San Francisco, CA
Pharmacy Schools | Public Non-Profit
Application Cycle: 2009-10
⭐ Overall Impressions
How do you rank the facilities?
8 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
How do you rank this school among ALL other schools?
10 out of 10
0 = Below, 10 = Above
How do you rank this school among other schools to which you've applied?
10 out of 10
0 = Below, 10 = Above
What is your ranking of this school's location?
9 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?
10 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
💬 Interview Questions
What is one of the specific questions they asked you?
There were 3 essay topics, but I only remember the one I wrote on, where I had to say whether I felt like leadership was an innate ability or a learned skill. You had to write the essay in a box (about 5/6 of a page, unlined) and if you exceed the boundaries of the box, apparently you are penalized.
What was the most interesting question?
If you were working as a tech in a community pharmacy and a customer turned in a prescription that you were having trouble reading and the pharmacist told you it was X drug but you still weren't 100% certain it was, what would you do?
What was the most difficult question?
How do you like teamwork? (Not what is your teamwork experience or what do you like about teamwork, but HOW do you like teamwork... I felt like a kept repeating the same thing over again. It got painful after a while. haha) I realize now that answering what do you like about teamwork is probably what they meant. Oh well.
✅ Interview Preparation and Impressions
How long was the interview?
40 minutes
How did the interview impress you?
Positively 🙂
How many people interviewed you?
2
What was the stress level of the interview?
1 out of 10
0 = Low Stress, 10 = High Stress
How you think you did?
8 out of 10
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What was the style of the interview?
One-on-one
What type of interview was it?
Open file
Where did the interview take place?
At the school
How did you prepare for the interview?
SDN, 2 previous interviews, read and reread the website, subscribed to Drug Topics and listened to podcasts on recent developments in medicine/pharmacy.
What impressed you positively?
It definitely seemed to be the most organized of all of the interviews I went to. UCSF knows they are the top-ranked pharmacy school and they exude confidence and reliability.
What impressed you negatively?
How does anybody ever park in this city?
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
Don't bother arriving early unless you're going to have to find parking. If you get there early they tell you to go across the street and eat or something.
What are your general comments?
There is a brief orientation-type meeting and then you are divided into groups based on the color of a sticker on your folder. Time is divided between 1-the interview (one student & one faculty), 2-speaking with current students/prerequisite check, and 3-the essay. My order was 2-1-3 and my interviewers were running late, so I had to wait for a while to start. I thought it was really nice of them, because they actually got some students to stay late and give me (and other students affected by the later interviewers earlier in the day) a special campus tour since we missed the main one. :) I was accepted slightly less than a month after my interview.
📍 On-Site Experience
Who was the tour given by?
Student
How did the tour guide seem?
Enthusiastic
What is your in-state status?
In state
What were your total hours spent traveling?
2-3 hours
What was your primary mode of travel?
Airplane
About how much did you spend on room, food, and travel?
$101-$200
What airport did you fly into?
OAK
Where did you stay?
Friends or family
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