When to Email Schools about Accepting Substitute/Diff Courses/Degrees/LORs

[Got Em]

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I will be applying this coming up May. I am a pharmacist that will be out of undergrad for 7 years by the time I apply. I do NOT have a BA, but have a Pharm.D. During my 3 years of undergrad, I have taken many upper level BCPM courses. My stats are 3.42 Sci GPA, 3.5 Overall, 3.85 Grad GPA, with a "balanced" 31Q. I work 10 days straight with an erratic schedule and I also cover for the hospital, so there is not a possible way for me to take more courses and I will not go this route.

I have 3 questions that I will need to email 30 other schools. I'm NOT looking for answers to these questions; I'm rather looking for what time frame to email them and if I should email them separately for each question or all at the same time. I'm trying to decide if I should email them now, or wait until May/June.

1) Is it okay for my Pharm.D. to take place of the BA requirement?
2) Is it okay to use my Biochem class in Pharmacy school to sustitute the undergrad biochem requirement? [My two top schools have already stated that they will accept my pharmacy biochem]
3) For LORs, can I use a rec from my pharmacy director, and 2 professors/preceptors from pharmacy school? This may be a much better indicator than somebody writing a letter that knew me from 8-9 years ago.

 

[Got Em]

Forgot to add that if I do it now, I'll know in advance which schools I can apply to, but if I email them in May, then they can add this note to my profile. I'm not sure which is better, but if I email them now, it may potential lead to some mass confusion on everybody's part.

 

[mauberley]

You can ask at any point in time. I certainly asked all of those questions of schools before submitting my applications.

 

[Got Em]

You can ask at any point in time. I certainly asked all of those questions of schools before submitting my applications.

I'm worried that if I ask now, they won't link it to my application and that I would have to re-email them to notify them. Was this a problem for you and did you have to email them again?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

They don't need to link anything to your app. They aren't going to make any special exceptions for you so email them anytime. If the accept pharmd with a bachelors, then they will do it for everyone and will see your app as acceptable.

 

[Got Em]

They don't need to link anything to your app. They aren't going to make any special exceptions for you so email them anytime. If the accept pharmd with a bachelors, then they will do it for everyone and will see your app as acceptable.

Great point!

 

[Dzerzhinsky]

Yes, I had some questions for the schools to which I was applying (mine were different from yours, but same sort of thing), and I e-mailed them in May of this year. I'm probably applying next cycle, but even if I don't, I wanted to have plenty of time.

One was very good about getting back to me; the other took a bit more persistence. And even though I agree with FrkyBgStok's point about them not making any special exceptions, for the most part, save those e-mails. But you know that!