I totally agree. I applied to 3 in-state schools (I'm in Cali: UCSF, Touro, and UOP), and 2 out-of-state schools, one public (Hawaii-Hilo) and private (Creighton online), got interviews for 2 and waitlisted for both (UCSF and Hawaii-Hilo, along with waitlisted for Creighton). Had a really bad GPA in undergrad but nailed mostly A's and a couple of B's doing the postbac for the past couple of years, going from a 2.6 to a 3.0 science GPA, and scored 99 on the PCAT.
I think it's true that Cali schools, particularly the UC's, will look favorably on people who went to UC, but at the same time, it's a whole combination of things that gets you into the interview round, regardless of where you are and where you want to apply:
o writing a killer statement that sets you apart from all the other applicants (for me, managerial experience in a healthcare nonprofit; relating my identity as queer and a person of color into my desire to become a leader and activist in both the queer and HIV/AIDS fields; volunteer experience in a pharmacy, which oddly enough didn't seem to be that important in the interviews);
o good LORs by people who know you very well and can write very detailed and specific letters that show why you want to go into pharmacy (and not necessarily by high ranked people who wouldn't know you from a dishrag);
o improvement in your grades, whether that be through post-bac or from 1st/2nd to 3rd/4th years in undergrad;
o the high PCAT for non-Cali schools does help, but I'm not sure how important it is in regards to everything else.
o showing your familiarity with a specific school, which served me well for my UCSF interview (I've been working and otherwise involved here at UCSF for nearly 10 years).
Hopefully this all helps. 🙂
