St. John's Pharmacy

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi, I've been around on CollegeConfidential for awhile now, especially looking at posts regarding St. John's Pharmacy, and decided to finally post my own question up.</p>

<p>First of all, I'm currently a junior in high school, living in California. I am highly interested in St. John's 6 year Pharmacy program.</p>

<p>Here are my stats: </p>

<p>-GPA: 3.65 (this is very low because I messed up my freshman/sophomore year; i obviously wasn't aware of the importance in school. However, i'm really putting in much effort my junior year; with AP Chem, AP US History, AP Lang, AP Psych, I got straight A's my first semester in order to bring that GPA up, and I'm planning to continue working hard the rest of my junior year and senior yr)</p>

<p>-SAT I: 1970 (I have to get this score up ALOT...)
-SAT II: Korean with Listening (750- I was born and raised in Southern California)
*I am also planning on taking the SAT subject tests for US History, Math Level 2, Literature, and Chemistry.</p>

<p>-Extras: CSF, HOSA, 200+ volunteer hrs, etc etc...</p>

<p><em>I just wanted this to be a quick post to see how my stats are so far... So how are my chances at St. John's Pharmacy? And if i bring my SAT score up a little, do i have a chance at receiving scholarship?
*</em>Also, what can I do to make my application look a little better? (for example, should I volunteer at a pharmacy over the summer? Take up organic-chemistry at a community college?) </p>

<p>Thankyou so much! I can take constructive criticism, so please feel free to leave any comments!</p>

2

<p>Hey, well St. Johns is likely my first choice and im awaiting my application decision any day now. I’ve done a lot of research on the program since i became interested. You’re GPA is your only noticeable hindrance really. They’ll like your AP class and hopefully you could pull it up to like a 3.7-3.8 or whatever. You’re SATs are in line to get in. There are certainly people higher, but i’ve heard people lower get in as well. 2000+ should be fine. You should definietly try to volunteer to show you’re interested in such a field as well as research the field in general so you could incorporate that kinda stuff in your essay. St. Johns is also big on community service so hopefully you’re ECs are full of that. I’m just curious, how did you become interested in the school all the way across the nation? That might also impress them if you could incorporate why you’re willing to go all the way to the east coast for their pharmacy program.</p>

3

<p>@metsrule1010 </p>

<p>Wow thankyou so much for the reply; I appreciate it alot! And I hope you get your letter soon! :)</p>

<p>Hmm, regarding my GPA, I’m going to get straight A’s in order to bring that up. Hopefully, it’ll average up to 3.7+ by the time I apply.</p>

<p>About my extras, I am actually pretty lost about the whole “pharmacy” experience thing. Where I go to school, there’s actually a PharmClerk/PharmTech course that lets us earn our PharmTech license when we graduate. HOWEVER… (this is the bad part),
I’m actually moving over the summer to a completely different neighborhood/school, which is still located in SoCal. But I wouldn’t be able to take PharmClerk/PharmTech, so I thought that’ll put me at a loss… It would, right? :confused:
Also, I was really planning on volunteering at a local pharmacy like WalGreen’s and CVS (since I want to be working retail after i finish the pharm program), but I found out that there’s a strict policy that prevents anybody from volunteering…
What should I do to familiarize myself with the pharmacy setting? What can I do to get more experience? Also, would you like sharing some of your stats and extras with me? :)</p>

<p>THANKYOU SO MUCH @mets1010. This is actually my first time ever posting a thread, and I feel so much better after talking this through with someone… :)</p>

4

<p>I don’t think your GPA is that bad…I had a 3.7 unweighted (2 APs, 7 honors) and got into St. John’s pharmacy with full tuition. I’m not saying that it’s ok to slack off…I still think you should keep working as hard as possible to bring up the GPA, but you shouldn’t be too worried. As for your SAT score, I would try to bring it up to 2000+, as all pharmacy programs highly weigh your chances on that too. However, I have noticed that St. John’s, being a Vincentian school, also favors community service and giving back. Any meaningful community service would be good (as long as you stick to it). Also, I remember an adcom saying that they would like experience, preferably health-care-related. </p>

<p>But seriously, I think your stats are good enough to get into the program (as long as you keep it up). As for scholarship amount, I’m not sure…</p>