University of Colorado Denver Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Interview Feedback Summary
Aurora, CO
Pharmacy Schools | Public Non-Profit
Overall, how satisfied are you with this program?
What was the zip code of your residence in high school?
| Response Avg | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 83,961.67 | 3 |
What do you like most?
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The school has a large variety of resources to help standers be successful.
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Location. For hospital aspiring pharmacists the location is to die for. An academic medical campus with bright physician leaders. UCH, VA, Children's hospital are all fantastic institutions to provide a strong basis of learning.
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Challenging teaching environment that provides skills needed to maintain competency in pharmacotx and encourages students to excel. Reputable faculty with strong clinical backgrounds that maintain their clinical duties while teaching and seem to enjoy teaching.
What do you like least?
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The lack of clear expectations from faculty and misleadingly marketing.
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Emphasis on hospital practice is too high. Niche and industry exposure very little. Preparation for these nontraditional fields is minimal at this time.
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It can be competitive. Stress is another big factor due to high expectations from faculty but it's a double edged in my opinion. The motivation that stems from this can easily turn to panic/fear of failing give the right set of circumstances.
Does the student body seem cooperative or competitive?
Does the environment seem supportive for underrepresented minorities?
Does the environment seem supportive for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual students?
Does the environment seem supportive for married students?
Does the environment seem supportive for students with disabilities?
Does the environment seem supportive for older/non-traditional students?
Do you/did you feel well prepared for your board exams?
How approachable are faculty members?
What are the facilities and clinics like (old/new, well maintained, etc.)?
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Although the facilities look nice at first glance there are a lot of technical difficulties associated with the technological advancements they brag about. These difficulties often impact education and the remote students seem to have a very difficult time learning. The library is amazing, it has a lot of resources, collections and study rooms that can help.
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Pharmacy school is modern and world class but you're never in it. Education buildings were built recently and yet seem to be falling apart. The chairs are old and breaking. Study rooms are not plentiful and the ventilation was poor. Library is insanely good. Building 500 (Old Fitz) is under constant renovation but an awesome area. Outdoors space shockingly well maintained, can play most sports safely.
How do students from this program do after graduation - are they adequately prepared for practice?
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I’ve heard a decent chunk of students struggle if they want to go into niche fields or research. In 2024, 69% of students from University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences passed the NAPLEX on the first attempt. For the passed few years the school has had low NAPLEX scores and many people have had to retake the exam in their fourth year/post graduation.
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~1/4 do residency, 1/2 do community, 1/5 go straight into hospital without residency, 1/20 go to industry by fellowship. Decently prepared for traditional work.
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Very well based on my experience and my observations of fellow alumni who graduated on different years (wide range- a few years out to a few decades).
What are rotations like?
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Virtually no industry electives, look at the colorado job market, pharma exists as mainly manufacturing. 2 rural rotations (ski towns, so very nice). bread and butter community and inpatient hospital rotations are main focus. rotations are quite long, roughly 6 weeks. Sometimes you can do a bench research APPE as an elective, highly recommended, the researchers on campus are world class in my opinion (IVY league trained PIs). Rotation preceptor quality varies highly. My experience was great but others not so much.
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4
How do students from this program do in the Match?
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Apparently if 100 people applied to the Match, ~>75% got placed, and most with their top 3 choices. Not too shabby.
Any other information you want to share?
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There is a remote program but I wouldn’t recommend it a lot of those students state a large variety of tech issues that impact their classes & testing experiences. Their are also international rotations offered but they are not as prevalent as the school may state and are harder to undertake.
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Experience - ok. Quite expensive tuition. The pharmacotherapy courses (the courses where you learn what drugs are used to treat X diseases) were just ok. A lot of it was screen shots of guidelines or poorly made slides. Lecturers read off 200 slides for 2+ hours a day and expected you to just memorize it all. Going from a R01 traditional flagship university to this pharmacy school was a huge downgrade in quality of education in my opinion. The best lecturers were the PhDs, focusing on evidence based medicine, basic science mechanisms and pathology, and connecting the pharmacology with the pathology was absolutely fantastic. PharmDs should not teach, their clinical experience was too anecdotal at times, often they had no answer to questions asked by students.
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