Are there some pharmacy school applicants who have no chance at all?

Question: When reviewing pharmacy school applications, is there often any apps that make you scratch your head, wondering perhaps "why did they bother?" Do you ever scan through a low gpa and low pcat and make a decision to ignore the letters of recommendation, personal and supplemental apps to save time? This isn't a question of mere curiosity, nor is it meant to dissuade anyone or be offensive. A lot of the schools I applied to accept only around 1/8 applicants (200 accepted - 1600 applicants etc). I want to get an idea how long it takes to go through all the applications and what portion of those applicants I am really competing against. Thank you! 


Answer: Yes, there are some applications where it is immediately apparent that we cannot admit the student. This is usually due to a very poor composite PCAT - say, less than 30. Or a single PCAT subset score may eliminate an applicant (ie, PCAT Chem = 5). If an applicant's overall GPA < 2.0, that will probably do it too. Every school has different criteria, of course, but I believe we all have some method of thinning out those applications that just do not have a realistic chance of being admitted. I would guess than 10-20% of applications have no legitimate shot.

Thanks for your question.