18 and 19 year olds getting accepted?

[RxMTM]

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I've been hearing about too many schools opening and I think this is proof. My school is taking in people that are as young as 18. I though pharmacy school was competetive? How can an 18 year old have a resume to compete with anyone in the first place? Talk about dilution of pharmacist quality. Schools are starting to take anyone and everyone just to fill their seats.

 

[bacillus1]

I've been hearing about too many schools opening and I think this is proof. My school is taking in people that are as young as 18. I though pharmacy school was competetive? How can an 18 year old have a resume to compete with anyone in the first place? Talk about dilution of pharmacist quality. Schools are starting to take anyone and everyone just to fill their seats.

Graduate HS at 16 and have prereqs done by 18 with a good GPA and PCAT? Sounds unlikely but possible.

I mean if my birthday was 2 months later than it is, I'd be starting the professional phase of pharmacy school at 19.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I'm one of those losers they accepted at age 19.

 

[RxMTM]

No offense to you or anyone that got accepted at an early age. I'm just concerned as to why pharmacy schools say that they are "so competetive" when they are accepting people with absolutely any credentials. People with less than a 3.0. People that did a couple years at a community college. The case seems to be that too many schools are open and they just have to fill up the empty seats so they can get that tuition cash flowing into their brand-new, barely-opened school.

 

[type b pharmD]

thought this was fairly standard for 6 year schools. if i had known about pharmacy i certainly would have applied at age 17 :O

you do see a fair amount of high school students on the prepharm forum who are talking about getting their stuff together to apply to 6 year programs.. and graduating high school at 16 isnt THAT strange.. i was 17 when i graduated (youngest in my class, not like im one of those fancy skip-a-year people)

 

[WVUPharm2007]

No offense to you or anyone that got accepted at an early age. I'm just concerned as to why pharmacy schools say that they are "so competetive" when they are accepting people with absolutely any credentials. People with less than a 3.0. People that did a couple years at a community college. The case seems to be that too many schools are open and they just have to fill up the empty seats so they can get that tuition cash flowing into their brand-new, barely-opened school.

Pharmacy has never been as competitive as we make it out to be.

I got accepted at 19...after 2 years of community college...and with a 3.2-ish GPA...at a school that's been around forever...back when there were less schools...

 

[owlegrad]

Pharmacy has never been as competitive as we make it out to be.

I got accepted at 19...after 2 years of community college...and with a 3.2-ish GPA...at a school that's been around forever...back when there were less schools...

qft

I thought it would be tough getting in. It wasn't.

 

[HappyPharmacist]

Combine that with faculty who have no publications, no residencies, fellowships, postdoctoral or industry experience and you have a great combination.

 

[Its Z]

what a stupid thread..

so those who received BS pharm 5 year degree by entering college at 18 didnt deserve it.. or those entering 6 year pharmd program out of HS shoudnt pursue it because you think pharmacy should be more competitive and should only be taught to people whove done extensive college work and or having been out in work force??

 

[StriveForGlory]

I was accepted into the rutgers six year program when I was 16 years old. While I agree with your statement that this is kind of ludicrous I am literally surrounded by some of the most intelligent people and faculty on the east coast. Anyone who didnt deserve to be accepted is no longer in the pharmacy program.

 

[HappyPharmacist]

I've been hearing about too many schools opening and I think this is proof. My school is taking in people that are as young as 18. I though pharmacy school was competetive? How can an 18 year old have a resume to compete with anyone in the first place? Talk about dilution of pharmacist quality. Schools are starting to take anyone and everyone just to fill their seats.

I have interviewed some exceptional 18 year olds in the last 4 years. What is worrisome is the 18 year olds with a 35 PCAT and a 2.6 with no pharmacy experience getting accepted.

 

[Sparda29]

Combine that with faculty who have no publications, no residencies, fellowships, postdoctoral or industry experience and you have a great combination.

I've been hearing about too many schools opening and I think this is proof. My school is taking in people that are as young as 18. I though pharmacy school was competetive? How can an 18 year old have a resume to compete with anyone in the first place? Talk about dilution of pharmacist quality. Schools are starting to take anyone and everyone just to fill their seats.

