Admissions: HELP!

My name is Courtney, and I am a first year (P1) student at PCSP.  This means that I just recently went through the crazy and stressful process that is applying to pharmacy school.  Let me tell you a little about my experience and my advice to avoid the hassle that can easily occur with admissions.

To begin with, I didn't even know that I had to consider submitting my application information at such an early date.  I almost missed the deadline and probably would have if someone wouldn't have told me about this.  My advice is to get a head start on admissions as soon as possible.  This is especially important when it comes to getting your transcripts sent from your undergrad school.  I had a terribly long and expensive mistake with this process.  PharmCAS is the program that PCSP uses in the admissions process to help decrease paper waste and promote going green.  Do not send your any of your application information directly to the school, because it will be recycled and considered incomplete.  This sounded kind of harsh to me at first because I didn't realize the importance of being a green school.  All you have to do is make sure that you send all of your paperwork to PharmCAS, and they will pass this information along to PCSP.  PharmCAS will be your best friend at times, and it will also be your worst enemy if you don’t complete things appropriately and in a timely manner.  Make yourself very familiar with this program ahead of time so that you won’t miss anything that could be essential to getting into a pharmacy school.  There are many different steps that have to be completed and some are very time consuming.  The step that I had the most problems with was getting my transcripts from all of the undergrad institutions and high school AP courses I completed to PharmCAS before the deadline. Make sure that you get a different transcript from each school that you attended for your prerequisite courses!  This includes AP courses in high school that were completed through a community college.  I cannot stress enough the importance of starting everything VERY early on to make sure that you don’t miss the deadlines.  It does take PharmCAS a good bit of time to check everything and communicate to the school because they have so many students’ applications to sort through.

Another important tip is to make sure that, once you’re accepted, you complete all of the outstanding requirements by their deadlines as well.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that you have all the time in world just because it’s summer time.  This is especially important with transcripts again and immunizations.  Make sure to schedule appointments for your missing immunizations plenty of time ahead, because there can always be complications with this process.  My problem was getting the TB skin test on the Friday before a holiday weekend so the test was almost not able to be read at 8 AM Tuesday morning.  Also, I thought that I was immune to the chicken pox because I had them as a kid.  As it turns out, my case was not strong enough to produce full immunity and my titer came back negative.  I had to rush to start my vaccine before I was past the deadline.

My experience was less than pleasant, but I hope this will help you avoid the mistakes that I made.  Most of my mistakes were procrastination on my part and unforeseen complications.  I wish everyone the best of luck with your admissions process!  We have a great staff here at PCSP that would love to answer any questions that you may have during this stressful time.  I look forward to meeting everyone next year, and I thank you for your interest in our school.