Sometimes I wish I’d been more on top of it when I was 18 and gone to a 2+4 or 0+6 or whatever program, but now that I’m where I am I’m glad I got my BS before I go to get my PharmD. (I mean, I KNOW this is what I want to do, but look at that poll; about half of the responders wouldn’t do it again.. so it’s nice to have that degree to fall back on). I spent a total of 5 years doing my undergrad and getting my tech license to work first retail, now hospital. I will be taking a ton of experience with me and I feel very well prepared, plus I had time to have a life in college and participate in student-run clinics and volunteer groups.

At the last two open houses I went to, a CA public school and a CA private school, the admissions directors were SO happy to tell us that the average admitted GPA last year was NOT a 4.0! (I think around 3.4-3.5.) As mentioned by others, they are definitely looking for “whole package” people. They want experience, community service, leaders, people who know what they want and why they want it, and who are likely to do well… but they understand that it’s more than just GPA (and out here they don’t care about the PCAT).

For people who wants to know what the requirements are for schools, check out http://www.pharmcas.com; a bunch (most?) schools participate in this centralized application, and they have “school pages” for all participating schools outlining requirements, deadlines, pre-req’s, etc.

The link looks pretty solid — you can apply to a ton of school or at least get the applicable information.

Is the edit you made to that comment above (where you listed the schools) supposed to be schools that accept you straight out of high school? That’s what it looked like.

I know for a fact that at least one of those schools that you listed is a 2 year prepharm, apply, be accepted, then 4 year pharmacy school program.

Yeah, I pulled that off the ACPE website somewhere. 13 or so schools…

There are plenty. # Albany College of Pharmacy # Duquesne University # Florida A & M University # Hampton University # Massachusetts – Boston # Northeastern University # Ohio Northern University # University of the Pacific # Philadelphia College of Pharmacy # Rutgers University # St. John’s University # St. Louis College of Pharmacy # University of Connecticut #University of Findlay # University of Mississippi # University of Rhode Island # University of Texas at Austin

The 2+4 schools as he talks about are many. But you have to apply to pharm school and start after the 2nd year.

2. It is extremely competitive now. My school had something like 700 people apply for 100 spots last year. Granted a good portion of those were thrown out without a second look but there were still a lot of good candidates who didn’t get in. The PCAT seems to be very, very, important. I can think of under a handful of people I knew in pharmacy school who scored below the 80ith percentile. You need to do well on the PCAT. The best way to do good on the PCAT is to really try to learn what they teach you in chemistry and biology. Both those sections are heavily weighted along with the math. You really need to keep up your math and science GPA as well. It is looked at much more so then you total GPA. A 3.0 math and science GPA is a must and a 3.2-3.5 is probably the average at most schools in the country.
3. Schools are really looking for people with some kind of pharmacy experience now. They are getting sick of people who graduate with a chemistry or biology degree and don’t know what they want to do so they apply to med/pharm/ whatever other grad school and then go to whatever one lets them in. These people will never last in pharmacy and the schools know it. If you don’t have experience at least have a good, believable story as to why you want to be a pharmacist that amounts to something other than that is seems like a good job with good money.