Question: What is a good gpa for pharmacy school?I don`t know if you are the right person to ask, but any advice/pointers you might have would be very much appreciated. Please help
Answer: There are many factors involved when a committee is reviewing an application and one of the more important ones is the applicant's GPA. It is difficult to say what a "good" GPA is, but the higher the better of course.
If you are able to maintain a GPA > 3.5, you have an excellent chance at receiving an interview if your PCAT scores are comparable and your statement and LORs are deemed sufficient. If you have a GPA = 3.0-3.5, your chances are probably diminished slightly. Please understand, however, that it has been my experience that a GPA = 3.0 with a PCAT = 99 would have a better acceptance rate than an applicant with a GPA = 3.5 and a PCAT = 50.
When we start reviewing applicants with an overall GPA < 3.0, there is less chance that these prospective students will be granted admission. Certainly, some will receive interviews and others will be waitlisted, but a GPA at or above a 3.0 is a threshold I would encourage you to stay above if at all possible.
On occasion, I have even encouraged my advisees to add an additional unrelated course (cooking, pottery, etc) before applying to pharmacy school in cases where they are teetering on a 3.0. By doing so, you might be able to add 3-4 credit hours of "A" work to help boost your GPA ever so slightly and stay above 3.0. So, to answer your question, do everything you can to stay > 3.0.
Good luck.
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2 comments:
Interesting post. Ive got a question about my personal situation. Ive only recently decided to do pharmacy. Im a chemistry (BA) major and ive got about a year and a half left to graduate. My cumulative gpa right now is a 2.3, I havent taken the Pcat (although I am a good test taker), and im not a Pharmacy Tech (yet).
I wasnt very mature when I first started and I didnt do well in the first couple of years.. I started out as an Engineering major and I pretty much got C's in everything (except for Ochem1 where I got a B). I really didnt know what I wanted to do. I knew that I was really good in Chem but I didnt know what I could do with a Chem degree. Anyway I found out about pharmacy and discovered that it would be something that id love to do. My plan now is to retake a bunch of my prereqs (getting A's in those) and finish up my degree with A's. Statistically its possible for me to bring up my prereq gpa to above a 3 (maybe around a 3.1 or 3.2) but my problem is with my cumulative gpa. Its gonna be really hard for me to bring it up to a 3. I can get it to a 2.8 or so but ive taken a lot of classes so its difficult. I did hear that some schools will look at your last 60 hours of coursework in place of your cumulative gpa but im not sure if thats true? If so that would be a great opportunity for me.
Anyway im hoping that if: my last year and a half of classes are all A's (and that I bring my prereq gpa to a little higher than a 3), I become a Pharmacy Tech and work for at least a year, get my chemistry degree, get great letters of recommendation and do well on the pcat that Ill be able to apply and actually be considered. I dont know what my chances will be and I know that it will be an uphill battle but I am very motivated to do this. I just joined my schools pre-pharmacy association and im hoping to get involved in some volunteer opportunities. Hopefully if I can get some in that will help my application.
What do you think are my chances? How well do I need to do on the Pcat (how well is "well" anyway)? If it helps im applying to a few schools but the one im hoping to get admitted to will be taking applications for its first year (it hasnt opened yet). Comments?
Thanks in advance. I need all the advice I can get.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this matter. You make some interesting points.
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