Seriously, I took so many classes in high school that if I moved to Florida, I could have graduated high school when I was 15 years old.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

qft

I thought it would be tough getting in. It wasn't.

Haha yeah if I'd have known what I wanted to be sooner I would have applying at 19 (I'm 19 with 1 1/2 years of pre-reqs to go.
Hopefully I don't have to W or re-take a class.
And I'm gonna ignore that post above and refer to your sig lmao 😀

 

[charfdorn]

I've been hearing about too many schools opening and I think this is proof. My school is taking in people that are as young as 18. I though pharmacy school was competetive? How can an 18 year old have a resume to compete with anyone in the first place? Talk about dilution of pharmacist quality. Schools are starting to take anyone and everyone just to fill their seats.

I'd rather take an 18-year-old go-getter with great stats than someone who took 10 years to finish undergrad because they could never handle the full-time course load, or a 30-year-old engineer who got laid off and wanted a career that paid really well. It's about the whole application, not the year the person graduated high school.

 

[BavarianMWE46]

There are about 4 people in my class who will finish at 22, plenty more at 23. Some doctorate program you have there.

 

[BavarianMWE46]

If pharmacy was a BS degree, which it basically is, just kind of disguised as a doctorate/professional program that is mostly undergrad level work, then it wouldn't be so odd for 22 year olds to graduate with a pharmd. It is also slightly absurd for these 22/23 year olds to start out at $100K+ without having ever worked a day in their life. We will see how long this lasts...

 

[owlegrad]

If pharmacy was a BS degree, which it basically is, just kind of disguised as a doctorate/professional program that is mostly undergrad level work, then it wouldn't be so odd for 22 year olds to graduate with a pharmd. It is also slightly absurd for these 22/23 year olds to start out at $100K+ without having ever worked a day in their life. We will see how long this lasts...

Honestly I am jealous of the youngest people in my class. I wish I had known what I wanted to do at their age. They will earn much more over their lifetime than me and I suspect that pharmacy school is easier for them (it's just not as easy as it used to be to get stuff in the ole brainium - I think that's the correct term?).

Honestly, what exactly is the objection here? Young people are not allowed to be mature enough for pharmacy school? This whole thread is ridiculous.

 

[charfdorn]

Honestly I am jealous of the youngest people in my class. I wish I had known what I wanted to do at their age. They will earn much more over their lifetime than me and I suspect that pharmacy school is easier for them (it's just not as easy as it used to be to get stuff in the ole brainium - I think that's the correct term?).

Honestly, what exactly is the objection here? Young people are not allowed to be mature enough for pharmacy school? This whole thread is ridiculous.

Agreed. I am totally jealous of the pharmacist I work with who graduated high school the same year as me. And I have absolutely no doubts to her competence.

 

[killerpenguin21]

last i checked 18 is right around the age you go to college...

 

[oh no dont stop]

If pharmacy was a BS degree, which it basically is, just kind of disguised as a doctorate/professional program that is mostly undergrad level work, then it wouldn't be so odd for 22 year olds to graduate with a pharmd. It is also slightly absurd for these 22/23 year olds to start out at $100K+ without having ever worked a day in their life. We will see how long this lasts...

1) Blatant ageism at its core. Who said we can't find someone to discriminate?
2) I started pharmacy school (0-6) when I was 17
3) I graduated with a least a handful of other 23 year old pharmacists.

 

[owlegrad]

1) Blatant ageism at its core. Who said we can't find someone to discriminate?
2) I started pharmacy school (0-6) when I was 17
3) I graduated with a least a handful of other 23 year old pharmacists.

Oh yeah those poor, poor young people. When will we stop discriminating against our young people! Honestly young people have it soooo rough. If only young people had a fair shake. Oh the injustice! Every other demographic has it better than the 18-24 year old group!

Clearly too young to practise. Are you even able to count to thirty when you are that young? I doubt it...

