Major Hurdle - My GPA

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Ok, it's time to give it up. I've been skirting around this subject.  My GPA is 2.71.  I have a total of 283.5 units.  (I've been in school a long time.)  That's a lot of units.  That makes it hard to raise my GPA.  Most of the California schools require a 2.75 or 2.80 minimum GPA, with USC requiring 3.0.  And of course most of the time people with just the minimum GPA don't get in, so I want to raise my GPA as high as possible.

As soon as I get a pharm tech job, I am aiming to work full time until I get into pharmacy school.  That might limit my ability to take enough classes to raise my GPA to above a 3.0 in the next two/three years.  If possible, I would like to take at least one semester as a full time student with a full and challenging class load, as further proof that I can handle the challenges as a pharmacy student.  (The UoP admissions people mentioned that it does not look favorably if only one or two classes are taken at a time, and should be avoided if at all possible.)

I have a low GPA, a lot of units, and will (hopefully) have a full time job as a pharm tech. Those circumstances create a major hurdle in acquiring a qualifying GPA, let alone a competitive GPA.

I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but I took five classes last semester, got two A's and three A-'s.  That rose my GPA from 2.65 to 2.71.  With that rough estimate, It seems that making it to a 2.8 is possible in the time frame that I want.  3.0... not so much.  When I go down to the USC Info Session, most likely on this upcoming January 15th, I'll be sure to ask if there are any exceptions to the 3.0 rule.  (I know one of the websites specifically stated that some requirements could be waived if there was a good enough reason.  However I can't seem to find it at the moment.)

I'll be entering my grades into PharmCAS in the near future, just to see how it calculates my GPA compared to how SFState does it.  PharmCAS is the one that matters.