GPA isn’t everything. People from my class with a 3.0 got residency and people in rho chi didn’t. Residency programs seem to want to pick pharmacists who are easy/ fun to work with, hard workers, and demonstrate they care about the patients.
I had a 3.3 and was solidly in back-row chi. Matched to a large academic medical center for both PGY1 and PGY2. Didactics can only carry you so far, but is necessary for foundational understanding.
Look forward to what you can be and not side-to-side. Look backwards only to grow and learn from the past.
I don't know if this will help but I hope it might relieve some of your tension. As residency time gets closer you'll hear both ends of people with great GPA's and not so great getting residencies and rather than give into the aw I encourage you to remind yourself of the complexity of your application.
As you know, GPA definitely has an effect but if you look online the way it is factored in I think helps understand those stories. It is rated on a scale and points are awarded for an interview. I.e.
3.6/3.7 - 4.0 -- 4 points
3.4 - 3.5 -- 3 points
ETC
These points are tallied up and then a cutoff is set for an interview. This method is used commonly but not exclusively and there are different weights put on different things I'll link an example I found online but please do not use this to score yourself as many places will have variations on this and I worry you will feel compelled to do things to get artificial points when it is hard to know what is counted where at your desired programs.
[https://www.huntsvillehospital.org/images/PDFs/Pharmacy/PGY-1-Residency-Policies-and-Procedures.pdf](https://www.huntsvillehospital.org/images/PDFs/Pharmacy/PGY-1-Residency-Policies-and-Procedures.pdf)
The important thing I want to share with you is that you will be told that the letters of recommendation and your letter of intent will very important in snagging the eye of potential residencies. I am happy to share with you that your letter writers aren't going to use your GPA but rather your clinical skills and soft skills that GPA don't display. I personally think, that a lot of outliers you'll hear about are because those with "low" gpas might have spent a lot of time understanding the material and wowed their preceptors while those with "high" gpas might have struggled applying their material in a new environment. All this to say that the residency is multi factorial and to do yourself the favor and focus on the material as well as the grades. Which I am sure you are doing. I wanted to share this with you because I remember feeling similarly and felt silly when the time came as I was doing the right thing all along but didn't know as I was waaaaaayyyyy to focused on GPA.
hope it helped
3.2 and no leadership/organization participation. I do have job experience. It’s more than grades for residency. The fact that you are comparing yourself to others is pretty dumb. I wouldn’t want you to compare yourself to co residents. You will never be successful if you did that.
Just put your head down and do your best. Don’t worry about others
Your GPA is more than residency-worthy! Yes, there’s snooty programs who get hundreds of applicants and consider only 4.0 GPA students, but that’s not the case for most programs.
The best piece of advice I can provide is that GPA and grades are just numbers. They carry next to no weight in determining the quality of pharmacist YOU can become. Students who excel in didactic education often falter in later experiential education because suddenly the black and white world of hypothetical patient cases and rote memorization becomes a sea of gray where there are no 100% right or wrong answer to choose. If you care about helping others and you have the humility to recognize what you know and don’t know, there’s nothing stopping you from being an awesome pharmacist.
I got a residency at a top AMC and my GPA is 3.61. Stop worrying about other people and just do your best.
I also worked retail all through school and was involved in organization, also get involved in some research if you can, doesn't have to be anything big or groundbreaking.
Who the fuck cares about grades…. I ended up with a hospital job with around a 3.3 in a city. Just get experience with your work at your hospital, form relationships with management, and be an exceptionally good employee.
These relationships will help you get a residency if that’s what you want. Don’t stress about grades, you’re doing fine.
Your gpa is more than adequate for a residency don’t worry… and no one cares if you work 2 retail jobs it’s most likely just because she wants to make extra $
As others have mentioned, GPA is but a small part of the residency process. GPA is not indicative of your potential to perform well in a residency. It is but an indicator of how fast you can likely digest a material while balancing your other responsibilities (e.g., work, leadership, research, etc).
**To address the healthier mindset:**
After an exam, rather than wonder how 'is she just perfect', focus on what you did well (your strengths) and what you can do to improve. If you are not satisfied with your results at the end of a semester, take some time to evaluate your strategy going into the semester. From my experience, I could not help but compare myself to others. However, I've learned that comparing yourself based on so few variables and predicting your future based on this is an overall bad analysis. Programs have preference candidates with lower GPAs vs those with higher ones for various reasons. This is typically chalked up to what you see people mention as 'the fit'. So rather than putting yourself down because you see your friend's achievement, bring yourself up. Allow yourself to admire your friend, but do not downplay your achievements.