/sarcasm

 

[TemSirolimus]

Truth is, pharmacy is a bull***** profession with its perceived prestige driven primarily by shortage, not overall contribution to healthcare delivery. Legislature and bigpharma in developed countries allow this profession to exist to what it is now. Anywhere else, pharmacists are no more than clerks (not even glorified).

The profession's niche is also very narrow and defined- dispensing; and that explains why we get such a huge pushback when we try to play "clinicians".

When the demand dwindles, this will become more obvious. And I am not a hopeless pharmd-graduate-to-be, I already have a good offer awaiting, so I am as objective as I can be.

 

[owlegrad]

Truth is, pharmacy is a bull***** profession with its perceived prestige driven primarily by shortage, not overall contribution to healthcare delivery. Legislature and bigpharma in developed countries allow this profession to exist to what it is now. Anywhere else, pharmacists are no more than clerks (not even glorified).

The profession's niche is also very narrow and defined- dispensing; and that explains why we get such a huge pushback when we try to play "clinicians".

When the demand dwindles, this will become more obvious. And I am not a hopeless pharmd-graduate-to-be, I already have a good offer awaiting, so I am as objective as I can be.

Wow...Just "Wow". I mean I haven't been overly impressed with what I have seen so far from clinical pharmacists, but I am no where near this critical. This has to be the most negative thing I have ever seen a pharmacy student say.

Have you no experience with pharmacists catching deadly interactions or recommending better treatment options to prescribers? We make very valuable contributions in those two areas alone, not to mention help with dosing, running warfarin clinics, immunizing, the list goes on. I know several doctors at my hospital who are grateful for the pharmacists contribution to the health care team. The role of pharmacists are expanding, not contracting to "clerk".

Do you really think pharmacists should be seen as clerks? I have to think you included that comment because you agree with the sentiment. I would love to be wrong.

 

[therxist]

Truth is, pharmacy is a bull***** profession with its perceived prestige driven primarily by shortage, not overall contribution to healthcare delivery. Legislature and bigpharma in developed countries allow this profession to exist to what it is now. Anywhere else, pharmacists are no more than clerks (not even glorified).

The profession's niche is also very narrow and defined- dispensing; and that explains why we get such a huge pushback when we try to play "clinicians".

When the demand dwindles, this will become more obvious. And I am not a hopeless pharmd-graduate-to-be, I already have a good offer awaiting, so I am as objective as I can be.

And many of us wonder why pharmacists are looked down by other clinicians. It's thanks to those like this who have no respect for the profession or for themselves. .

 

[Filler]

Truth is, pharmacy is a bull***** profession with its perceived prestige driven primarily by shortage, not overall contribution to healthcare delivery. Legislature and bigpharma in developed countries allow this profession to exist to what it is now. Anywhere else, pharmacists are no more than clerks (not even glorified).

The profession's niche is also very narrow and defined- dispensing; and that explains why we get such a huge pushback when we try to play "clinicians".

When the demand dwindles, this will become more obvious. And I am not a hopeless pharmd-graduate-to-be, I already have a good offer awaiting, so I am as objective as I can be.

 

[rxlea]

Where I work, pharmacists are respected and are an integral part of the medical team. We don't have "basement pharmacists" here. Every pharmacist has their fair share of clinical practice. I would be happy to be in any of the pharmacist roles at my institution. But, it IS a very "progressive" institution in that respect; they stress teamwork and the "best interest of the patient" which involves ALL members of the medical team. The pharmacists here also give presentations on various topics or case studies to docs and other health care professionals. Some of them are instructors at the College of Medicine, too.

If you are that critical of your own field, why bother being a part of it? It's like the people that complain all day about CVS but never leave. Makes me think it is all about the WALL GREEN.

 

[TemSirolimus]

Have you no experience with pharmacists catching deadly interactions or recommending better treatment options to prescribers? We make very valuable contributions in those two areas alone, not to mention help with dosing,.

Owl- thats all part of dispensing. I didnt say that dispensing is not clinical.

I LOVE pharmacy and I am good at it, in fact, I have been offered a position as a staffer. Couldn't be happier.

RNs run anticoag clinics and immunization clinics, nothing special there.

