Your pharm. school schedule?

[Pharmwannab]

Just wondering what the pharmacy students daily schedules are like. Curious to hear from P1 up through P4. I only have a very vague understanding from curriculums I've seen on various schools' websites. Seems like a lot of schools are 8 to 3, with 8 to 12 for classes and 1 to 3 for presentations, labs, etc. Looking for as detailed info. as possible. It seems like you're taking 5 and 6 science courses at once. I know in undergrad that would be insane. Is it as much work as undergrad for each class? Do you have the same schedule M-F? Weekend classes? How often are exams? Is it harder than your undergrad years? etc. etc. Thanks in advance!

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[npage148]

ill give you my p3 shedule at buffalo.
The first semster.
monday-8-9 biostat
10-12 genomics
4-6 applied PK
tuesday, 2-330 introduction to chem analysis (elective)
3:30-5 therapeutics
wed, 8-9 biostat
4:30-6:30 intro to clinical research (elective)
Thursday 8-9:30 therapeutics rec
same as tues
friday, 8-10 managed care phar/pharmeco
There are other elecitve im not taking becasue im using the free time for research

spring semester:
monday: 8-12 patient assesment lab
2-3 intro to Pharm sci research (elective)
3-430 patient assesment
430-6 pharmacy informatics
tues/thurs -no class
wed: 1-3 therapeutics
3-430 pt assesment
430-6 pharm info
friday: 9-11 comp and alt medicine (elective and half semster class)
1-3 therapeutics
Once again, there are more electives im not taking and im also taking a 1 credit class the week before school. Its genetic research methods, we learn to do pcr and other techniques

 

[Pharmwannab]

Thanks for your response. That doesn't look quite as bad as I expected. I was thinking 8 to 3 or 8 to 5, 5 days a week. So do you find yourself constantly studying or is there room to actually have somewhat of a life?

Would like to get more responses too. Trying to gain a good perspective of what it's really like on the inside.

Also, if anyone has any info. on what kind of things you do on rotations, I'd appreciate it. So I take it you work with a pharmacist and he/she evaluates your performance to see if you pass or not?

Have seen all sorts of topics on what it takes to get in to pharm. school, but not so much on what the daily life of a student is like. Thanks again!

 

[SomeGuy]

http://phm.utoronto.ca/undergrad/stulinks/2005-06_Yr1-Timetable.pdf

Year 1 Timetable

Change Yr1 to Yr2 etc. to see the other years.

 

[museabuse]

Here is winter block schedule for MWU-CPG(a three year school).

first year


second year

 

[SomeGuy]

One of my biggest pet peeves? When academic institutions post things in Microsoft Word format.

We have international standards folks, and .doc isn't one of them!

 

[pinkyrx]

One of my biggest pet peeves? When academic institutions post things in Microsoft Word format.

We have international standards folks, and .doc isn't one of them!

Just curious, what format would you rather see it in?

 

[pinkyrx]

Thanks for your response. That doesn't look quite as bad as I expected. I was thinking 8 to 3 or 8 to 5, 5 days a week. So do you find yourself constantly studying or is there room to actually have somewhat of a life?

We are out by midday on somedays and other days we go until 3 or 4. As far as whether or not you can actually have a life, that really depends on you as a student and what your expectations are when it comes to grades. I think there are probably only 10% of our class that have no lives and thats either because they work too much outside of school or are too demanding on themselves when it comes to grades.

I work pretty hard during the week, but I don't do anything school related on the weekend unless I have a big test on Monday (which isn't very common). I have extra time during the week too, just not a ton of it. I should also mention that I don't work during the semester, only on holidays/summers.

 

[Glycerin]

I don't know my second semester schedule yet, but this semester's schedule is as follows:

Monday
Half the class has Integrated Basic Health Sciences (IBHS) lab from 8am-11am, and the other half has Intro to Pharmacy lab from 9am-11am. We all break from 11-noon, and then we have Pharmaceutics I (Pharm Calc) until 1pm. Then, the morning labs switch. Half has IBHS lab from 1pm-4pm, and then the other half has Intro to Pharm lab from 1pm-3pm.

Tuesday
IBHS lecture from 8am-10am. Intro to Pharmacy lecture from 10am-noon. Done for the day.

Wednesday
Pharm Calc from 8am-9am. IBHS lecture from 9am-11am. The half of the class that will do Service Learning in the spring then gets to go home. The rest of us doing Service Learning this semester have to return by 1pm for a 2-hour lecture on Service Learning.

Thursday
IBHS lecture 9am-11am. Psychosocial Aspects of Disease 1pm-3pm.

Friday
No class. This day is blocked off for those of us with Service Learning (which is mandatory volunteering in the community for ~3 hours). Some people doing SL use their time off on Tuesday afternoons to complete this, and therefore they, too, have Fridays off. I use Friday mornings for volunteering, though. In short, most of the class have a 3-day weekend, something the P2s are angry about because their first semester their first year consisted of 5-day school weeks.

