Medical school vs pharmacy school difficulty

[ivorychins]

I find both professions very interesting but I'm curious as to which professional school is more difficult. I'm not here to be persuaded to either route. I would assume that medical school has a much higher volume of content to memorize? I know that both schools are very difficult, but I'd think that medical school is more difficult.


Thanks to anyone that has any insight to this. I know it's difficult to answer since most people haven't been a student in both schools!

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[VincentAdultman]

Med school

 

[Save a life]

I don’t know about pharm school but as a med student you have a lot of board exams to face and have to prep for residency applications. We don’t just take one test to get lisenced and we have to constantly work if we want to get into competitive specialties. Not sure if other professional schools are like that.

 

[ivorychins]

I don’t know about pharm school but as a med student you have a lot of board exams to face and have to prep for residency applications. We don’t just take one test to get lisenced and we have to constantly work if we want to get into competitive specialties. Not sure if other professional schools are like that.

Yeah I guess that's also a big factor as well. But I guess I really mean in terms of content difficulty and the amount of studying required to pass. This is just one of the many factors I'm considering.

 

[Save a life]

Yeah I guess that's also a big factor as well. But I guess I really mean in terms of content difficulty and the amount of studying required to pass. This is just one of the many factors I'm considering.

I would surmise that the first 2 years of med school is about as difficult maybe slightly harder than pharmacy, PT, etc. Honestly, it’s not that much harder than taking like 16 credits of upper level biology or something. It’s just a longer road and different. It comes down to whether you like medicine - diagnosis, treatment of patients, surgery, procedures etc, or if you really like drugs and how they work on the body.

 

[psychMDhopefully]

I find both professions very interesting but I'm curious as to which professional school is more difficult. I'm not here to be persuaded to either route. I would assume that medical school has a much higher volume of content to memorize? I know that both schools are very difficult, but I'd think that medical school is more difficult.


Thanks to anyone that has any insight to this. I know it's difficult to answer since most people haven't been a student in both schools!

Lets put it this way, you can work part time in pharmacy school. In med school, no.

 

[ivorychins]

Lets put it this way, you can work part time in pharmacy school. In med school, no.

I find that hard to believe. Is the volume of material that much less?

 

[Kkshake]

I live with a pharmacy student and a dental student...I promise you, medical school is harder

 

[Save a life]

I find that hard to believe. Is the volume of material that much less?

This is true. My med school specifically states in the handbook you cannot work. Again, I would worry too much about the difference in basic science content, it all comes down to what you want to do when you finish. Med school can be not that difficult if you only want to “pass,” match primary care, and not care where the residency is. But that’s not exactly the best attitude to have when patients are putting their life in your hands.

 

[throw_away5122]

Lets put it this way, you can work part time in pharmacy school. In med school, no.

I worked partime in med school too, abeit only 16 hrs a week

 

[HumbledHuman]

To be fair you should also consider posting this in the Pharmacy forum to garner their insight.

 

[SpartanWolverine]

I'll go out there and say med school really isn't that difficult. It's just a job with, generally, very long hours (which is the hardest part for me). Work hard, learn smart, and you can do well.

We have some common overlap with pharmacy but it's generally two different skillsets and approaches.

I know there are a few people on here who who have gone through both programs and agree that medical school is several orders of magnitude more difficult than pharm school, for what that's worth.

 

[ivorychins]

I'll go out there and say med school really isn't that difficult. It's just a job with, generally, very long hours (which is the hardest part for me). Work hard, learn smart, and you can do well.

We have some common overlap with pharmacy but it's generally two different skillsets and approaches.

I know there are a few people on here who who have gone through both programs and agree that medical school is several orders of magnitude more difficult than pharm school, for what that's worth.

Thanks for the insight

 

[Vain Brother]

i've been to both and med school is much harder

 

[ivorychins]

i've been to both and med school is much harder

In what way in your opinion? Complexity of concepts or volume of information?

 

[emergentmd]

I went to Pharmacy school but failed out because the material and workload was too hard for me. I went with my backup plan and got into medical school which was a breeze.

 

[CUninja]

No doubt in my mind that med school is harder. Also including residency, much longer. Residency not required on our side.

 

[HueySmith]

My school (I am not saying all schools) accepts a bunch of procrastinators and partiers who spend their time in their cute little pharm fraternity like they are in undergrad. My pharm friend watches tv for 3 hours every night and have dinner parties every weekend, while I am studying my butt off for the next upcoming exam and the exam after that. Dont ever spout this bs that pharm school is comparable to med school in terms of difficulty.

