Meeting: UC Davis Accepted Student Panel
Date: May 28, 2014
Time:7:16 – 8:30 PM
Location: LSA 1022
Officers Present: Erin, Alyssa, Ryan, Kelcie, Shirley, Connie, Cerise, Jessa
Announcements
●UCSF Pharmacy School Information Day
○Monday, May 26, 2014
●UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy Open House
○Friday, June 20, 2014
○RSVP by June 9th
●12th Annual UC Davis Pre-Med and Pre-Health Professions National Conference
○Early registration is $35 until -6/02/14
Student Panel
●Speakers
○Erin Lee: Biochemistry, UCSD
○Kevin Tran: Biochemistry, UCSF
○Tuan Ngo: Biochemistry, UOP
○Hilary Teaford: Biochemistry, University of Minnesota
○Roxanna Perez: Biochemistry, USC
○Cynthia Lu: Biochemistry, University of Washington
○Shirley Ly: Biochemistry, California Northstate University
○David Vermeulen: Biochemistry, University of Minnesota
○Lisa Le: Biochemistry, UCSF
○Leslie Lai: Biochemistry, UCSF
●How did you choose a school? Does ranking matter? Did you get into your first choice school?
○Lisa: Accepted into 2 schools, chose UCSF because she likes innovative nature of the school and it was her first choice. Was looking for a school that has ways to advance the profession.
■Advice: Ranking doesn’t really matter. Have to see if the school fits you.
○David: Applied to 14 schools (none in California), got interviews to 13 schools. University of Kentucky and University of Minnesota were the only two interviews he attended. Chose University of Minnesota because he liked the people and it’s a great program. It’s also the only school in the state so you don’t have to compete for internships.
■Advice: Just go where it fits best for you.
○Shirley: Only got into CNU.
■Advice: Program is most important. Make sure where you go is the school and program you want to be in.
○Cynthia: Applied to three schools. Only went to one interview because she didn’t have the time or money. Chose University of Washington because it’s in the city and provides a lot of clinical rotations.
○Roxanna: Applied to 4 schools. Waitlisted at UCSD and UOP. Didn’t get into UCSF. Got into USC which was 1 of her top choices.
○Hilary: Applied to 7 schools. Didn’t have pre-requisites to some of the schools. Went to 3 interviews and got accepted to all 3 schools. Chose Minnesota for clinical innovation and she really liked the city. Liked the idea of not having to compete for internships.
○Tuan: Applied to 3 schools. Got into 2. Chose UOP because it’s convenience (close to home). Liked the 3-year program and had family who went there. Thinks that ranking matters to an extent.
○Kevin: Applied to 5 schools, got into 2. Got accepted to UCSF, his first choice school. Strategy he used to see if a school was right for him was to read the faculty profiles and see if they resonate with what he wanted to do. What mentors could he match up with if he were to go to that school? Doesn’t think ranking matters.
■Advice: Main factor is what school resonates with you most.
○Erin: Applied to 4 schools. Got interviews to all but only went to 3. USC was her first choice because she’s from LA but the area has too much traffic and the school was expensive. UCSD has less traffic, pass/fail system, and is next to the beach. Pass/fail lets you become a well-rounded student and balance school with extracurriculars. Pharmacy students also get to take classes with Medical students. When working in the healthcare field, you will be working with medical professionals. Small class size means you can make close friends with your classmates.
■Advice: See if the school is the right fit for you.
○Leslie: Applied to 4 schools. Picked UCSF. More established program, closer to home.
●What extracurriculars/student activities/organizations/workactivies are you a part of?
○David
■GPA wasn’t that great.
