Any current/former teachers out there?

[Valor]

Any current or former teachers out there?

I've been teaching for a little over a year now. This year will be my last. I worked in pharmacy 6 months before graduating University and realized after I started teaching that I was happier working there than I was working at school. Saving up some money this year then going back to school to finish up some pre-reqs and get into pharm school.

Will teaching experience look good on my application, or will my experience working at a pharmacy be more important than my teaching experience when I'm applying to pharm school?

Anyways I'd love to hear some stories from current/former teachers about why you decided on pharmacy.

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[Miss Arm]

What subject do you teach?

 

[rxofjoy]

Hi,

I taught for 6 yrs. I always knew I wanted to become a pharmacist, I just needed to work and earn money to support finishing up pre-requisites.

Teaching gave you some great assets that can parallel into the pharmacy profession. Focus on the skills that you learned as a teacher, especially communication skills.

If you know you want to do this, do it! Don't waste anymore time with teaching. I wish I had focused and stayed on track with my pre-req's because I could have been done by now. But, you never know. Working allowed me to gain some professionalism that will transfer nicely.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Valor]

Glad to see another teacher on the forum! I've been teaching English for over a year now. I plan on teaching till the end of this school year just so I can save up enough money to move onto pharmacy without being too poor. I'm only 23 right now, turning 24 in a few months, so if things work out as planned I should be out of Pharmacy school by 30!

 

[diastole]

I taught eight grade science. I took a break to start a family and always planned to return. When my daughter turned three, I looked into going back to teaching and my gut said no. Partly, it was the money. I changed states and would have had to take at least a $10,000 pay cut with yearly raises that were half as much. Partly it was the working conditions. I didn't get a lot of support in my old state and figured my new state would have even less support for education with even larger class sizes as a special bonus. Once I decided to get out, I was looking for something that I thought would be a good fit for my skills and interests and decided on pharmacy.

Even though teaching didn't work out, I thought the experience was invaluable. I thought my student teaching was so emotionally draining that pharmacy school is a piece of cake by comparison. The stress levels don't even compare but I haven't been in school that long so maybe that will change.

To answer your first question, I talked a lot about teaching in my interview and now I'm in pharmacy school so I suppose it helped. Your tech experience will help too. Just think of the skills that you picked up from each position and talk about that.

 

[sunnyd83]

I'm currently teaching 4th grade. It's my first and last year. I was taking pre-req's before I started teaching and will continue again in January. I was a tech for about a year before I switched to teaching full time and can't wait to get back in there and finish those pre-req's!

 

[cascones92]

I agree with one of the posts below that talked about the parallels between teaching and being a Pharmacist. I do think that the subject you teach could also make you a stronger applicant. Overall though, I think that most Pharmacy Schools feel as though teaching is an excellent platform for taking that next step into becoming a Pharmacist. I was told on more than one occasion by current Pharmacy Students that "I would get in because ____ Pharmacy School loves teachers". I taught chemistry by the way and I feel extremely fortunate to be a 3P at my top choice.

 

[miamifl]

I've always liked science and medicine, but always saw med school as a huge deal because of the time, the cost, etc... Anyway I finally decided to make the switch. I wonder if my BS in teaching will help my low stats. Right now I have a cumm pharmcas GPA of 3.02 and PCAT 69. I applied this year after completing most of my prereqs (with a slightly higher scie gpa) and to my surprise I was actually granted 2 interviews, one of which I already attended (NSU). Has anyone been accepted with these stats, or knows people that have? Does the pharm un-related BS in teaching make a difference to adcoms?