What Should I Do?!

[misterlao]

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Hey guys, this is my first post on this forum so please be nice. 🙂

I'm currently a 4th year, Pharmacology major at UC-Santa Barbara and I applied to the UOP Pharmacy School this past summer during tier 2. I've since been told my application has been put on hold but although I do usually have an optimistic outlook, I fear that I will eventually be rejected. Currently my overall GPA is 2.9 with two quarters remaining. I have also been a registered pharmacy technician since 2008 and currently work at Costco in the pharmacy.

I'm a little lost on what the best usage of my time in the next year would be. I plan to apply to out of state schools and re-take pre req's (Biology) to raise my GPA. So other than studying for the PCAT and taking a few classes at a local community college I'm not sure if I should continue to work at Costco or should I look for a different job to expand my resume.

SHOULD I LISTEN TO MY FRIENDS? THE'RE MY FRIENDS.... haha just kidding I had to throw that in there I despise Lebron James but that's a whole different discussion, back to my questions.

What other jobs should I look to apply to? Or would volunteering at a hospital be a better use of my time? I'm not even sure if retaking those pre req's is the best usage of my time. As you can see I'm a little lost on what I should do to improve my chances of getting into Pharmacy school so any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Jabberwocky12]

Hey guys, this is my first post on this forum so please be nice. 🙂

I'm currently a 4th year, Pharmacology major at UC-Santa Barbara and I applied to the UOP Pharmacy School this past summer during tier 2. I've since been told my application has been put on hold but although I do usually have an optimistic outlook, I fear that I will eventually be rejected. Currently my overall GPA is 2.9 with two quarters remaining. I have also been a registered pharmacy technician since 2008 and currently work at Costco in the pharmacy.

I'm a little lost on what the best usage of my time in the next year would be. I plan to apply to out of state schools and re-take pre req's (Biology) to raise my GPA. So other than studying for the PCAT and taking a few classes at a local community college I'm not sure if I should continue to work at Costco or should I look for a different job to expand my resume.

SHOULD I LISTEN TO MY FRIENDS? THE'RE MY FRIENDS.... haha just kidding I had to throw that in there I despise Lebron James but that's a whole different discussion, back to my questions.

What other jobs should I look to apply to? Or would volunteering at a hospital be a better use of my time? I'm not even sure if retaking those pre req's is the best usage of my time. As you can see I'm a little lost on what I should do to improve my chances of getting into Pharmacy school so any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Would you mind listing the grades of the pre-reqs that you took? If they are mainly pre-reqs that brought you to a 2.9 then go ahead and re-take them. The general consensus on many threads is that if they are other sciences and you didn't get an F (i.e. elective chem or bio) then don't worry about it. If you are working in a retail setting then I think you might want to shadow/volunteer in another setting like a hospital, long term care facility, nuclear pharmacy, etc. to show that you have an understanding of the profession as a whole.

If you can't find certain outlier courses (a few Fs or Ds or low pre-reqs) and it is an overall course contribution that led to a 2.9 then maybe look at doing a masters degree in a science. That would help to get some better sciences with advanced content. Also have you had a good GPA for the last few quarters that shows an upward trend?

Finally, maybe try to see if your personal statements or LORs need buffing. Maybe another pharmacist in a different setting could write another one or a different science teacher; make sure with advisors and writing workshops that you have the best personal statement that you can. Also, did you include any factors that could have led to a 2.9 GPA in the first place?

These are just things I've seen while doing research here. I'm going to apply in probably another year myself but I want to make sure this is the profession I want and know what to do. Also, at the very least, IF you get rejected, for the love of god CALL the adcoms and ask what they didn't like. They can tell you a few things to improve on and you can directly address those items and then mention how you were told those items directly in the personal statement.

Hope this helps!

 

[R2pharmD2]

Jabberwocky's advice is solid, but the truth of the matter is that your gpa is going to be a major handicap, and it's tough to dramatically raise your GPA when you're that far into school. You can, however, kill two birds with one stone by retaking PCAT relevant courses to improve your grades and, ideally, better prepare yourself for the PCAT at the same time. Dominating the PCAT is probably the only thing a borderline applicant can do to make themselves substantially more competitive.

Good luck!

 

[misterlao]

Thanks for the quick replies and all of the advice it is greatly appreciated.

Jabberwocky12- The intro to biology series and organic chemistry lab are the pre reqs that I earned some C's in and brought down my GPA. And as far as the past few quarters I do show an improvement which I hope to continue in my last two quarters. I did not list any reason as to why my GPA was so low as there was no good reason. I was immature back in the day, did not have the strong study ethic I have now and tried to take on too many science classes at one time.

R2pharmD2- What courses would you consider PCAT relevant? I think taking biology over again would be helpful but what else would you recommend?

Also, has anyone here enrolled in any PCAT preparatory class? Are they worth the money or am I better off studying alone?

 

[Neebs9]

I'm pretty sure that pharmacy schools don't really care what setting you work in as long you get the experience, at least thats what the UofA only care is the experience.

Just keep the Costco job and limit the amount of hours working.