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On mine they havent received anything yet...I took my pcat in august..
I selected to send it to UBC through pearson but do I have to do anything else so that they receive it?
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UBC Pre-pharmacy 2010!
Started by bebeLnJ
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On mine they havent received anything yet...I took my pcat in august..
I selected to send it to UBC through pearson but do I have to do anything else so that they receive it?
Hey! I think u'll for sure get an interview again. I would be surprised if you got one last year and not this year. But i am kind of in the same boat as you... my gpa is around 3.7 (80%)..pcat 90....working for 2 years in a pharmacy and stepped up my volunteer work this year...but i got rejected last year post interview...even thou i didn't feel like i did bad 🙁..Anyways I think you should feel like this is a fresh start because the interview is completely different this year (MMI style), so you should probably try to forget about the painful process of last year ...even thou its super hard to do 🙁
I've heard of ppl from 2 years ago who got in with a 74%...theres probably lower scores out there thou
Hey guys, so i went to the pharmacy mock interview at UBC this weekend and i felt like it was a great help...the questions were reasonable and general like what is a leader and name one time you play the role of a leader and stuff...there was one scenario question and it was quite open ended where you could say what you like just gotta make sure ur confident in what you say! otherwise it wasn't too bad, but i felt like there wasn't enough time and the whole process just seemed rush rush cuz you gotta run from one station to the next to answer the questions.
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Thanks for sharing! I am jealous that people attending UBC or living in Vancouver have the advantage of getting to practice their interview skills, especially considering I don't think they have even mentioned the switch to MMI on the website.
Hi,
how did you find out that U of A received your letters, is there a way to check online?
thanks!
and by the way, to those of you wondering about the PCAT scores, apparently you do need at least 65% to be considered for an interview.. im just not sure how to convert my score into a percentage!
You have to log on to your BearTracks account on the U of A website. They should have e-mailed you a CCID when you applied.
And I believe they say that you need at least a 65% composite percentile score which should be listed in your results already so no need to calculate anything.
Sorry, but I don't want to be mean to you,
You shouldn't be jealous, of course we should have a advantage, because this is the only university in bc which offers Pharmacy, and if we don't get accepted, our chance of getting to the other universities is much lower, so I am so happy that ubc had change its policy of giving preference to bc student this year,
I understand where you are coming from, but I was also referring to the fact that there are students who do not attend a university in Vancouver yet still are from BC, such as UVic students or those who are studying out-of-province for their pre-pharmacy education, who could also benefit from a practice interview. I was not complaining about the fact that BC residents have an advantage in terms of getting accepted, I was just commenting that it would be nice for all applicants, resident or not, to be able to get a better idea of their expectations.
And by the way, you don't really need to tell me how I should feel because you are the one sitting in the comfortable position of knowing that you have a home province advantage. I don't really understand what the point of your response to me was if you already knew that you were about to say something "mean." Even if you feel threatened by out-of-provincers, what is the point of making that statement? It is past the application deadline, so it's not like we are going to retract our applications because you have made it clear that you think that we are infringing on your territory. I am guessing you probably don't care to know that my family owns property in the Kootenays and is thus developing and contributing to YOUR province's economy. God forbid that I should employ my right to apply to whatever university I want in Canada and let fate take it's course. It's totally fair that you (BC residents) get priority, but don't hate on me for taking my chances and applying.
So, in summary:
1. Apply those reading comprehension skills that you practiced on the PCAT and make sure that you actually understand the context of a statement before you respond to it. I was talking about interview practice for people outside the direct Vancouver area, BC residents or not. You accused me of being jealous about the in-province advantage. Totally different concepts.
2. If you know that you are going to say something that could be considered mean, don't bother APOLOGIZING before you say it, just go ahead and get it out of your system. Don't pretend to be sorry for your transgression.
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I hope that means mine will get checked off in the next few days then. My PCAT was recorded as of today, but I Xpressposted my letters and traced them, so I know they got delivered on the 24th. It's so annoying that it takes so much time for them process a couple letters. Oh well, it's a relief that it's out of my hands!
In all fairness, I don't think it's very fair to lump everyone in this thread into the 'hostile' category just because I was being confrontational...