■Interned for 4 quarters doing Rite Aid internship
■Teaching assistant at the Western Center
■Member of a fraternity
■Unitrans bus driver
○Shirley
■Officer intern for the Golden Turtle Lion Dance Association: joined freshman year, taught members how to lion dance, organized projects
■Secretary of Pre-Pharmacy Club
■ICC internships: 2 quarters at Rite Aid
■100 hours at Sutter General Hospital: helped her decide if she wanted to pursue clinical or retail
○Cynthia
■ICC internship: 1 quarter at Rite Aid
■Pharmacy clerk at long term care pharmacy
■Medical assistant: became active on health care talks
■Research: Dr. Fiehn’s lab
○Roxanna
■Pre-Pharmacy Club since freshman year
■Organization: Women Helping the Community
■Student Leadership and Professional Development Program: workshops, learn leadership skills
■Imani clinic: started junior year
■Pharmacy internships through the ICC: started spring quarter of freshman year
■UCDMC Department of Pharmacy: get to learn about inpatient side of pharmacy
○Hilary
■A bit of shadowing for a clinical pharmacist (1 day)
■One Rite Aid internship for a quarter: found out retail is not what she wants to do
■Cross country and track team for 3.5 years
■Western Human Nutrition Center: research
■Tutoring / teaching at a private company: got a lot of experience; when you’re a pharmacist, you have to explain instructions to people
○Tuan
■2 quarters of pharmacy internships through the ICC
○Kevin
■Webmaster for Pre-Pharmacy Club (2012-2013): fun to work in team
■Pre-Pharmacy Conference: amazing experience, had fun emailing pharmacists and faculty of pharmacy schools, got to chat with them and talk about pharmacy’s future
■Internship at UCDMC with all the different pharmacy departments: incredible experience because you get exposure to the different pharmacy departments at the UCDMC; the experience convinces the pharmacy schools about your passion for pharmacy
○Erin
■Officer for the past 3 years of Pre-Pharm club
■Pharmacy coordinator for the Pre-Med and Pre-Health Conference: largest pre-health conference in the nation
■Worked in Dr. Fiehn’s research lab for 2 years
○Leslie:
■Rite Aid Internship
■Clinical research assistant: Marijuana research
■Works at the bookstore
■Pre-Health sorority: Academic Advising Chair
○Lisa
■Directed the Annual Pre-Pharmacy Conference: opportunity to show leadership skills
■Medical mission trip last summer: write about your experiences, show them what you took out of the experiences
●What was your process when creating your personal statement? How do you know that you’re finished? How do you make it unique?
○David
■Wrote about his extracurricular experiences and how it has brought him toward pharmacy
■Went to pre-health people to have them read it over but they weren’t that helpful
■Advice:
●You can talk about future of pharmacy but don’t state that its not retail
●Schools want to get to know you as a person and don’t be afraid to sell yourself
●Have your mom, dad, brother, sister or best friend read it to see if it sounds like “you”
●You’ll know you’re done when you read it and you think to yourself “hell yeah”
○Lisa
■Personal statement helped her get into pharmacy school the most
■The moment she knew she was done was when she was really proud of her essay
■Advice:
●You can go to ICC writing tutor to have them proofread your paper
●Dig deep and discover/learn about yourself
●You are unique, you are special
○Shirley
■Agrees with every bit of Lisa
■Went to Linda Scott to review her personal statement
■Was going to meet with a professor who wanted a copy of her personal statement, she put something together
■Had to write many drafts after that
■Had peers and graduate students review her personal statement
■Talked about relative with a health problem
■Advice:
●If you choose to talk about experiencing a relative with a health problem, make sure to not focus on the person. Instead, try to say how it influenced you to pursue pharmacy
○Erin
■Listed out activities, skills she gained, how it changed her perspective on pharmacy
■Advice:
●Show you’re a promising applicant, search for yourself
●You don’t need a life changing event
●Focus on your wording, try to keep reader engaged
●Don’t lie, they may ask you about your personal statement during your interview
○Hilary
■Did most of her essays during summer
■UCSF supplemental application question: In a class of 125 qualified students, what makes you stand out?
●That question made her think about exactly why she is different. What about your personality/drive makes you different? Wish she had done the UCSF application first. The other essays would have been easy.
●UCSF has a very comprehensive essay portion.
○Roxanna:
■It was hard trying to write everything about her life in one page
■Did pre-health advising with Linda Scott, who challenged her
■Even if she was good with her personal statement, other people always had something to say
■She liked it and she knew that it was final
■Advice:
●People always have opinions
●Personal statement isn’t everything, you also have supplemental applications
○Tuan
■Biggest problem was condensing everything into a word count
■Advice:
●Be concise because you only have a certain character limit
●You can’t ramble on and give your entire life story
●Write down all the big experiences you can think of
○Most recent experiences, more fresh
●How did you get a strong letter of recommendation?
○Hilary
■It was hard because she only did one ICC internship and it was during a night shift so the pharmacist always changed
■UWP classes are the easiest to get letters of rec from
■Asked her boss at the tutoring job
■Asked PI from research
■Letters of rec had nothing to do with pharmacy so she had to make sure to do a cover letter where she explained what she did
●“This is what I did with you and this is how it translates into pharmacy”
■Advice:
●Prepare your letter writers and let them know why you’re going to be a great pharmacist
○Roxanna
■2 pharmacist, 2 professors
■She doesn’t go to office hours
■Got a letter from Statistics professor
●Went to office hours
■Gave letter writers her personal statement, resume and transcript
○Erin
■Advice:
●Take advantage of classes with small class sizes, usually labs
○Dr. Mann (MIC 101) and Dr. Morand (MCB 120L)
○Kevin
■Last year, someone mentioned to give your letter writer a psuedo deadline
●His letter writer missed the psuedo deadline, but still made it before the real deadline
■Had lunch with 2 of his letter writers so they could interview him and learn more about his dreams.
