chichan said:
I'm just wondering in case I don't get accepted this year and since I am getting my BS, what can I do to be a better applicant for the next year? I've been thinking about that, but since I'm graduating this June and until I submit my secondary application (which is usually ,at the latest, november 1st for CA schools) what can you do in this period from June - Nov that will make you a stronger candidate?
Hi Chichan, first off, please don't lose hope yet. You still have a lot of time. However, it is good that you are thinking of a backup plan already (I started thinking of one back in December when UOP, the first school I heard from, told me they wanted to defer their decision until mid April). Here are some tips for reapplying:
1 - if you are rejected or even waitlisted, do take advantage of the opportunity to call up those schools and ask them what weaknesses they perceived in your application. Be sure to strengthen those in your new application. Also, sit back and evaluate your application as a whole. Does it fully and truly represent who you are? Is it missing something important about you that the AdCom doesn't know that could be revealed in an essay? Are you well-rounded or do your ECs look like the rest of the hundreds of applications sitting in the large piles of the AdCom's office?
2 - While GPA is not the only thing they look at, if it comes down to 2 applications that are very similar in terms of ECs and whatnot, a high GPA, possibly the deciding factor, may help you get in. I'd retake a course or two that you didn't do so hot in and shoot for an A (unless you already have a 4.0 ;P)
3 - Do you have any unique ECs? Do something diff that most people don't do and be sure to write about it in your essay (don't just list it in PharmCAS). When you write about it, be sure it's thought-provoking so that it sticks in the AdCom's heads and also talk about it at your interview so they'll remember you from ALL the other black-n-white ppl they interview. ('black-n-white' refers to the black and white suits that most applicants wear
😀 )
4 - have you done anything new since the submission of your pharmacy school application for fall 2005? believe it or not, you can consider that to be part of 'new' activities.
Besides those few pointers, given your short time from now until November, the best advice I can give you and all applicants is to make the best of what you've got and just play it up right b/c AdComs want to see more depth than breadth. Theodore Roosevelt said it best when he said, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Best of luck!
