Miscellaneous Updates

H!N1 Vaccinations

I haven't been contacted yet.  And I probably won't.  Whatever happened with changing the event probably factored into it.  Perhaps shipments haven't arrived yet, perhaps the shipments were much smaller than originally hoped for, so less volunteers were needed.  Who knows.  Oh well, that would have been an interesting experience.

Pharmacy School Admissions Blog
Forum

The Pharmacy School Admissions Blog will no longer update.  As a blog.  I was enjoying the daily entries, but I understand the decision.

The reason for this change is that the one thing a blog does not easily permit is the fostering of a sense of community. It is our hope that this forum, however, will allow dialogue between the many future pharmacists who have frequented the blog.

You can read the full entry here, and of course don't forget to go directly to their forums to check it out.

Target Commercial - Pharmacy

Was watching Monk on Hulu and this commercial popped up.

Reports from the Pharm... and even more links

It's going to take a while to check out all the links in the list of 50 pharmacist blogs (and the links that those pages suggest), but I've scanned a couple, and added more direct links to them on the right right.  Jim Plagakis and The Pharmacy Chick both seem to be good blogs that are still frequently updated.  (Not all of the blogs on that list are.)  I've also added the new section for Pharmacy News & Info Blogs, putting up Pharmacist Daily, PRIME - Pharmacist Cast Studies, and Bioethics.net

All of those blogs seem helpful in getting better insight into what a career in pharmacy will be like.  (A little frightening that a lot of the titles of those blogs on the list deal with a lot of anger and frustration, but I think that tends to be the nature of blogging.  Angry blogging can be entertaining blogging.  I'm sure there are plenty of happy pharmacists out there.)  Jim Plagakis and The Pharmacy Chick don't seem to be all that bad, upon initial scan, which is why they made my list.  For now I'll just stick to having one angry pharmacist, and try to keep my reading more balanced.

As for another blog that deals with more immediate concerns for myself, Reports from the Pharm is written by Joel Gonzalez, Admissions Director of UCSF.  He mentioned his blog during the UCSF Preview Day, and that mention is what got me to start looking up other pharmacy blogs. (Yeah I know, you'd think that actually writing a blog would have gotten me to look up other blogs.  *shrugs*)

While not nearly as frequently updated as Pharmacy School Admissions, there is still a lot of great info within the few posts that it does have.  Tips for a successful applicant, tips to prepare for their interview process, and the importance of their supplemental application as well as some other insights.  The blog is funny and useful, and it's easy to get through every entry.  Definitely worth checking out.

Pharmacy School Admissions - The Truth... and other links

As you can see on the right, I've added a bunch of links to various blogs and websites.  There's a nice list of all the California pharmacy school websites, as a well as a link for the rankings of all the pharmacy schools in the US.  (I believe it's all of them at least.  I haven't checked the whole list.)

There's a link that least to a list of (potentially) interesting blogs to read that are written by pharmacists.  It's long list and I've only checked out the number one blog on that list, The Angry Pharmacist.

And for more advice and insight into the process of getting into pharmacy schools, I have a section for admissions blogs and sites.  The one that I just finished reading through is Pharmacy School Admissions - The Truth

Although I'm not quite clear as to who the exact person writing most of the entries is, it is someone who has experience as an admissions officer, and it is an extremely helpful blog.  It began at the end of April, and there are updates pretty much every day, answering a question that was emailed in, or pointing out something of interest.

For me, personally, the most interesting aspect of it were all the entries dealing with the PCAT.  I live in California, and the California schools don't accept the PCAT, so I have very little exposure with anything dealing with the PCAT.  Back when I just believed I was going to go to pharmacy school, but didn't do any research on the admissions process, I figured that I'd just apply to all the California schools.

But if I'm to be realistic, since I have a low GPA that I still need to fix, researching and applying to out of state schools is something I have to do, on top of looking into the California schools.  With those schools (and assuming I do excellent on the PCAT, which I know I'm capable of doing if I apply myself), I have that secondary academic measurement on my application that can balance out my GPA.

All the advice on personal statements is also excellent, with several entries dedicated to showing snippets of specific examples with what should be changed and why.  And coming up soon will be many questions geared towards the interview process.

I will certainly be checking out that blog regularly.