 

[Atom612]

I would surmise that the first 2 years of med school is about as difficult maybe slightly harder than pharmacy, PT, etc. Honestly, it’s not that much harder than taking like 16 credits of upper level biology or something. It’s just a longer road and different. It comes down to whether you like medicine - diagnosis, treatment of patients, surgery, procedures etc, or if you really like drugs and how they work on the body.

IDK about your curriculum, but we're currently taking over 23 credits worth of basic sciences right now at my school (plus OMM and clinical med) with more coming in the winter quarter...Can't speak to the difficulty of the other programs, but our program is a bit harder than 16 credit hours of upper-level biology.

 

[Nucleophile1]

IDK about your curriculum, but we're currently taking over 23 credits worth of basic sciences right now at my school (plus OMM and clinical med) with more coming in the winter quarter...Can't speak to the difficulty of the other programs, but our program is a bit harder than 16 credit hours of upper-level biology.

Yeah I agree with this. I breezed through science courses in college. Medical school is significantly more difficult than undergrad (at least in my experience).

 

[zero0]

I went to Pharmacy school but failed out because the material and workload was too hard for me. I went with my backup plan and got into medical school which was a breeze.

And did you overcome a severe learning disability in the interim?

 

[Save a life]

IDK about your curriculum, but we're currently taking over 23 credits worth of basic sciences right now at my school (plus OMM and clinical med) with more coming in the winter quarter...Can't speak to the difficulty of the other programs, but our program is a bit harder than 16 credit hours of upper-level biology.

Yeah, it all depends on the school. I looked up how many credits I’m taking and it says 23. Only 15 of those are basic sciences. The rest are clinical and ethics. I think my curriculum gets a lot harder as I go along.

 

[ivorychins]

My school (I am not saying all schools) accepts a bunch of procrastinators and partiers who spend their time in their cute little pharm fraternity like they are in undergrad. My pharm friend watches tv for 3 hours every night and have dinner parties every weekend, while I am studying my butt off for the next upcoming exam and the exam after that. Dont ever spout this bs that pharm school is comparable to med school in terms of difficulty.

Man that pharm student is living quite the life haha. Do you know how many units they take compared to med students? Don't med students take around 23-28 units while pharm students take close to 18?

And did you overcome a severe learning disability in the interim?

I've been wondering this myself. Finding med school easier after failing pharm school?

 

[Gilakend]

I'm in undergrad and a pharmacology/toxicology major and I take all my classes (except toxicology and they have some pharmacy law course instead) with the pharmD students. It is not very challenging at all. I'm not saying you don't have to study, but it's definitely not even close to feeling like it resembles the "drinking through the fire hose" analogy. Although note I'm only half way into my first semester of the first year (junior level overall for me, the first year of pharmD for them).

 

[emergentmd]

And did you overcome a severe learning disability in the interim?

Never had a learning disability. That Pharmacy stuff was difficult. Look at the stress of making sure the scripts are labeled correctly.

 

[Triple Cheeseburger]

Lets put it this way, you can work part time in pharmacy school. In med school, no.

I know a pharmacy student who works 10-20 hours per week while struggling through pharmacy school.

 

[Triple Cheeseburger]

I think it is safe to say the whole process to become an attending physician is much more difficult than a pharmacist.

 

[HueySmith]

Man that pharm student is living quite the life haha. Do you know how many units they take compared to med students? Don't med students take around 23-28 units while pharm students take close to 18?



I've been wondering this myself. Finding med school easier after failing pharm school?

Funny enough, she is taking 16-18 units. Each of my quarter has been 22-25 units on average.

 

[WhiteCoatWonder]

I don’t know about pharm school but as a med student you have a lot of board exams to face and have to prep for residency applications. We don’t just take one test to get lisenced and we have to constantly work if we want to get into competitive specialties. Not sure if other professional schools are like that.

for sure.

on another forum i follow, there was a law school guy who explained his study techniques, concluding with: "this is not like medical school, we actually have to read to understand the information." ...of course i proceeded to ask him when he'd finished his medical degree, as much must have changed since the acquisition. (dafuuuq, right?)

anyway, i figure everybody thinks that the pursuit of their professional degree is comparably THEEE most grueling, but even objective measures (as mentioned above: more licensing things, more exams, slow ROI, more hoops, etc) make medical school seem a bit more rigorous than many others...to me. much respect to them and all their stuff but med school is the hardest thing ive ever done, and not just the book learnin'.

PS: i remember as a pre-med asking a resident whether or not she worked during medical school, since i felt i might have needed to and she guffawed. i get it now.

 

[kb1900]

for sure.

on another forum i follow, there was a law school guy who explained his study techniques, concluding with: "this is not like medical school, we actually have to read to understand the information." ...of course i proceeded to ask him when he'd finished his medical degree, as much must have changed since the acquisition. (dafuuuq, right?)

