Wall Street to Pharmacy

[mycenia]

Hey all!

First off, thanks for such a great resource - I've been lurking on SDN for ages before finally deciding to make a post First off is a long story - feel free to skip that but please try to answer my question at the bottom. Thanks!

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I'm 25 years old and have been working on Wall Street (investment banking, consulting) for the past 2 years. I've gone in circles with where I want to end up but have finally decided on pharmacy. A quick background:

- Focused heavily on science in high school. Did a lot of research and won some prestigious competitions.
- Went to well-known research institution for undergrad hoping to do something computational biology-esque. Halfway through, got lured by the potential riches on Wall Street.
- Ended up switching majors to economics, doing 3 banking internships, and throwing myself at the business world.
- Graduated, worked full time in consulting, business development, etc. Haven't touched science since sophomore year of college.

I'm going to be frank - finance is very unfulfilling. It's one thing to build your own wealth ("personal finance"), but when you sit in a cube and try to extract the most fees possible from your clients ("commercial / corporate finance"), it feels kind of dirty. I did a lot of work with healthcare companies (pharmaceuticals / nutraceuticals / medtech), mainly helping to orchestrate mergers and acquisitions. The market research portion was always my favourite - I loved reading about the stuff happening in science.

So now I'm 25, still carrying student loan debt (to the tune of $40k) from my undergraduate institution... But I want to try for pharmacy school. I know if I put my mind to it, no matter how hard, I can and will succeed.

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So my question is: What are some things I can do to make myself a more attractive candidate? How many is a good number of schools to apply to?

• I'm taking a year off work to finish up prereqs (missing lots of chem ones!) and retaking a few classes to fix my abysmal GPA (3.0 undergrad).
• I haven't done research since I was 18 and don't know where to start since I'm not affiliated with a university and just moved to a new town (no connections). Will this previous experience still count? Or is it too old to matter?
• Should I get my pharm tech certificate and start working in retail to get experience? Or is that time better spent volunteering at a hospital in a clinical setting?
• I've been living and breathing business for the past 5 years. Will this be a negative against me? or will it be viewed favourably for "diversity's" sake?

For reference, my choice schools. Would help if someone could rank them in Safety / Match / Reach for me, since I have no idea how they rank!

• UC San Francisco
  
• UT Austin
• UNC Chapel Hill
• U Minnesota
• U Illinois
• Northeastern
• U North Texas
• MCPHS
• USC

Thanks all!

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[owlbright]

Pay off your student loan first then switch to Pharmacy Schools!

 

[TheMission]

Interesting case. I don't know much about schools outside California, but for UCSF, they definitely try to find unique people. They ask some pretty strange questions in interviews to really gauge what type of person you are. Take it as you will, but this can potentially work in your favor. Because as of this moment, you are going on five years of little science, admissions will probably want you to prove yourself by taking more upper division science courses. I speak on behalf of what I know about California schools, which are all top-tier in my opinion. And on the bright side, they don't require the PCAT. The bad side, they must then look critically at your GPA, which is not good as of this moment. You'll need to take the pre-reqs, but honestly I think a post-bac program will serve you better. It'll cost more money, but in the end, it'll be more worth that just taking CC classes. I don't care what people say, admissions of professional health schools do not look too kindly on community colleges. Some don't even accept those credits. Even if they do accept those credits, it's not looked at in a good light. Because you are switching careers, you'll need to demonstrate competence in difficult science courses, especially physiology, organic chemistry, and biology. If you finish a post-bac program, you will most likely get into a handful of schools. As for pharm tech licensing, it wouldn't hurt! Go for it. It's not a hard test to study for. It's more about pharmacy laws than knowing all the drugs.

TL;DR
- Apply to a post-bac program
- Get experience (pharm tech, volunteer - both would be best)
- Take the PCAT if you want. There are a large number of schools moving away from the test because it does not predict the success of a student in school. Go figure.
- It's gonna be a long road, but better at the age of 25, than 30-40s. 25 is pretty typical for entry into pharm school, actually. You'll meet lots of "older" people. So don't beat yourself up for having to change paths. It happens.
- I would try to pay off some of your UG debt, but honestly, once you start pharmacy school, you'll dig a 200k+ hole of debt for yourself. Debt is inevitable.

 

[mycenia]

Thanks for the answer - didn't even think about a post-bacc. Will look into that, but not sure how it might work out for location purposes (don't want to move around too much, and not sure what's available nearby). I'll definitely check out the options though!