PharmD to MD

[opo]

I posted this in the general pre-med forum before I even noticed this one existed. Anyways, I figure this is a more applicable forum to my situation.

I'm am currently in my P2 year of pharmacy school and have decided that I really want to do medicine but I'm not really sure where to start/what to do. I have a high GPA in pharmacy school ~3.9 and currently work as a pharmacy intern at a local hospital. My question is what do I need to do in order to get into med school? I have been reading around these forums for the last few weeks and this is what I have gathered:

-Shadowing: I have none. I have read that it is best to shadow all types (primary care, surgery, internal med, etc) I guess around a couple hundred hours is average, no?

-Clinical experience: I am a little hazy on this. People say they have X amount hours of clinical experience, but what exactly does this entail. I have volunteered at a free clinic working with med students to work patients up and present to the attending. Is this "clinical experience" or volunteering? I've worked up anti-coag stuff at work for patients as well. I'm just a little confused what constitutes clinical experience and how much/how varied it should be. If I finished my PharmD, my 4th year would be nothing but clinical experience (probably around 40-60 hours a week). Do I need to do more than this?

-Research: I once again have none, but if I did something pharmacy/drug related would that be okay or should it be more directly related to medicine?

Obviously I know I need to take the MCAT and get LORs although I'm not sure who those should be from since I have read they should come from pre-med professors which I don't really have. Should they be from physicians I shadow or something from my pharmacy director at work?

Like I said I'm in my P2 year, so should I finish out my PharmD and get the rotation experience of 4th (and also pay ~$20,000 ) or try to transfer after my third year. I'm just not sure I'll be able to build up strong enough of an application by next summer to be able to transfer (I want to go to the college of medicine at the medical university I am currently at)

One last thing. Would I have a better chance of getting into school since I have "proven" that I can handle course load of graduate school? (Really, really not trying to sound cocky) I've seen people post here that it makes no difference, but that makes no sense to me since pharmacy school is way more info/work than undergrad.

tl;dr - In pharmacy, want to be MD now, what to do?

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[CastleG8]

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[PharMed2016]

I posted this in the general pre-med forum before I even noticed this one existed. Anyways, I figure this is a more applicable forum to my situation.

I'm am currently in my P2 year of pharmacy school and have decided that I really want to do medicine but I'm not really sure where to start/what to do. I have a high GPA in pharmacy school ~3.9 and currently work as a pharmacy intern at a local hospital. My question is what do I need to do in order to get into med school? I have been reading around these forums for the last few weeks and this is what I have gathered:

-Shadowing: I have none. I have read that it is best to shadow all types (primary care, surgery, internal med, etc) I guess around a couple hundred hours is average, no?

-Clinical experience: I am a little hazy on this. People say they have X amount hours of clinical experience, but what exactly does this entail. I have volunteered at a free clinic working with med students to work patients up and present to the attending. Is this "clinical experience" or volunteering? I've worked up anti-coag stuff at work for patients as well. I'm just a little confused what constitutes clinical experience and how much/how varied it should be. If I finished my PharmD, my 4th year would be nothing but clinical experience (probably around 40-60 hours a week). Do I need to do more than this?

-Research: I once again have none, but if I did something pharmacy/drug related would that be okay or should it be more directly related to medicine?

Obviously I know I need to take the MCAT and get LORs although I'm not sure who those should be from since I have read they should come from pre-med professors which I don't really have. Should they be from physicians I shadow or something from my pharmacy director at work?

Like I said I'm in my P2 year, so should I finish out my PharmD and get the rotation experience of 4th (and also pay ~$20,000 ) or try to transfer after my third year. I'm just not sure I'll be able to build up strong enough of an application by next summer to be able to transfer (I want to go to the college of medicine at the medical university I am currently at)

One last thing. Would I have a better chance of getting into school since I have "proven" that I can handle course load of graduate school? (Really, really not trying to sound cocky) I've seen people post here that it makes no difference, but that makes no sense to me since pharmacy school is way more info/work than undergrad.

tl;dr - In pharmacy, want to be MD now, what to do?

Here's my advice: finish pharmacy school even if you don't intend to practice as a pharmacist. Medical schools want to see commitment - finishing what you start. With that being said, I would just get a few weeks of shadowing in with a physician -and some research which can be drug related (try to get a publication). Your clinical experience is fine. The LORs can come from all pharmacy school faculty - I got mine from my biochemistry professor, pharmaceutics professor who I did research with, and the rest were pharmacy practice faculty. I also got one from a doctor I shadowed. Finally, do well on your MCAT -- 30+ and you should be fine.

 

[opo]

Hello. I can't answer your question, but may I ask why you decided to change to medical? I am working on my BS and I was going to apply to Pharmacy school, but I keep thinking I want to go to Medical school as well. I will be 34 when I finish my BS.

