UCSF interview??

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San Francisco here, and I just received my letter. Interview for February 20th! Postmarked December 22nd. Good luck everyone. 👍
 
CafeMed said:
Same here. I'm feeling really anxious and down.
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Holy CRAP! I thought it was safe to assume the early rejections were all sent out and over. I guess I might be hearing some bad news when I check my mail again. 🙁
 
almondtea said:
Holy CRAP! I thought it was safe to assume the early rejections were all sent out and over. I guess I might be hearing some bad news when I check my mail again. 🙁
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Yeah, that's what I thought, but 2 people here got rejections today. Hopefully, we get good news, who knows! :luck:
 
CafeMed said:
Yeah, that's what I thought, but 2 people here got rejections today. Hopefully, we get good news, who knows! :luck:
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I feel really down because the same person who was denied by SF today got an interview at USC, where I have yet to receive one from even though I submitted my ap only a few days after her. This just means I'm not getting in anywhere
 
I got an interview for UCSF!!! January 30th 😀 Good luck guys!
 
I live in the South Bay and I got my interview letter this evening!

Dated: 12/19/08; Postmarked: 12/23/08
Interview Date: January 30th

:luck: Good luck everyone!
 
Just received my letter today too!
Congrats to those who've been invited, condolences to those who were denied but stay optimistic! And good luck to those who are still waiting, it should be there any day now though last year I received my letter early Jan (postmarked in Dec; can't quite remember what day)


Dated: Dec 19th
PostMarked: Dec 22nd
Location: San Francisco

Interview Date: Feb 12
 
Well I got my rejection letter today, not a good Christmas present. I wish everyone luck on their interviews as well as those who have not heard anything yet.
 
Any word from people who are outside of California yet? Any letters at all?

For those who received interviews... how long do you have to respond to the offer? I am away from my campus address for a while longer and I don't want to miss my response window.
 
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CSUFTitans said:
Well I got my rejection letter today, not a good Christmas present. I wish everyone luck on their interviews as well as those who have not heard anything yet.
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Do you mind if I ask when it was postmarked? I'm sorry, good luck with your other schools
 
Congrats to those who have been invited for an interview!! I remember that feeling of total elation mixed with absolute terror...

I'm a P2 at UCSF so feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have about the interviewing process or school life. We're on break until January so I'll have a few weeks to hopefully help you out. In the meantime, here is a list of questions that is pretty helpful for the interview. It contains both questions I was specifically asked (and little notes about my answers) as well as questions I used to practice.

1. Definition of critical thinking: Focused, organized thinking about things such as the logical relationships among ideas, the soundness of evidence, and the differences between fact and opinion. Careful analysis before judgment. Systematic, purposeful. Example = peer-reviewed papers
2. Difficult situation with another person and how you handled it
3. Why pharmacy? Most dynamic field in health care, offers opportunities and flexibility to balance a successful career with a satisfying personal life, job security, employment opportunities, life-long learning
4. What do you do in your free time?
5. What caused a drop in “most trusted profession” rating and how fix can we it? People associate pharmacists with pharmaceutical companies perhaps
6. Hypothetical ethical situations (I was asked THREE of these during my interview! I imagine they want to see how well you think on your feet)
7. Time you felt proud
8. Negative thing about self, how you changed it
9. Unique characteristic you bring to job? What type of role do you see yourself in as a pharmacist?
10. Give an example of a time when you’ve been a leader
11. How has experience in pharmacy prepared you for career?
12. Why UCSF? Sets standards for all other schools, years ahead in curriculum which is important in a field that is changing so fast, reputation, location, lots of opportunity for outreach and community education
13. If Rx prescribed incorrectly, how do you handle it?
14. Why pharmacy, not research?
15. Typical problems when starting out new independent pharmacy? Getting clients, federal reimbursements are slow, competing with $4 generics
16. Issues in healthcare that you see shaping future of pharmacy: Medicare Part D, rising numbers of filled rx’s, drug seeking behavior
17. How do you spend a typical Saturday?
18. What got you interested in pharmacy?
19. How will the recent legislation affecting pharmacy change the way your practice?
20. What is pharmacogenomics? Concerned with the effects of genetic factors on reactions to drugs (example: warfarin, phenytoin dosing)
21. How would a compounding pharmacist ensure patient confidentiality?
22. Anything else we should know about you?
23. Rather be a leader or follower?
24. Change something about undergrad experience?
25. Why you over all other applicants?
26. Most positive aspect of pharmacy
27. Example where you solved a problem in a creative way
28. Pharmacists role? Assure safe, accurate delivery of meds and caution about possible side effects of drug therapy
29. What pathway are you interested in?
30. How effective is the barcoding system at your hospital? What are the positive and negative aspects of this type of technology?
31. (In regards to my student govt experience) What qualities do you possess that you believe helped your peers select you for this position?
32. What are the relationships like between the pharmacists and doctors in the hospital you work at?