.

I think what the law person means is he/she has to actually read court cases, written law & opinions and stuff. (Could be totally off-base; feel free to correct me)

So far in medical school I have opened zero textbooks and have consulted zero articles to learn the material.

 

[WhiteCoatWonder]

I think what the law person means is he/she has to actually read court cases, written law & opinions and stuff. (Could be totally off-base; feel free to correct me)

So far in medical school I have opened zero textbooks and have consulted zero articles to learn the material.

maybe so. i try to keep an open mind about these comparisons but wouldnt a lawyer, of all people, know how to frame that statement so that it could be more factual or even broadly applied as opposed to sweepingly generalized?

100% agree on the textbooks...disagree with the insinuation that we dont have to understand what we're reading (ie, just memorize). especially if that insinuation comes from a window-shopping assumption.

 

[kb1900]

maybe so. i try to keep an open mind about these comparisons but wouldnt a lawyer, of all people, know how to frame that statement so that it could be more factual or even broadly applied as opposed to sweepingly generalized?

100% agree on the textbooks...disagree with the insinuation that we dont have to understand what we're reading (ie, just memorize). especially if that insinuation comes from a window-shopping assumption.

Yup; well said. Though this is something that is prevalent across all professions. I’ve even met nursing students that think medical school = just memorizing more facts at the expense of not “understanding” the patient clinically.

 

[AlwaysContrary]

This is such an arbitrary discussion that doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things. Who cares which school is really harder? I think you can find a lot of people in both professions who thinks the amount of schooling is unnecessary. Both professions compliment each other and that's really what matters in the end.

If you prefer a more hands off approach and be the experts in medication and therapeutics become a pharmacist. If you prefer a more hands on approach and make the diagnosis become a physician. I hate baiting questions like this becomes it turns into a dick measuring contest.

 

[libertyyne]

maybe so. i try to keep an open mind about these comparisons but wouldnt a lawyer, of all people, know how to frame that statement so that it could be more factual or even broadly applied as opposed to sweepingly generalized?

100% agree on the textbooks...disagree with the insinuation that we dont have to understand what we're reading (ie, just memorize). especially if that insinuation comes from a window-shopping assumption.

I am in the traditional curriculum and have needed almost zero critical thinking , mostly memorizing factoids. This may change next unit, but the first six months I have gone from ... I need to understand this to , I need to regurgitate this and my scores reflect this change in thought.

This is such an arbitrary discussion that doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things. Who cares which school is really harder? I think you can find a lot of people in both professions who thinks the amount of schooling is unnecessary. Both professions compliment each other and that's really what matters in the end.

If you prefer a more hands off approach and be the experts in medication and therapeutics become a pharmacist. If you prefer a more hands on approach and make the diagnosis become a physician. I hate baiting questions like this becomes it turns into a dick measuring contest.

Yeah, but what am I supposed to do If I do have a large dick?

 

[Giovanotto]

I am in the traditional curriculum and have needed almost zero critical thinking , mostly memorizing factoids. This may change next unit, but the first six months I have gone from ... I need to understand this to , I need to regurgitate this and my scores reflect this change in thought.

Yeah, but what am I supposed to do If I do have a large dick?

Oh boy, wait till you get to your cardio and renal blocks. Fun days ahead, no doubt.

 

[farm_assist]

I was a pharmacist for 10 years and I’m currently a 3rd year medical student. Medical school is much more challenging than pharmacy school was. The didactic curriculum is only 2 years long, compared to 3 years in pharmacy school. So 3 years to learn about receptors and drugs, versus 2 years to learn about receptors, drugs, gross anatomy, physical examinations, interviewing skills, imaging, etc. Med school requires stronger academic skills IMO, though I believe MOST successful pharmacy students could make it through medical school without issue, as it already requires a high level of academic ability to make it into pharmacy school. That being said, pharmacy students who are “barely making it” in pharmacy school would not do well in medical school, IMO. Also keep in mind that if one is struggling to score well on the PCAT, the MCAT is MUCH more difficult! They are not even close in difficulty level. However, the MCAT was also more difficult than any exam I have had in medical school, including Step 1. I think these discussions are important to have when one is trying to assess whether their own academic abilities are compatible with their career goals. Not necessarily about measuring the size of your respective genitalia.

