Multiple interviews, but my top school is the last one. What to do?

Question:: Hi, I found your blog when looking for tips on pharmacy school interviews and was very pleasantly surprised by the wealth of information you have accumulated there.

I am currently in the midst of interviews, having been through two so far, with two more in the next two weeks. I did not feel like the first interview went very well, but it was not one of my top choice schools so I considered it a good learning experience and practice. The second interview felt much more successful and I left feeling positive and confident. The last interview I have scheduled in two weeks is for the school I most want to attend. My dilemma is that I will be receiving notification about acceptance to the first two schools before I even interview at the last school. I don't want to decline an invitation from an early school only to find out later that I was not accepted to a later school I would rather go to. I'm prepared to put down the nonrefundable deposit on one of those schools to ensure admittance to at least one school, but I'm uncertain of the proper behavior for this situation. Is it bad form to accept and then later cancel an invitation if I get admitted to a more preferred school?

Answer: First of all, congratulations on receiving multiple interviews. Trust me, there are a lot of applicants who would really love to have the dilemma that you are facing.

Your circumstance is not all that unique and I am sure that every school of pharmacy encounters exactly this many, many times each application cycle. My advice to you is to be honest with all parties. If one of the schools where you have already interviewed offers you a spot in their class, but you are reluctant to accept in hope that the upcoming interview produces an offer, I would suggest asking for an extension to deposit. If they refuse and you have the means to pay and potentially lose the deposit, that would be unfortunate but not uncommon.

I always appreciate when a student informs us that we are his/her top choice and that he/she has been admitted elsewhere, but would accept our offer if it was extended. For the upcoming interview, communicating that with someone in the Admissions office might help expedite their response.

Good luck.

What are my chances? Low GPA, but improving. Good PCAT.

Question: I stumbled upon your blog and am so grateful to you for creating this discussion board. I have found all of your answers informative and somewhat reassuring.

Statistically, I am aware that I am not a great candidate for pharmacy school.
Current Cummulative 2.25
PCAT: tentative score in the 90's
Pharmacy Tech: 2 years.

After graduating top 5% with Honors at a competitive High School, I completed all my undergraduate coursework; but was academically disqualified as my GPA (1.8) was not enough to graduate. I had significant family problems and my grades following this period were pretty much F's and D's.

Since then I have moved closer to home, attended a CC, and restarted the prereq with a CC GPA of 3.5. I am also shadowing and working at a specialty pharmacy. I have obtained LOR's from important personnel ( Ochem, speech, Bio professors, and Pharmacist) basically vouching on my behalf. Is this decent enough to show admissions I am more than capable of excelling in their competitive pharmacy curriculum?

Pharmacy has always been my dream career; and after working at the store, I have loved it even more, not with just the chemistry/biology aspect of the job but with helping and developing a connection with those in my community.

My final and most important topic/question to you are as follows:
What can I do to improve my chances of getting in?
How likely is it for me to be accepted with a 2.2 and tentative high PCAT scores and experience?
Since my semester hours are so high, it would take me about 150 semester hours (averaging 5 yrs) with a 4.0 to bring my GPA to a 3.0. I would have to retake A LOT of courses for the third time some of which I have already received A's for- how would this affect admissions?

Thank you.

Answer: Thanks for your question. Your poor GPA will undoubtedly have an impact. However, you are not the first and will not be the last applicant to be in this situation. I can only advise you to completely "own" what occurred and do everything you can to explain the situation and how you have grown from it. I would strongly suggest that you have a letter of recommendation from an academic advisor at school who can attest to your motivation to the profession and explain how you have overcome the initial setbacks.

For your sake, I hope that your PCAT will be your saving grace. I would expect that you will get some interview invitations based on that alone and the AdComs interviewing you will try to make a determination whether you are admittable based on that. Obviously, you will need to sell yourself to the school because some will simply not be able to look past the poor transcript.

Your chances at being admitted at the most prestigious, competitive schools are poor. That doesn't mean you cannot (or should not) be considered a strong candidate for pharmacy school. You need to make sure that every part of your application is stellar to have a chance. I wouldn't consider retaking many classes unless your prereqs are in dire need of improvement because improving your cumulative GPA will be rather difficult. Instead. begin communicating with the schools where you will consider applying and explain your situation to them and how much you would like to attend their school. See what advice they can share and do what they ask of you.

