Pre-Pharmacy Society Last GBM April 28th, 2009 umdprepharm@gmail

1. Pre-Pharmacy Society Last GBM April 28th, 2009 umdprepharm@gmail.com

2. Agenda WELCOME! Don’t forget to sign-in Active Membership? Upcoming Events Drug of the Week: Calcium Channel Blockers Pharmaceutical Issue 2+4 Year Program and 4+4 Year Program Pre-Requisite Courses PCAT PharmCAS Schools

3. Remember…. • Make sure you are on the Pre-Pharmacy Society list-serve • Email umdprepharm@gmail.com to be added • Join Pre-Pharmacy Society’s Facebook group to receive updates about meetings/events • Visit our website http://studentorg.umd.edu/prepharm • All past presentations have been posted and today’s presentation will be posted either tonight or tomorrow • All newsletters will be posted on our website too

4. Active Membership • 3 Meetings and 3 hours of community service per semester • Please do not wait until the last minute to fulfill your community service hours! • Attending more meetings and events are HIGHLY encouraged!

5. Upcoming Service Events • April 30, 2009: Charity Event for DPHW (Dinner Program for Homeless Women) • May 2 & 3, 2009: Relay for Life

6. Dinner Program for Homeless Women (DPHW) Date: Thursday, April 30 Time: 4:30p – 7:30p Location: Washington, D.C. # Hours:3 hours Event: Kitchen Volunteer (Dinner) -preparing food -serving the meal -kitchen clean-up Next Step: Fill out the sign up sheet! *Need a group of 5 – 9 people, first come first served For more information visit: http://www.dphw.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 Questions? Contact Nicole @ ntromm@umd.edu

7. Relay for Life Date: Saturday, May 2 – May 3 Time:6:00p – 6:00a (revised) Location: Ludwig Field, University of Maryland # Hours:undetermined Event: Fundraise for the American Cancer Society by Joining our Pre-Pharmacy Society Team ($10 Registration Fee) *Raising money for the team is preferred, but not required Next Step: 1. Register at: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/prepharmacysociety *You may also donate here, but no service hours will be awarded 2. Participate for a minimum of three hours *A sign-in sheet will be provided at the event Questions? Contact Nicole @ ntromm@umd.edu or Jenna @ jrocchi0@umd.edu

8. T-Shirts are Still available Only $10 per shirt! Designed by Tina Nguyen

9. DRUG OF THE WEEK Calicum Channel Blockers

10. Ca++ Channel Blockers • Reduces blood pressure. • Used mainly for hypertension. • Blocks voltage-gated Ca++ channels in the heart and blood vessels. • Reduces strength of contraction and heart rate.

11. -Dipines and Others • amlodipine (Norvasc), felodipine (Plendil), nicardipine (Cardene), nifedipine (Procardia, Adalat) • verapamil (Calan) • diltiazem (Cardizem)

12. Pharmaceutical Issue Electronic Prescribing

13. Electronic Prescribing • Defined: A prescriber's ability to electronically send an accurate, error-free and understandable prescription directly to a pharmacy from the point-of-care • Government has plan to build a national electronic health information infrastructure in US • E-prescribing is currently optional for physicians and pharmacies

14. Benefits • It is estimated that approximately 7,000 deaths occur each year in the United States due to medication errors. • These errors are predominately due to hand-writing illegibility, wrong dosing, missed drug-drug or drug-allergy reactions. • E-prescribing could reduce these medication errors by making the prescriptions more legible.

15. More Benefits • Reduces phone calls to pharmacies. • Increases patient convenience. • Better access to patient history. • Alerts when entering a Rx if there is a drug interaction.

16. Costs • Care facilities must pay to have the software installed and maintained, and must train the staff. • Pharmacies must pay for the software installation and maintenance, and also have to pay a transaction fee based on how many prescriptions are received.

17. Questions • Should e-prescribing be mandatory for all prescriptions? • Allowed for controlled substances? • What if system crashes or there is a virus? Is relying completely on computers unsafe? • Should there be a requirement to keep paper backups of all prescriptions?

18. References • http://www.cms.hhs.gov/eprescribing/ • http://www.surescripts.com/safe-rx-awards.html • http://www.emrconsultant.com/emr_ePrescribing.php • http://www.thecimm.org/PDF/eHI_CIMM_Consumer_Guide_to_ePrescribing.pdf

19. Pre-Requisites, PCAT & PharmCAS Workshop

20. 2 Year and 4 Year Programs • Pharmacy Schools DO NOT require a Bachelor's Degree for admission • 2+4 year program • 4+4 year program • (3+4 year program also possible) • Students are offered admission before completing prerequisite coursework • Acceptance is conditional • Diff. Pre-Requisites, Diff Schools

21. 2+4 Year Program Freshman Year • Maintain a good GPA • Join many extracurricular activities/organizations that interest you • Make a resume with all your current skills and activities • Find work experience if your schedule permits • Volunteer/ Shadow • If you have work/study- choose to work with a science professor’s research • Go to professor office hours, make/maintain relationships with professors after the semester for recommendations

22. 2+4 Year Program cont’d • Summer: • Take the June PCAT • Get in contact with professors (esp. science) that you want recommendations from • Another recommendation from a volunteer/work experience is strongly recommended • Begin your application on PharmCAS

23. 2+4 Year Program cont’d • Sophomore Year • Retake the PCAT in October if necessary • Submit PharmCAS and supplemental applications as soon as possible • Interviews occur in the spring • Maintain memberships in organizations that you joined • Keep maintaining a good GPA