■Thinks letter of rec is probably one of the main reasons he got in
■Advice:
●Keep in contact every 2 weeks
●How did you prepare for the PCAT? How long did it take you to study?
○Cynthia
■Used Kaplan; used Baron and Princeton to supplement
■Used PCAT flashcard book because vocab was hard for her
■Studied 1-2 hours per day for 3 months
○Hilary
■Davis prepares us well to do well on the test
■Studied during the summer, 1-2 hours a day
■Had Kaplan book, BIS 2ABC textbook
■Best thing was Pearson Practice Test. $80 but some of the practice test questions were the same. Gives you detailed explanations.
○David
■Bought the Kaplan and Pearson books, rarely looked at them
■Family was on vacation so he studied for a few days on plane rides
■Not a hard test, eat a good breakfast and you will do fine
●How did you prepare for interviews?
○Kevin
■Practice, practice, practice
■Keep talking face to face with a person, it will get you comfortable
■Be as comfortable as you can and smile
○Tuan
■3 main questions to keep in mind
●What makes you different?
●Why pharmacy?
●Why this school?
○Erin
■Know the answer to “Tell me about yourself”
●School, major, hobbies
■Make flashcards and look through common questions
●Don’t memorize
■Be comfortable talking to people
■Use studentdoctor.net
●Students post feedback after their interview
●Students post questions that are asked during their interviews
■Get an idea if the school does open file, closed file or MMI
■Answer the question, don’t ramble
○David
■Review personal statement and supplemental essays for that school
●Don’t want to say anything contradictory
■Make them laugh
■Come prepared with questions for the school
●Ask questions to make yourself seem more interested
●Want to interview school to see if its the right school for you
■Could not have prepared for his Kentucky University MMI
○Roxanna
■Used student-doctor network
■Got questions, wrote them out in a word document, and wrote down ideas
■Went to interview workshops
○Leslie
■Some interviews have an essay portion
●If you haven’t written something in a while, just practice beforehand
○Shirley
■Looked at resume, personal statement
■Researched schools and if she noticed something interesting, she would ask the interviewer about that
■Asking questions to the interviewer is an indicator that you are interested in their program
■Wishes she had practiced with the pharmacist
■Limit your “tell me about yourself” answer to 1 min
○Hilary
■If you need a second to think about it, ways to buy time are:
●Take a sip of water
●Say “I need to think about it for a second”
●Thank them for asking the question
●Say “That’s a good question”
●If you could go back in time when you were working on your application, what advice would you give yourself?
○David
■Start early!
○Shirley
■Wishes she had been more open to other possibilites
●She only applied to schools in California
●Wish she had taken the PCAT and applied out-of-state
●If you’re asking for a letter of rec from a professor you have not had in a while?
○Hilary
■Meet with them in person, figure out their office hours
■Maybe if you see them in person, they might remember you
○Shirley
■Email them first, then meet them
○Roxanna
■Set up an appointment with them
○David
■It’s never too early
■Ask them to write it first and put it in PharmCAS later
●Is there a specific thing you should be practicing?
○Kevin
■Know general answers in your head
○Erin
■Stand in front of a mirror or record yourself
○Shirley
■Practice honesty
○Leslie
■Say things out loud
○David
■Go talk to a random group of people
●Toughest interview question?
○Tuan: “Tell me about yourself”
○Shirley: “What schools did you apply to? Out of the schools, if you got accepted to all three schools, which one would you go to and why?”
○Roxanna: “Tell me about a time you failed?”
○Hilary: Read this question online, “What was the last book you read?”
■Other possibilities are “What is the last movie you saw?” “What do you do for fun?” “What would be the best method to go about giving pharmacist prescribing authority?”
○Erin: “What’s your greatest achievement?”
■Answered: Hiking in Yosemite
■Other possibilities: “What are some challenges in pharmacy?” “What is a con about UCSD?”
○Cynthia: “What is the difference between clinical and retail pharmacy”
○Kevin: “What are the negative aspects of pharmacy?”