 

[Giovanotto]

I was a pharmacist for 10 years and I’m currently a 3rd year medical student. Medical school is much more challenging than pharmacy school was. The didactic curriculum is only 2 years long, compared to 3 years in pharmacy school. So 3 years to learn about receptors and drugs, versus 2 years to learn about receptors, drugs, gross anatomy, physical examinations, interviewing skills, imaging, etc. Med school requires stronger academic skills IMO, though I believe MOST successful pharmacy students could make it through medical school without issue, as it already requires a high level of academic ability to make it into pharmacy school. That being said, pharmacy students who are “barely making it” in pharmacy school would not do well in medical school, IMO. Also keep in mind that if one is struggling to score well on the PCAT, the MCAT is MUCH more difficult! They are not even close in difficulty level. However, the MCAT was also more difficult than any exam I have had in medical school, including Step 1. I think these discussions are important to have when one is trying to assess whether their own academic abilities are compatible with their careeer goals. Not necessarily about measuring the size of your respective genitalia.

I've been saying this for years! (minus Step1, since I don't take it for another 6 months, but I suspect the same!). Nothing in undergrad prepared me for the MCAT in a significant way, whereas I've been spending the better part of 2 years pretty much preparing for one exam. No comparison.

 

[rg2o3]

PharmD program at my undergrad is somewhat comical. The students are not the same form of students as even the pre-meds here. The combined program also doesn't even award the PharmD students an undergrad degree. I found this astonishing. They take a very minute amount of undergrad courses and enter directly into the graduate portion. I can't speak for the difficulty in comparison to med school because I don't start until the fall, but I just wanted to give my perspective since my school has this program that I find bizarre.

 

[AlwaysContrary]

PharmD program at my undergrad is somewhat comical. The students are not the same form of students as even the pre-meds here. The combined program also doesn't even award the PharmD students an undergrad degree. I found this astonishing. They take a very minute amount of undergrad courses and enter directly into the graduate portion. I can't speak for the difficulty in comparison to med school because I don't start until the fall, but I just wanted to give my perspective since my school has this program that I find bizarre.

2+4 year pharmacy programs do exist. However, these schools also exist for med school too so it really shouldn't be "astonishing" for you lol. They just finish the pre-reqs in the first 2 years then onto the pharmacy curriculum for the next 4

 

[rg2o3]

2+4 year pharmacy programs do exist. However, these schools also exist for med school too so it really shouldn't be "astonishing" for you lol. They just finish the pre-reqs in the first 2 years then onto the pharmacy curriculum for the next 4

Which medical schools have a 2+4? Like an early assurance? Also, I haven’t heard of it, so yes, it is astonishing to me lol. Pleased educate me! Haha

edit: I suppose surprising is a better word to use.

 

[J ROD]

Having both degrees and completed both. I can say med school is 2-3x harder. That simple. The material tested is cumulative. You have to pass 3 Steps, multiple shelves, and a clinical skills exam. Pharmacy just national exam and each state has their own law exam. Residency in med school is another special kind of hell. I find residency even worse than med school. So much BS and penis measuring. The egos are much greater in medicine. I worked PT in both but about a 1/4 less in med school. The amount of material in med school was much more as well. Medicinal chemistry was as hard as any med school class I took but the pure volume in med school for all classes is ridiculous.

 

[Gilakend]

PharmD program at my undergrad is somewhat comical. The students are not the same form of students as even the pre-meds here. The combined program also doesn't even award the PharmD students an undergrad degree. I found this astonishing. They take a very minute amount of undergrad courses and enter directly into the graduate portion. I can't speak for the difficulty in comparison to med school because I don't start until the fall, but I just wanted to give my perspective since my school has this program that I find bizarre.

This is literally the exact same as my school. We had "closed" admissions so to get into the the pharmD program less than 130 applied and 108 got in.

 

[AlwaysContrary]

Which medical schools have a 2+4? Like an early assurance? Also, I haven’t heard of it, so yes, it is astonishing to me lol. Pleased educate me! Haha

edit: I suppose surprising is a better word to use.

Complete List: BA/MD and BS/MD Programs in the US

just google it

 

[rg2o3]

Complete List: BA/MD and BS/MD Programs in the US

just google it

Yeah but I’m willing to bet that his makes up a very small portion of medical students where as the program at my school made up literally almost the entire class. But still interesting to see.

Also a lot of those are 8 years meaning 4+4. Very few on that list were 6. Would be a pretty good deal though.

 

[AlwaysContrary]

Yeah but I’m willing to bet that his makes up a very small portion of medical students where as the program at my school made up literally almost the entire class. But still interesting to see.

Also a lot of those are 8 years meaning 4+4. Very few on that list were 6. Would be a pretty good deal though.

The same holds true about pharmacy schools. Even though 2+4 schools exist the majority of people going into pharmacy do 4+4 year. You're being quite smug about this topic even though pharmacy is pretty much exactly the same as medical school lol