Should I Persue Pharmacy?

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sweetsara3000

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Hiii guys!
I just registered on this website now. So Im about to finish my last semester of masters program in psychology. and I don't like practicing it, since i dont wanna sit around all day and listen to people's problems. I have always been interested in drugs and pharmacy, however not sure about the career due to all the comments that i read from people everywhere. Im going crazy thinking about this everyday. :scared: i just started taking pre-pharm classes, which will take me about a year and a half. Thankfully i dont have to worry about the money for my education and dont need to take out loans. but would the job respect and pay later and all my time and effort be worth it if i pursue pharmacy??????! I live in orange county, california. Plzzzz help :(

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Hiii guys!
I just registered on this website now. So Im about to finish my last semester of masters program in psychology. and I don't like practicing it, since i dont wanna sit around all day and listen to people's problems. I have always been interested in drugs and pharmacy, however not sure about the career due to all the comments that i read from people everywhere. Im going crazy thinking about this everyday. :scared:

If you are going crazy by justing being unable to decide whether to go to pharmacy school, you won't fare much better 4+ years from now staring at $150,000+ school loans with NO job to help you pay for them.
 
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If you are going crazy by justing being unable to decide whether to go to pharmacy school, you won't fare much better 4+ years from now staring at $150,000+ school loans with NO job to help you pay for them.

OP said money is not a problem (parents must be rich) and no loan is necessary.

In OP's case, I would do pharmacy.
 
So Im about to finish my last semester of masters program in psychology. and I don't like practicing it, since i dont wanna sit around all day and listen to people's problems.

And what, pray tell, do you think a community pharmacist does during a 12-14 hour shift? You will encounter MORE PEOPLE with MORE PROBLEMS during a day's work as a pharmacist than the eight people you see in eight hours as a psychologist.
 
Just wondering, what made you go get the Master's in Psychology? If you're genuinely interested in the subject, which is what I'd presume since you decided to get an advanced degree, you don't have to do clinical work. You could do research or go into academia, although I think those positions require a Ph.D.
 
OP needs to pursue a degree in "learning how to spell." Anyone aware of the sudden increase in typos made my this new forum generation? The 10-11' SDN class had way better never misspelled their titles. Sorry OP, I'm OCD about that.
 
OP needs to pursue a degree in "learning how to spell." Anyone aware of the sudden increase in typos made my this new forum generation? The 10-11' SDN class had way better never misspelled their titles. Sorry OP, I'm OCD about that.

...Says the person with multiple typos in their own post. :)

However, I definitely (NOT spelled "definately") agree. It's hardly necessary that forum posts need to be 100% correct, because this is a forum, but c'mon people. The better a post is grammatically, spelling-wise, and formatted (no walls of text, please) the more likely I am to actually read it, take it seriously and post a response. You are also less likely to get picked on for technical errors and more likely to get responses regarding the content of your post. Your 7th grade English/grammar teacher is ashamed of you.

This isn't meant to flame the OP in any way. It just had to be said in general.
 
Thank you owl for the great links, they helped a lot !! :)

twentytwelve: aside from the money area, what other factors make u say that?

conflagration: at the time that i did my masters, i did it because it was the easiest rout for me, due to already having a BA in psych. and also at the time i didnt think about working and the job as much.

If you guys couldve turned back time, would u have still done pharmacy? do u guys feel fulfilled at the end of the day, and feel like u were treated with respect?
 
Go work as a Pharm tech for a bit. Then you will have experience that will help if you find the field to be a good choice. Just because you read about it does not really give you the full picture. You need to be there seeing what a day is really like for a pharmacist.


You also need to consider the extra years of school. With a BS in Psyc, you probably did not complete many sciences, thus you will need to do at least 1.5 years of pre-reqs to apply in. This will put you at about 5-6 more years being a student. On top of that if you want to do Clinical work, you will most likely need a residency, which will be another year or maybe 2 of time before you are free to go work as a pharmacist.

Just some things to consider. No point in going for it and getting 2-3 years in and burning out because you are tired of school.
 
OP needs to pursue a degree in "learning how to spell." Anyone aware of the sudden increase in typos made my this new forum generation? The 10-11' SDN class had way better never misspelled their titles. Sorry OP, I'm OCD about that.


Yeah, we aren't texting each other and this isn't a difficult word to nail.
 
The excessive "Z's" suggest a naive student who expects everyone to help her with anything and everything. I'm not sorry.:D

First, you commented on her grammar. Now, you comment on her use of words. Wow ... really? If you are not going to give her a constructive opinion, then please don't reply.
 
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The excessive "Z's" suggest a naive student who expects everyone to help her with anything and everything. I'm not sorry.:D
I read somewhere that you were applying to some Texas schools...please don't.
 
OP needs to pursue a degree in "learning how to spell." Anyone aware of the sudden increase in typos made my this new forum generation? The 10-11' SDN class had way better never misspelled their titles. Sorry OP, I'm OCD about that.

It's funny because you don't have the best track record.

OP, I think only you can decide if it will be worth it in the end. If you really want it, you'll know. Money isn't an issue for you, but age or the time commitment might be for some people. I'd strongly recommend shadowing or getting some pharmacy experience first, to see if this would be a positive career change.
 
Pharmacy is nothing like what many students think it is when they first sign up for it. Get a technician job for a while to decide if it's an atmosphere you can handle before you devote lots of time and money to studying to be a pharmacist.
 
Whether or not you decide to pursue pharmacy is up to you. What I did when I was in your position was spend a LOT of time reading about the profession, the industry, and talking to pharmacists and pharmacy school students.

I also spent a lot of time reading career guides, taking career assessments, and figuring out, based on my actual work experience, what aspects of my job I liked and what I thought was a great fit for me.

I suggest you get as much real world work experience as possible and think really hard about what you like to do. Work in a bunch of different environments and figure out what makes sense for you.

Other people can't decide what you should do. If they could, I would say you should take advice from a psychic instead of us (here on the forum) because it would be just as useful (meaning, it's not useful at all in terms of solid advice).

You could do a lot of different things with a master's in psychology, you know. Market research, health research, etc. Think creatively, get work experience, and then make a decision rooted in reality.
 
Also, if money isn't an issue, and your parents want to help you figure out what you should do with your life, get a real career assessment (there are some very good ones that you pay to take) done that will help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, etc.
 
If money isn't an issue for school then you will definitely be well off when you start to work compared to others with $100,000+ in loans

. However I would suggest you go and be a tech in a pharmacy. I also was set on being a pharmacist, got licensed as a tech started working in the setting an quickly realize it was not for me. Ya it's great money but 12 hour shifts locked in the pharmacy cant leave for lunch, being quality control robot, unhappy customers most of the time and working corporate isn't close to being a fit for me. but to each is their own.
 
Thank you all for your kinds replies. I agree with all of u about getting experience as a pharmacy tech to see whether it is for me or not. The amount of years needed to get my degree definitely scares me. Another major that i've thought about is PA, but dont really like the title. As a side note I don't understand what I misspelled in my original post, that got people angry. Lol. I really appreciate the constructive advice. Thank you!

Sara
 
As a side note I don't understand what I misspelled in my original post, that got people angry. Lol.

hahah I truly am sorry Sara, it was your thread title, I was just having a particularly anal day that day and decided to pick on everything. Good luck with your future endeavors.
 
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