Haha, how smart of you to use UPS. I used to work at a post office before I leveled up to pharm tech, so you would think that I would know better than to trust Canada Post... Ah well.
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Haha, give the pharmacy students (interviewers) a break. They've never gone through the process before.
After the mock MMI, I realized I need to practice a lot in the 3 months left...
I agree. Without those volunteers, you guys wouldn't have any at all.. I would still appreciate how they took time out of their busy schedules to help you guys get ready for your interviews
Um I can't remember exactly, but I did have some problems creating my account as well. I don't think the e-mail reached me the first try either. You should probably go the U of A website and look up Bear Tracks and e-mail them to see how to get set up.
GOT IT!!
thank you!
hopefully people aren't too bothered that we're discussing U of A in the UBC forum 😛
I actually made a U of A thread a while back, so you might have to search for it.
And UBC finally has all of my documents checked off! Thank goodness. Good luck everybody!
hahaha calm down no need to write an essay.
hey guys, just want to ask all those UBC pharmacy students out there, do you gyus know anyone who got into UBC pharmacy with a 72% average and a minumum PCAT score? I know it is very unlikely but if my online application and refereces were good, how likely is it that I will be accepted?
I know of someone who as admitted with an 82-84% average and a 68% PCAT comp score. She apparently had really good ECs so I guess that helped.
I've also heard from people who didn't get in that they had bad marks (<70%), but felt really good about their interview (they even seem like the type of people who would rock the interviews) and still couldn't get in. So they're convinced that marks actually do weigh a lot more than everything else even though the faculty says otherwise.
However, this year, they've changed the interview to MMI format, so maybe they've realized their mistake in the past. So, it's probably a lot harder to predict whether marks play that big of a role anymore because there should've been a reason for switching the interview format. If you've already submitted your application, it's best to keep your head up and stay confident. If you're thinking about applying next year though, I doubt if anyone told you that you had a low probability of getting in, that it would keep you from trying (it shouldn't! 😀). No one can tell you for sure whether or not you'd get in, even if you could find statistics of all the accepted applicants in the program, so just do your best. 👍
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Wow Thank you so much JDbb! I've spoken to many people but nobody actually encouraged me like you did. Unfortunately, I didn't apply for the 2010 winter admission because I did not get 65% or above on my PCAT. I was really close but the admission lady said ther were no exceptions. So I guess i'll try next year and hopefully I'll get a chance to apply.
Do you have any hints that can help improve my application since my average is considered quite low?
Btw, what does ECs mean?
ECs = extracurricular activities (volunteering, sports, clubs...)
I heard that taking courses that are in the same stream as courses that you didn't do so well in can help you out if you do better in that one than you did the first. For instance, say you didn't do so well in calculus, you could take a higher level math course (ie. one that requires calc as a prerequisite) and really apply yourself so that you can show the admission committee that you are showing improvement. I think I read that on the U of S application website, but I think the concept makes sense no matter where you apply. Anyway, just a suggestion.
And, of course, trying to get legitimate pharmacy experience so that you can back up your understanding of the profession is also helpful. In fact, I don't know how admissions committees feel about this, but I personally think it is the most important feature in determining someone's suitabilityh for the profession. I didn't make the decision to apply for pharmacy school until after I had immersed myself in the pharmacy I work at for several years. Watching the impact pharmacists have on people's lives is actually pretty inspiring, though many people would never give it a second thought.
Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas. Of course, I am not an expert at all. I mean, I am nervous enough as it is about my own applications and whether they will make the cut, so I have given a lot of thought already about what to do as "back-up" if I don't get in this time around and those are some of the things I have come up with.
Thanks a lot! good luck to you!
Heres a random question I just thought of: to all UBC pharmacy students, what is the average age of the students who get admitted? I mean, how many are undergrads and how many already have degrees? I heard from someone that the majority of the students UBC admit are those with degrees and those who are in first or second year have a harder time getting in. Any ideas?
well from what i know, i don't think its particularly favored towards either first/second years or students with degrees. I think it depends on how well your marks are and how you perform on the interview, and yes having a degree could mean that you have more experience and are better able to perform on the interview and could be more mature, but that doesn't mean that first/second years have that low of a chance. I'd say its about equal.