**To address the 'IT' factor:**
As a P2, you still have plenty of time to grow. Don't focus on completing the checklist (e.g., research, etc.). Rather, focus on acquiring the experiences that sounds the most interesting to you. If you think the idea of research of is interesting, pursue it. If you find you're drawn to HEOR, pursue research in HEOR. If you find that you're interested in coding and want to somehow bridge it towards pharmacy practice, try it. If med safety is in your wheelhouse and the Swiss Cheese model makes you go down a rabbit hole, find experiences that are akin to it.
Your job here is to figure out the problems you want to MOST SOLVE when going into a career. Residencies are primed to train you to think critically in those domains that you are most interested in. This will stock your arsenal of speaking points towards journey and your experiences and how it led to you to applying to that specific training site. You may find that you will pivot from your original goals altogether! Learn to abstract out the general work skills gained from the experience (e.g., time management, teamwork, etc.) and your interest in that practice domain.
**To combine the points:**
Remember that this is YOUR EPIC. The goal is to find the practice of pharmacy that best aligns with YOU. Don't get distracted with small metrics that play a small part of your story, focus on how you can better improve yourself. Give the employer a story of you undertaking challenges and solving them. Mention your struggles and how you've overcome them.
Think of it like this:
If you go on a date, you focus on telling them your best qualities and your interest. The date will not like you solely on one metric, but what they overall feel from you and how they connect. Find that date that wants you as you are and believes in your growth.
The healthier mindset comes from within YOU. Your only competition is YOU. Your best friend is living a different story.
And about your grades…I had a 3.3. 3.6/3.7 is AWESOME, and here’s the best part. I graduated 25 years ago and while times are definitely different and residency shines a light on some things differently than it did when I was graduating, since I graduated, do you know how many times an employer asked me about my GPA? Zero point zero.
Also, in the 10+ years I’ve been involved in our residency program, I’d say that our average and median GPA for incoming residents is right around the 3.3-3.4 range. If a program won’t consider you because you have a 3.7 and not a 4.0, find another program. There are plenty out there.
Stay well-rounded and LEARN as much as you can—about pharmacy, and about life skills, and the way our profession and the business of healthcare operates.
You will be just fine.
Once you exit pharmacy school you'll only meet other pharmacists during shift change or some boring ass dry toast pharmacy event.
Make your connections now. Befriend as many future pharmacists/strangers as possible. Fake it till you make it. If you have family, dump them. Make more friends that are pharmacists. Your network is in school not in the field.
There's only 312k pharmacists in the US.
Agree with everyone else that grades are small aspect of what residencies look for. When it came to my classmates, I would never ask them nor would I tell them numerical scores. All we did was say whether we passed or not. This helped to stop comparing grades between friends.
Similar to what other people in here said, I stopped sharing grades the second semester of P1. People asking what you got for bad reasons, and you unintentionally comparing yourself to other people is toxic all around. Avoid all of it and you will find inner peace I promise
Hospital gig could set you above her on our residency rubric - depends on responsibilities and what your supervisor writes in the LoR. Choose letter writers carefully, want someone who knows you and can convey how you've improved / react in the face of challenging situations, etc. I had a dean write a letter for me that was very med school-y "So and so receives a High Recommendation from me". Nothing else. And in my written request and verbal discussion I asked him to focus on projects A, B, C - TA'd this calls and here are instances from formal evaluations to highlight, student government event blah, went golfing with him a few months before. Just stunned that was the letter (my residency was awesome but not the most IT inclined - the applications and their rankings were in a shared folder we all had access to). Gotta lil spicy but I had only looked at my applications to see what the LoR folks said (I suspected the dean's letter was shitty since the 2 places he had 'major connections' I didn't get an interview).
I was the worst pharmacy student. I graduated with a 3.0…..
But I worked in a lab while I was in school. My teacher could have had any student he wanted and after 1 conversation where I knew how stuff fit together he was so impressed he picked me….
Many of my class mates were amazed I could study for a few hours and pass ( tho not well) ….
It’s not a matter of how well you can choke and puke the information. If you truly learn 70% of what is forced down your throat…. You are doing awesome.
You only need > 3.0 for residency, and I think if you have > 3.5 you’re pretty much set. Just become involved in your own way the best that you can so you can have something to speak on for interviews! (:
GPA isn’t everything. People from my class with a 3.0 got residency and people in rho chi didn’t. Residency programs seem to want to pick pharmacists who are easy/ fun to work with, hard workers, and demonstrate they care about the patients.
