I have a quick question. Does anyone know how lenient VCU is when it comes to deadline extensions?
Received my Preliminary Acceptance today!! So excited!!
Received my Preliminary Acceptance today!! So excited!!
Me too!!!!!
I have a quick question. Does anyone know how lenient VCU is when it comes to deadline extensions?
Yes, care to elaborate? As a prospective student with VCU as my number one choice, I would like to know even more of why VCU isn't the great school I saw it as. Please give detail because I'm looking so highly up to VCU but I could be wrong.^^Don't worry too much. It really wasn't a bad process. You'll have a chance to talk to other interviewees for a little while if you get there a bit early and then they do a general overview that gives you time to relax. You'll get a paper with your individual schedule -- the order of these 4 things is different for everyone: essay, school tour, faculty/student interview, alumnus/student interview. It'll have exactly where and when you need to go spelled out and there are current students around to help as well.
At the interview, they said to expect acceptance/rejection decisions within 3 weeks, unless you ended up being "borderline," in which case they would put you on hold (without notification) and keep your application in mind until the end of the cycle. I personally got a preliminary acceptance email in under 2 weeks, and it looks like others with the same date as me did as well. You'll have to pass a background check before they send out an official acceptance letter. I filled out the info for that on Friday and it was processed by Monday morning, so that's not too big a deal. I'm still waiting for the official letter.
Suggestions? Be yourself and try to enjoy the process! This was my first interview; I have since had several others and have definitely gotten better at staying calm. I'm not sure if this is your first interview or not, but I would say just try not to stress out too much. They understand that applicants are going to be nervous, and they do their best to try to make it easier for you. I thought I bombed one of the two interviews here, but I still got accepted! So...don't panic.
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Re: the two posters above who are current students:
I am seriously considering other schools as well, so I do appreciate your input on your experience of the school. Care to elaborate a little more...not that you didn't already include detail, I'm just trying to get as much info as possible before making final decisions! Did you have a negative impression of the school from the start, or do you feel that those problems were totally unexpected?
If you can, can you pm me and tell me a detailed version of the current story of this school? I just live in Virginia and going to this school I would have in-state tuition. All I'm trying to do is to see if it would be worth it to go here.Yes, on the outside this school looks great.
Everything is new and high tech and fancy.
But you have to ask around to get a idea of what is going on inside. You will get many respones that mirror what the other poster was saying about how dissatisfied students are choosing this program at this school.
- I know this seems kinda strong but if you have already accepted your admission to this school i would urge you to strongly consider that you reneg on your acceptance IF you still have the option to do so (meaning you didnt send your rejection letters to the other schools you have got into)....I know by doing this you would lose your 500 deposit and at this time that may seem like a lot of money, but quite frankly in the long run, that deposit that you lose out on is a drop in the bucket. its something you can make back working as a pharmacy intern really quickly. The money and time you rack up pursing this degree here, will be MUCH more costly in the long run.
Yes, care to elaborate? As a prospective student with VCU as my number one choice, I would like to know even more of why VCU isn't the great school I saw it as. Please give detail because I'm looking so highly up to VCU but I could be wrong.
Thank you for the insight. But don't you think, if I get accepted, I should go to VCU rather than pay out-of-state tuition going somewhere else? I'm getting the feeling that this type of problem you're describing is bearable or only a minor disturbance which woon't ruin the experience at the school-you know, something people whine about but know that it's not a big deal. Is that what it is?On paper the school and curriculum look great! It seems like a modern way of teaching where everything is integrated and you get a full view of the topic. The problem is that something like that takes a lot of time and effort from both the administration and staff which isn't happening. The school has communication issues anyways which does not help with something as intense as this curriculum requires. The plans look great but the implementation is going to take more time to get right. Sadly, without better buy in from the professors and more team work, it will stay a mess for awhile.
On top of the curriculum issues I think many of the staff at the school has attitude issues.
. Administratively speaking, this school is extremely poorly run. Policies change drastically on a yearly basis. The administration is hyper-reactionary in its response to what it views as problems.
Congrats! I got accepted yesterday too...and I'm definitely excited. I really like this school!
Have you guys gotten your official acceptance letters yet? Mine still hasn't shown up in the mail...
I called today but had to leave a message, just want to make sure it didn't get lost in the mail or anything. Do you know how much time they give between the letter and the due date for the deposit?No...I don't know whether to ask about it or not. I'm getting a bit concerned. At the same time, I don't want to rush the deposit deadline. What are you thinking?
I called today but had to leave a message, just want to make sure it didn't get lost in the mail or anything. Do you know how much time they give between the letter and the due date for the deposit?
