<p>My S will get his 4 year undergraduate degree and then apply to pharmacy schools. We've heard that for medical school most students apply to 15-20 schools to increase their chances of being accepted. Can anyone shed light and/or experience on what the average number of pharmacy schools a student should apply to?</p>
<p>It varies from person to person. I know people that apply to just one school because that’s the only school they want to go to and/or are super (over?) confident they’ll get in there. I also have heard of people applying to up to 10 schools or more. I think the average is 3-5 or maybe 6. If he has a strong application (good GPA, PCAT, pharmacy experience/knowledge, extracurriculars, volunteering, leadership, research) then he should be able to get by with applying to a smaller number of schools since he has a decent chance of getting accepted, provided he does well in the interviews.</p>
<p>Statistically, it looks like med school is a lot harder to get in to than pharmacy school, but when you crunch the numbers they are almost equally competitive. It’s just that every med student applies to 15 to 20 schools, and of those that get interviewed or accepted only a small fraction of them will actually go there. Luckily for our wallets and stress levels, pharmacy has not reached that “apply to any and every school” mentality yet.</p>
<p>Does that help? Good luck to your son!</p>
<p>I’m sure you would have deduced this, but for clarity I should add that if his application is relatively weak or not well-rounded he should apply at the upper end of that range.</p>
<p>He should also call schools that he’s interested in and ask about his chances of getting an interview or getting accepted. They won’t give him a concrete answer, but chances are he’ll get a better idea on his chances.</p>
<p>I am always more than willing to answer questions if you or your son have more. Feel free to PM me or just post the questions here :)</p>