 

[fairyofsong]

South University College of Pharmacy

A link where you can view the entire schedule and course curriculum for your pharmacy career at South http://www.southuniversity.edu/campus/pharm/current_curriculum.asp

Currently, I am a P1 in my second quarter. South is on a 3 year program so after you go 3 quarters, you have gone the equivalent of what 4 year programs consider 1 year. Therefore, when I start my 4th quarter I will be a P2; when I start my 7th quarter I'll be a P3 and starting my 10th quarter, a P4. Here is what my schedule is like RIGHT NOW as a second quarter P1

Monday
9-10:30 Integrated Sequence I
10:30-12 Anatomy & Phys. II
1:30-4:30 Professional Practice II Lab/or/Pharmaceutics Lab (class is halved)

Tuesday
9-10:30 Biochemistry II
10:30-12 Pharmaceutics

Wednesday
9-10:30 Integrated Sequence I
10:30-12 Anatomy & Phys. II
1:30-4:30 Professional Practice II Lab/or/Pharmaceutics Lab (class is halved)

Thursday
9-10:30 Biochemistry II
10:30-12 Pharmaceutics
1:30-3:30 Communications

Friday
9-10:00 Informatics
10:00-12 Anatomy & Phys. II
1-3:00 Make-up Class Period

 

[fairyofsong]

We are out by midday on somedays and other days we go until 3 or 4. As far as whether or not you can actually have a life, that really depends on you as a student and what your expectations are when it comes to grades. I think there are probably only 10% of our class that have no lives and thats either because they work too much outside of school or are too demanding on themselves when it comes to grades.

I work pretty hard during the week, but I don't do anything school related on the weekend unless I have a big test on Monday (which isn't very common). I have extra time during the week too, just not a ton of it. I should also mention that I don't work during the semester, only on holidays/summers.

I agree--as long as you learn how to manage your time during the week and stay on top of school during the week, you can have some time on the weekends. I try to keep things up because I am only able to see my boyfriend on the weekends and I don't want to be doing school stuff the entire time with him! You have to have someone (if you're in a relationship) that understands that there WILL be times that you will have to spend more time than usual on school -- i.e. several tests the next week. It took me about 4-5 weeks to really learn how I had to schedule my time during the week to accomplish all that I needed to accomplish. Since then, I'm staying on target pretty well!

Just be prepared to live at school sometimes. My friends and I suggested having an area to set up tents & sleeping bags since we are at school so much at times..

 

[dgroulx]

I don't have a lot of lectures during year 3. Most my book learning is over. All of my classes have lots of assignments that you have to do on your own time. So, even though the lectures are light this year, my work load is much higher than years 1 or 2.

Monday: Pharmacotherapy IV, Skills Lab (lecture), Biostats
Tuesday: Pharmaceutical Outcomes Teleconference, Dosage Forms (compounding), Pharmacogenomics, Skills Lab (lab)
Wednesday: Pharmacotherapy IV, Pharmaceutical Outcomes, Biostats
Thursday: Dosage Forms (compounding), Pharmacogenomics
Friday: Pharmacotherapy IV, Pharmaceutical Outcomes

My Federal & State Pharmacy Law class was condensed over 8 weeks and is already over. We met twice for 3 hour sessions. Lectures were prerecorded.
My Biotransformation elective is self-study. I have readings and assignments.

For Spring - My classes are condensed into 8 weeks. There are only 4 classes, so I go to class for twice as long for each. I'll be taking: Pharmacotherapy V, Pharmaceutical Law & Ethics, Skills Lab II, Drugs & Society (my elective). As soon as those 8 weeks are over, I go on rotations. We don't get spring break next year.

 

[Ms. Hand]

I'm a P1.

Fall Semester:
Monday - biochem lab 8:30-1120 (it hardly ever takes that long), biochem lecture 1230-120, pharmacology lecture 1:30-2:20.
Tuesday: Dean's Orientation 10:30-11:20, Biochem lecture 12:30-1:20, Calculations 2:30-3:30.
Wednesday: biochem lecture 1230-120, pharmacology lecture 1:30-2:20.
Thursday: Ethics & Law 10:30-11:20, Early Pharmacy Practice Experience 11:30-12:20, Pharmacology lecture 1:30-2:20, Calculations 2:30-3:20.
Friday: biochem lecture 1230-120, pharmacology lecture 1:30-2:20.

I don't have my schedule for spring handy, but if i recall correctly I'll have four lectures on Monday and Friday, four lectures plus a lab on Wednesday, and only one lecture on Tuesday and Thursday. Also, I'm taking a self-study class.

 

[SomeGuy]

Just curious, what format would you rather see it in?

There's no reason it couldn't have been exported to .html if it were created in any reasonable word processing suite. I also like the OpenDocument Format used by OpenOffice, as the protocol is public. PDF is considered by the International Standards Organization to be good for long-term electronic document storage.

It could even be exported into a .gif file, so its easily universally readable.

I don't really like PDF much either. Too many things should just be in .html, but are not. Adobe Acrobat Reader and Word are clunky and unncessary for a simple document.