I understand, I was kind of worried it got lost too. I'm not sure how long they give...for some reason I have in my mind that it is two weeks, but I don't know where I'm pulling that from! I could very well be wrong. I would be an out-of-state student; do you know if the deposit is really $1000 for out-of-staters by chance? I've heard $500 for in-state. I checked on PharmCAS and it just says "to be determined" on both deadline and amount.
It's roughly three weeks from the letter to the deposit deadline. It is $1000 for me, and I'm out of state. I know I received the official acceptance letter couple days after my background check was sent to VCU. Hope this helps!
Btw, are you guys attending for sure?
Thanks for the info! I haven't decided yet if I am attending for sure...I am having a really hard time choosing. What about you?
I'm still waiting for 3 schools to get back to me...so I just might have to pay the deposit for a spot first =/
It's tough, huh? That's why I'm not rushing to ask where the letter is, lol.
haha yeah this wait is killing me but hey at least I have a school to go to ^^ are you in-state for virginia?
I got into VCU and UNC. I honestly was more impressed with VCU (facilities, felt much more welcome, in-state tuition, and believe it or not I like the area better) but reading the last few posts makes me rethink my decision. I sent in my deposit to VCU way back in October and have until the 23rd of March to send UNC a deposit. Do you guys have any specific reasons why you're dissatisfied with VCU other than what you wrote? Thanks!I completely agree with this poster, I am in my 3rd year here. The school for years has had a policy where they set aside some portion of your tuition money to buy students Palm Pilots to use durin their 4th year rotation. The class before me they changed from buying Palm Pilot to Apple I-Touch/I-Pod which was loaded with drug reference programs needed during 4th year. Well when it came time for our class to receive our I-Touch the school decided not use the money they set aside for our ITouch and instead they spent that money to renovate and update the computer lab with new computers. They did not consult us whatsoever and they upgraded the computer lab with newer but FEWER number of computers. Also, the old computer lab was completly fine the way it was. They just wanted to renovate the room and make it look pretty so they could show off to future students. When we tried to complain, they just ignored us and essentially told us to deal with it.
# CANT WAIT TO LEAVE THIS SCHOOL#
I'm pretty much set on going the clinical route, how do you think that going to VCU would be okay rather than another school for this? I got into UNC as well and have to tell them by the 23rd (already paid my deposit for VCU). Do you think I'd be okay with just sticking at VCU?First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you for picking such an excellent career. This is a great career choice. As a someone who is about to graduate from this school in just a few months I think it is my responsibility to give you one piece of sound advice: DO NOT GO TO THIS SCHOOL, especially If you have other options. This school changed the way its curriculum was set up the year I entered and it has done a terrible job with the new curriculum. It is slowly fixing the bugs year by year, but it is no where near finished even now. Administratively speaking, this school is extremely poorly run. Policies change drastically on a yearly basis. The administration is hyper-reactionary in its response to what it views as problems. My P-2 year, most of my classmates got almost all As in most of the classes. The school freaked out and said oh no we can not have this many students getting an A grade, what will it look like . SO the following year in all the classes the grading scale was changed from a B being >80 my year to being >85 for the class after mine. And what it took to get a A and C were so increased. And the school changed how much your group work grade was worth when calculating your overall grade, from a 40% down to ~17%. The year before me, the group grade was worth nearly 50% of the course grade. Fact is, when you work in a group, your grade will go up almost every time as 4 heads are better than 1 usually.
Also, from the class I started with we have lost nearly 20% of the students we started with for various reasons, some were unfarily kicked out for not being able to keep up in the schools eyes, others became disabled, and death was also another cause. One was kicked out merely for accusing the staff of being racially biased in grading their paper. So, when the students grade dipped they threw the student out and posted Wanted signs in the professors offices that read call the police if this person is seen in the building. This is VERY unprofessional behavior to say the least. I could go on as there are many other stories like this.
Most of the professors that had been working here for years and whom had placed a intricate part in giving this school such a good reputation as a education institution are gone. There is a heavy influx of new and young professors who are knowledgeable about the material they teach. Unfortunately these people have little to no background in actually TEACHING their material to you or how to properly test you. I am lucky that I made it this far, but, I do I have my fair share of scars from going through this program. If you know for sure that you want to be a clinical pharmacist, then this school may be an option for you. If you are able to make it through the rigors of this program, then you will be ready for a job in clinical pharmacy. But, I cant promise that you will have the requisite grades to compete for admission into a top quality residency program. If you dont wish to be a clinical pharmacist, do not waste your time going through the Pharm.D program at VCU. All in all, if you have no choice but to go here as this is the only place you got into, then go ahead and accept the admission and hang on tight as it will be a bumpy ride. Otherwise, if I were you I would go to another school even if you have to pay out-of-state tuition. Going to another school may cost more, but you will get a much better level of education.
