Admissions Rx

Not at all. The Oregon State University College of Pharmacy does not consider PCAT scores in our application process. A good score will not help you and a bad score will not hurt you. In fact, you don’t even need to take the PCAT to apply to OSU.

Think about the image you want to present when applying for admission. You want your letter writers to be people who know you well (so they can say lots of nice things about you) and people familiar with graduate study in the sciences, professional degree programs, or the practice of pharmacy (so they can say why those nice things will make you a good pharmacist).

In our experience, the most useful letters come from science professors or practicing pharmacists, because they have the most familiarity with those topics. This means it’s important to build relationships with such people as a pre-pharmacy student, so they will know you well enough to write a good letter. PharmCAS asks recommenders how well they know you when they submit their letters of recommendation. You don’t want your recommenders to be saying they only know you a little – you want them to be saying they know you well.

Did you know you can pay in-state tuition at the Oregon State College of Pharmacy through the WICHE Professional Student Exchange Program? Now you do.

You apply through a certifying officer in your home state and the program has its own deadlines (usually October 15 is the deadline to apply).

No. Oregon State’s anatomy, physiology, and microbiology prerequisites must be met with coursework taken at the upper-division level. “Upper-division level” means advanced courses designed for college juniors and seniors. Such courses often have substantial prerequisites and 300- or 400-level course numbers (or 100-level course numbers if you’re in California). Community colleges do not offer such courses, which means these prerequisites cannot be completed at a community college.

You can complete all of the other prerequisites at a community college, as long as the college offers appropriate coursework. Email pharmacy@oregonstate.edu for more information on course equivalencies or if you’re not sure how to meet a particular prerequisite.

The College feels that requiring these advanced prerequisites will enable us to go further in educating you about the pharmaceutical sciences once you’re in the Pharm.D. program!

There are two supplemental application essay prompts this year:

1. Identify your main academic and professional goals. Explain how attending the OSU College of Pharmacy will help you achieve these goals, discussing specific characteristics of the College and its programs. Your response must be 750 words or less.
2. This question concerns the letters of recommendation submitted as part of your PharmCAS application. Why did you choose the recommenders that you chose? Why did you think their letters would provide useful information about you? Your response must be 200 words or less.

What should you write about? Well, make sure to answer the questions. The first essay should focus on your goals, which means you may need to spend some time thinking about what exactly your academic and professional goals are (beyond just “becoming a pharmacist”). Explain why Oregon State is the best place for you to work toward these goals – we want to be convinced that attending the OSU College of Pharmacy is the logical next step for you. This means you may need to spend a little time researching the college and its programs.

As for the second essay – we’re genuinely curious. We want you to explain why you chose the people that you did to write your letters of recommendation. Furthermore, we hope that asking this question will cause people to put a lot of thought into exactly who they ask to write their letters.

Oregon State’s deadlines for Pharm.D. applications for Fall 2013 admission:

• November 1, 2012 (regular decision)
• September 4, 2012 (Early Decision Program)

These are received-by deadlines, meaning that all your materials need to be received by that date. It is not a postmark deadline. PharmCAS needs to receive your transcripts, letters of reference, and so on and OSU needs to receive the OSU Supplemental Application materials.

Welcome to this blog about the admissions process for the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) program at the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy.

We hope to provide helpful information for prospective students, insight about how the admissions process works, and answers to random questions about the process of becoming a pharmacy students.

This blog is not required reading for prospective students, but those who do read it are likely to be just a little more savvy about the ways of Pharm.D. admissions!