pharm d to med?

[mik30102]

Hello everyone this is my first time posting on the threads. I wanted to ask people if I am on the right track to med currently, and ask peoples opinions if my idea is idiotic and unrealistic. Anyway I'm currently a p1 student. I came to pharm school through a 0-6 program, and I realized after working in a pharmacy the last summer that I hated it. I was very bored in retail and can't see myself doing that for the next few decades. I talked to my pre med adviser about possibly applying this coming year, and he thought I should wait until I graduate. My ecs suck, but I plan to start volunteering at a hospital or hospice center this winter break, and continue this when I go home for breaks the following years. My undergrad gpa was a 3.7 with a slightly higher science average. I expect to get a 3.7+ my first p1 semester, and hope to continue this. If I do I think I will be able to make Rho Chi which is honor society for pharm school (top 20%). I have yet to take the mcat at all, but if it helps I got high 300s to mid 400s on my pcat sections without preparing at all, and not taking orgo yet (pcat was a formality for my school). Anyway what I'm asking is if I keep up these stats (and assuming I get a 30+ on the MCAT) will I have a shot at med school once I graduate pharm school. Other question is if this is even a good idea. I really want to switch eventually since I feel like med school is really for me. I had terrible reasons for going to 0-6 pharm school (cared about graduating earlier, other stupid reasons), but I feel like med is the real place for me. Financially it will also be kind of scary since I expect to graduate pharm with 230kish in debt (private school). I know med school will probably make this become almost 500k, but along if after loan payments I bring home around 70k that will be fine with me. I just want to be relatively comfortable, and happy with my career. I apologize in advance for the rambling nature of my post.

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[whatbout2morrow]

Those are some very scary figures (in terms of debts) taking into account the interest that will accrue over time. From what I understand, you are in the third year of your 0-6? If that is the case, it seems that if you decide drop now and finish your undergrad degree, the time it will take to do so won't be much different than if you were to finish your pharmacy degree. There are a few users here on SDN who did medicine after completing a 0-6 pharmacy program, get in touch with them.

 

[PharMed2016]

Hello everyone this is my first time posting on the threads. I wanted to ask people if I am on the right track to med currently, and ask peoples opinions if my idea is idiotic and unrealistic. Anyway I'm currently a p1 student. I came to pharm school through a 0-6 program, and I realized after working in a pharmacy the last summer that I hated it. I was very bored in retail and can't see myself doing that for the next few decades. I talked to my pre med adviser about possibly applying this coming year, and he thought I should wait until I graduate. My ecs suck, but I plan to start volunteering at a hospital or hospice center this winter break, and continue this when I go home for breaks the following years. My undergrad gpa was a 3.7 with a slightly higher science average. I expect to get a 3.7+ my first p1 semester, and hope to continue this. If I do I think I will be able to make Rho Chi which is honor society for pharm school (top 20%). I have yet to take the mcat at all, but if it helps I got high 300s to mid 400s on my pcat sections without preparing at all, and not taking orgo yet (pcat was a formality for my school). Anyway what I'm asking is if I keep up these stats (and assuming I get a 30+ on the MCAT) will I have a shot at med school once I graduate pharm school. Other question is if this is even a good idea. I really want to switch eventually since I feel like med school is really for me. I had terrible reasons for going to 0-6 pharm school (cared about graduating earlier, other stupid reasons), but I feel like med is the real place for me. Financially it will also be kind of scary since I expect to graduate pharm with 230kish in debt (private school). I know med school will probably make this become almost 500k, but along if after loan payments I bring home around 70k that will be fine with me. I just want to be relatively comfortable, and happy with my career. I apologize in advance for the rambling nature of my post.

From my own perspective - I think the PharmD is an excellent route to pursue especially if you want to have more depth with medications and an understanding of the pathophysiology involved. However, with that being said - in economy it is especially not worth the time and money since it is most likely you will not even be able to get per diem work to pay off your loans. I would transfer to a BS program - maybe a BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences if you want the theory behind medications which will help you in medical school. If I had to do it all over again, I would never have entered pharmacy school but gone straight to medical school. How young and foolish I was.

Which 0-6 school do you go to? Rutgers/ACPHS?

