PharmCAS Questions

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When I sent out my forms electronically, two of my instructors never received the forms in their email. I sent the forms to their school email address. After a couple of tries, I had to send it to their personal email address. It took about two months for one letter and a week for another. So it depends on how busy the instructor is.
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So I know we're not supposed to copy paste our PharmCAS into our supplemental. (ie. USC and UCSD's supplemental of what you've done to prepare for a career in pharmacy) But this is the main idea of my pharmcas essay. I'm just wondering how much is appropriate to repeat or not. I mean, in my supplemental, I mention all the key details I said in my pharmcas, but I expanded upon a lot that I wanted to say in my PharmCAS but didn't get to due to space.

But ... Should we assume they read PharmCAS first and then reading our supplemental? Or should we not make that assumption....

For example, I mention what i've been researching in my current job as it has to do with drug development. But it's pretty lengthy "developing compounds that does blah blah blah to the blah blah so we can blah blah and test its drug potential for diseases such as cancer and diabetes" or whatever. I already say that in my PharmCAS .... should I repeat all that again in my supplemental? I only ask because ... it takes about 387 characters, which is a big chunk. If it's necessary, it's necessary, but since it's just repeating, should I take it out? Will it be used against me if I repeat such details?

I dunno, what did everyone else do?

Edit:

Can I say: "my research at my current job has been on drug-making (see PharmCAS for more details), and..." then just continue without repeating all the what I'm studying... or is that presumptuous of me?
 
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My pharmcas essay is completely different from my supplemental essay. The supplemental essay was harder to write because I didnt want to repeat anything from my pharmcas essay. My pharmcas essay was more general and my supplemental essay was more specific.
 
joh0472 said:
Maybe I am somewhat naive, but does anyone else think that phamcas is a joke and that the whole supplemental application think is redundant? I thought our country valued the free market, but we can only take the PCAT from one source and we can only apply to certain schools through pharmcas. I guess I am just blowing off steam, but I think a year of Organic chemsitry and physics is nothing compared to the application process.
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Pharmcas actually makes your application process EASIER! :laugh: You submit everything ONCE and its over! Without Pharmacs you will have to write a different essay for every school and if you apply to 10 school then you will have to do everything TEN times. Pharmcas make it easier for you and allows you to do everything ONE time. Can you imagine asking your professor to write 10 LOR?? Pharmcas makes it so that you can do that electronically and the professor only have to submit ONCE even if you are applying to ten schools.

Actually ALL the pharmacy schools that did NOT use Pharmcas I didn't even consider applying to for the very reason that I did NOT want to submit a LOR 10+ times nor do I want to rewrite my personal statement again.
 
PharmCAS sucks, they are bloody slow, and it's a ripoff. I would much rather have applied separately to each school. How hard is it to forward a couple transcripts and your PCAT to each school?-No doubt easier than waiting for ball licking PharmCAS to process anything. You guys think PharmCAS saved you money and time when you have to fill out supplementals w/ fees anyways, you haz a much to learn-ed grasshoppas.
 
delano2000 said:
I can definitely see why a lot of folks like PharmCAS because, in my case, I am applying to non PharmCAS schools and it gets to be tedious having to do all these different apps every single time.
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This is what I was going to say. When I applied for colleges right out of high school, it was such a pain to apply individually to all the schools. I find PharmCAS very organized and simple, but I do agree these supplemental applications are tedious!!
 
atticus27 said:
PharmCAS sucks, they are bloody slow, and it's a ripoff. I would much rather have applied separately to each school. How hard is it to forward a couple transcripts and your PCAT to each school?-No doubt easier than waiting for ball licking PharmCAS to process anything. You guys think PharmCAS saved you money and time when you have to fill out supplementals w/ fees anyways, you haz a much to learn-ed grasshoppas.
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Well, according to my friend who is currently applying to business schools, they don't have a centralized system ... and her app fees are $100-200. Realistically, that could be the case if there was no PharmCAS.