Why do they ask for parents info on PharmCas

Question: How important is the parent information requested on the PharmCas application? Do schools look at this?


Answer: It is my experience that this information is unimportant unless:
1) The school gives preference to under represented minorities, including first generation college students, and you indicate that your parents did not attend college.
2) Your parent was a graduate of the university that you are applying to.

Even if this does not seem to impact you, I would fully complete this section of the application.

Thanks and good luck.

What should I not say in my personal statement?

Question: Can you give me advice on what "not to say" in my personal statement?


Answer: I think personal statements are an opportunity for the applicant to really show why they want to be a pharmacist. There are a lot of outstanding things you can mention, but several things I suggest you NEVER mention.

1) "I want to be a pharmacist because I'll make a lot of money". Now most applicants don't use this verbiage, but this is what they are getting at. Often referred to as a "secure financial future" in personal statements. Although you may be thinking this, don't write it. It isn't looked upon favorably by any committee I have ever been a part of.

2) "I couldn't get into medical school, so I decided to try pharmacy". You might think I am joking, but I'm not. Every year, I read this multiple times. Your personal statement should explain why you want to be a pharmacist, not why you fell into this choice.

3) "I've always liked Chemsitry". Although not as agregious as the previous two, I would suggest avoiding such a generic reason. We see this one far too often. The joke in our committee is that if you like chemistry so much, you should be a chemist. Pharmacy involves a lot more than just learning the periodic table.

Please email with any questions or feel free to post them on the forum (link at right): pharmacyschooladmissions@gmail.com

Also, I would appreciate you mentioning this blog to anyone interested in the profession of pharmacy.

Thanks and good luck!

Supplemental questions similar to PharmCas

Question: First of all, I really appreciate you guys for creating this blog. It has answered a lot of my questions already =). I have a question about the supplementals. I noticed that some of the supplemental questions are similar to the Pharmcas personal statement question. Do you think we could use the same ideas from the Pharmcas personal statement but just reword it?

Thanks a lot for your guys' help!


Answer: Thanks for your email. I am glad that you have found the blog to be useful. To answer your question, you can certainly use some of the same "ideas", but be careful.

If by "ideas" you mean the desire to help people, etc... of course you should reinforce this. However, don't use the same examples and stories, etc. I have seen this occur many times and committees always look at this with disdain. Take the time to put your thoughts and feelings on paper, doing you best to answer the questions asked on the supplemental application.

If your supplemental answers answers overlap some of what was said in your PharmCas personal statement, that is probably to be expected. Just don't overdo it.

Former pharmacy student reapplying

Question: Firstly, I want to thank you very much for your blog. Your advice and answers to many questions have really helped me a lot.

I recently received my PCAT scores-
Verbal - 89
Biology - 60
Reading Comprehension - 73
Quantitative Ability - 73
Chemistry - 43
Composite - 73

Do the chemistry and the biology scores significantly reduce my chances of admittance?
I finished 2 years pre-pharmacy at a 6-year pharmacy program but had to leave due to my family relocating. During the 1st year, I was doing very well with As and Bs. The 2nd year, however, was mostly Bs and Cs (in Organic Chemistry and Physiology), as well as failing a MedMicro course. I have an overall 3.03 GPA, but will my 2nd year of science courses and biology and chemistry PCAT scores really be looked down upon even if I stress in my personal statement that I am willing to push myself much more?


Answer: The first question I have, and one I imagine most AdComs will have, is, "Are you eligible to return to your former school of pharmacy"? If so, you stand a much better chance of being considered. If not, things get a little more difficult for you. You will likely need a letter from your former Dean acknowledging that you are eligible to return to your previous school.

I would advise you to explain your family situation and the decision you made to leave school. Some members will question whether or not you are committed to being in pharmacy school considering your past experience. Your PCAT scores are probably acceptable for most schools, but you are correct in assuming that your Chem score might hurt your chances a bit. Do you plan to retake the PCAT? At some schools, a PCAT Chem < 50 will automatically be rejected.

Your GPA and poor academic history needs to be addressed also in as positive a way as possible. I agree that your statement needs to offer more and explain your circumstances in greater detail. Try to use your early pharmacy school experience to your advantage, mentioning that you found it challenging and rewarding, but life circumstances required you to take a leave from school. It's worth a shot.

