University of Utah Visit

Hey Everyone!

We had a great trip last week up to the University of Utah campus where we got to hear from many different current pharmacy students and get some great tips! Here are my notes from the meeting:

• P1 Students
• How to prepare for application
• Take the right classes and get the good grades!
• PCAT or Bachelor's Degree
• Leadership Experience
• Can be varied 
• Volunteer/Community Service
• Looking for who you've become and not just what you've done 
• Bring up these experiences during your interviews 
• Instructors care and want you to do well
• Interviews -- don't worry about getting the right answer, just relax and be yourself. Don't act prideful or like you think you are going to get it. Don't act like you already know about pharmacy 
• There is a website that gives samples questions that were used previously at the U
• Interviews
• Very important
• Be careful of the stories you tell 
• Be careful about talking about cultural differences
• Don't talk forever -- they will let you talk until you are done
• Be aware of current events in pharmacy 
• Their focus is to evaluate your critical thinking skills 
• It's fine to ask to repeat the question 
• Pause before you start answering, take a breath to think about your answer 
• Munger -- loves PharmD/PhD 
• difficult to find research opportunities, need to take initiative 
• Personal Statement
• 1st Year
• Busy, need to be organized, often do internship hours and need to know your schedule front to back 
• P2
• TTh -- busy days, three two hour classes, no class on Fridays unless test and other days are a lot light
• coursework is same load, project, presentations, 
• Spring P2 hardest semester
• P3
• TTh -- testing day no classes
• MW -- class all day (8-3)
• friday 2 hour class
• Still can work about 20 hours a week
• Lots of exams but not in class a lot 
• P4
• Summers all years are on rotation anyway
• For license, you need to have 600 paid/volunteer hours 
• Rotation 8 hrs a day/5 days a week, work after that
• physically exhausting because you need to be on your game all the time
• Once you get accepted, try to get an internship as soon as you can 
• Every year is going to graduate and leave positions
• Can get intern license in May 
• Admissions/Classes Questions
• denise.brenes@pharm.utah.edu
• madison.hatch@pharm.utah.edu
• jon.magness@pharm.utah.edu
• halee.namanny@pharm.utah.edu

Free Kaplan Events

You can find locations at this website! Let me know if you have any questions!

Roseman Pharmacy Student Experience

Here are some notes from our meeting where we had Jaimee, Carlos and Chris from Roseman University in South Jordan come and tell us what it's like to be a pharmacy student!

• On every other Friday, you are tested on the material you have learned during the block. If you pass with a 90% or better, then you get Monday off
• If not, then you get to go on Monday and have remediation. 
• If you don't pass on Monday, then you have to do summer remediation 
• You get six weeks off for the summer, which you have to do your summer remediation. If you don't have to do any summer remediation, then you get the full break!
• Classes are normally 8 to 3, but depends on the professor -- hour lunch break 
• Study time varies, depending on your skills and ability to memorize
• Take biochemistry before applying! Very helpful!
• Material is not tricky, just the pressure of getting 90% 
• There isn't any competition because it is just pass/fail
• Lends itself to collaboration 
• It's only three years, so you have to be committed because of the pace. But you are done in three years! 
• No books! 
• Need to rely on powerpoint presentations and your class notes
• Major thing to get you an interview -- your science GPA
• If you are reapplying, change things about your application! 
• When preparing for the interview, look at things that are specific to the school 
• Specific programs, emphases, other positive characteristics about the school 
• Lots of teamwork involved at this school
• Free printing! 
• Tests could be a compilation of different teaching styles
• Attendance is not required, you can learn based on your own learning style
• You do have presentations and papers!
• Many student organizations involved on campus
• Drug Abuse Awareness Team - community events teaching kids about drugs, take back old medications 
• Student Alliance
• MBA Program also involved as well
• You start this July before pharmacy school -- total of 12 classes
• Cost $1900, takes six months
• Three courses before P1, three courses after P1. Six classes during third year
• Much easier program than the pharmacy portion
• Scholarships available for individuals involved in clubs
• Also other scholarships, including Air Force
• Wednesdays, Institute teacher comes and gives a spiritual message

Next Meeting -- Life as a Pharmacy Student!

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to get the word out about our next meeting -- it will be Wednesday, November 2nd at 8:00 p.m. in Room 270 of the Tanner Building. We will be hearing from Chris Mecklenberg and his student association at Roseman University (formally USN), and they will tell us what it's like to be in pharmacy school! I am really looking forward to this meeting and hope to see you all there!

