Graduate schools look for applicants who are well-rounded. This will include pharmacy school candidates. Admission committees will evaluate each part of a potential candidates application and this will include extracurricular activities.
What makes a well-rounded candidate for grad school?
Many schools are looking for students who have different life experiences. They do not want a book smart student who is clueless about life. A school picks students who represent them when they go into the work force. This builds the schools creditability and reputation. It will also create a dynamic learning environment for other students to learn from each other.
Pharmacy School Application Extracurricular Activities
Extracurricular activities will take years to build on a resume. These are considered resume boosters for students applying to graduate school. Extracurricular activities may include volunteer work at a hospital, pharmacy, or any other charitable organization. It could be leadership projects that you participated in or help create.
Examples:
- Raising money for a charitable organization. You organized a team and raised money for breast cancer awareness. You raised XXX amount for this event.
- Volunteer at a local hospital. They have various positions you can apply for. This may include the information desk, delivery items across the hospital, helping a patient to their car, or filing paperwork. Specialized tasks may be assigned if you work in a specific area of the hospital.
- Traveling to a third world country to help those in need. Help build homes or provide free healthcare. There are many organizations that provide this service to people in need.
- Volunteer or work in a pharmacy. This will give you the opportunity to learn what a pharmacist goes through on a day-to-day basis. This is probably one of the most important extracurricular activities to have on the pharmacy application.
Spending time to help others will build essential skills such as social interactions, responsibility, and empathy. These are all invaluable skills that will help build your overall character. In addition, you will be meet many people which will contribute to your overall network. This is a great way to build a strong relationship to ask for a future letter of recommendation. Things to keep in mind when building your extracurricular resume:
Tip #1: Always be kind and courteous to everyone you meet along the way. You never know who will help in the future. You also never know who can potentially hurt your chances to achieving your goals. Create friends and avoid creating enemies.
Tip #2: Be careful in how you communicate with others. A voicemail, text message, or e-mail can be interpreted in different ways. Your goal might just be to help solve a problem or just report an issue, however it can be offensive to the receiver of the message without proper context.
Tip #3: Build strong relationships with your superiors. It is good to network with these individuals. You will potentially ask them in the future for a letter of recommendation. They could be a potential reference when you apply for jobs. They could help recommend you to open job positions.
My experience in extracurriculars activities have taught me many life skills. I hope the recommendations above will help guide, motivate, and inspire you to achieve your goals. Follow my blog for more tips and advice on how to become a pharmacist. Do you have any other advice? Please comment below and share your thoughts.