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to practice your answers, but don't let them come across as rehearsed. Be articulate and confident and most importantly, be yourself! Insincerity is a sure-fire way to get a denial letter. Also, be very familiar with your supplemental app answers. A good majority of my interview questions were based on my essays. Good luck!
 
Hi Zwigglez:

Your list of questions is awesome - exactly what I was looking for! Could you please tell us a little more about the UCSF Interview process and what to expect? Thanks. Your time and help is much appreciated.
 
Received rejection letter today. Postmarked Dec. 19.
 
letter was dated 12/19
postmarked 12/22

i live in the City. best wishes to all!
 
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lifexfabolous said:
gezz now im nervous to go back to ucsd and check my mailbox...=/:xf:
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Haha, I remember last year, I drove from LA to my apartment in San Diego just to check my mailbox.

I'm a P1 at UCSF, so feel free to ask me any questions if you have any. Good luck to you all, and happy holidays 🙂
 
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it seems like everyone who got an interview has a gpa so HIGH. anyone around the 3.5 area that got an interview? and what school did/do you go to?
 
I've been invited for Jan. 30th! 🙂

Since someone is bound to ask, I live in Fresno, my GPA is around a 3.6, and I like long walks on the beach.
 
I just got the interview invitation for late Feb. I'm probably not going as pharmacy is my backup plan but good luck to everyone else!!

My Pharmcas GPA and prereq GPA are both 3.24
 
I just checked my mail and got a letter postmarked for Dec 22nd for an interview on Feb 20th. I live in San Jose,CA, but the letter probably arrived two days ago. yay!
 
Interview for me too.
This is my second time interviewing, so I'm not as surprised (though Im definetely equally excited).

Good luck to you all
 
FresnoPharmD said:
I've been invited for Jan. 30th! 🙂

Since someone is bound to ask, I live in Fresno, my GPA is around a 3.6, and I like long walks on the beach.
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what's your favorite color and what car do you drive?:laugh:
 
sandoz said:
Any word from people who are outside of California yet? Any letters at all?

For those who received interviews... how long do you have to respond to the offer? I am away from my campus address for a while longer and I don't want to miss my response window.
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So very, very excited!! I live on the East Coast and got my interview invitation in the mail today.
We get 14 days to reply from the date the letter is dated and we reply via a website and a personal ID they give us.
 
I live in Orange County and I still have not received a letter. Anybody still waiting? I'm really nervous because this is so strange. I should've gotten a letter either way
 
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I still haven't received anything yet. 🙁 Should I be worried?
 
USCfight99x said:
I just got the interview invitation for late Feb. I'm probably not going as pharmacy is my backup plan but good luck to everyone else!!

My Pharmcas GPA and prereq GPA are both 3.24
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USCfight-- Congrats! I hope plan "A" works out for you....I didn't apply this round but my GPA is roughly the same as yours. Did you have a boat load of ex. circulars and pharm experience when you applied?
 
TrjTraddie said:
I'm sure it's not you, its ucsf. dont' worry, there are plenty of fish in the sea.
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some schools look for different kinds of applicants and besides, you got accepted to 2 great schools already, uop and midwestern ccp?
 
I'm at home across the country for the holidays and won't be back until the 4th to check my mail. I checked with the admissions dept and they're closed until the 5th which is too late to get a response. What should I do? I don't want to lose a chance to interview if I got an invitation because I can't get my mail. Any suggestions?
 
TrjTraddie said:
I'm sure it's not you, its ucsf. dont' worry, there are plenty of fish in the sea.
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dumbguy said:
some schools look for different kinds of applicants and besides, you got accepted to 2 great schools already, uop and midwestern ccp?
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Thanks for the support..

Yeah, I've been accepted to those schools... I've paid my deposit for UOP and I have until Jan 5th to decide if I want to make the deposit for Midwestern and Mercer. I've got interviews at USC, UB, and OSU coming up...

