| Doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) programs nationwide face a new market for the foreseeable future as the result of a national applicant downturn. The shift from a highly bountiful to a shrinking applicant pool poses challenges for admissions committees to identify quality applicants who will succeed in the rigor of a PharmD program. The concept of holistic admissions emerged to provide admissions committees with a framework for evaluating candidates beyond the traditional cognitive metrics of grade point average (GPA) and Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT) scores.;With this study, the researcher sought to methodically value cognitive and non-cognitive preadmissions metrics that predicted first year pharmacy school GPA at Wingate University School of Pharmacy (WUSP). The researcher implemented a mixed methods approach to answer four questions about the impact of preadmissions preparation and pharmacy school success. The findings from the quantitative piece of the study indicated the following preadmissions metrics were significant in predicting first year pharmacy school GPA: prerequisite GPA, Biology PCAT subsection, Chemistry PCAT subsection, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) selectivity ranking for feeder institution, and unsatisfactory grades. Letter of recommendation evaluation average score and prior degree status also had a weak correlation to first year pharmacy school GPA. In the qualitative piece of the study, the researcher observed four major themes that students perceived impacted their pharmacy school success: (a) academic and non-academic skills, (b) meaningful relationships, (c) extracurricular experiences, and (d) motivation. The results of the study indicated that even the most predictive admissions formula does not persistently predict academic performance in pharmacy school. Thus, a holistic process that individually and flexibly evaluates candidates for cognitive and non-cognitive metrics is valuable. |
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