<p>I'm a sophomore going up to Junior this year. I get straigh A's at my school and ranked about top 30s or so in my grade. I took my first ACT exam in June and got a composite score of 26 (E:25 M:30 R:22 S:26). My goal on ACT is over 30, btw. The problem is, however, I don't have no EC activities! In fact, I'm not much of a outgoing person, and because of that, I have not joined any clubs or community services until now. But now I'm kind of worried because I realized that I have nothing to write in my ESSAY. I want to enter decent pharmacy school :-(</p>
<p>So here's my question:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Suppose I get ACT scores of 30 and GPA 4.0, and don't have ANY ECs, will I be able to go to one of country's ranked pharmacy schools?</p></li>
<li><p>BTW my GPA in my school is about 4.3, but in my ACT report my GPA is 4.0. Which should I belive? </p></li>
<li><p>If I can make up even a little, I plan to do some Community Service this year. Will this make some difference? Or am I too late?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>Suppose I get ACT scores of 30 and GPA 4.0, and don’t have ANY ECs, will I be able to go to one of country’s ranked pharmacy schools?</li>
</ol>
<p>You don’t start out in pharmacy school. You start out at a college with the major of your choice and include a pre-pharm program. Many, many schools have a pre-pharm program even if they don’t have a pharm school. </p>
<p>So, yes, you can get into a decent school with a pre-pharm program with a 4.0 and an ACT 30. </p>
<ol>
<li>BTW my GPA in my school is about 4.3, but in my ACT report my GPA is 4.0. Which should I belive?</li>
</ol>
<p>Your ACT report is from the info that YOU gave them. 4.0 is the highest you can report. Your school report is the accurate one. </p>
<ol>
<li>If I can make up even a little, I plan to do some Community Service this year. Will this make some difference? Or am I too late?</li>
</ol>
<p>It can’t hurt. </p>
<p>Your bigger concern may be finances. Have your parents said how much they will spend each year on your education? If not, then ask, because that will likely largely determine where you can afford to go to school.</p>
<p>Thanks for quick reply. I’ll have some conversation with my parents about finances. But I hear that there are few pharmacy schools that offer 6 year program which you can get right into after highschool. Which, between 6yr program at pharm school and 2yrs of pre-pharm and then going to pharm school, is better? I know that this question woudln’t fit to the purpose of this forum, so if anyone know any other websites that will give me some info about becoming a pharmacist, please give me a link.</p>
<p>To add to what mom2collegekids said about your gpa:</p>
<p>The 4.3 is a weighted gpa. Some schools report weighted, while others (like mine) do not. The highest gpa you could report on the ACT was a 4.0 because they were looking for an unweighted gpa.</p>
Good. It’s critical to get an understanding of what your parents can afford to pay before getting deeply involved in the college search. You should also see if they are willing to run through a FA estimator like the one on collegeboard.com . One of many critical financial things to understand is that the FAFSA EFC basically represents the * minimum * number of $$ colleges will expect your family to pay out of pocket (through current income and savings). If your parents can’t afford the EFC, you’ll need to restrict your search to colleges where the COA is equal to or below what your parents can afford to spend. Or you’ll want to find some colleges that have guaranteed merit aid that reduce the COA to what your parents can afford.</p>
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<p>This is one of the things that you can spend your junior year in HS investigating more carefully. Start with your guidance office at school. In the long run, both kinds of programs lead to the same place; so personal preference and what you can actually afford and get into will be the deciding factors.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that many, many college students change their majors once they start taking college classes. And that also includes students who start 6 year pre-professional/professional programs as well.</p>