Urgent Pharmacy school admission question

[blaque1703]

Hello,

I just recently decided that I wanted to go to Pharmacy school. It took me a while to come to that decision but I know that it's the right one for me. I already have a Bachelors Degree in Biological Sciences. My question to all of you is, do you know of any Pharmacy schools that give special consideration for applicants with a bacheolors degree? My gpa is fairly low(2.46) and I am hoping that having a degree and scoring well on the PCAT can make up for it. Does anyone have any idea?

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[omnione]

Though the entering class profiles for most pharmacy schools involve many more degree holders, degrees are not guarantees. You need to do well on the PCAT because your GPA doesn't even make the cut-off point for many schools.

However, there is always hope since there are successful applicants who for one reason or another have sub-3.0 GPAs. Many times, great LORs and great PCAT scores can get that interview where you can shine.

In the meantime, you should look to graduate schools to improve your GPA just in case your applications don't turn out the way you want.

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

Hello,

I just recently decided that I wanted to go to Pharmacy school. It took me a while to come to that decision but I know that it's the right one for me. I already have a Bachelors Degree in Biological Sciences. My question to all of you is, do you know of any Pharmacy schools that give special consideration for applicants with a bacheolors degree? My gpa is fairly low(2.46) and I am hoping that having a degree and scoring well on the PCAT can make up for it. Does anyone have any idea?

Having a Bachelor's degree is becoming more and more common these days with pharmacy applicants. A Bachelors Degree is a solid addition but in the near future a Bachelor's Degree could be another requirement at many schools. Don't get me wrong it is a good thing to have an application but i would just call it an "edge".

Scoring well on the PCAT can help to make up for a low GPA but in my opinion a lot more would need to go with it. Overcoming a low GPA is doable as many people on this thread can attest to but they would probably go on to say they put in hard work.

Something that should go along with a great PCAT score is a lot of pharmacy experience. You have to show that admission committee that although you do not have the grades you have the desire, by volunteering/getting a pharmacy tech position, a lot. Also great LORs, a pharmacist saying he sees your desire to pursue pharmacy and a professor saying you have a desire to learn and would make a great pharmacy student.

Another hurdle you are going to have to clear is minimum GPA requirement. Most schools have a minimum GPA that you must meet for your application to even get looked at. You can view these minimums via this site....
http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/schoolpagesPARTinstitution.htm
I randomly looked through a few schools and most schools minimum is about 2.75 and some have a 2.5. You should contact the schools with these lower minimums and see if there is a chance your application would be looked at if you were slightly below the minimum. They will probably want to be an awesome application outside of the GPA to consider this.

Do the research, make the calls to schools and get out there and get the volunteer/experience. Maybe spend the next year improving GPA and other pieces of the application for next year's application process.

Another must read is this link.....
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=347616

 

[anh80]

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[Rumplestiltazepam]

no offense or anything, but a 2.46 is really low. Come on now, u got that w/ undergrad science. how do u think u'll fair at a graduate level? More importantly, this profession deals w/ medicines. if u dont know ur ****, u'll end up killing someone someday......r u really serious about ur studies or r u in it for the money?

I agree this is a very low GPA and the application will probably not even get a looked over. You need to prove you handle upper division curriculum with stellar grades but to do this you need to enter a post bac program but with a GPA that low it will be tough to receive admission to a post bacc so you can get into pharmacy school.... First step is uppin undergrad GPA so you can enter post bacc then doing awesome there then.....apply to pharmacy school.

I know it is not the news you wanted to hear....unfortunately you will get the same answers you got in the medical school forums. Pharmacy is competitive too, having a degree is not going to cut it.

Sorry i rethought my above post and think the more realistic approach is to not waste your time applying this year. Bump undergrad GPA->post bacc with good grades->then apply.

It might take a couple years but if you know pharmacy is what you want now then hit the ground running, work hard and hope for the best.

 

[bsps_2007]

since you already have a degree, raising your gpa will be a slow process. might be best to just retake all the pre-req classes at a community college (cheaper) to raise your overall gpa and to have a competitive pre-req gpa. some adcoms like upward trends, so if your last 45-60 hrs are mostly A's, they are less likely to hold your earlier grades against you.