Today at my rotation site with the clinical pharmacist, all we did was check abt and anticoag orders against a renal dosing/ INR rubric. Is that what they are paid six figures to do? I could had done that as a P1. Someone is surely getting shortchanged here.

Had I wanted to do anything more than staffing, I would have gone to medical/PA/NP school.

 

[owlegrad]

Owl- thats all part of dispensing. I didnt say that dispensing is not clinical.

I LOVE pharmacy and I am good at it, in fact, I have been offered a position as a staffer. Couldn't be happier.

RNs run anticoag clinics and immunization clinics, nothing special there.

Today at my rotation site with the clinical pharmacist, all we did was check abt and anticoag orders against a renal dosing/ INR rubric. Is that what they are paid six figures to do? I could had done that as a P1. Someone is surely getting shortchanged here.

Had I wanted to do anything more than staffing, I would have gone to medical/PA/NP school.

Recommending treatment options is part of dispencing? Maybe we have different deffinitions of dispensing. I mean checking interaction, of course, but making recommendations? Sounds clinical to me. I guess you meant that all pharmacists should dispence and the clinical side to it should just be a part of the despensing process? I think I see where you are coming from, if that is what you meant.

Anyway I am glad to hear that you at least love some part of pharmacy, ashame you can't see any other activity as being positive for pharmacy. Based on your post it sounded like you though pharmacists should be clerks. Glad that's not the case. Even if you don't actually enjoy say anticoag clinics or whatever else at least they create more jobs for pharmacists. As far as expanding practise goes... anything that creates more jobs is a plus in my book.

I think I actually agree with you about six figures for "clinical" pharmacists being...unjustifiable? I still have yet to see some grand contribution to the hospital from the clinical pharmacists. Most of the time appears to me to be busy work to justify even coming in to work. I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that we need this sort of pharmacist. I would love to be wrong about this, I just haven't seen it yet myself. I suppose they must be valuable or else why would the hospital have them? But I like pharmacists whose contribution to health care are immediate and measurable (i.e. staff, anticoag, immunizing, nuclear). This doesn't seem to be the model for purely clinical roles.

 

[Its Z]

if 18 and 19 year olds are too young for pharmacy school, we should increase the voting age and military age since we know they are too young to know anything to really vote or old enough to fight in a war....just sayin

 

[Pink Ranger]

Have you no experience with pharmacists catching deadly interactions or recommending better treatment options to prescribers? We make very valuable contributions in those two areas alone, not to mention help with dosing, running warfarin clinics, immunizing, the list goes on. I know several doctors at my hospital who are grateful for the pharmacists contribution to the health care team. The role of pharmacists are expanding, not contracting to "clerk".

Do you really think pharmacists should be seen as clerks? I have to think you included that comment because you agree with the sentiment. I would love to be wrong.

As far as drug interactions go, they could probably come out with computers to do that, seeing as they've got computers nowadays for everything. And as for the other tasks mentioned, they are not limited to pharmacists. Before I looked into the profession, I also believed that pharmacy was a useless field. I don't know about clinical pharmacy, but as far as retail goes, were it not for laws mandating that pharmacists alone are responsible for dispensing, counseling, etc., the chains would have replaced pharmacists with pharmacy technicians a long time ago.

On a side note, I also think that general practitioners don't serve much use in society, either. In fact, my doctor had to go look something up in a book because she didn't know how to deal with something. I could've done that myself. If I had a real problem, I would go see a specialist. If I want a physical, well, any old geezer can check my blood pressure and send me to the lab for a blood test. All the white coat really shows is that you've been through more schooling than most people, and accordingly, you need a higher salary to pay off those college debts.

 

[owlegrad]

As far as drug interactions go, they could probably come out with computers to do that, seeing as they've got computers nowadays for everything. And as for the other tasks mentioned, they are not limited to pharmacists. Before I looked into the profession, I also believed that pharmacy was a useless field. I don't know about clinical pharmacy, but as far as retail goes, were it not for laws mandating that pharmacists alone are responsible for dispensing, counseling, etc., the chains would have replaced pharmacists with pharmacy technicians a long time ago.