And I still stand by the LOR service. I don't care if PharmCAS takes forever; the fact that they do this makes my life SO. MUCH. EASIER. If you were applying to 10 schools, you know how embarrassing it is to ask for 10 letters? It's like you don't have faith in yourself - and this is a subtle message you're sending to someone who you are asking to write about yourself! Not to mention, I am planning to apply to 3-4 schools, then wait a bit, then apply to a few more if I don't hear back. Ugh, the thought of going to my LOR people over and over again, asking for letters ... it's so annoying for them! I don't want to be an annoyance. One simple letter via electronic system. Sweet and simple. I can apply to as many as I want, and the only one who knows is me and PharmCAS. I can add schools later without worrying about asking for more LORs or transcripts.

Actually ALL the pharmacy schools that did NOT use Pharmcas I didn't even consider applying to for the very reason that I did NOT want to submit a LOR 10+ times nor do I want to rewrite my personal statement again.
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I agree! I was thinking of applying to a Texas school, and saw they didn't use PharmCAS and I crossed them off the list! Nooo thank you.
 
My pharmcas is still not mailed, i finished it last week...and nov 2nd is coming up soon..

does pharmcas have to be postmarked before nov 2nd and i'l be ok? Also some schools won't send an invitation for supplemental after they review the pharmcas, and the deadline is 10/2..(etc loma linda , touro, northstate)...

i am getting so nervous and stressed.i finished my supplementals for uop,usc,ucsd, and ucsf, but they still havent received my pharmcas yet cause it wasnt mailed...
 
The deadline is the submission date/ It had to be e-submitted to pharmcas by the pharmcas date. so as long as you send it by nov 2, you will be fine
 
Chinese Bandit said:
My pharmcas essay is completely different from my supplemental essay. The supplemental essay was harder to write because I didnt want to repeat anything from my pharmcas essay. My pharmcas essay was more general and my supplemental essay was more specific.
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Yeah, it's difficult to write.... I think I'm gonna go with the "(See PharmCAS) for now... saves me a couple hundred characters, and it's nonrepetitive.
 
As President, I would require all schools participate in the Pharmcas system.

Filling out separate applications is totally inefficient. Students should be focused on their grades/pcat not data entry and copy/paste skills.

I would also go one step further and ban the supplementals. All an ADCOM needs is right on the pharmcas screen. Additional information stinks of admitting unqualified candidates through loopholes.
 
Okay so just to clarify:


If I go electronic method, the professor receives the request automatically.

Once they complete the request, is there any processing time before it shows up on pharmcas??

i only ask because:

NOW, keep in mind that it takes a few weeks to process & mail out your LORs once PharmCAS received them.
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i believe kashkow was referring to the snail mail method and not electronic?
 
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as long as you e-submitted and have all your stuff in like transcripts ect. by nov 2 your cool
 
Anyone have the numbered address for pharmcas? I want to overnight my cripts and fedex doesn't overnight to P.O. boxes. I tried pharmcas line no answer and emailed 2 days ago? Thoughts? :confused:
 
The deadline for UoP is November 2nd. That means either you post-marked your PHYSICAL DOCUMENTS by that time, or PharmCAS was e-submitted by this time.

I explained this on the thread where you asked about the deadline you couldn't find.
 
bozeefus said:
Okay so just to clarify:


If I go electronic method, the professor receives the request automatically.

Once they complete the request, is there any processing time before it shows up on pharmcas??

i only ask because:

i believe kashkow was referring to the snail mail method and not electronic?
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From my experience, once they complete the required forms, it only took about a few hours to show up on my pharmcas.
 
www.pharmcas.org
>>contact (at top of page)
>>scroll to bottom of that page, and click on link that says CLICK HERE...

http://www.pharmcas.org/applicants/expressmail.htm

PHARMCAS
c/o Liaison International
311 Arsenal Street
Suite 15
Watertown MA 02472
Phone: 617-612-2050

hopefully you found this before i posted. good luck!

DocAcclamation said:
Anyone have the numbered address for pharmcas? I want to overnight my cripts and fedex doesn't overnight to P.O. boxes. I tried pharmcas line no answer and emailed 2 days ago? Thoughts? :confused:
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Chinese Bandit said:
From my experience, once they complete the required forms, it only took about a few hours to show up on my pharmcas.
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ty mr bandit. i suspected that but i feel much better hearing it (seeing it??) from someone else. thanks!
 