 

[pharmacyanalyst]

no offense or anything, but a 2.46 is really low. Come on now, u got that w/ undergrad science. how do u think u'll fair at a graduate level? More importantly, this profession deals w/ medicines. if u dont know ur ****, u'll end up killing someone someday......r u really serious about ur studies or r u in it for the money?

No offense, but I don't think you should be offering advice when you can't even type out a response.

Don't give up hope. There are programs out there that will give you a look if you have some noteworthy experience and great PCAT scores. GPAs aren't everything and there are alot of smart people who made mistakes and slacked off in school. That doesn't mean they aren't capable of learning on a graduate level. Take the PCAT and see where you stand. If your scores aren't stellar then consider taking a few refresher courses and ace those. Don't let the naysayers get your down!

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

No offense, but I don't think you should be offering advice when you can't even type out a response.

Don't give up hope. There are programs out there that will give you a look if you have some noteworthy experience and great PCAT scores. GPAs aren't everything and there are alot of smart people who made mistakes and slacked off in school. That doesn't mean they aren't capable of learning on a graduate level. Take the PCAT and see where you stand. If your scores aren't stellar then consider taking a few refresher courses and ace those. Don't let the naysayers get your down!

Yes, there are plenty of smart people that made mistakes and could become good pharmacists but guess what schools have only so much time to figure out what candidates they want. So they have to set up requirements so they can weed people out and get the best students they can get. The main way they weed out applicants is by throwing out applicants that do not meet the requirements. If your GPA does not meet the requirements, most schools will not even look at the application. You can always call and plead if you get a 90+ PCAT score but I still say you have a shot in hell. People have done it I am sure but it will take a lot of hard work and luck.
I think the idea of restarting all the prereq courses is a good idea.
To the OP, I don't think I am a naysayer, I am being honest and realistic with you, if I told you that you still have a decent shot at getting accepted at this point I would be a liar. You have a shot at acceptance after you make some changes.

 

[eddie269]

Didn't have time to read replies. But I'll break it down quickly.

2.46 will not get you into any school.
You need to do a post-bacc or Masters and get close to a 4.0 gpa.
Once you invested 1-2 years in that, check out the thread in my post and you will be fine.

 

[Hels2007]

Well, you won't make it at UNMC, since at least 3/4 of the accepted class hold Bachelor's degree and our average GPA was 3.75. I think Creighton is less stringent. Of course, either would require a move to Nebraska.

 

[eelo]

No offense, but I don't think you should be offering advice when you can't even type out a response.

Don't give up hope. There are programs out there that will give you a look if you have some noteworthy experience and great PCAT scores. GPAs aren't everything and there are alot of smart people who made mistakes and slacked off in school. That doesn't mean they aren't capable of learning on a graduate level. Take the PCAT and see where you stand. If your scores aren't stellar then consider taking a few refresher courses and ace those. Don't let the naysayers get your down!

"GPAs aren't everything."

Well no, they're not..... but we're talking about someone who has completed a 4-year degree with a comparatively low GPA..... one that will get the doors of many pharmacy schools (in fact, most graduate schools) closed to him/her before they even consider looking at the application.

It's one thing to have a low GPA for the first year or two of undergrad, then a stellar record during the last two years, showing that the student finally got their act together. But a 2.46 for an entire 4-year degree program? It's going to take a lot more than upping that GPA with cupcake classes at the community college level.

 

[Carshop]

I think that doing a Masters program is the way to go for now. But also dont give up hope either. You could do great on the PCATs and interviews and maybe get lucky. I just completed my MBA in Health Administration with a 3.8 GPA. I just recently decided that i wanted to do Pharmacy as well.. I mean two days ago..so I am still doing my own research. I did my undergrad science classes like 4 years ago.. I was in a different mentality and a little bit immature. My science GPA is only a 2.6 and my overall is a 3.3. I have not taken PCATs. ALso i would suggest to get some experience and volunteer work. I have been working at Abbott labs for 1 year at a Corporate setting and previously worked as a tech for 5 years. Like I said before ..i am hoping to get lucky..cause my Science and overall undergrad GPA are not that high. Good LUck!

