What does as AdCom look at first when reviewing pharmacy school applications?

Question: I know this question has nothing DIRECTLY related to the review process, but I just wanted to know what it is like to be in your shoes. If I were on the admissions committee, I would probably get tired of reading hundreds of personal letters and all these GPAs and numbers.
1) Do you get tired after a while and just let some things slip?
2) Finally, do you feel bad that some really eager and qualified applicants might get rejected because the reivew/interviewer might just be having a bad day?
3) When you open the file of an applicant, what is the FIRST thing you look at? I know this has NO importance to the whole process but, again, I'm just curious. Do you look at the GPA/PCAT or just go straight to the personal statement or even just start off reading their background? I know everybody is different, but what do YOU usually do?


Answer: Variations of this question have been asked multiple times, so I will discuss thoroughly again since it has been a while since we posted on the topic:

1) You are correct that it can be mundane to review the number of applications that we do. At some point, the personal statements become indistinguishable and the PCATs, GPAs, core science GPAs, etc are just a blur. That being said, I do (and I know my colleagues do as well) take this responsibility very seriously. We don't want to waste our time, the time of the people working in the Admissions Office and certainly not the time of the applicant.

2) I'm not sure if a reviewer or interviewer having a "bad day" is enough to fell an otherwise worthy applicant. However, every reviewer has pet peeves and if you say something or write about something that is a trigger for him/her, "bad luck" might get you. One example I saw last year was an applicant who indicated on his personal statement that he struggled in some of his undergraduate science courses because the professor was from India and had a very strong accent that he could not understand. Well, as you might imagine, one of his primary reviewers during his pharmacy school applicants was a professor from India.  Oops.

3) When reviewing a file, I look at the PCAT score first, followed by the overall GPA, prereq GPA (particularly Orgo, Bio, and Calculus), and then the school the applicant attended. Just looking at those items allows me to reduce by about 1/3 the number of files to review. Some are "slam dunk" applicants, whereas others have no realistic chance of being admitted. I don't want you to think that the personal and supplemental statement don't matter - THEY DO MATTER! However, a quick glance at "the numbers" usually gives me a snapshot of the applicant's profile before getting into reading the statements. That is what I look at first, but isn't what I spend the greatest amount of time on.

I hope that helps.  Good luck.