I'm
thrilled to get an offer!
Congratulations to everyone else who got in! Waterloo has a pretty thorough screening process for applicants so I'm sure that every offer was well-deserved.
I've been lurking on these forums since before the interview offers came out, but all the countdowns and encouraging words have really helped me get through the long wait.
🙂
To those who didn't get accepted this year, keep your chin up and try again if pharmacy is the profession that you really want to go into. I applied to U of T last year and didn't get an interview due to a PCAT cut-off, so I know that it feels disappointing, but don't let it stop you from getting what you want.
For future applicants' reference, my stats/thoughts:
In province
GPA: 3.94
3rd year at U of T
Completed all pre-requisites
2 months working as a pharm tech
Reference form completed by a pharmacist
PCAT: 98 composite, 3/3 writing (previous attempt was 99, 3/2.5)
Application profile: The AP is very comprehensive, so I think non-academic activities are extremely important. I tried to fill out as many of the slots as possible with a variety of experiences to cover the qualities that they list as examples.
RC/WT: There were two parts: a science-related article to read and answer questions about for RC, and a short essay with two choices of prompts unrelated to the article. We had to manage our time to get both parts done in the chunk of time allotted (can't remember how long). The time given wasn't particularly generous, and I felt that I had to finish everything as quickly as possible. RC part was fine, and essay prompts weren't bad, but writing is obviously not my strong point.
Interview: I was interviewed on the first day. 2/3 of my interviewers were really friendly, and I felt that the content of my answers was good, but my delivery was not great. I was nervous and flustered, and probably red-faced for a good portion of it. Questions were all ones that you would expect out of a traditional panel interview. Know what your strengths and weaknesses are, be prepared with specific examples to highlight your good qualities, and show both professionalism and personality (5-10 min blurb!). I didn't feel very confident about my interview afterwards because of my delivery and I was bracing myself for bad news, but I'm so relieved now.
The first-year student that I talked to before my interview was really sweet and reassuring. If she's a typical UW pharmacy student, then I'm sure that 1T5 will have awesome classmates too! For a variety of reasons, I'm still leaning towards U of T at the moment, but I'll see what happens on the 24th.