Auburn University

Dr. Woosley came and visited us today from Auburn University (Alabama) and shared with us information about the Harrison School of Pharmacy! Here are some notes from the meeting:

• Unique characteristics of this school:
• Only two classrooms,
• Golf tournament with employers to raise money for scholarships
• Vaccinations for university
• Health fair and lots of service
• Field games day! Competition between the classes
• Legislative Day
• Rotation Experience
• Graduation -- family affair
• 30% students go into post-doc opportunities
• 24th Highest Ranked Pharmacy School
• Average GPA of 3.4 
• Not a grade-forgiving school
• Always find out school's GPA calculation policy!
• PCAT score is less important than GPA
• Biology and Chemistry sub-section scores are most important
• Shadowing is recommended
• Number of hours isn't important, just important that you know pharmacy is the profession you want to go into 
• Personal essay
• Want it in your own words, PharmCas has software that checks for plagiarism
• Interview -- extremely important
• 16 students invited at a time, interviewed for a day getting to know you and letting you know about the school
• Look for 7 domains of character
• Communication
• Leadership
• Problem Solving
• Professional
• Ethics
• Responsibility
• Analytical Skills
• Service Oriented
• Don't know your PCAT or GPA scores before 
• Will let you know within 24 hours if you've been accepted or not
• Rolling Admissions
• Take-away message: APPLY EARLY!
• Remember PharmCas is Eastern Standard Time
• 2nd Week of School -- you are assigned a patient 
• You interview them, find out disease states, find out drug therapy
• You will keep this patient for the remainder of the year
• The P2 on your team will be your mentor throughout the year
• Class size of only 15 -- 2 professors
• Pass/Fail -- intent is to learn how to talk to patients and how to solve problems on your own relating to pharmacy
• One 2-hour lab
• Teach on a disease-based concept
• Two years 
• Third Year -- Class size goes from 125 to 8
• Focus on problem based learning, disease centered, you will be given a patient-centered case with multiple problems 
• You will teach the class about your specific disease case
• Fourth Year -- Clinical rotations, 8 five-week rotations, one five-week off
• 6 are in an independent, chain, hospital, multiple clinical settings
• 2 electives: opportunities in Kenya, Arizona, cross-cultural, CDC in Atlanta, research

Check out pharmacy.auburn.edu for more information! 

Next Meeting Info -- USN School Rep!

Hey everyone! Here is the information about our upcoming meeting on NEXT WEDNESDAY, at 8:00 p.m. We will have a presentation from Dr. Michael DeYoung, the Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs at USN-South Jordan! We will be meeting in Room 164 of the Tanner Building. Hope to see you there! 

Pharmacist Presentation!

Thanks so much to Jim Avarett for coming to speak to us today for our Pre-Pharmacy Club Meeting!

Here are some notes from the presentation that we were able to enjoy in case you weren't able to make it:

• Pharmacy School
• Learned how to make lotions and shampoos, a little old school!
• Early 1900s, most drugs came from plants and were compounded 
• Powder papers:
• get powders, mix them up according to a formula, fold them up and give them to a patient to take in a drink or something (another old way to deliver medication)
• Old philosophy -- administer a type of poison and hope that it kills the bad stuff and doesn't kill you!
• Interning in a hospital
• A fun part about working in a hospital: Pneumatic tube delivery system to transport medicine throughout the hospital
• Unit Dose Machine - helped to cut down on waste in hospital
• Manual unit dose system: has a pre-print label and you can give people individual doses that can be re-administered to another patient if unused.
• Working in a clinic
• Decentralized pharmacy -- allowed pharmacists to be on the floor and saved lots of time because pharmacist was able to be on the floor and could communicate directly with the doctor if there were any issues.
• The nurses had lots of questions and could speak directly to the pharmacist
• Order input
• Technicians are able to stock a 24-hour supply of medication
• Order input is a big part of your time when working in a hospital pharmacy
• Need to analyze prescription when it comes in to the pharmacy -- any drug interactions, if it is the right dose, get to see the lab tests to see if the patient is improving or if there needed to be any changes.
• Working at BYU
• Change environment to retail -- a large part of working in retail is patient counseling
• Required by law now, give them information on why they are taking the drug, answer any questions
• Be aware of drug seekers! May try to forge a prescription, need to consult with a doctor
• Need to be aware of confidentiality -- very important in retail
• Knowledge of drugs in pregnancy
• Polypharmacy counseling -- maintain a drug profile record of all your patients, there are many chances for harmful interactions
• Need to be especially aware of interactions between natural products because they aren't regulated