In regards to why the interview is being changed to an MMI format this year I believe it is because (for those of you that don't already know this) UBC Pharmacy is expanding, there will be a new pharmacy building set to be completed in 2012 so because of the new building they're increase the number of seats. Therefore they need a new interview system that will allow them to get through more students at a faster pace and a more standardized method of interviewing.
So NO its not because the format was "wrong" in the past, its just that it wont work very well with the amount of students they're going to need to interview.
So NO its not because the format was "wrong" in the past, its just that it wont work very well with the amount of students they're going to need to interview.
Yeah I would have to agree with this. I only know one pharmacy student at UBC personally and while I don't know her exact PCAT scores or GPA, I know that she got in with only two years of university under her belt PLUS she was out of province. She did her pre-pharm stuff at McGill though, so I don't know if that gives her an edge in terms of "looking good" to the adcom but I think it's hard to speculate about what is going to make the cut and what isn't, it really depends on who you are I suppose.
I thought I read elsewhere in this thread that they weren't increasing the seat number until the NEXT admission cycle? Maybe they are just converting to the MMI format now in preparation, I guess.
I believe about 1/3 of the students that were accepted in my year (I am now in second year) got in after just 1 year of university. I did two years before applying for the first time. I really don't think it matters how many years you have done. The only thing about doing only 1 year prior, is that you will have a very heavy course load throughout the 4 years of the program, especially if you don't take any summer courses. Taking 2 years of science prior to Pharmacy I was able to avoid doing any Organic Chemistry, Microbiology, or Statistics in my first year. In second year I was also able to avoid doing an entire year of biochem and instead only have to do one term of it, which I am taking right now.
I also know the girl who you are referring to haha, she's in my class. We actually acted in "Pharmacy skits night" together and our year ended up winning! If you haven't heard of it, it is one of the biggest events of the year for pharmacy students at UBC, where each year makes up a skit and competes against the other years, as well as the faculty.
And yes, they won't be increasing the number of students until September 2011, but will be doing the MMI format starting this September in order to see how it works out and have the opportunity to make improvements for next year.
Yeah I am actually finishing up my third year so I wil have done a year of organic chem, biochem, plus microbio and such... I took a first year human anatomy course from the kinesiology department and i am taking mammalian physiology right now... Do you think I will get out of having to take those again or will I have to repeat it with strictly human physiology? (Although technically pharmacies dispense vet meds too, so in a way mammalian physiology is more helpful...) Mind you, I enjoy physiology so having to take it again wouldn't be the end of the world, it will just reinforce my knowledge.
Speaking of being in 3rd year, I am wondering if there is a way to finish my biosci degree and earn my pharm degree at the same time? Do you happen to know if there is a way to make that happen? It seems like such a waste for me to just throw away 3 years and start over, but I wanted to apply this year because I was so sick of doing a degree that didn't directly lead to a profession. And since I knew I wanted to be a pharmacist for sure, I didn't see any point wasting time.
Yeah I think I saw pictures of the skit night that you are referring to on the old facebook. Looks like good times are to be had in the UBC pharmacy environment for sure! I also heard about some sort of pharmacy themed baking contest? Not sure if you guys still do that, but sounds super fun at any rate.
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Hey everyone, and it's great to meet you all! I'm so glad that I found this site before the Deciding Moment. Anyway, I'm kind of in the same situation as the poster above, except that I have NO pharmacy experience whatsoever, although I have an "okay" amount of volunteering and employment experiences, and feel pretty good about the overall quality of the online application. My pre-req avg. is 79.6% (safe to say 80%?) and PCAT is 95%. So... my real question becomes: Could my absence of pharm. experience be an extremely key factor in determining my outcome, assuming that I did so-so in the interview? I know that, of course, nobody is psychic and that my description seems vague, but I just want people here to weigh in to see what they think. Honest replies most welcome!!!! 🙂 Oh, and does anyone know how many applicants with BSc were there in the last cycle and how many of those got in? For those who are wondering (probably none, ha-ha ^_^), I've graduated with Cell Biology from UBC last May, so I'm really crossing my fingers that my degree would help me out with this somewhat....
