Getting into pharmacy school can be one of the most frustrating, exhausting, and if you get in, exhilarating experiences of your life. Applications, recommendations, clinical experience... all of these disparate pieces and more have to be expertly packaged to create the best possible case for yourself before the admissions committees.

And that's not your only problem. You'll have to decide whether to apply for a Pharm.D. a Ph.D., or an M.S. degree. You'll need to research various target schools and make sure you have the minimum requirements. And even once you have them, competition for seats in the top pharmacy programs is tough. But there are tremendous payoffs for your efforts. Pharmacists are a crucial link in the health-care industry, working on everything from patient care to researching and developing new and improved drugs. The fact is, youll be helping patients in an immediately tangible way.

So where do you begin? How do you make yourself more competitive? Well, start by taking a business-like approach to pharmacy school admissions. Even with all the various options and programs, there still are basic, key elements to an application package. Doing a little homework can help you organize and build a stellar application package—one that gets you noticed and gets you in.