On a side note, I also think that general practitioners don't serve much use in society, either. In fact, my doctor had to go look something up in a book because she didn't know how to deal with something. I could've done that myself. If I had a real problem, I would go see a specialist. If I want a physical, well, any old geezer can check my blood pressure and send me to the lab for a blood test. All the white coat really shows is that you've been through more schooling than most people, and accordingly, you need a higher salary to pay off those college debts.

So your opinion has changed? This thread is challenging my reading comprehension skills, because it sounds to me like you still believe that. I won't comment on the chains, except to say that if you believe a multi-billion dollar company would leave several hundred thousand dollar inventories (esp. narcotics) per store with near minimum wage associates without the oversight of licensed professionals...Well lets just say I disagree. Not to mention the liability involved with dispensing medication.


Right, who needs a useless PCP when you can just go to a specialist every time something is wrong. This is particularly useful if you know in advance what your diagnosis will be. No matter how I look at it this seems like a very reasonable comment.

 

[Pink Ranger]

if you believe a multi-billion dollar company would leave several hundred thousand dollar inventories (esp. narcotics) per store with near minimum wage associates without the oversight of licensed professionals...Well lets just say I disagree. Not to mention the liability involved with dispensing medication.

Have you worked in retail? You don't know how these people think. I've heard countless managers arguing that pharm techs should be able to dispense medication. As far as liability goes, they have insurance for that.

Pharmacists don't get the general respect that MDs do because they don't do that much compared to the amount of schooling they have to go through. The six-figure salary means A) we've gone to school and passed the board exam and B) we have a lot of responsibility and simple mistakes could mean death. If you want to argue that pharmacists should be respected, then ok, pharmacy school is tough and you have to work hard on the path to become a pharmacist. But I still don't consider pharmacists to be the most vital component of society. They check for drug interactions, counsel patients, and administer vaccines, along with some other stuff, but if all pharmacists dropped dead today, there would be only be a few months of chaos before they came out with computers to do most of the work and pharm techs to do the rest. People on this forum are too arrogant and self-centered to think that their profession is not nearly as important as they think. When people tell me that they think pharmacists just stand behind a counter and count pills, I just tell them about all the things we have to learn. I don't pretend like pharmacists are God's greatest gift to mankind.

 

[owlegrad]

Have you worked in retail? You don't know how these people think. I've heard countless managers arguing that pharm techs should be able to dispense medication. As far as liability goes, they have insurance for that.

Pharmacists don't get the general respect that MDs do because they don't do that much compared to the amount of schooling they have to go through. The six-figure salary means A) we've gone to school and passed the board exam and B) we have a lot of responsibility and simple mistakes could mean death. If you want to argue that pharmacists should be respected, then ok, pharmacy school is tough and you have to work hard on the path to become a pharmacist. But I still don't consider pharmacists to be the most vital component of society. They check for drug interactions, counsel patients, and administer vaccines, along with some other stuff, but if all pharmacists dropped dead today, there would be only be a few months of chaos before they came out with computers to do most of the work and pharm techs to do the rest. People on this forum are too arrogant and self-centered to think that their profession is not nearly as important as they think. When people tell me that they think pharmacists just stand behind a counter and count pills, I just tell them about all the things we have to learn. I don't pretend like pharmacists are God's greatest gift to mankind.

I have worked in retail, but never as a CEO. I don't think techs would ever be given the responsibility of the pharmacist. Setting aside liability issues (I don't think CVS or Wlagreens carry "being sued" insurance - they are likely self-insured and besides that don't you think the rates would go up if techs were running the pharmacy?), inventory controls are important to chains - do you really think they would trust techs with this? I don't.

By your reasoning chains wouldn't have managers, just clerks. Why pay a manager when clerks can do all the work? I think managers would disappear before pharmacists.

We can agree to disagree, but do you really think that chains want to get rid of pharmacists? That's crazy talk.

Your point is that there are pharmacists who are not as important as they think they are?! Stop the presses!

 

[spacecowgirl]

Oh, Pink Ranger. I laugh at you What year are you? God help us all if you're anything more than 1 month into P1 and you think that way about GPs and pharmacists.

