Transferring into Pharmacy Schools

[Rainy2day]

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After shadowing my uncle who is a licensed pharmacist I absolutely fell in love with the profession and as a result I want to pursue a career as a pharmacist. I'm hoping to apply for Massachusetts School of Pharmacy (Boston Campus) as a transfer student (Pharm MD program) because it seems like they accept transfers and since I happen to live in Boston. Currently, I have a bachelors in biology with a minor in mathematics (3.87 cumulative GPA). Are there any other schools that I should perhaps look at that accept people like me? Or do they all strictly only accept students from their 0-6 programs.

Do I have a shot at getting in? If anyone has any experience with transferring into this particular program could you please share? 🙂

Thank you in advance.

 

[EnfieldGal]

Welcome aboard!

Are you tied to the Boston area? MCP Boston is next to impossible to transfer into (15 seats/year), and Northeastern doesn't do transfers period. Sorry, your odds are not good despite your degree and GPA.

Other programs you should look at in the area are University of New England (Portland, ME), MCP-Worcester (obvious), and Western New England College (Springfield, MA). WNEC is my top choice, I don't know too much about UNE, I've said my peace about MCP-W elsewhere.

If you aren't stuck in New England, there are PLENTY of schools that would happily take a 3.87 bio major...so long as your PCAT is good🙂

Good luck

 

[Sine Cura]

I would give it a shot for this application cycle (for fall 2011) since you do live in Boston, as long as you're aware there are a limited number of seats. The number of available seats depends on how many students drop out before the professional phase (before year 3).

In fact, I'm sure you could be able to go on a guided tour if you really wanted to see what this school is like (if not the actual program). Whether you would actually WANT to be at this particular school is something to consider though.

To be honest, any transfer applicant (especially someone holding a bachelor's) would probably be more deserving of a spot in a given class than about ~80% of the dead weight who are already in that class from high school. That is to say, many current PharmD students who came here from H.S. would never be admitted to any normal PharmD program because they just can't handle the academics, never seriously attempted to learn more about pharmacy by working at some point in a given calendar year, or a combination of both. Also, each PharmD class is 300+ students and lecture halls actually accommodate all of them for most of the didactic coursework, in case you went to State U for undergrad and miss that.

Depending on your background, I think you could do MUCH better than MCP. Surely your uncle might have an opinion about this (assuming he practices in MA) if you haven't asked...

 

[Rainy2day]

Thank you both for all the advice. I really appreciate it.

@enfieldgal: I'am not restricted to the Boston area, but its just a personal preference of mine. Before I wanted to become a pharmacist, I was aiming to apply to med school so I took the mcat (I got a 40). With this in mind could I just use my mcat scores instead of taking the pcat? A friend of mine said they are almost the same in terms of content.

@sine cura: My uncle practices in NY, but he didn't seem to really have a high opinion of Massachusetts school of pharmacy. What schools would you recommend?

 

[EnfieldGal]

While similar, the MCAT is not the PCAT.

Most schools require the PCAT. If you haven't taken the PCAT yet, you'll need to sign up for the January test date ASAP. Get moving!!🙄

 

[Clemsong05]

do you have any pharmacy tech experience bc if you dont i would deff add that and try to find a position to help boost ur resume...that was wat killed me when i tried to apply after undergrad- although i had a good gpa stats and a decent pcat they suggested that i needed pharmacy experience and to retake one of my classes, i only started pharm tech like a 2 years ago after i graduated from undergrad while i was completing my masters degree in microbiology. I too was going to go to medical school and did not so well on the mcat so i said screw that ill try pharmacy....good luck and if u need any advice on pharmacy schools and programs out of new england i could help you out, ive been doing my research for a while and as my schools seem very randomly placed in the US, i choose them based on how i liked the school atmosphere and from what i read on here about them.. let me know and good luck!

 

[madavis1987]

I am currently a student at the University of Buffalo in NYS and I was accepted into the PharmD program as a transfer student. I completed at Bachelors in Biology at Marist College in NY and my GPA was similar to yours. You definitely do need to take the PCATs to apply to pretty much any school as a transfer student. Some other schools that accept transfer students are St. John Fischer in Rochester, NY, Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia, and Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY. I was accepted into all of these programs, but ended up choosing Buffalo because of the cost and its accreditation status. Overall, I'd say that you're a pretty competitive applicant. Goodluck!

-Michelle
UB SoPPS
PharmD Candidate Class of 2013

 

[KB830]

I was aiming to apply to med school so I took the mcat (I got a 40).

😱