I went to the mock interview last Saturday and I found it really helpful, although it was still pretty nerve-wrecking considering that I only found out that day that it'll change to the MMI format this year... Oh well.... Nonetheless, I want to thank so much to all those who organized that simulated interview!!!! 🙂
Maybe a little too late for most, but when I studied for PCAT, I used the McGraw-Hill PCAT study guide and I found that its tips on Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension, and Quantitative Ability pretty helpful, although the O-chem section was too detailed and included many things that I didn't need for my test (eg. mass spectrometry, NMR). The Biology part I thought was okay although I couldn't really recall much about that from the book. One downside to this book is that I don't recall being sold in bookstores like Chapters, but it is being sold on sites like Amazon.ca. However, I would suggest looking for it in the library first to see if what I said is right for YOU; I'm not sure about other municipalities, but if you use the Vancouver Public Library, then you can see for yourself! By the way, for the chem portion I just studied from my Chem 121/123/233/205 notes and I did a lot better than expected on that part... Yeah, I know it's a lot of chem notes but it's really worth it, but those practice Qs from PCAT site also helped me a lot too.
Sorry about this long post of mine, but I've never been very good at being concise, be it for Facebook or formal writing! 😛 Good luck on your midterms, everyone!!!! 😀
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I am quite curious to the answer of that question too!! HAHAHA... We have similar background!! I have a bachelor degree in BIO too, and I have worked in a research lab as a technician for two years, no pharm experience yet, and still looking for a volunteer position in pharamcy!! I am nervous about the interview (MMI) too!! 😕
You will probably have no difficulty getting credit for Ochem, Micro, biochem, etc. I'm not sure about anatomy and physiology though. For pharmacy you have to take 2 anatomy courses (a full year) and they are both 300 level. Physiology is also a year and because it is strictly human physiology you may have to retake it. That being said, once you are accepted into UBC it will list what courses you receive direct transfer credit for, and even if you don't get transfer credit automatically, you can email department heads and explain what course you took at your previous university along with a course outline or description and they may give you credit that way. I did that for an Organic Chemistry course as well as for the first half of biochemistry. To be honest though, anatomy is a really easy course and its not all that difficult to get an A. Physiology is a bit more challenging but if you have already taken mammalian physiology and still have to take it, you will probably do well anyways.
As for completely your biosci degree, I think they only way you could do that would be to take summer courses at your current university or do another year after you graduate from pharmacy. Generally, in order to get a degree from a university, the last two years must be taken from the institution exclusively. Also, pharmacy is a pretty heavy course load, and although your first year will be pretty slack because of getting credit for several courses, once you hit second year it gets pretty demanding and I know I wouldn't want to be taking any extra courses on top of what I already have haha. Also, starting in the summer after second year is the first practicum which is a month long, making it difficult to do any summer courses.
With that PCAT score and a pre-requisite average of 80%, I think you have a good chance of getting in. Of course, the interview is worth quite alot so you will have to do well on it, but I really think that every has to do well on it regardless of pre-req average. Many students that are accepted have never even stepped foot in a pharmacy so I don't think that is a disadvantage at all, as long as you do a bit of research about what current roles pharmacists play and what the future looks like for the profession. Many students already have a previous degree who get into pharmacy, although it isn't seen as an advantage by the admission committee.
Yeah, I was thinking about that 2 years at one institution thing too... Hmm... It doesn't really matter as long as I get accepted, then I can worry about it. Only like... 3 and a half months until we find out. I just love waiting.
You're right they're not increasing the seats till the 2011 admission cycle, the MMI is going for a test run this year
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is it true they still accept students who get less than 65%???? if so, i'm kinda sad righ now cuz i got 62% on my PCAT and every other part of my application was finished to the best of my ability. I recieved this PCAT score 1 day bfore the application was due and then didn't know wat to do. I talked to the admision lady and she said don't bother applying bcuz you HAVE to have at least 65%. 😕
Well, actually gigagiga, I had tried to find volunteer position in pharmacy too, but no matter which one I asked (retail or not) they said that they were having too many helping hands already, so no dice! However, like spudly (THANKS SPUDLY!!!) said a few posts ago, we shouldn't really worry ourselves as long as we're prepared for That Day (Sorry, I just couldn't resist throwing in some thunderous music because I just can't describe how anxious I am for the MMI in words)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZVdVuskkKU
So does anyone have any good tips to help us prepare for the MMI Storm? Thanks so much everyone!!! 🙂