Going back to the official acceptance letter...
I received my preliminary acceptance email on Feb. 23 and was notified by Certiphi that the background check was complete on Feb. 27. How long did it take those of you who already received your official letters to get them after completing the background check? Did you receive any further confirmations from VCU by email before that? I thought that the background check would be viewable by them, but now I'm getting worried that I didn't do something that I should have done.
Anyone have any input? I will definitely be e-mailing the school by Monday if I still haven't received anything.
Did you release the background check result to VCU right away? I let Certiphi released it automatically, which is 10 days from the day it was completed. After that 10 days, I think it took VCU 3-5 days to send a final acceptance letter to my house. I didn't get any other confirmation from VCU.
I'm not sure--was there something I was supposed to OK or something? I didn't notice that anything like that was required.
ETA: Ok, released. I hope it isn't too late! I didn't see that the first time around...I will contact VCU to make sure everything is ok. Somewhat frustrating since it said the automatic release date was 03/08, but it looks like that never happened.
What do you need to do to release the background check? I thought it was sent automatically. I haven't received any emails at all from Certiphi and I checked my spam, I didn't realize there was something I had to authorize in order for the check to go through and now I am panicking!
I interviewed back on Oct 27 and haven't heard anything. I know they said to not contact them, but is this common?
Don't panic! On the Application Station website there are two steps listed on the first page after you log in. Under "Step 2" there is a button you can click on to automatically release the report. Click on that and your current release status should change to "Y." If you can't remember how to access the website, go back to the email you originally received from Certiphi -- it should have a link. I'd do this ASAP, but try not to worry yourself sick. I heard back from VCU after sending an apology email about the situation and it has apparently happened to a few other people as well. Certiphi must have missed some of the automatic releases or something! Anyway, they didn't take back my acceptance or anything like that, so you will probably be ok too. Just get it taken care of ASAP!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hmmm...I'm trying to remember what they said at my interview. I don't remember for sure, but I'm guessing you are being held on reserve until they see how many with offers turn them down. Maybe since it has been that long you could contact them just to let them know you are still interested...since October to March really is a pretty long time. I'm sorry...I don't know what else to say. Good luck.
Thanks for the info! I was very confused because I never revived any emails from certiphi so I wasn't expecting that! I have emailed and called VCU so I'm hoping they get back to me ASAP so I can relax
So you can relax?! Atleast you got in! I just interview on this past Saturday and the waiting is already getting to me! lol
Let me clarify a few things before you all ask for your deposits back...
Accreditation standards are affecting every pharmacy school in the country, whether you see students posting on school-specific forums or not. The curricular changes the current VCU students are describing are not a result of the dean waking up one day and deciding to upend the norm; they are related to changes in accreditation requirements passed down from ACPE. While I do not doubt that the students posting have had negative experiences, one have to wonder what their classmates would say, and what students at other schools would say as well. Any school is going to be subject to mixed reviews!
New schools have a lot of issues to iron out that I think are self-evident, but even established colleges have a lot going on behind the scenes because of the new accreditation standards. I am sorry for students who feel like guinea pigs in the first year of any new approach - whether it's a change from pass/fail to letter grades for rotations or a curricular change that impacts grades in the classroom setting - but it happens, and the bumps are ironed out with time and time alone.
My advice is always to do what feels best for you - not for someone else. You want to be happy with your decision going in, and that will help you pull through the bad times. Trust me, I considered giving up or transferring at times, but I think that's natural when you're in an intensive program like pharmacy. When it was all said and done though, I made it through the program and would do it all over again if I could. I have a deep love and respect for my alma mater. The place still gives me butterflies. My decision to go where I went was based on the things that mattered to me - the pre-pharmacy requirements, the board pass rate, the variety of electives, and the feeling I got when I walked on campus and met with the people who would become my professors and administrators. Figure out what matters most to you and go for it.
UNC is ranked #2 but Ive never seen their campus....go with ur heart...I agree with the other user, thank you so much! I'm having a really hard time deciding between UNC and VCU but my gut tells me that VCU is the answer. A lot of people have been telling me that I'm crazy but the vibe I got from the school was just so much better. Your post helped me put things in perspective
UNC is ranked #2 but Ive never seen their campus....go with ur heart...
Hello all,
I was recently accepted by VCU and passed the background check and released it as soon as I got it back which was 3/17. how long did it take to get the acceptance letter? I have been checking my mail at least 3 times a day.
Really excited!!!