Unfortunately, it's not what you're willing to "buy". If you grew up speaking proper english all your life, the verbal section of the SAT/PCAT/MCAT SHOULD be a breeze-- biased. If you weren't privileged enough to come from a coddled pedigree where you had all the finest tutors, parents who were professionals, etc, and you only spoke what remotely resembled the english language at home then you may not do as well on the verbal section-- biased. Math and Science are skills you acquire as an individual through education, and has little to do with differences in upbringing-- so those are unbiased measures on standardized tests. The fact remains, yes the BEST predictor we have are grades and standardized test scores, BUT that's only a prediction (CONTRAST the student X who was groomed by MD or PharmD parents and lived an easy life that should make straight A's and if they could afford the $1000 for the Kaplan review, that should get a 99 PCAT score WITH the student Y, the single parent who has the aptitude, but not the support and so makes a B or C here and there, but definitely NOT str8 A's.. so his/her B in my opinion outweighs student X's A-- in my opinion, because student Y has shown perserverence AND dedication, both of which are fine qualities in a pharmacist). It's easy to sit back and pass judment when you don't have all the facts. Like I told you, I know some str8 A students who flunked out or should have been kicked out.. and I also know some that joined the "C's get PharmD's" track as soon as they got accepted-- neither did I subscribe to. Was I a straight A student? No-- a 3.6 at best... PCAT of a 99? Nope.. I think I got a 70 or less. Pharmacy school: I carry about a 3.25-- rotations are actually pulling me down since I keep missing an A by a point or so.. but my point is that I was encouraged from my very first rotation to seek a residency. This was a clinical rotation. I was told "a residency program would benefit from having you as a resident", but in your world I don't even belong in pharmacy school? Hmmm... that's interesting.
P.S. I agree-- they need to follow the Med School model and allow the APhA or whatever organization dictate supply and demand within the profession and determine how many programs can open up. It's ridiculous.. My PharmD mill school (I admit its one) is opening a satellite to "ease the shortage" in the Asheville area--- right!! The university must need more money and just like everyone else has been for years-- it's easy to make a quick buck off the pharmacy profession. I predict that at this rate soon we will have 1 pharmacy school for every job site... you don't like your pharmacists, wait until your school graduates you a fresh new batch the next year and replace 'em.
BUT, I do think that pharmacists are too much creatures of habits. I am struggling to get this one position after graduating, which I really hope I get.. but if I don't, I think I will just have to try to forge my own path. They want us to become more clinical and open ambulatory care clinics and work in multidisciplanary practices, and the AMA endorses this.. I think we need to stop relying on "retail" and "hospital" and forge our own paths. Reimburement is low at this point, but you can't tell me you're not inventive enough to sell the idea of optomizing a practice's "trouble patients" medication therapy to a physician who is at wits end with his patients lack of progress... We have the skills... we need to use them. A med school friend of mine was very frank when he said they only know certain handful of drugs, the rest the rely on our recommendations for.