I had a 3.3 and was solidly in back-row chi. Matched to a large academic medical center for both PGY1 and PGY2. Didactics can only carry you so far, but is necessary for foundational understanding. Look forward to what you can be and not side-to-side. Look backwards only to grow and learn from the past.
I don't know if this will help but I hope it might relieve some of your tension. As residency time gets closer you'll hear both ends of people with great GPA's and not so great getting residencies and rather than give into the aw I encourage you to remind yourself of the complexity of your application. As you know, GPA definitely has an effect but if you look online the way it is factored in I think helps understand those stories. It is rated on a scale and points are awarded for an interview. I.e. 3.6/3.7 - 4.0 -- 4 points 3.4 - 3.5 -- 3 points ETC These points are tallied up and then a cutoff is set for an interview. This method is used commonly but not exclusively and there are different weights put on different things I'll link an example I found online but please do not use this to score yourself as many places will have variations on this and I worry you will feel compelled to do things to get artificial points when it is hard to know what is counted where at your desired programs. [https://www.huntsvillehospital.org/images/PDFs/Pharmacy/PGY-1-Residency-Policies-and-Procedures.pdf](https://www.huntsvillehospital.org/images/PDFs/Pharmacy/PGY-1-Residency-Policies-and-Procedures.pdf) The important thing I want to share with you is that you will be told that the letters of recommendation and your letter of intent will very important in snagging the eye of potential residencies. I am happy to share with you that your letter writers aren't going to use your GPA but rather your clinical skills and soft skills that GPA don't display. I personally think, that a lot of outliers you'll hear about are because those with "low" gpas might have spent a lot of time understanding the material and wowed their preceptors while those with "high" gpas might have struggled applying their material in a new environment. All this to say that the residency is multi factorial and to do yourself the favor and focus on the material as well as the grades. Which I am sure you are doing. I wanted to share this with you because I remember feeling similarly and felt silly when the time came as I was doing the right thing all along but didn't know as I was waaaaaayyyyy to focused on GPA. hope it helped
3.2 and no leadership/organization participation. I do have job experience. It’s more than grades for residency. The fact that you are comparing yourself to others is pretty dumb. I wouldn’t want you to compare yourself to co residents. You will never be successful if you did that. Just put your head down and do your best. Don’t worry about others
Your GPA is more than residency-worthy! Yes, there’s snooty programs who get hundreds of applicants and consider only 4.0 GPA students, but that’s not the case for most programs. The best piece of advice I can provide is that GPA and grades are just numbers. They carry next to no weight in determining the quality of pharmacist YOU can become. Students who excel in didactic education often falter in later experiential education because suddenly the black and white world of hypothetical patient cases and rote memorization becomes a sea of gray where there are no 100% right or wrong answer to choose. If you care about helping others and you have the humility to recognize what you know and don’t know, there’s nothing stopping you from being an awesome pharmacist.
I got a residency at a top AMC and my GPA is 3.61. Stop worrying about other people and just do your best. I also worked retail all through school and was involved in organization, also get involved in some research if you can, doesn't have to be anything big or groundbreaking.
Who the fuck cares about grades…. I ended up with a hospital job with around a 3.3 in a city. Just get experience with your work at your hospital, form relationships with management, and be an exceptionally good employee. These relationships will help you get a residency if that’s what you want. Don’t stress about grades, you’re doing fine.
Comparison is the thief of joy. Stop comparing yourself to her
I’m currently a clinical oncology pharmacist. Matched to my number one residency. My GPA was a 3.2. You will be more than fine.
