Applying to Pharmacy School: PharmCAS Personal Statement Writing

In case you missed the memo, the PharmCAS aka the big dental school application for next fall is officially opened! The Pharmacy College Application Service (PharmCAS) is a centralized application service to apply to multiple degree programs offered by schools and colleges of pharmacy and there is a PERSONAL STATEMENT required **cue the music** Although the essay is about YOU, you still have an agenda: it still needs to be written in a professional manner and highlight your professional skills, experiences, and interests. That doesn’t have to be so scary! Think of it kind of like answering that classic job interview inquiry: “Tell me about yourself.” Oh no. Did I just make it worse? **cue the music again**

tell me about yourself

Your PharmCAS Personal Statement is a place for you to “address why you selected pharmacy as a career and how the Doctor of Pharmacy degree relates to your immediate and long-term professional goals” in under 4,500 characters (including letters, spaces, punctuation (like on twitter)), which is about a page long. More so you got to “describe how your personal, educational, and professional background will help you achieve your goals”, you need to articulate that you motivated, academically prepared, plus knowledgeable and passionate about the profession. This can be a little tricky; the key is balance. You want to sell yourself professional while remaining personable. By no means is this a creative writing piece; you want to be clear, concise, and professional. Keep in mind: pharmacy schools are making first judgments on you based on this PharmCAS application, and the PharmCAS Personal Statement is the ONLY place to make a case for yourself IN YOUR OWN WORDS! You can read the whole PharmCAS Personal Statement offical guidelines here.

 

Remember that you’re selling yourself as a great addition to the field of pharmacy. This is where you talk about your strengths, passion for the field, and all your extra-curricular hard work you’ve done in preparing for pharmacy school (and let’s face it also for this particular essay here).

Three key points to hit:

o   Why Pharmacy? – The lifelong childhood dream is all good and fine really but if that’s not the case be candid and honest and talk about your road to discovery, that’s interesting! Your journey to writing this PharmCAS Personal Statement may be long and winding. How did you land on pharmacy?

o   Shadowing or Assisting Experience – Talk up your observation hours in a pharmacy setting or a hospital and how these times increased your knowledge and understanding of the field. These experiences show you really know what’s like in the real world application of the pharmacy school.

o   Volunteerism – show your interest in working with/for the community and commitment to helping other. It’s important to include both volunteer activities that are relevant to the field and even some that isn’t. For example, working at an animal shelters shows your well rounded not just in a pre-pharm mode all the time. Also include the volunteer work related to the profession that you may have done with a Pre-Pharm society (that’s how you work that you were active in the club in the essay too)!

 

The ole phrase “writing is rewriting” rings true here this case. Have a trusty professor or pharmacy professional read and give you feedback. They know what admissions committees are looking for and have insight on how to relate your experiences to the field. Final piece of advice: you can upgrade your PCAT Cracker account and unlock the all the practice tests for $39 instead of the regular $99 sooooo go do that and you’ll have gleaming PCAT scores to match this beautiful essay!

Applying for Pharmacy School: PharmCAS 2015 Is Now Open!

First thing is first, if you are planning to take the PCAT during the September testing window (Sept. 3-5) late registration is open until August 26th, and yes, there is late fee! Go now. The next PCAT testing windows are in October and November; registration opens on September 4th for both. The test is computer-based and testing centers/dates are first-come first-serve so register early, here! Keep in mind that before registering you need to have narrowed down the schools you want your scores sent to. Also be sure to choose a testing window that ensures that your scores will be received before the pharmacy programs’ registration deadlines. Whew! With the time-sensitive info covered, maybe you’re feeling a bit stressed. Perhaps a puppy could help…

prescribing a puppy

For anyone applying to enter pharmacy school next fall, the PharmCAS 2015 is officially open! The Pharmacy College Application Service (PharmCAS) is a centralized application service to apply to multiple degree programs offered by schools and colleges of pharmacy. Basically it’s THE pharm school application for programs in the U.S. They’ve actually just launched a whole new website for this application cycle and it’s beautiful, check it: www.pharmcas.org/! If you’re thinking you want to get in on Early Decision (ED), get a jump on the application now; the early decision deadline is September 2nd! Not all programs offer ED and keep in mind it’s for applicants that have an absolute first/only choice school and you’re only able to apply to the one program with this option. It is a ‘binding option’ meaning if you get accepted through ED you are obligated to accept.

The entire PharmCAS application process itself can be a challenge. Thankfully that new revamped website lays it out pretty clear. There’s even an official checklist for BEFORE you even get started with your application journey, here. Step one is to get through the PharmCAS Instructions in full and it’s a lot. No, really it’s a lot. Check out the thoroughly done 70-page Instruction Guide, here. It’s all good and important so read it, understand it, and make this whole process easier for yourself. Doing your research on specific programs you want to apply is crucial before this journey and this nifty new PharmCAS site (obviously I love it) has a wonderful directory for not only Pharm.D but also research graduate programs, here.

Feeling a little stressed? Here’s that puppy prescribed:

doc puppy

When completely the PharmCAS it is $150 for first school you apply to and then just goes up from there for each school after that, whoa. In fact, the whole application process can quickly become expensive with taking the PCAT, submitting the PharmCAS, then individual schools secondary application fees, possibly traveling to interviews, etc. so you really want to do your research and narrow down the programs you really want to apply to. Here’s what you’re looking at with just the PharmCAS fee:

PharmCAS fees

With all this expense, here’s a little something to ease the load: you can still upgrade your PCAT Cracker account and unlock the all the practice tests for $39 instead of the regular $99! This is all pretty stressful, google ‘puppies’ to cope. Plus one less thing to worry over can be that PCAT score! Get it right with PCAT Cracker y’all!