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UBC Pharmacy?

s5260205

By s5260205,
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s5260205 Newbie

s5260205

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Is anyone currently in UBC pharmacy?

I am hoping to gain admission after first year as my back up plan.

 

On the UBC website, they state that "the average grade for those admitted to our program has been approximately 75% - 80%, while the average PCAT composite percentile score has been between 85% and 90%" and that no volunteer or work experiences are needed but "it is helpful to have some awareness of the profession and the responsibilities of a pharmacist".

 

My questions:

1) When should I start preparing for PCAT? When should I register? (the last date to submit the score is April 1st of the application year) And, what book should I use (or even what method should I use)?

 

2) Even though "no volunteer or work experiences are needed", do I gain advantages over other applicants if I have some ECs (since I will need it anyway for med school)? If so, how can I approach/build my ECs?

 

3) How can I show my understanding of the profession and the responsibilities of a pharmacist?

 

3) Since pharmacy has a very heavy courseload, would I be better off not studying pharmacy to gain higher GPAs in other majors (if my ultimate goal is medical school)? Would being a pharmicist be seemed favourably by the adcom?

 

Any comment would be appreciated.

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FMX Newbie

FMX

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1) When should I start preparing for PCAT? When should I register? (the last date to submit the score is April 1st of the application year) And, what book should I use (or even what method should I use)?

- start studying for PCAT over the summer if possible.. it will be quite difficult though because there is some organic chemistry along with calculus on it.. so unless you are an IB / AP(?) student, you might have a difficult time with it.. but honestly I don't think they look at the PCAT that much.. just get over 67% (minimum req).

 

-I believe registration opens up in September some time..but you should find out on the harcourt pcat website (enter that into google)

 

2) Even though "no volunteer or work experiences are needed", do I gain advantages over other applicants if I have some ECs (since I will need it anyway for med school)? If so, how can I approach/build my ECs?

- YES. Do you're EC's.. join clubs and when they ask you to be on exec committee, say yes, you usually have to go through an interview process, but these things will look good on your resume for med/pharm etc.

 

- I only have one friend that had NO EC's at all upon his application, but he had a % average of >90

 

 

3) How can I show my understanding of the profession and the responsibilities of a pharmacist?

- You can't really.. just google up roles/responsibilities of pharmacists and I think thats the best you can really do.. I'm in my 3rd year of the program right now and I still can't say definitively what my role will be in 1 year

 

4) Since pharmacy has a very heavy courseload, would I be better off not studying pharmacy to gain higher GPAs in other majors (if my ultimate goal is medical school)? Would being a pharmicist be seemed favourably by the adcom?

-Courses are jam packed, average sleep time for premeds in my class is <7 hours a day almost on a consistent basis after midterms start till after finals are over

 

- GPA wise, if you work hard, it isn't hard to do well because they do not toss crazy theoretical questions at you that you would get from a university level math or physics exam

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s5260205 Newbie

s5260205

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Posted
1) When should I start preparing for PCAT? When should I register? (the last date to submit the score is April 1st of the application year) And, what book should I use (or even what method should I use)?

- start studying for PCAT over the summer if possible.. it will be quite difficult though because there is some organic chemistry along with calculus on it.. so unless you are an IB / AP(?) student, you might have a difficult time with it.. but honestly I don't think they look at the PCAT that much.. just get over 67% (minimum req).

 

-I believe registration opens up in September some time..but you should find out on the harcourt pcat website (enter that into google)

 

2) Even though "no volunteer or work experiences are needed", do I gain advantages over other applicants if I have some ECs (since I will need it anyway for med school)? If so, how can I approach/build my ECs?

- YES. Do you're EC's.. join clubs and when they ask you to be on exec committee, say yes, you usually have to go through an interview process, but these things will look good on your resume for med/pharm etc.

 

- I only have one friend that had NO EC's at all upon his application, but he had a % average of >90

 

 

3) How can I show my understanding of the profession and the responsibilities of a pharmacist?

- You can't really.. just google up roles/responsibilities of pharmacists and I think thats the best you can really do.. I'm in my 3rd year of the program right now and I still can't say definitively what my role will be in 1 year

 

4) Since pharmacy has a very heavy courseload, would I be better off not studying pharmacy to gain higher GPAs in other majors (if my ultimate goal is medical school)? Would being a pharmicist be seemed favourably by the adcom?

-Courses are jam packed, average sleep time for premeds in my class is <7 hours a day almost on a consistent basis after midterms start till after finals are over

 

- GPA wise, if you work hard, it isn't hard to do well because they do not toss crazy theoretical questions at you that you would get from a university level math or physics exam

 

Thank you for the answers.

 

Can you suggest any club that I should join? And what type of volunteer should I do?

 

Also, the admission requires two LORs. Can the persons writing the LOR be my high school teachers?

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  • 2 months later...
advair250 Newbie

advair250

Posted
Posted

Learn to read moron. (Sorry if that's harsh)

 

Quote:

 

"Do I need to have work or volunteer experience in a pharmacy to apply?

 

No. However, it is helpful to have some awareness of the profession and the responsibilities of a pharmacist."

 

 

They said work or volunteer experience IN A PHARMACY. Of course you have to be involved and well-rounded to get into pharmacy too. I personally feel you should be required to have pharmacy experience as well, then you would truly know if pharmacy is for you and remove idiots who just use pharmacy as a back-up. Also I admire schools that require a degree or at least 3 years (like med) before gaining entrance into Pharmacy.

 

People who have volunteer experience in anything, and those who have worked in pharmacy's have a better chance than people with just grades.

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Lana_ Newbie

Lana_

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thanks for bumping the thread, i had no clue pharmacy could be a undergrad program.

 

I will recomend this to my brother

 

 

It is? I thought you needed at least two years of undergrad to apply to pharmacy school?

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  • 6 months later...
suziep100 Newbie

suziep100

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I thought about attending U of A pharm as my back-up plan for med.

When I called U of A Faculty of medicine, the lady who answered the phone told me that I could get "good deals" for applying to med, dent, and pharm at $180 (or whatever it costs to apply to medicine) since many people use pharm and dent as back-up plans.

 

Having never written the DAT, I am not applying to dental school, and it is something that I am not interested in.

 

Pharm, on the other hand, does not require any standardized tests (for U of A anyway), and the deadline being sometime in March, I may end up U of A pharm as my backup, depending on how successful my med applications turn out.

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