Good luck.

Academic vs Financial aid probation

Question: I had a question regarding academic probation on pharmcas. It specifically states this: "Were you ever the recipient of any action (e.g. dismissal, disqualification, suspension, probation etc.) by any college oruniversity for unacceptable academic performance or conduct violations? "

I have only taken one semester at a University I received financial aid during it. Anyways, due to struggling financially, I withdrew from two courses (a lab/lecture) and worked full-time again. The next semester, I went back to a CC and I saw on the University website today that I was on financial aid probation in Fall of 2008. I'm not sure what the difference is between financial aid probation and academic probation or if it is one in the same?

Does this qualify for the action that pharmcas is referring to? Do I need to report it?


Answer: I doubt that financial aid probation would be a concern for any committee when reviewing your file. In my opinion, unacceptable academic or conduct violations refer to those specific areas (ie, poor grades and/or conduct) only and not to any issues relating to your failure to make financial remittance. I would not report this on your PharmCas application.

What are my chances at getting into pharmacy school?

Question: I just finished my final semester of undergraduate work and my cumulative gpa should be around 2.9. I know that isn't great and unfortunately I went through more family problems than I care to admit and that caused me to have a couple D's and F's on my transcript. Most of them came in the ochem area. I will graduate with a biology degree and don't plan to start applications for school till this summer for fall 2013. I also know that my school throws out my old grades if I retake a course so I'm assuming that my gpa through pharmcas won't actually be as high as it says on my transcript. I have also taken the pcat twice with my composite scores in the 60's, but I do plan on preparing all spring and taking it one more time this summer hopefully scoring in the 80's or 90's. I also work full-time in a hospital pharmacy as a pharmacy technician and will have numerous letters of recommendation from pharmacists as I work with 15-20 of them regularly.

I know that my gpa and grades are a huge obstacle, but I know that I want to go to pharmacy school so I will stick with it either way and am willilng to work as a technician until I do get in. I do also plan on applying to 15 or more schools during the summer as I have read that some people have gotten consideration based on the fact that they showed through submitting so many applications that they were very serious about getting in. I do also plan on making most of those applications to schools that are in the candidate or pre-candidate status as I'm hoping that will also help things out.

Please let me know what you think my chances are as well as anything that you think that I could do to improve my chances going forward. Thanks for reading everyone and I appreciate the feedback.


Answer:
The key for an AdCom will be your Organic Chemistry grades. I know my primary concern would be your ability to succeed in a chemistry heavy curriculum. That being said, every year we admit applicants who have struggled with various courses before "getting it" and your case sounds similar. Use your statement to acknowledge the earlier difficulties but then use your experience to show how you persevered and succeeded despite the initial setback. This will show your determination and motivation for the profession. A letter of recommendation from an OChem professor would certainly augment that as well.

I think you have a decent chance of being offered interviews and, therefore, a chance at being admitted. I wish you the best and hope you will keep us posted.

Good luck.

When should I begin my pharmacy school application?

Question: When should I begin my pharmacy school application. I just completed my first semester of my sophomore undergraduate studies but do not plan to apply until next cycle at the earliest.

Answer: It really depends where you want to apply and when you will have the necessary prerequisites completed. I would suggest that you begin identifying schools of interest to you and contacting them now to begin a professional dialogue with the Admissions office. request materials be sent to you and set up campus visits if time permits. Begin looking for volunteer / shadowing / work experience in pharmacy sooner rather than later.

The application process begins long before you actually submit your application.

Good luck.

Terrified of interviews - suggestions?

Question: I have an interview scheduled and I am absolutely horrified. I get extremely nervous and have a hard time formulating a decent response under pressure. I was wondering if you had any advice? And I was wondering just how important an interview is? How much is the oral interview weight in comparison to the written portion of the interview?

Thank you for your help.


Answer: The interview is pretty important. I think most Adcoms expect applicants to display some nerves, but try to relax as best you can. I've seen an interviewee answer a single question for 5 straight minutes without stopping because he was so nervous... just take your time in responding and try to keep your answer somewhat brief if you can.

The written portion is simply to see if you can formulate thoughts and put them into writing without having a week or month to do so (as you would when submitting your personal statement). I think the oral portion is much more important personally.

Good luck with the interview and please keep us posted.