Question about pharmacy experience, or lack thereof

Question: My question regards pharmacy shadowing/experience. Before I get to it, let me fill you in on my background: BS Zoology/Chem Minor, MS Microbiology. Undergrad overall GPA 3.43, science GPA 3.55. Grad GPA 3.78. PCAT scores: 89 verbal, 98 biology, 72 reading comp., 81 quant. ability, 88 chemistry, 92 composite. I feel like I am competitive in all those facets for applying to my schools, all of which are out-of-state. My one glaring omission is the TOTAL lack of pharmacy shadowing!

My applications have already been submitted, and none of my candidate schools explicitly state that pharmacy experience is required. The closest thing I have (and which I did specify on the PharmCAS) is undergraduate volunteer research working with medicinal chemistry and the mechanisms of thalidomide interaction with DNA. My question: loosely based on my background and scores, is the lack of pharmacy experience a killer? The reason why I haven't done any pharmacy volunteer work is that I was working fulltime during my 6 years of undergrad/masters program. I alluded to this in essay questions, but did not explicitly state it due to length constraints. What are your thoughts on the matter?


Answer: I will be honest and tell you that pharmacy experience is an area that I rarely make any decisions based on. I had absolutely zero pharmacy experience when I applied to pharmacy school, so I try not to hold it against an applicant who hasn't had the time to gain any either. However, I know some committee members who seem to give some benefit to applicants with experience in pharmacy. For that reason, I think it's always a good idea to try and acquire some experience whether via employment or shadowing. Plus, I know of prospective applicants who have shadowed other pharmacists who decided after the day or week that pharmacy isn't what they thought it might be and decided to pursue something else. For those reasons, I think there is some benefit in shadowing.

In your case (and many like yours), school, work, and family commitments do not allow for much free time to gain pharmacy experience. Since your scores and GPA are very good, I imagine most committees will not be bothered by your lack of pharmacy experience. In fact, your advanced degree should help you tremendously when decisions are made. You should be fine in my opinion.