:mad::xf:....so if my pharmcas gpa is below the required gpa(for a particular school) but my actual gpa is not, will i still be considered by schools that i applied to????
 
I also have a gpa question so I'm going to stick it in this thread too.

How many gpas does pharmcas give you? Do they just show your regular GPA and your pharmcas GPA? Or do they calculate 10 different gpas (a science, math, other).

Also, I have a degree in respiratory therapy. I put all my respiratory therapy classes as "other science". Will those be included in my pharmcas gpa? I'm hoping so because it would drive my gpa way up.
 
LongShot09 said:
:mad::xf:....so if my pharmcas gpa is below the required gpa(for a particular school) but my actual gpa is not, will i still be considered by schools that i applied to????
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I contacted a bunch of schools that use pharmcas about this question. Every single one said they only go by Pharmcas GPA. For example if your pharmcas GPA is below 2.8 and that's the mininum required by the school then your application gets filtered immediately if your pharmcas GPA is below 2.8

However if your pharmCAS GPA is above the threshold, they will review your application and re-calculate your GPA according to their methods.
 
Chinese Bandit said:
From my experience, once they complete the required forms, it only took about a few hours to show up on my pharmcas.
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No, I was referring to the electronic route.......you have to factor in the part of pharmcas "mailing" out your reference letters to all the schools.
 
I feel your pain. I am in a similar situation, however I just made the cut off.
I think it's wrong that they do that. Every college should stick to the same grading scales as application services such as pharmcas use. I have taken classes where you can be "curved down" aka if you have an A but too high of a percent have an A, you get brought down to a B+. In some courses, it's virtually impossible to design a test where only a certain few make A's because the vast majority of preprofessionals at my school are very very very very serious about dentistry, medicine vet, pharmacy etc. The entering GPA at my college is over a 4.0 so that makes things even more competitive. I feel that me making a B+ or B would be the equivalent of me making an A at other institutions such as USF or other smaller, less competitive colleges. I've had friends take classes down there at USF over the summer who didn't even study and made A's and laughed about it...

Other people probably have it worse though because some schools do not do plus grades which is even unfairer.

But in the end, life is unfair so you just have to make the best out of it. If you can, I would take some upper division science courses that you feel comfortable making an A or B+ in to bring your GPA over the requirement. Also, making good grades in upper division courses holds much more weight than your actual GPA because it shows that you really understood the concepts in your lower division courses. For example, if you made a C in core biology (lower division course) and made an A in genetics and an B+ in microbiology or B+ immuniology it shows you really know the basic concepts.
 
anyone know why PharmCAS gpa calculations aren't automatic? since we've done the tedious task of typing it already, shouldn't they have a quick way to spit out their GPAs after we e-submit instead of 5 weeks?
 
Gone are the days when a 2.0 GPA meant that you're eligible to apply.
 
TnTpharmD said:
Gone are the days when a 2.0 GPA meant that you're eligible to apply.
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I wish i had applied during that time because I would be at the age where I'd already completed my BS degree. However, I took many years off and now it got so competitive.

The older pharmacists I talked to had like 2.5 GPAs and were highly eligible.
 
When you guys say they use the PharmCAS GPA, which one are you referring to? The "overall" one? It seems like they lumped my "post-bacc" (which includes all of my pre-reqs) grades in with my "cumulative-undergrad." So now my "overall" GPA is exactly the same as my "cum-undergrad" GPA

Also, it seems like the total GPA for the prereqs or sciences for some reason includes everything as well (the hours includes all of my hours from all of my classes). Shouldn't the pre-reqs only include the science courses?

TIA
 
mgs50 said:
If your reference submitted electronically, it should come up immediately. If they sent in a paper reference, it may take some time to show up.

If you have already e-submitted your application, you can go in and change references that have yet to respond.... You can delete the two that haven't responded and add new ones. You just can't delete a reference that has already been submitted. You don't get to e-submit again, you just add a new reference. I had to change a reference after I e-submitted too, and it worked out just fine =) Good luck!
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Regarding references that have already submitted, since we can't delete them...is there a way we can notify the school not to look at it?