UCSF wasn't too disappointing for me. My heart belongs to UCSD.. I'm still waiting to hear from them... If I don't get anything in the mail tomorrow, I'm going to assume I was denied.
 
almondtea said:
I was afraid of that too, but if you look on last year's thread there were some people who got interviews with a gpa <3.4! Maybe that can happen again this year? :xf:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=479422
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I'm one of those people 😀

sGPA: 3.02, overall GPA: 3.27

This is my 2nd interview--last time around I ended up being really high on the waitlist after rocking the interview. Hopefully I'll get in this year.

To everyone else still waiting--don't assume that because you haven't gotten anything that you didn't get an interview. Both the rejection and interview letters are the exact same size. 🙂
 
stkyrice said:
I'm one of those people 😀

sGPA: 3.02, overall GPA: 3.27

This is my 2nd interview--last time around I ended up being really high on the waitlist after rocking the interview. Hopefully I'll get in this year.

To everyone else still waiting--don't assume that because you haven't gotten anything that you didn't get an interview. Both the rejection and interview letters are the exact same size. 🙂
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Hahaha yes, you are living proof indeed and give others with similar numbers some hope! Congrats to you stkyrice! 😀

And if you have not received anything yet, don't they also send invitations through early January?
 
For those who got interview, is that because you have tons of volunteer and research?
 
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krystal2812 said:
For those who got interview, is that because you have tons of volunteer and research?
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I can't speak for everyone, but I would like to think I didn't get an interview just because of grades, volunteering or research. I hope that the admissions are looking for individual characters and potential instead of statistics alone. I think stats are nice to look at, and make for good publicity, but I don't think i'd like to go to a school that only looks at things like that.
 
almondtea said:
I was afraid of that too, but if you look on last year's thread there were some people who got interviews with a gpa <3.4! Maybe that can happen again this year? :xf:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=479422
Click to expand...

stkyrice said:
I'm one of those people 😀

sGPA: 3.02, overall GPA: 3.27

This is my 2nd interview--last time around I ended up being really high on the waitlist after rocking the interview. Hopefully I'll get in this year.

To everyone else still waiting--don't assume that because you haven't gotten anything that you didn't get an interview. Both the rejection and interview letters are the exact same size. 🙂
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Here too! 3.00 overall GPA. But at the same time, it's kind of discouraging to hear that you didn't get in after rocking the interview.
 
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TrjTraddie said:
I can't speak for everyone, but I would like to think I didn't get an interview just because of grades, volunteering or research. I hope that the admissions are looking for individual characters and potential instead of statistics alone. I think stats are nice to look at, and make for good publicity, but I don't think i'd like to go to a school that only looks at things like that.
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yea, I understand that but I just wanna know what UCSF is looking for to improve my chance next year. I have some volunteer, research and work experience ( a certified technician for 8 months). I also have high GPA. So I don't know what I should do next. More volunteer?
 
krystal2812 said:
yea, I understand that but I just wanna know what UCSF is looking for to improve my chance next year. I have some volunteer, research and work experience ( a certified technician for 8 months). I also have high GPA. So I don't know what I should do next. More volunteer?
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maybe it's the way that you come accross in your written application.

how can you convey to them that you are unique? I mean... the typical pharmacy student has decent grades, volunteering, and research. Just sit down one of these days and think about yourself and the world.

The way I see it, any pharmacy school wants a person who has confidence, yet humbleness. Goals and aspirations... doesn't settle for mediocricy, but to take the field of pharmacy to new heights (as idealistic and cliche as it sounds). Pretty much someone who is an innovative thinker, not just going with the flow.

Since I haven't gotten into pharmacy school, you should have all the above AND call the admissions office to comment on your application. Only THEY can tell you what to do to improve your chances.
 
From UCSF Application Agreement:

i understand that my application will be considered incomplete
and will be canceled if:
1. i do not submit all required recommendations through the
PharmCas elor service, or
2. i submit fewer than the required number of recommendations,
or
3. all recommendations are not received by PharmCas by
november 3, 2008.


Does this mean that paper recommendations are not allowed even if they're submitted through PharmCas?
 
sw3etpea said:
From UCSF Application Agreement:

i understand that my application will be considered incomplete
and will be canceled if:
1. i do not submit all required recommendations through the
PharmCas elor service, or
2. i submit fewer than the required number of recommendations,
or
3. all recommendations are not received by PharmCas by
november 3, 2008.


Does this mean that paper recommendations are not allowed even if they're submitted through PharmCas?
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As long as you received the confirmation email from UCSF saying your application was complete and that it was ready for review, I think you have nothing to worry about.
 
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