 

[binghamkid]

I think that doing a Masters program is the way to go for now. But also dont give up hope either. You could do great on the PCATs and interviews and maybe get lucky. I just completed my MBA in Health Administration with a 3.8 GPA. I just recently decided that i wanted to do Pharmacy as well.. I mean two days ago..so I am still doing my own research. I did my undergrad science classes like 4 years ago.. I was in a different mentality and a little bit immature. My science GPA is only a 2.6 and my overall is a 3.3. I have not taken PCATs. ALso i would suggest to get some experience and volunteer work. I have been working at Abbott labs for 1 year at a Corporate setting and previously worked as a tech for 5 years. Like I said before ..i am hoping to get lucky..cause my Science and overall undergrad GPA are not that high. Good LUck!

Given that you completed an MBA with an excellent GPA, I think the adcoms will look favorably upon your application (once you complete your PCAT of course). Your extracurriculars look solid. They will take your improvement into account as well as the length of time between your undergrad and your MBA GPAs. You may want to contact schools to find out if you need to retake any science classes to stay current (some schools have a timeframe in which they'd like you to complete your classes)

 

[bsps_2007]

getting a master's would be a great, but most master's programs require a min gpa of 3.0, which is even higher than the min for a lot of pharmacy schools.

 

[SCCpharm]

I had ~2.6gpa from my bachelors in computer science (5 years). However ~3.9 gpa w/ associate in science (all pre-reqs for pharmacy ~ 2 years) at a local community college. I applied to 5 schools. Asked to interview at 3 schools. Interviewed at 2 schools. Accepted at both school that I interviewed at.

So, I think its definately possible to recover from a low gpa.

My advice:

Take all the pre-reqs at a university or community college. You must get as close to a 4.0gpa as possible here.
Then apply for academic forgiveness where possible.
Make sure to have pharmacy work experience.

 

[bananaface]

To the OP:

Eddie has it right about your current GPA being an outright barrier to admission. A 2.46 is too low for consideration by any school of pharmacy. A low number of schools set their minimum for consideration at 2.5, but the minimum is not a competitive place to be.

My recommendation would be to start by evaluating your prerequisite courses and retake key courses that you did poorly in. It's better to focus on courses that will help you to be prepared for pharmacy school than to spend time simply trying to raise a statistic.

When you finally do apply, check out the stats on AACP's website (link in sticky) and shoot for places with an average entering GPA of 3.2 or lower.

 

[blaque1703]

Thank you very much for those of you who gave encouraging words, even if it was to go back and take a few courses to improve my gpa. For those who were very negative, I know very well that my gpa is low. It's not news to me. Did you ever consider that maybe I had some traumatic experiences in a couple of semesters? No, you just took it as I am only in it for the money. That was very hurtful when I was just trying to be honest and get some good advice.

Those of you who were encouraging, thank you very much. I plan on taking some more courses and studying hard for the PCAT. I have actually already applied to some positions as a Pharmacy Tech and have an interview. I thought about that right after I wrote the first post. Thank you for your advice again and good luck.

 

[anh80]

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[anh80]

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[Rumplestiltazepam]

Thank you very much for those of you who gave encouraging words, even if it was to go back and take a few courses to improve my gpa. For those who were very negative, I know very well that my gpa is low. It's not news to me. Did you ever consider that maybe I had some traumatic experiences in a couple of semesters? No, you just took it as I am only in it for the money. That was very hurtful when I was just trying to be honest and get some good advice.

Those of you who were encouraging, thank you very much. I plan on taking some more courses and studying hard for the PCAT. I have actually already applied to some positions as a Pharmacy Tech and have an interview. I thought about that right after I wrote the first post. Thank you for your advice again and good luck.

Congrats on getting an interview. It is forum public knowledge, by clicking on your profile and looking at old posts, that your GPA is low because you thought you could study like you did in high school while you were in college. I saw that in one of your posts from last year when you wanted to be a doctor and someone asked about your low GPA. I know people saying how low it is can be hurtful but sometimes the best medicine is blunt honesty so there is no confusion that 2.46=no pharm school.

But it sounds like you are doing the right things, you know you have restart all your preqs and you are getting a Tech job which is a great move. You will get a better feel for the profession and it looks good on an application, you will also make contacts for letters of recommendation.

Good luck and remember this is an anonymous forum, no one is really out to get anyone, well maybe a few people......, anyway good luck with the interview!

 

[anh80]

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[blaque1703]

Wow. Thanks for all your nice words.

