End of Semester

Pre-Pharmacy Club Members,

It is finally the end of the semester! I hope you all are studying hard and perform well on your finals.  Just a couple of announcements:

1st it that there will be an Allied Health Application Conference coming up in January. This will be really helpful if you are planning on applying this coming 2013 year; I highly recommend checking it out! The following is information on it:

Allied Health Application Conference

Saturday, January 12^th, 2013

8:30am-1:30pm

WSC 3380

Registration required--$5 before December 21^st; $10 December 22^nd-January 10^th –online at https://ppa.byu.edu/ahac or 3328 WSC

Lunch is included

Space is limited; preference will be given to students applying in 2013

Topics that will covered include:

·         Application Strategies

·         Filling out the Application
(OTCAS, PTCAS, CASPA, CHIROCAS, PHARMCAS, OPTOMCAS, AACPAMS)

·         Letters of Recommendation

·         Personal Statements

So come! Also, we will be starting the Pre-Pharmacy Club activities fresh come Winter semester. Be excited for another pharmacy filled semester!

 

Happy Holidays!

Acitivity - November 12th

Hey Club Members,

This Monday, November 12 we will be having a visitor from the LECOM Pharmacy School.  He will be presenting at 4:00 pm in 3238 WSC. (Sorry this is such short notice, I just found out.)

Have a great Monday!

Activity - November 6th

Dear Clubbers:

This Tuesday we will be going to the University of Utah College of Pharmacy! We are having a joint activity with the U's pre-pharmacy club and well as SLCC's pre-pharmacy club.  We are going to get a tour of the university, meet with the Dean and other professors, and also be able to talk with current pharmacy students. This will be VERY BENEFICIAL for you if you are thinking about applying to the U. This school is great, come check it out.

We will be meeting this Tuesday, November 6, at the Jamba Juice in the Wilk at 4:45 pm to carpool. The meeting starts at 6:00 pm at the College of Pharmacy.

Hope to see you all there!

Activity - 10.23

Cluuuub Members!

Our next club activity is this Tuesday, October 23 in room W122 of the Tanner Building at 7:30pm.  We will be having a representative from Roseman University talk with us about Roseman College of Pharmacy and other advice on getting in.  Roseman is a newer school in South Jordan, UT, which I know many of you are planning on applying to.  Meeting with him will definitely up your chances of getting into this school.  

Also, if you would like to meet personally with Dr. DeYoung (the rep from Roseman) then call 801-422-3044 as he will be doing individual appointments during Tuesday afternoon. 

There will be refreshments, come with questions and love.

10.9 Activity Recap

Another absolutely amazing activity!
We had the wonderful opportunity to go around the pharmacy of Intermountain: Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Pharmacy and got to meet several amazing employees who all had great advice and insight to share with us.

• We learned about the several different types of hospital pharmacy jobs
• That if you want to work at a hospital you should plan on doing a residency
• That residencies are very hard work so be sure to plan on working many, many hours with little-decent pay)
• To enjoy the journey. Don't just say: I'll be happy when I actually get a job because the stress does not end there.

Activity - 10.9

Dear Beloved Club Members,

This Tuesday, October 9 we will be having our next club activity! We will be going to the UVRMC Hospital to talk with specialty pharmacists and take a tour of the pharmacy. This is really a great opportunity to make some connections with the local pharmacists (shadowing opps guys!) and also just see what the hospital side of a career in pharmacy is all about.  

COME!! This kind of thing really excites me, so I know you guys will all love it too.  We are meeting at the Jamba Juice in the WILK at 7:00pm this TUESDAY. We will be carpooling over there by 7:15 because our tour begins at 7:30.  

Hope to see you there!

9.27 Activity Recap

Thank you to all of those who came to the awesome activity last Thursday. I don't know about you but it helped so much to talk to a representative from a Pharmacy Graduate School! For those who weren't able to make it be sure to take advantage of these wonderful opportunities we have to learn more about the pathway to becoming a pharmacist. Be sure to stay up to date with our activities and email byuprepharmacy@gmail.com to get put on our reminder list so that we can email you when an activity is coming up so you won't miss out. Feel free to also ask us any questions you might have. Our next activity will be visiting a hospital pharmacy. This is a great chance to see other areas of pharmacy besides just retail and to get shadowing contacts for your grad school application. Be sure not to miss out! This is something we haven't done for a few years and we as a presidency are so excited!

Here is a recap of the last activity:
A recruiter from Auburn University - Harrison School of Pharmacy in Alabama came to talk to students about the application process as well as their school and why students should consider them as well as other eastern and southern schools rather than just looking at those in Utah. Here are some bullet points of advice or information about Auburn and other pharmacy schools in general that I thought were helpful:

• Graduate schools like to see how you did in the hard classes. Calculus 2 and Organic Chemistry tend to be classes designed to "weed out" students who aren't serious and they are really just prerequisites to see how you can handle yourself in difficult classes.
• the PCAT's purpose is to predict a student's success in their first year of pharmacy school
• Organizational skills and positions look very impressive on an application so be sure to convey yourself in a light that will demonstrate these skills to the school you are applying to
• Volunteering: while some graduate schools may have hour requirements, most schools just want to see consistency and they want to see what type of person you are and what type of service you have made time for out of your busy schedule.
• DON'T USE FORMAL ESSAYS! Graduate schools compare your application essay to those on the internet and if they are over a certain percentage similar they will toss yours out. Make it your own. If you are determined to go through 8 years of schooling, study like crazy, and then work in this profession until you are at age to retire there has to be a good reason why. Convey that to the school your applying. Be sure to make it sincere, original, and personal. This a great opportunity to show the school who you are.
• When you hear "rolling admission" apply early! Rolling admission means that they start holding interviews once they start receiving a lot of applications and that they might have filled up all of their slots before applications are even due
• Find out how interviews will go. Don't be shy to ask your graduate school about the interviewing process.
• Practice: Practice doing interviews in front of the mirror and mock interviews. 
• Prepare responses to common questions like: "Tell us about yourself," "Why do you want to be a pharmacist?" "What made you choose our school?" "What is your most significant accomplishment?" (with this question they are trying to see your values) "Why should we choose you?"
• Make and keep eye contact
• Some things that Auburn looks for in their applicants are: "honest, care, communicate, problem-solving, and citizenship"
• Auburn is a school that takes into account the academic rigor of schools from which their applicants are applying. Some schools don't do this but for those that do BYU is a very impressive school to have on your resume.
• When you are applying to schools be sure to look at location and how they teach what they teach
• In your resume make sure you include recent accomplishments, portray yourself in a constantly improving light. Show them that you are only getting better and better and that the best is yet to come.
• Auburn's tuition is $36,000/year but they do have some scholarships available
• The representative recommended taking the 3 Pearson practice tests before taking your PCAT. The first one soon, the third one a week or so before you take the real one and the second one somewhere in between.
• The PCAT is not a test of concepts but of specificity therefore it is in your best interest to take practice exams, buy a book, enroll in a prep course, or use some other effective way of prep so you can know exactly what they are looking for
• He also encouraged those planning on taking the PCAT to google: dr. collins pcat study guide

Hope to see you at the next activity on Tuesday October 9th at 7:15pm outside of Jamba Juice!
- BYU Pre-Pharmacy