 

[Its Z]

Oh, Pink Ranger. I laugh at you What year are you? God help us all if you're anything more than 1 month into P1 and you think that way about GPs and pharmacists.

No way she's a P1... I think maybe HS? My 11 year old daughter writes more coherently and logically reasoned argument than that..

 

[StevePerry]

if 18 and 19 year olds are too young for pharmacy school, we should increase the voting age and military age since we know they are too young to know anything to really vote or old enough to fight in a war....just sayin

Great point Z, we should obviously also extrapolate that out to not letting 18 year olds join the NBA or NFL...

 

[StevePerry]

Have you worked in retail? You don't know how these people think. I've heard countless managers arguing that pharm techs should be able to dispense medication. As far as liability goes, they have insurance for that.

Pharmacists don't get the general respect that MDs do because they don't do that much compared to the amount of schooling they have to go through. The six-figure salary means A) we've gone to school and passed the board exam and B) we have a lot of responsibility and simple mistakes could mean death. If you want to argue that pharmacists should be respected, then ok, pharmacy school is tough and you have to work hard on the path to become a pharmacist. But I still don't consider pharmacists to be the most vital component of society. They check for drug interactions, counsel patients, and administer vaccines, along with some other stuff, but if all pharmacists dropped dead today, there would be only be a few months of chaos before they came out with computers to do most of the work and pharm techs to do the rest. People on this forum are too arrogant and self-centered to think that their profession is not nearly as important as they think. When people tell me that they think pharmacists just stand behind a counter and count pills, I just tell them about all the things we have to learn. I don't pretend like pharmacists are God's greatest gift to mankind.

In 2 mere posts you have managed to become the clearcut front-runner on here for student jackass of the year. THAT my friend is some good work and no easy task.

 

[Its Z]

oh..the irony of this board...

We get a stupid arse thread started about disapproving of young students entering pharmacy school....only to have a self claimed pharmacy student making a middle school level post...

We can't win!

 

[charfdorn]

Have you worked in retail? You don't know how these people think. I've heard countless managers arguing that pharm techs should be able to dispense medication. As far as liability goes, they have insurance for that.

Pharmacists don't get the general respect that MDs do because they don't do that much compared to the amount of schooling they have to go through. The six-figure salary means A) we've gone to school and passed the board exam and B) we have a lot of responsibility and simple mistakes could mean death. If you want to argue that pharmacists should be respected, then ok, pharmacy school is tough and you have to work hard on the path to become a pharmacist. But I still don't consider pharmacists to be the most vital component of society. They check for drug interactions, counsel patients, and administer vaccines, along with some other stuff, but if all pharmacists dropped dead today, there would be only be a few months of chaos before they came out with computers to do most of the work and pharm techs to do the rest. People on this forum are too arrogant and self-centered to think that their profession is not nearly as important as they think. When people tell me that they think pharmacists just stand behind a counter and count pills, I just tell them about all the things we have to learn. I don't pretend like pharmacists are God's greatest gift to mankind.

I don't think anybody pretends that. As far as the schooling goes, med students have two years of classroom education while we have three. Now I'm not sure what year of "pharmacy school" you're in, but I bet you can tell me which of those numbers is greater.

In 2 mere posts you have managed to become the clearcut front-runner on here for student jackass of the year. THAT my friend is some good work and no easy task.

Especially with Sparda running amok all the time...

 

[StevePerry]

oh..the irony of this board...

We get a stupid arse thread started about disapproving of young students entering pharmacy school....only to have a self claimed pharmacy student making a middle school level post...

We can't win!

Seriously man -- I'm feelin' like Larry David wrote this thread.

 

[Sparda29]

In 2 mere posts you have managed to become the clearcut front-runner on here for student jackass of the year. THAT my friend is some good work and no easy task.

Especially with Sparda running amok all the time...

 

[MrMeowphers]

🙄

This is an incredibly silly post!!!

1.) Those who are the older members of their class will usually always try to make the "young-ins" feel inferior.
2.) The students who are 18-20 years old will obviously feel offended by this thread and voice a rebuttal.

