What schools should I apply to???

[danjuan257]

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Hi, I recently graduated from a Canadian university and I am planning on applying to schools in the U.S.

There are so many pharmacy schools in the U.S. I'm not sure where to even begin with my sort of stats...

Any suggestions to give me a starting point on what schools I should research would be helpful.


Here are my stats:

PCAT
Verbal Ability: 65
Biology: 90
Reading Comp: 75
Quantitative Ability: 91
Chemistry: 81
Composite: 86
Writing scores: Con. of Lang 2.0 and mean 2.78
Problem Solving 2.0 and mean 2.80

(took it twice, got a composite of 73% the first time)

Major: Science and Business, Biology specialization (Graduated)
Cumulative Avg: 2.7 (estimate from converting % to GPA)
Major Avg: 2.3

VOLUNTEER:
Hospital physiotherapy - 4months
Pharmacy experience - 4months

Again, any advice or comments will be greatly appreciated!

 

[bacillus1]

What area of the US do you want to go to?

AACP has a list of pharmacy schools (I believe there are 115 now). Look at schools for which you need to take the least additional classes possible (or no additional classes would be even better). Different schools have different prerequisites. For example some may require statistics, some may require psychology while some may even require sociology or economics.

Also are you a permanent US resident or a US citizen? If not, then I have no idea about your eligibility for federal student aid.

 

[danjuan257]

Honestly, I think I will go wherever they take me (as long as they are accredited of course). As you can see my GPA is not the best. I was thinking I might have a better chance with the newer schools and ones with low minimum GPAs.

My impression was that if you have graduated, you only need the science pre-req's. I'm not really sure about this though...need to double check.

And I'm not a U.S. citizen so I won't be able to get federal aid. I'll have to get a bank loan here in Canada.

 

[Forrest Gump]

Choosing which schools to apply to was a narrowing down process for me. First, I looked for schools that I was eligible for based on their minimum gpa and test scores. Then I narrowed it down by seeing which ones I had the prereqs for and if there were too many to make it possible (to complete & finish my classes for my major), I eliminated them. I also cut schools that wouldn't accept AP or CLEP credit as I wasn't about to retake those classes! I ended up with the six I applied to and with one interview down and one coming up (so far) I feel I selected the best potential schools for me. Do your research and homework as it will be worth it in the end!