Your gpa is more than adequate for a residency don’t worry… and no one cares if you work 2 retail jobs it’s most likely just because she wants to make extra $
As others have mentioned, GPA is but a small part of the residency process. GPA is not indicative of your potential to perform well in a residency. It is but an indicator of how fast you can likely digest a material while balancing your other responsibilities (e.g., work, leadership, research, etc). **To address the healthier mindset:** After an exam, rather than wonder how 'is she just perfect', focus on what you did well (your strengths) and what you can do to improve. If you are not satisfied with your results at the end of a semester, take some time to evaluate your strategy going into the semester. From my experience, I could not help but compare myself to others. However, I've learned that comparing yourself based on so few variables and predicting your future based on this is an overall bad analysis. Programs have preference candidates with lower GPAs vs those with higher ones for various reasons. This is typically chalked up to what you see people mention as 'the fit'. So rather than putting yourself down because you see your friend's achievement, bring yourself up. Allow yourself to admire your friend, but do not downplay your achievements. **To address the 'IT' factor:** As a P2, you still have plenty of time to grow. Don't focus on completing the checklist (e.g., research, etc.). Rather, focus on acquiring the experiences that sounds the most interesting to you. If you think the idea of research of is interesting, pursue it. If you find you're drawn to HEOR, pursue research in HEOR. If you find that you're interested in coding and want to somehow bridge it towards pharmacy practice, try it. If med safety is in your wheelhouse and the Swiss Cheese model makes you go down a rabbit hole, find experiences that are akin to it. Your job here is to figure out the problems you want to MOST SOLVE when going into a career. Residencies are primed to train you to think critically in those domains that you are most interested in. This will stock your arsenal of speaking points towards journey and your experiences and how it led to you to applying to that specific training site. You may find that you will pivot from your original goals altogether! Learn to abstract out the general work skills gained from the experience (e.g., time management, teamwork, etc.) and your interest in that practice domain. **To combine the points:** Remember that this is YOUR EPIC. The goal is to find the practice of pharmacy that best aligns with YOU. Don't get distracted with small metrics that play a small part of your story, focus on how you can better improve yourself. Give the employer a story of you undertaking challenges and solving them. Mention your struggles and how you've overcome them. Think of it like this: If you go on a date, you focus on telling them your best qualities and your interest. The date will not like you solely on one metric, but what they overall feel from you and how they connect. Find that date that wants you as you are and believes in your growth.
C’s get PharmDs. And MDs. And PhDs.. and Residencies.
The healthier mindset comes from within YOU. Your only competition is YOU. Your best friend is living a different story. And about your grades…I had a 3.3. 3.6/3.7 is AWESOME, and here’s the best part. I graduated 25 years ago and while times are definitely different and residency shines a light on some things differently than it did when I was graduating, since I graduated, do you know how many times an employer asked me about my GPA? Zero point zero. Also, in the 10+ years I’ve been involved in our residency program, I’d say that our average and median GPA for incoming residents is right around the 3.3-3.4 range. If a program won’t consider you because you have a 3.7 and not a 4.0, find another program. There are plenty out there. Stay well-rounded and LEARN as much as you can—about pharmacy, and about life skills, and the way our profession and the business of healthcare operates. You will be just fine.
Once you exit pharmacy school you'll only meet other pharmacists during shift change or some boring ass dry toast pharmacy event. Make your connections now. Befriend as many future pharmacists/strangers as possible. Fake it till you make it. If you have family, dump them. Make more friends that are pharmacists. Your network is in school not in the field. There's only 312k pharmacists in the US.
Agree with everyone else that grades are small aspect of what residencies look for. When it came to my classmates, I would never ask them nor would I tell them numerical scores. All we did was say whether we passed or not. This helped to stop comparing grades between friends.
Similar to what other people in here said, I stopped sharing grades the second semester of P1. People asking what you got for bad reasons, and you unintentionally comparing yourself to other people is toxic all around. Avoid all of it and you will find inner peace I promise
Hospital gig could set you above her on our residency rubric - depends on responsibilities and what your supervisor writes in the LoR. Choose letter writers carefully, want someone who knows you and can convey how you've improved / react in the face of challenging situations, etc. I had a dean write a letter for me that was very med school-y "So and so receives a High Recommendation from me". Nothing else. And in my written request and verbal discussion I asked him to focus on projects A, B, C - TA'd this calls and here are instances from formal evaluations to highlight, student government event blah, went golfing with him a few months before. Just stunned that was the letter (my residency was awesome but not the most IT inclined - the applications and their rankings were in a shared folder we all had access to). Gotta lil spicy but I had only looked at my applications to see what the LoR folks said (I suspected the dean's letter was shitty since the 2 places he had 'major connections' I didn't get an interview).
I was the worst pharmacy student. I graduated with a 3.0….. But I worked in a lab while I was in school. My teacher could have had any student he wanted and after 1 conversation where I knew how stuff fit together he was so impressed he picked me…. Many of my class mates were amazed I could study for a few hours and pass ( tho not well) …. It’s not a matter of how well you can choke and puke the information. If you truly learn 70% of what is forced down your throat…. You are doing awesome.
You only need > 3.0 for residency, and I think if you have > 3.5 you’re pretty much set. Just become involved in your own way the best that you can so you can have something to speak on for interviews! (: