Benefits of a Centralized Application Service

The Pharmacy College Application Service (PharmCAS) is a centralized application service for colleges and schools of pharmacy provided by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).

This comprehensive service:

• Facilitates applications to pharmacy colleges and schools;

• Provides admissions offices with a comprehensive set of tools, many of which allow school-specific definitions, for processing, reviewing, and analyzing applications;

• Promotes the profession of pharmacy to interested applicants through links to relevant Web sites; and

• Houses a rich database of applicant information.

Benefits to Our Participating Institutions

• PharmAdMIT admissions software (PharmAdMIT) is distributed to participating schools at no charge, allowing them to manipulate PharmCAS data for the receipt of applications and to report specific final admissions decisions. This software also tracks institution-specific admission statuses and decisions, interview schedules, and related correspondence, and can be used for personalized and preset reports, letters, emails, and GPA calculations. (AACP will assume the license fee for each school that utilizes PharmAdMIT each year).

• Less clerical work. Admissions offices can choose to use the tools provided by PharmAdMIT software in a variety of ways. Doing so can reduce the burden of tracking application materials and filing, and can eliminate most application data entry.

• PharmCAS generates and mails paper copies of application files to schools. Reduces burden on staff to print or create application files in-house.

• Promotion of degree program to a larger audience of prospective applicants.

• Qualified applicants will be easier to identify and recruit.

• Applications identified to colleges and schools as incomplete, in-process, and complete applications, allowing staff to send supplemental applications and/or program-specific materials as desired.

• Colleges and schools will know if an applicant to their program has accepted multiple offers of admission. Participation requires admissions offices to report all admission actions (e.g., accept, denial, alternate, etc.) to PharmCAS.

• The PharmCAS application contains the complete academic record for all applicants. Multiple GPA calculations can be done from course work that is verified line-by-line against the official transcripts by PharmCAS staff. GPAs are provided in a semester-based 4.0 grading system, which eliminates need for colleges and schools to engage in time-consuming grade conversion processes.

• Ability to sort and display verified course history by term, course type, prerequisites, or institution is provided through the PharmCAS software.

• Through PharmAdMIT, colleges and schools have the ability to mark and sort academic coursework that fulfills institutional prerequisites and calculate prerequisite grade point averages.

• PharmAdMIT ad hoc reports can be designed to meet the diverse requests for information from university and school administrators, boards of regents or directors, and state legislatures about an individual school's applicant pool.

• Flexibility in the PharmAdMIT to create customizable fields for program-specific data (such as for secondary application questions).

• Reduced application key entry errors. The PharmCAS Web application has internal checks and help systems to prompt the correction of errors and request omitted information from the applicant BEFORE the application is sent to PharmCAS.

• Weekly transmission of ALL data fields for verified/processed applications sent to all institutions designated by applicant.

• Individual applicants complete one application, which is verified by PharmCAS and transmitted to all participating schools designated by the applicant. Therefore, applicants cannot improperly claim dual or multiple residency status on their PharmCAS application.

• PharmCAS staff also investigates applicants suspected of submitting fraudulent transcripts or purposely-inaccurate information. Official reports are shared with all colleges and schools to which the applicant has applied.

• Promotion of pharmacy to pre-health profession advisors. Advisors can check the status of an applicant from their institution, if the applicant has given PharmCAS permission to release these data. Advisors are accustomed to centralized services and appreciate the simplified process for advising applicants who wish to apply to multiple programs.

• Ability to export PharmCAS data from client software into local computer database (e.g., PeopleSoft). Export to separate database requires local programming to create "bridge" from PharmAdMIT to local database, or directly from PharmCAS raw (DBF) data into local database.

• Ability to compete with other health profession programs that utilize a centralized application service including allopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, physician assistants, and podiatry.

• Training on use of PharmCAS school software (PharmAdMIT).

• Dedicated support, via the Web site and direct telephone contact, to admissions staff and applicants.

• Ability to download PharmAdMIT software throughout development for testing and feedback purposes. This software will be available for review by admissions office staff prior to actually using it in their admissions processes.
  

Benefits to the AACP and the Pharmacy Profession

• AACP will be able to determine the number of pharmacy applicants versus applications to better track professional trends.

• Reports on the pharmacy applicant pool can be run via the Web at any time during the application cycle as opposed to the end of the academic year.

• Ability to analyze our underrepresented minority applicants. Better data on the size of this pool, clearer and standardized identification of ethnic categories,and comparative data on grade point averages, test scores, and acceptances may be used to improve diversity in our colleges and schools.

• Ability to compare pharmacy college and school applicant trends to other health profession institutions that utilize a centralized process.

• A wealth of demographic data is collected by PharmCAS for each individual applicant. Nationally, these data can be arrayed by final admission action, state, gender, age, race, academic criteria, or by many other selected fields to focus national student recruitment efforts.

• Dissemination of information about careers in pharmacy and pharmacy programs to a more accessible audience will occur via the PharmCAS Web site links to pre-health professional advisors and other professional pharmacy organizations.

• These data can be used to support arguments for increased federal funding in such areas as:

  • HRSA Titles IV, VIII of Public Health Service Act
  • Health Career Opportunity Programs - HCOP
  • Centers of Excellence - COE
  • Financial Aid loans and grants
  • Research grants
    
    
• Assist the Pharmacy Manpower Project in areas of policy development, workforce recruitment, and retention of pharmacists.
  
  
• As PharmCAS grows and is used by more and more pharmacy colleges the AACP will be able to incorporate applicant data into a national database to help the pharmacy profession measure student attitudes on graduation, level of educational indebtedness, and the placement of pharmacy graduates. The database can be used to track cohorts of practitioners over time to characterize their practice changes and attitudes.