To answer about having been premed before, well the reason it has been so long that I have posted since then is because I took some time to figure out exactly what was right for me. Well who cares. I'm done here. Forget I even said anything. I'm tired.

 

[gaba101]

My gpa is fairly low(2.46)

HAHAHAHA. I wouldn't want a pharmacist with a 2.46 undergrad GPA filling my prescriptions or anyone in my family. With a 2.46 undergrad science GPA, chances are you will be sweating bullets just to barely pass pharmacy school. 2.46 in an undergraduate science program??? If it was Harvard or Yale or some Ivy League, I can sympathize but otherwise, how do you expect to survive in pharmacy school? And you said you were pre-med w/ that GPA? Glad you're not going into medicine. One of the downfalls of pharmacy is we get the left overs from pre-med who can't compete academically. *sigh* I hope I won't have to be your preceptor in the future.

retake all of your science prerequisites at a stellar college, rape the PCATs, attain fabulous LORs and maybe there may be some hope for you.

 

[FlaPharmChik]

GEE WHIZ!
some of you guys are HARSH...

to the OP,
good luck in whatever you decide to do! like most of the other posters suggested, i would recommend retaking pre-reqs as well...also, it may benefit you to apply to schools that only calculate your math/science gpa as opposed to overall gpa (depending on what classes you didn't do so well in)....again...good luck!

 

[gaba101]

GEE WHIZ!
some of you guys are HARSH...

to the OP,
good luck in whatever you decide to do! like most of the other posters suggested, i would recommend retaking pre-reqs as well...also, it may benefit you to apply to schools that only calculate your math/science gpa as opposed to overall gpa (depending on what classes you didn't do so well in)....again...good luck!

Sometimes being realistic comes off as being harsh. I'd rather know the truth as to what my chances are than being sugar-coated w/ answers that lead me to waste 4-5 yrs pursuing a goal that is likely to be out of reach.

 

[anh80]

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[binghamkid]

Just want to ask you this, if u need to ask a pharmacist to advise u what medications u should buy for your parents. would u want the person u r asking and trusting for medical advice who science backgroud was a 2.46 GPA while going through his/her training??? sometime being harsh is a and a splash of reality.

While this may be true, but in reality, retail practices do NOT ask for your undergraduate GPA when determining whether to hire you. What matters then is whether you are licensed as a pharmacist and are qualified by previous experience/internships/fellowships/residencies. While the OP may not be currently able to go to pharmacy school, he still has a good chance if he is willing to follow the constructive criticism he has received from the posts above. It is the job of the pharmacy school admissions to judge whether he is ready to be admitted. Last I checked, however, America (which is where I'm assuming the OP is located), was the land of opportunity. If he wants to be a pharmacist that badly, there are ways to get there. No one ever said it was easy, but it's still possible.

To the OP: If being a pharmacist is your dream and your goal, don't let the negative comments dissuade you. People often forget when they have it good that had they grown up in different circumstances, their situation might be no different than yours. Considering this is a profession that will stay with you for decades, what's a few more years in preparation right? Keep your chin up =) There's still some of us in the forum who are rooting for you (especially those of us who were in your position only a few years back).

 

[anh80]

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[binghamkid]

i agree w/ u completely. have u read my earlier postings?

Yup.

Sorry, my post wasn't directed at you, but i was responding to that scenario, so I picked the most recent post. I could have picked about half a dozen others though in this post.

Just felt I had to speak up on behalf of the OP when too much negativity abounds. =)

 

[FlaPharmChik]

Sometimes being realistic comes off as being harsh. I'd rather know the truth as to what my chances are than being sugar-coated w/ answers that lead me to waste 4-5 yrs pursuing a goal that is likely to be out of reach.

Just want to ask you this, if u need to ask a pharmacist or doctor to advise u on what medications u should buy for your parents. would u want the person u r asking and trusting for medical advice who gotten a 2.46 GPA while going through his/her training??? sometime being harsh is a and a splash of reality is beneficial.

if i am on my death bed, i want a medical team who knows what the hell they are doing. wouldnt u???

oh, trust me, i'm ALL for being realistic..but to me there's a big difference between giving sound REALISTIC advice and being harsh (i.e. "HAHAHAHA", and other snide remarks)...the OP needed advice/opinions...not to be laughed at...jmo...but opinions are like dinguses...everyone has one (i hope )