 

[mik30102]

From my own perspective - I think the PharmD is an excellent route to pursue especially if you want to have more depth with medications and an understanding of the pathophysiology involved. However, with that being said - in economy it is especially not worth the time and money since it is most likely you will not even be able to get per diem work to pay off your loans. I would transfer to a BS program - maybe a BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences if you want the theory behind medications which will help you in medical school. If I had to do it all over again, I would never have entered pharmacy school but gone straight to medical school. How young and foolish I was.

Which 0-6 school do you go to? Rutgers/ACPHS?

You guessed it, i'm from acp... You got accepted to suny upstate for med? What was your undergrad/professional gpa and ec's if you don't mind me asking? Thank you to everyone else for your responses. I gave thought to dropping out of pharm to switch to bs, but I'm not sure if I want to. I really do like learning the way drugs interact with the body, just not how this knowledge was implemented into the retail setting. I hate to say this but I kind of consider pharm a fallback if I can't get into med, and i'm not sure if I want to give that up. Also after reading some info about loans, wouldn't it not matter how much debt I actually had due to IBR and public service loan forgiveness?

 

[bassvp]

I'm not sure that anyone can easily assume whether a school will not take a PharmD in replacement for a BS. I've had pretty good luck (applied to 19 schools and have had 7 interviews so far and hoping for more).

Before you jump off the pharmacy wagon, spend some time with a good clinical pharmacist first just to make sure that you don't like another side of pharmacy (I'm not even sure how many retail pharmacists like what they're doing...it just pays the bills well).

And as said before...if you do end up making this switch, study like crazy for the MCAT...the PCAT is a mouse compared to the lion that is the MCAT.

 

[PharMed2016]

You guessed it, i'm from acp... You got accepted to suny upstate for med? What was your undergrad/professional gpa and ec's if you don't mind me asking? Thank you to everyone else for your responses. I gave thought to dropping out of pharm to switch to bs, but I'm not sure if I want to. I really do like learning the way drugs interact with the body, just not how this knowledge was implemented into the retail setting. I hate to say this but I kind of consider pharm a fallback if I can't get into med, and i'm not sure if I want to give that up. Also after reading some info about loans, wouldn't it not matter how much debt I actually had due to IBR and public service loan forgiveness?

My mdapps should have all that information on it.

 

[HaloKing]

I've had my PharmD for 2 years now and I love hospital pharmacy, but I'm single, debt-free, and I want to learn more so I decided to attempt to go back...

I'm currently taking a year of Physics with lab to meet the pre-reqs, which I wouldn't have to do if I would have thought about it when I was your age. So make sure your taking care of your pre-reqs for med school.

Financially your life will be hell if you finish with $500,000 in loans.

bassvp had the best advice ever!!

Remember "nothing in life worth having comes easy"

 

[PharMed2016]

I'm estimating 70-80k for my PharmD. It's entirely possible to pay that off after working 2 years as a pharmacist and then some.

 

[k488k488]

IN MY OPINION -- I think grades and MCAT's are where lines are drawn, because admissions committees have 1000's of applications to weed through, and can't look at everyone's story. (How would YOU weed through thousands of applications?) After the grades are there (I think yours are) and MCATs are there, they'll look a little more closely at your life - where did you go to school, what did you do with yourself, etc.. Like I said, I think your grades are probably just fine. The MCAT is just the first of a long line of painful tests you'll take (very very very very very very painful), where not only do you need to know content, but you need to know HOW to take a test (I've taken the MCAT, USMLE 1,2,3, and the board exams for Internal medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine). I would say just go to med school -- forget pharmacy. As for life after private medical school and 6 more years of training, yeah, I'm still paying off my loans, but I came to the realization when I was looking for moonlighting work, and was looking at non-clinical options, that I LOVE being a physician, and I LOVE taking care of patients (even though I HATED/ABHORRED/LOATHED medical school, and I HATED fellowship, and I dislike internal medicine and pulmonary medicine, and I LOATHE critical care -- you can guess which specialty I'm practicing). If you choose correctly, the life is good, but don't expect to make a jillion bucks. You'll still do decently, even after loans.

 

[bassvp]

Are you a trust fund baby?

I graduated PharmD and debt-free.
My dad's a farmer.

 

[FarMD2012]

Wow good amount of pharmDs switching/switched to MD, nice.