24. 4+4 Year Program • Freshman Year • Maintain a good GPA • Join many extracurricular activities/organizations that interest you • Make a resume with all your current skills and activities • Find work experience if your schedule permits • Make/maintain relationships with professors after the semester for recommendations

25. 4+4 Year Program cont’d • Sophomore Year • Maintain a good GPA • Update your resume as needed • Maintain memberships in organizations that you joined • Apply for leadership positions within the organizations

26. 4+4 Year Program cont’d • Junior Year • Maintain a good GPA and memberships in organizations • By this time you should have some volunteer/shadow/work experience • Summer • Take the June PCAT • Get in contact with professors that you want recommendations from • A recommendation from a science professor is strongly needed • Begin your application on PharmCAS

27. 4+4 Year Program cont’d • Senior Year • Maintain a good GPA and memberships in organizations • Update your resume as needed • Retake the PCAT in October if necessary • Submit PharmCAS and supplemental applications as soon as possible • Interviews occur in the spring • Maintain memberships in organizations that you joined • Apply for leadership positions within the organizations

29. UMB Pharmacy School Pre-Requisite Courses *BSCI201 is ONLY offered in FALL and BSCI202 is ONLY offered in SPRING *65 credits minimum for pre-requisite courses

30. PCAT Breakdown • Writing Sample (30 mins for 1 topic) • Conventions of Language- grammar • Problem Solving- convincing • Verbal ability (30 minutes for 48 questions) • Analogies – 60% • Sentence completion- 40% • Biology (30 minutes for 48 questions) • General biology- 60% • Microbiology- 20% • Human anatomy and physiology- 20% • Chemistry (30 minutes for 48 questions) • General chemistry- 60% • Organic chemistry – 40%

31. PCAT Breakdown ----------------------REST BREAK------------------- • Writing sample (30 minutes for 1 topic) • Conventions of language – grammar • Problem solving – convincing • Reading comprehension (50 minutes for 48 questions on 6 passages) • Comprehension- 30% • Analysis- 40% • Evaluation- 30% • Quantitative Ability (40 minutes for 48 questions) • Basic math- 15% • Algebra- 20% • Probability and statistics- 20% • Precalculus- 22% • Calculus- 22%

32. PCAT Test Dates *NOT ACCEPTED FOR FALL 2009 REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS 8:59 PM

33. Registering for PCATs www.pcatweb.info

34. Registering for PCATs

35. Registering for PCATs MAKE SURE PHARMCAS (CODE 104) IS ONE OF YOUR SCORE RECIPIENTS!

36. PharmCAS is a centralized application service provided by the American Association of College of Pharmacy (AACP) www.pharmcas.org Participating schools (~60) can be found:http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/directoryalphastate.htm Stats about the last entering class, application criteria, program pre-reqs, supplemental application info, deadlines, and other info can also be found on PharmCAS.

37. PharmCAS Pharmacy school • Submission of documents • Application • Transcripts • Letter of recommendations • PCATs • Fee • $135 for one school • $40 for each additional • Supplemental application • Supplemental fee

38. Letters of recommendation • Paper and electronic references accepted • Electronic (eLOR) is preferred • 3 recommendations per applicant • Check recommendations accepted • UMB does not accept recommendations from: TAs, friends, and family • Info for other pharmacy schools can be found on PharmCAS website: http://www.pharmcas.org/docs/ReqTypebySchool.pdf

39. Deadlines • All applications and documents must be received by PharmCAS by the deadline for the school • Cannot e-submit once deadline is reached • Early decision • Applicant can only apply to one ED school • Denied ED applicant may apply to more schools • Accepted ED applicant cannot apply to other PharmCAS schools

40. Top 10 Schools 1. University of California--San Francisco 2. University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill 3. University of Minnesota 4. University of Texas—Austin 5. Ohio State University 5. University of Kentucky 5. University of Michigan--Ann Arbor 5. University of Washington 9. Purdue University 9. University of Arizona 9. University of Florida 9. University of Illinois—Chicago 9. University of Maryland—Baltimore 9. University of Wisconsin--Madison

41. How Does PharmCAS calculate your GPA?

42. Some Tips… • Work Experience: • It is not a requirement but does increase the competitiveness of your application. • For hospital pharmacies: • Calling the hospital personnel department about any open positions • Volunteering is a good start • For retail pharmacies: • Call or drop by stores that you are interested in. • Ask to speak with pharmacy manager • Be sure to dress as you would for a job interview and bring your resume!

43. Some More Tips… Be sure to mention that you are interested in attending pharmacy school can give you an advantage over other candidates. Be upfront, especially if you plan on asking your employer for a letter of reference during the application process.

44. More Tips… • Extracurricular activities may include health related, but with aspirations to obtain a leadership position •  Job shadowing: • Helps decide whether or not pharmacy is the right career path • You should contact pharmacists in your area, explain that you are thinking about pharmacy school and ask to shadow them for a few hours or longer. • Be prepared to answer questions about your goals and interests • Ask questions during your shadowing opportunity

45. What If I Don’t Get in?! Don’t Give UP!...Apply Again Increase Your Chances by: Reapplying early! Especially for the schools that have rolling admission. Contact the school(s) to which you applied. Take more classes. If you have any C's, D's, or F's on your record, retake those classes. Try to gain pharmacy experience if you are lacking it. Apply to more schools. If your PCAT score is not where you would like for it to be, retake the test. Increase your volunteering activities. Practice writing essays.

46. Emails/Websites • Pre-Pharmacy Society Website: • http://studentorg.umd.edu/prepharm/ • Pre-Pharmacy Society Email • umdprepharm@gmail.com