That reference may not feel the same about me if I decide to quit now, which I may do.
 
i wouldnt do it. i think if you specifically told a school to NOT look at a reference, they would be curious as to why and look at it.

to answer the original question, you can delete unresponsive LOR writers and add in new ones, but once they submit it there's no way to alter/delete it. try to get at least 3 letters since most schools require 2-3. and electronic ones update immediately.
 
You certainly can change your references after submission, so long as they haven't sent their evaluations yet. I submitted my application and was unable to contact one of my references, so I deleted them, asked a professor and added them. The professor sent their evaluation and it was automatically forwarded.
 
PharmCAS already received the LOR. So it looks like I'm stuck with a reference that I am about to quit on. Does anyone know at what point/stage in the application process that schools contact our references? Is it before they extend invites or after we've been interviewed?

I'm sure I can explain my situation to that person, but it just looks bad since I barely got the letter and a week later quit.
 
2 of my LORs are taking their sweet time. I'm on the route of deleting two and adding two new professor to get my applications mailed.
:mad:
 
It sucks - I know. One of mine took over 2 months to fill it out... :mad:
 
Mine took a WHOLE YEAR and then said he sent it in............NOPE, it still has not come through. Thankfully, I was able to find someone else. :eek:
 
When you add a reference to the PharmCAS system, do they immediately send out an email to the reference or do you have to wait till your entire application is complete before they do this?
 
PharmCAS sent out emails right away for me. I didn't e-submit until they were all in.
 
It sends them right away, but DON'T wait until all of your references have completed them to e-submit! I did that and didn't get to apply to the school I really wanted to this year. Once you have e-submitted, you can play around with the references, that's just about the only thing you can change after you submit (besides fall grades at the end of this semester!)
 
roziak said:
It sucks - I know. One of mine took over 2 months to fill it out... :mad:
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My science professor did too. =/ But I cut her some slack because she had just had a baby LOL It took multiple emails, a visit to her office, and a very foward note on her office door for her to finally fill it out :rolleyes:
 
I didn't see this on any other post and I looked through a lot. I'm filling out PharmCas for a deadline that is in January and I'm listing all of the courses that I have taken. I've taken over 120 credit hrs and a lot of them came from a non-related major. I have diploma in drafting and I started taking classes for a Cisco certification so I've been busy but do I have to fill all of that on PharmCas since I also took some pre-reqs at that school? That's a lot to put in.
 
Soon2BPharmacst said:
I didn't see this on any other post and I looked through a lot. I'm filling out PharmCas for a deadline that is in January and I'm listing all of the courses that I have taken. I've taken over 120 credit hrs and a lot of them came from a non-related major. I have diploma in drafting and I started taking classes for a Cisco certification so I've been busy but do I have to fill all of that on PharmCas since I also took some pre-reqs at that school? That's a lot to put in.
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You have to put in all coursework taken.
 
A 120 hours is not really that bad. I had over 160 something when I graduated with two majors. Some people have graduate degrees when they apply and you can only imagine how long it takes them to input all the courses.

You must input all the courses you took ( if you notice it's stated on pharmacas website that ALL coursework must be included), if you don't that is academic dishonesty.
 
cheburashka said:
A 120 hours is not really that bad. I had over 160 something when I graduated with two majors. Some people have graduate degrees when they apply and you can only imagine how long it takes them to input all the courses.

You must input all the courses you took ( if you notice it's stated on pharmacas website that ALL coursework must be included), if you don't that is academic dishonesty.
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I feel much better now, thanks :). I had like 127 at one school, 30 at another and only 16 hrs at my current school. Hopefully those courses will boost my PharmCas GPA :xf:.

doc ss 26 said:
Yeah and its messed up how most schools ask you to do it all over again on their supplementals! BOGUS!
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Yeah that is. So do you have to pay the PharmCas fee and the school's fee when submitting PharmCas? I was looking and it said $150 for the PharmCas fee unless I read something wrong.
 
Soon2BPharmacst said:
Yeah that is. So do you have to pay the PharmCas fee and the school's fee when submitting PharmCas? I was looking and it said $150 for the PharmCas fee unless I read something wrong.
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Yes, first school is $150, each additional school is $40.

And of course, whatever supplemental application fee each school has.
 
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