How far am i behind for UC?

Question

I'm falling behind my dream of becoming a pharmacist and I have no idea how to start.

I'm going to be senior in this upcoming school year and I need help.

I have an average of 3.4 - 3.5 GPA from freshmen to junior. I also have 200 hours of community service helping in the lab in a county hospital.

I haven't taken any AP/Honor course from 9-11 and will be taking Pre-Calc (H). I barely got 1330 on my SAT 1 and 450's on 2 of my SAT 2 subject tests.

I'm going to take these classes in my senior year:

1. American Ethnic Lit. (CP)

2. Pre-Calc (H)

3. Physics

4. Gov't/Econ

5. Spanish 2

6. Art History

My questions and concerns are:

1. Am i really falling behind?

2. Will i be able to make into any UC school?

3. What are the specific steps to becoming a pharmacist? (programs, tests, schools needed?)

4. Can i go to a community college to start my first 1-2 years there?

5. Are there shortcuts or other ways to save money when i go to college?

Answer 1

I can't really help you with the pharmacy department, but I can for the UC part.  The 1330 is a little low, even for UC.  I bet you can bring it up to at least a 1500.  If you want to improve your scores, use http://satests.brinkster.net to find the review that fits your studying best.  I think your low SAT was the biggest thing holding you down.  

Apply to lots of the UCs.  Probably all of them except Berkeley, LA, SD, and SB.  You're quite a ways behind there.  But start with Irvine as a hail-mary and work down.  You can get in!

In your essays, play up your community service.  That's incredible.  Start writing your UC prompts now!!  Get your English teacher to help you.  Revise it over and over.  If I were you, I would tell a story about your hospital experience, and how it changed your life.  Gold.

Answer 2

1. No, not really.  You could be doing better.  But you're doing okay.

2. Probably.  It doesn't take a whole lot to get into UCR.  I didn't even apply and they sent me an acceptance letter.

3. You need to complete pre-pharmacy courses which differ from school to school, and often pharmacy schools prefer a full BS in Biology, Chemistry or a similar field.  You'll have to take the PCAT.  It's a good idea to take a Kaplan course to prep for that before you take it, but it's $1400 now and will probably be more by the time you need to take it.  Then there's the usual essays and interviews and such.  I would apply to schools outside of California once it comes down to applying to pharmacy school also.

4. You can start at a community college for your first two years, transfer to a UC to finish your bachelors before applying to a pharmacy school.  HOWEVER, U.O.P. in Stockton has a Pre-pharmacy program you can apply to that has a 5-year program that you can apply to straight from high school with which you'll come out with a Doctorate in Pharmacy.  I'd strongly suggest at least applying to that program.  The 5-year requires at least a 3.6 if you can get your GPA up, but you can apply to a 6-year version with a 3.4.  That'll save you a year or two if you go that way.  Many schools actually have pre-pharmacy majors, actually, such as UCSB and UCLA.  If you don't make it into a pre-pharmacy program, start with community college, as at $20 / unit it'll save you a ton of money.

5. I think I covered that in 4.

Also, something good to know:  There's such a high demand in pharmacists right now, that you're just about guaranteed a job no matter where you get your pharmacy degree.  And as long as you do well in your undergrad classes, where you do your undergrad doesn't matter too much either.  Go with community college if you can't save yourself time by going through a pre-pharmacy program.

Answer 3

You are pretty much assured a spot at a UC is you are a CA resident and have a 3.0. UCs only look at grades from soph and junior years.

With your current grades and scores the 2 you are looking at are Riverside and Merced. If you can get your SAT to a 1600, add in Santa Cruz.

Answer 4

You're actually doing better than most other students. You could probably make it to UCs like, UC Riverside, UC Merced, and possibly UC Santa Cruz.

=)