Hello,
I'm currently waiting for an interview with Pacific University Pharmacy School. I applied as ED for 2021 term. May I ask how is a typical day for Pharmacy student for those 3 years?
Presuming no pandemic, forest fires, rioting-looting and evacuation orders, here is what the breakdown should be:
1) You will be in the classroom from 0800 - 1530 give or take 30 minutes depending on block. In times past you do get an hour "lunch" / study refresher at mid-day.
2) Outside of your first block exam (Biochemistry) you will have an exam every other Friday for the remainder of your schooling.
3) You must get a 90 on every exam to pass. Typically the exam is out of 100 points while some blocks offer an extra 5 points based on block quizzes and study assessments. You also get an additional 5 points if you and your "assigned group" can score a 90 or above on the "after-exam" which takes place right after your primary exam. This group exam is the exact same test you took individually only now you will collaborate with your assigned group members to see if you all can have a strong base-line assessment to get at least the 90 points (thus, earn the extra 5 points). So, you will be sitting for the exam at two separate times. You will know by the end of the exam day what your final score is.
4) If you do not pass the exam, you will be required to sit for a Re-Exam that following Monday. You will be sitting for the exam right before your class time ( Social and Administrative Sciences block - SAS - every Monday after the Friday Exams). Thus, you need to get to school 2 hours earlier than normal class time for SAS.
5) If you do not pass the Re-Exam, you will take the exam at the end of the semester which is called Extended Learning (EL). This takes place between each semester. Outside of the end of Fall semester (3 week break) you only get 5 - 7 days between semesters. This pattern changes once you finish your first year and actually start working at a pharmacy site as an intern (IPPE sites / Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience(s)). If you do not pass the EL exam, you're gone.
6) The material is crammed at a high pace with around 100+ powerpoint slides by the day (give or take). On top of which you have the SAS course every other Monday plus a Tuesday course which is a pharmacy practice course (practice counseling, practice using a blood pressure cuff, and so on). So in reality, you have less than 2 weeks to learn a topic that some other programs talk about over the span of a semester (example: Biochemistry in most programs takes 1-2 semesters while here, it is crammed in the first month).
7) Many start out studying all day and half-the night, rinse and repeat. The pharmacy classrooms (2 of them) are located on the 4th floor in Hillsboro itself and is in no way joined to the Forest Grove Campus. P1s go in one classroom, P2s in the other. The 4th floor also has private study rooms that can accommodate group studies and are the actual rooms you would be assigned to take the group exam(s). The bottom floor has a mini-snack shop that students can get coffee / snacks / whatever they want to stay awake. The first floor also has a patient clinic (Virginia Garcia Clinic) as well as an optometry clinic. The other floors consist of the Dental Hygiene Students, Physical Therapy Students, as well as the PA students.
As an FYI the program planned on doing away with the Pass/Fail curriculum and start an actual GPA system of which you would no longer need a 90 point passing score. This was suppose to take place next Fall however, due to the circumstances this may / may not happen.
I can go on but this should be a fundamental 101 primer of what to expect (current P1s have no idea since they have never been on campus nor followed this schedule due to the current circumstances).
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