre-pharm and u have a competitive gpa.

 

[sdn1977]

You've got a plethora of hospitals in the Boston area! Just go to the volunteer coordinator & apply. You may not get the pharmacy - in fact you probably won't right off the bat. You'll probably be delivering flowers. But, you've got to start somewhere & that is where you start.

After you've volunteered awhile & have gotten to know people, then you can ask around & perhaps ask to shadow a pharmacist for a day or two.

 

[aboveliquidice]

My 1st volunteer position in the hospital was Triage coordinator ( I greeted and directed people as they entered the visitor door to the ER). It was an excellent place to meet people working in the hospital. From that position - I met the Pharmacy Manager - and convinced him that he needed my in his pharmacy - 4 months later, that same manager employed me as a Tech II - since then I have moved on, but it definitely got my foot in the door.

~above~

 

[SCCpharm]

I think there are a few things that make a good pharmacy candidate. Here are some of them:

3.5gpa or higher
85+ score on PCAT (distributed evenly among the different sections)
pharm tech experience, even if its short ( PTCB pharm tech cert is easy to get)
any health care experience
leadership experience

I would recommend applying to two schools that you think are easy to get into, two schools that are about middle of the road, and two school that are you might think are out of reach. That way you have more options.

If you have a BS degree, you will be placed as a 1st year pharm student, like all the other students. If time is an issue, there a few schools that offer a 3 year program to get the Pharm D.