Guest osler Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 hey everyone, Whenever I read a post along the lines of "help my stats are so and so, what are my chances?" it just annoys me. Reasons being: it's self gratifying for the person to be validated by her peers. However now I realize it’s quite cathartic. My GPA for first year was 4.00, and then I got in at UT pharmacy. And it dropped 3.65 and 3.66 in subsequent years. Did well on MCATs a 41 S 2 summers of research, 1 summer of volunteer work in Peru. won some essay contests, minor publication from research, worked in community pharmacies, hospital pharmacies Minimal ECs and other things. I would love to debate or learn the guitar or even some salsa lessons. However stupid pharmacy keeps getting in the way. My GPA is low I know. So I have some options in front of me 1. quit pharmacy enter undergrad engineering or physics (another 4 yrs) and hope to do better and apply to med 2. drone on in pharmacy get my degree (2 more years) , have a bad gpa and then apply to med 3. give up on meds Everyone tells me do follow my heart. But I don't know. I simply don't know. Sometimes I think we Canadians have too much choice, too many opportunities to screw up. So what should I do? (Side note: If anyone is even remotely considering pharmacy as a degree (or for that matter any subject) before applying to med school should seriously understand what they are getting into) honest, no holds bar feedback would be appreciated thanx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest richmond604 Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 yo osler...as in Will osler? I don' teven know why you are worried? :rolleyes Nothing is holding you back......your GPA is decent for many schools .........of course anyone could say "no, you shoudln't bother applying" but is that going to stop you from trying? I dunno.................prob not If you truely believe you can do it......nothing will stop you from doing it........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest treehuggingbiologist Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Dude - looking at those stats you should be able to meet the cut offs no problem. Atleast, I think so.. mods? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest happy2bme Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 41 S 4.0, 3.65,3.66 Check out the Calgary OOP algorithim on their website to input your VR and BS scores. I don't know if they used the best 2 or cumulative GPA. If you are 449 or over you would have made file review and likely be interviewed with a good essay and EC's. What is you GPA when coverted to Manitoba's 4.5 scale? with a 41S, if you made the GPA cut offs and had the prereq, you would bode very well there, as MCAT is worth alot Definitley try to apply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GundamDX Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 just curious, why did you get into pharmacy in the first place, and why are you thinking of quitting that now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest coastalslacker Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Pharmacy is great preparation for meds and your grades aren't that bad. Pharmacy is also an incredibly good back-up plan. With an MCAT score like that, you will be absolutely guaranteed to be able to get into an American med school where the MCAT is weighted heavier. Sure it's expensive, but you could work as a pharmacist for a year or two, or, as a friend of mine did, work as a pharmacist in the summers after the first two years of med school. Going to the states aside, you still have a great shot in Canada (University of Manitoba, for example, gives 50% weight to the MCAT). good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ahmed Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 STOP GOING INTO PHARMACY IF U DONT EVEN WANT TO PRACTICE PHARMACY... STOP STEALING SPOTS FROM THOSE WHO TRULY WANT TO BECOME PHARMACISTS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yangzie Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 ok wow...pharmacy kind really screwed u... was it hard or was it because you slacked off? you'd have to be pretty talented to land 41S first try on your MCAT... that's ivey league material with even a 3.8 gpa... question:why did you even go into pharmacy anyways if you med was ur preference? It woulda still been a backup plan if you came back to it if u didn't get into med! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest osler Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 On the first try in April I got 33 S. I did it in the first year and I knew that I would have my final exams at the same time. But I thought the university bio, chem, phys courses would be enough to do well. I was seriously mistaken, then I spent the summer studying and wrote it the second time. Honestly I never scored that high on the practise exams, it was more luck than anything. I went into pharmacy because I was afraid of not getting into med. It was decision made under the influence of copious amount of alcohol and the first year pre med hysteria when I realized that almost everyone in the science faculty was planning to go into med. I heard that people with excellent GPAs got routinely rejected. I was under the impression that the typical candidate had numerous research publications, built hospitals in undeveloped countries, done thousands of hours of volunteer work and got a reference letter from the pope himself. That your poop must smell like roses… So pharmacy it was. Believe me Ahmed I didn't realize that pharmacy was a profession in itself. I had done no research on the matter. The reason I want to quit is that I am getting a low GPA in pharmacy and the subject material is not challenging. I like to solve problems. I'm not that smart or talented in anything. But I am good at figuring things out and sadly this component is missing in pharmacy practise. I am a geek; I love to learn however pharmacy just doesn’t motivate me. It simply doesn’t engender the same passion as learning physics, calculus, anthropology, genetics etc. Thank you for all you replies. I hope I answered all the questions Richmond: yes the name is based on William Osler. I encourage everyone to find out who he was. A great unsung Canadian Hero :smokin . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest leviathan Posted February 17, 2006 Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 Hi Osler, I think you'll be fine getting in somewhere as your ECs and MCAT are great, and the GPA is just a tad bit lower than what would be recommended (3.70). The former will make up for the latter. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gavanshir Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 I'd be very interested in hearing more about what you don't like about pharmacy. What parts of it don't you find challenging? What's it like? What do you study? