What else can I do to improve my chance at a PGY1?

[tacartkup]

I am a P4 at a highly ranked program in the South planning on pursuing a PGY1. I have narrowed down about 5-7 programs that I am planning on applying to, mostly local. I have talked to plenty of residents, I know the progs are competitive. I don't think I am very competitive and wondering what else can I do to improve my chances?

Pro:
1. Leadership: committee chairs on pharmacy council, active member and leadership roles in 3 prof orgs, founded a mental health awareness taskforce and organize a suicide prevention week, organized inter professional collaboration event. Leadership is probably my strongest - I just got nominated into our honor leadership society too.
2. 1.5 yr long internship for a long term care pharmacy
3. Consistent volunteering at health fair 4 yr in a row for underserved pops/ minorities
4. Letter of recs from my adult med/ am care/ and hospital institution. I am positive my preceptors have good things to say about me as a candidate.

Cons:
1. I have a 3.4 GPA in a super competitive class ( I got a C in one of my pharmacotherapy class in my P2 year, the same semester I lost a fam member d/t suicide. It's not an excuse. My GPA shows an upward trend after that semester but it will be a major deterrent.
2. Lack of research experience during pharm school. I have done plenty of research and even had a poster presentation during undergrad but my focuses shifted and research was no longer one of my focus.

Any advices would be greatly appreciated.

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[lionheart555]

I am a P4 at a highly ranked program in the South planning on pursuing a PGY1. I have narrowed down about 5-7 programs that I am planning on applying to, mostly local. I have talked to plenty of residents, I know the progs are competitive. I don't think I am very competitive and wondering what else can I do to improve my chances?

Pro:
1. Leadership: committee chairs on pharmacy council, active member and leadership roles in 3 prof orgs, founded a mental health awareness taskforce and organize a suicide prevention week, organized inter professional collaboration event. Leadership is probably my strongest - I just got nominated into our honor leadership society too.
2. 1.5 yr long internship for a long term care pharmacy
3. Consistent volunteering at health fair 4 yr in a row for underserved pops/ minorities
4. Letter of recs from my adult med/ am care/ and hospital institution. I am positive my preceptors have good things to say about me as a candidate.

Cons:
1. I have a 3.4 GPA in a super competitive class ( I got a C in one of my pharmacotherapy class in my P2 year, the same semester I lost a fam member d/t suicide. It's not an excuse. My GPA shows an upward trend after that semester but it will be a major deterrent.
2. Lack of research experience during pharm school. I have done plenty of research and even had a poster presentation during undergrad but my focuses shifted and research was no longer one of my focus.

Any advices would be greatly appreciated.

Think more positive and focus on highlighting your pros. You have a few seconds to sell yourself and not BS. What are you going to say?

-- Leadership: What did you do? Did you create new policies for the organizations? Did you attend events or did you organize events? If you organized events, did you have committees that reported to you (or reported to you at all)? Honor leadership society = nice, but why? What organization? Phi Lambda Sigma is a nationally recognized leadership society. That probably carries more weight than some school leadership honor society. Also, why do you think you were nominated? What do you think a leader is? Any examples outside of pharmacy school in the community?

-- 1.5 yr long internship in LTC: What did you learn? Did you participate in activities, events, volunteer, patient activities that are relatable to the programs you applied for? Do you have a letter of recommendation from your employer or preceptor? What was your work ethic? Could you have someone speak to that? How did you work as part of the team?

-- Volunteering: What population? What did you do? Counseling, screening, MTM? How is this applicable to the programs you are interested in? What were the challenges of the population? Language? Non-adherence? How did you overcome these challenges?

You have plenty to speak to . Make sure your elevator pitch is ready. You can bullet point those three pros and provide examples, provide what you learned, provide stories. If you can do that, you are already up there. If you can then take those bullet points and relate those to your programs of interest and explain why you are a good fit with good experience, you are head and shoulders above your competition. In my experience, the problem most people have is they can't speak concisely or intelligently about their experiences so it gets lost. Be the person that is prepared and stands out in a positive manner.

On your cons, just be honest and be upfront. Yeah, I got that C in that pharmacotherapeutic class but guess what, I bounced back later. Research in undergrad shouldn't really be mentioned. But this is also a situation you can turn into an opportunity. As an example, you can say something like "I am really looking for a program that offers me research opportunities. I had an opportunity in undergrad to present a poster but didn't get as much opportunity in pharmacy school." Programs also want to know what your interests are so make sure you are honest about those.

Good luck

 

[tacartkup]

Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback! I know leadership will be my selling point but I have been struggling how to articulate and convey this across. One more quick thing on research, this is a research I did with a pharmacy faculty so that's why I still have it on my CV. Should I take it out completely? My research experience is not on the first couple of pages anyway.

 

[lionheart555]

Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback! I know leadership will be my selling point but I have been struggling how to articulate and convey this across. One more quick thing on research, this is a research I did with a pharmacy faculty so that's why I still have it on my CV. Should I take it out completely? My research experience is not on the first couple of pages anyway.

If it was a pharmacy related topic, I would lean towards including. It depends on what you are applying for, what was the project, and possibly who the faculty was.

That said, anything on your CV is fair game. Make sure you can speak to the methods. Inclusion, exclusion criteria, results, conclusions, limitations...everything is fair game to be asked about. So make sure you know it fairly well.