Pharmacy is a great career to choose. I knew going in that I wanted to do clinical (retail is not for me!) As a got farther along and also worked more in the hospital, I realized I wanted to have a more "direct patient care" role if you will. Like I said, pharmacy is great but I realized that I wanted to be more on the medicine side than the pharmacy side. I can't really say one thing that made me change my mind, but over the first year, I realized that I wanted to go a different path. Let me know if you have any questions about pharmacy school/application process!

Here's my advice: finish pharmacy school even if you don't intend to practice as a pharmacist. Medical schools want to see commitment - finishing what you start. With that being said, I would just get a few weeks of shadowing in with a physician -and some research which can be drug related (try to get a publication). Your clinical experience is fine. The LORs can come from all pharmacy school faculty - I got mine from my biochemistry professor, pharmaceutics professor who I did research with, and the rest were pharmacy practice faculty. I also got one from a doctor I shadowed. Finally, do well on your MCAT -- 30+ and you should be fine.

Thanks for the reply! So I assume that you are a PharmD going back to school (judging by name and info...) If you wouldn't mind letting me know a little about your situation (you can pm me if you don't want to post) such as are you going right after pharmacy school or did you practice for a while as a pharmacist? Do you feel like having a professional degree increased your chances of acceptance into med school? Do you think you will try to work prn as a pharmacist during school? I assume you'll have a ton of debt like I will if I get into med school so I was hoping I'd be able to work prn. Hopefully the pharmacy background will help with some classes and they won't be as hard leaving maybe some time to work Lastly what field are you interested in? I am thinking about some sort of surgery but I feel that would be the least applicable field for having my pharmacy knowledge....

 

[Tygacil]

Hey there OP,

I jumped the pharmacy bandwagon (graduated with my PharmD) and am now an M2. My advice is to try and get into medicine ASAP if that is what you want. The PharmD is nice and will likely increase your chances of getting in (particularly if your undergraduate work was subpar) and give you a nice heads up in some medical school classes, but as they say - time is money. I decided I wanted to jump ship my P2 year, so I studied and took the MCAT between P2-P3 and probably should have tried to apply during my P3 year. If I could go back I would atleast try this, and if I didn't get in then complete and try again the next year. I personally applied during my P4 year and was accepted (ended up deferring and working for a year, retail, which was a nice way of reinforcing my desire to do something else).

Anyhoo to answer questions directed at someone else, I work part time at a local hospital every other weekend, I have a ton of debt, and my background has certainly been helpful, but its still a difficult workload. Don't worry about what field you go into, it will change as you progress, and you're going in it to be a physician, not a pharmacist with prescribing rights so don't feel obligated to go into internal medicine or the like (personally I'm interested in ortho)

Anyways, feel free to PM me if you have any questions I might be able to help with.

 

[PharMed2016]

Thanks for the reply! So I assume that you are a PharmD going back to school (judging by name and info...) If you wouldn't mind letting me know a little about your situation (you can pm me if you don't want to post) such as are you going right after pharmacy school or did you practice for a while as a pharmacist? Do you feel like having a professional degree increased your chances of acceptance into med school? Do you think you will try to work prn as a pharmacist during school? I assume you'll have a ton of debt like I will if I get into med school so I was hoping I'd be able to work prn. Hopefully the pharmacy background will help with some classes and they won't be as hard leaving maybe some time to work Lastly what field are you interested in? I am thinking about some sort of surgery but I feel that would be the least applicable field for having my pharmacy knowledge....

I'm currently in my final year of pharmacy school and will be going straight into medical school right after graduation. Upstate starts in august so I will have time to take my boards for NYS to get licensed. I one day a week during the weekend during school and some holidays to earn money. As for the field, I really don't know yet to tell you the truth. ID sounds cool but we will see...

 

[opo]

Thanks to all for the replies. I think that I will probably end up having to finish out the PharmD due to my undergrad GPA being on the lower side (not sure, but probably lower/mid 3.someting) Also, I did not finish my undergrad due to transferring schools and changing majors. I ended up about 3-4 classes away from my degree, but wanted to go ahead and start pharmacy school rather than wasting another year in undergrad. Do you think this will hurt my chances? For those of you who went to pharmacy, then to med school, did you go to the same university for both? If so do you feel that it helped your chances? Thanks!

 

[PharMed2016]

Thanks to all for the replies. I think that I will probably end up having to finish out the PharmD due to my undergrad GPA being on the lower side (not sure, but probably lower/mid 3.someting) Also, I did not finish my undergrad due to transferring schools and changing majors. I ended up about 3-4 classes away from my degree, but wanted to go ahead and start pharmacy school rather than wasting another year in undergrad. Do you think this will hurt my chances? For those of you who went to pharmacy, then to med school, did you go to the same university for both? If so do you feel that it helped your chances? Thanks!

I don't have a BS and it did hurt my chances at some schools. I would definitely call whatever school your applying to on what their policy is.