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yangzie Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 hum...i guess we were all like that in first year...so much to do...never measured up to be the best. truth of the matter is (which i'm sure you're aware now), you really don't need to do all that stuff. a 34Q can get you into Harvard, a 3.89 can get you in most medical schools, and moderate amount of ECs as time allows will suffice. You have to be motivated--seriously motivated in order to endure the years of working towards your goal. like most things in life, med scoo for those who really want it is not a matter of getting in or not, it's more a matter of when you're getting in. keep chuggin'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheChosenOneDDS Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 nothing wrong with pharmacy. open up a shoppers drug mart. you will make more money than most doctors. once you found success, open another. Pharmacy is pharmacy. It is a difficult program. Much like Engineering. Only few students are able to make the transition from such "Professional" degrees.... Even if you can, having the best mark by no means will make you a good doctor. Conversely, having low marks, you might not be able to tackle the workload in medical school with proficiency and efficiency, thus, you would not be able to become a doctor anyways. AT least that is what it is "supposed" to be...The admissions to professional programs is not "won" by being the smartest, but by who is smart in a different way. The one who can manipulate their resource and environment, plan and strategize to overcome shortcomings and weaknesses. Success is the same. The strongest and the best are not always the winners. Unfortunately there is no way to prove this, you still need the marks.....then again, had you planned strategically, you would not have been in this situation... Each to his own. But if you really want to acheive something, you should go all out and do whatever it takes. In the end only you can answer if it was worth it or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest muchdutch Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 You haven't indicated that you've applied to med yet. Why don't you just apply and see what happens? Those MCAT scores are sure to wow, and your GPA isn't really THAT bad - it's not like they would look at your app and throw it out (for most schools) due to your 'low' GPA. I think you'd do just fine, and might actually be surprised to find that you may get an interview or two (or three, or four.....). certainly don't give up on med if that's what you really think you want. In the mean time, if you're realizing that pharmacy isn't for you, then I'd suggest to transfer to engineering or physics - which you seem to have a passion for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest osler Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Boring: Pharmacy practise, pharmacy law and regulations, memorizing lists of drug rxns / doses but then forgetting them all Interesting but sadly not too much emphasis: anatomy, physiology. pharmcology, pharmacokinetics what i don't like is rote memorization-- i always do badly i perfer to do cases but they don't really test us on that besides all the classes are on a curve. people in the program all had at least 3.8 gpa's before entering. so...in conclusion pharmacy to med transition is difficult. Most med schools don't care if your undergrad was in basket weaving or whatever they care about your GPA. I agree with the chosen one there is a certain amount of realpolitik involved for med school admissions. Whether its "fake" volunteering or research or outright lying on the sketch. Not that I condone any of that. I personally perfer an objective, standardized test on the basis of which admission is given. But then again may be I am biased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest waitingINwonder Posted February 23, 2006 Report Share Posted February 23, 2006 I would say go ahead and apply not only because you scored so highly on the MCAT, but also because your GPA is really not horrible considering you are in pharmacy school which isn't easy and some schools may take that into consideration. One more thing: I cannot believe you rewrote the MCAT after scoring a 33 WOW, I really have to rewrite that thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PhysiologyDude Posted March 5, 2006 Report Share Posted March 5, 2006 Pharmacy is a rigorous program and is designed to prepare you for the real world. As a result, not everyone will perform exceedingly well. If everyone aced it, then how can you gauge the students' grasp of the material? I know the UofTprogram has an extremely high course load that begins in first year and gets progressively higher to I think it's 9 courses in 3rd year. If you're applying to medicine, then you should be able to drop some courses in your GPA calculation. You mention that pharmacy practice, laws, regulations, and list of drugs and doses is boring. What makes you think that medicine doesn't have it's own laws, regulations, list of drugs, doses (you are going to be a prescriber afterall), diagnoses, conditions that you'll have to memorize. What makes you even think that medicine won't have its own material to rote memorize? These programs are professional programs and they're preparing you for the real world. You need that fundamental lexicon in order for you to function within your role. You mention in the original post that you have minimal EC's, you want to learn to debate, and you want to learn how to salsa dance, and you blame it on pharmacy getting in the way. I think that's a problem with your time management. Maybe you have too many things going on in your life - I don't know. What I can say is that pharmacy is a very diverse community and although there is a small population that never goes out, there are many students that participate in various events. Semi-formals, intramural sports, movie nights, club nights and bowling nights. In fact, there was a sign-up for salsa lessons this year at UofT with pharmacy students booking two classes of 30. People go out, have fun, and still do well. I don't really suggest engineering as an option. What makes you think engineering will be easy? You're making a lot of assumptions. Perhaps you need to do some soul searching to see if meds is really for you, since you're second guessing yourself in pharmacy. Some food for though, P-Dude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest canmic Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Uhh... if you don't like rote memorization, I suggest you talk to a couple of doctors about what med school is all about. Every one I've spoken to says the same thing "It's pretty easy material, but there is a huge volume of it and most of it is just rote memorization" They all followed up by saying that you actually get to ease off on the memorizing and start thinking in residency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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