I can speak for myself and say that I spent the 4 years to get my B.S. bachelors degree in chemistry (with a 3.82 GPA) as well as spent many years in graduate school for my higher degrees; with years in the Research and Development departments of Big Pharma Companies; I even received a 99% on the PCAT on my first try...

---> yet I don't feel ANY animosity for the 33% of my class whom are under the age of 20; nor the 65-70% of my class that doesn't hold even a bachelors degree before going into the PharmD program. I'm actually PROUD of them for being very motivated and figuring out what they wanted to do sooner then most people who twirl their thumbs as an undergrad. for 5-6 years it seems now for a single degree (no offense to those who simply took their time figuring out what they wanted to get their degree in).

It's a terrible idea to judge people simply because the older people feel "jealous" because of some pre-conceived idea that they'll have less earning potential. WHO CARES!!!!! This isn't a race to see who can accumulate the most money (the M.D's and D.D.S's of the health profession field will beat us to that punch many times over). This is about YOU-YOURSELF making a career choice for your own benefit.

If people are going to complain that the obviously inflated PharmD plan (which before the 90's was mostly still given out as a B.S. in Pharmacy), then they should petition the schools to change the admission plan. Otherwise, suck it up and be happy that you're able to pursue a career that you want.

My dollar has been contributed.

 

[PharMed2016]

🙄

This is an incredibly silly post!!!

1.) Those who are the older members of their class will usually always try to make the "young-ins" feel inferior.
2.) The students who are 18-20 years old will obviously feel offended by this thread and voice a rebuttal.

I can speak for myself and say that I spent the 4 years to get my B.S. bachelors degree in chemistry (with a 3.82 GPA) as well as spent many years in graduate school for my higher degrees; with years in the Research and Development departments of Big Pharma Companies; I even received a 99% on the PCAT on my first try...

---> yet I don't feel ANY animosity for the 33% of my class whom are under the age of 20; nor the 65-70% of my class that doesn't hold even a bachelors degree before going into the PharmD program. I'm actually PROUD of them for being very motivated and figuring out what they wanted to do sooner then most people who twirl their thumbs as an undergrad. for 5-6 years it seems now for a single degree (no offense to those who simply took their time figuring out what they wanted to get their degree in).

It's a terrible idea to judge people simply because the older people feel "jealous" because of some pre-conceived idea that they'll have less earning potential. WHO CARES!!!!! This isn't a race to see who can accumulate the most money (the M.D's and D.D.S's of the health profession field will beat us to that punch many times over). This is about YOU-YOURSELF making a career choice for your own benefit.

If people are going to complain that the obviously inflated PharmD plan (which before the 90's was mostly still given out as a B.S. in Pharmacy), then they should petition the schools to change the admission plan. Otherwise, suck it up and be happy that you're able to pursue a career that you want.

My dollar has been contributed.

Excellent post.

 

[oh no dont stop]

This thread is dumb. If you earned a BS in bio/chem/english/communications/whatever you'd better start posting how your undergrad degree has helped you as a pharmacist/made you superior before you start complaining about how young P1s are accepted into pharmacy school.


/flame suit on

EDIT: a BA/BS is becoming the new GED of our society. Don't think so? Test the job market without one.

 

[SHC1984]

Personally I am jealous of the 18 or 19 year olds starting pharmacy school! They are smart, YOUNG, and will be making $$$$ at a very young age. I think everyone is jealous of that! I will be 28 (old maid) when I get out of pharmacy school while some people will be 22!! Tell me how I can not be jealous of that!

I think what the OP should have say was if there were FEWER pharmacy school then the pharmacy profession would be much better off. If there were only 50 pharmacy schools in the United States then
1) the job market for pharmacists would not be so crappy
2) people with low gpa and low pcat scores would not have a chance. Fewer seats means you actually have to be quailified to get accepted.
3) pharmacy overall would be much more respected b/c not everyone can be accepted like it is now.

I don't think the age matters. It's the quality of pharmacy students that are being produced here. I know a person in my class that told me she made a 58 on her PCAT. This just tells you how easy it is to get into pharmacy school and that shouldn't be the case.

 

[IrishHammer]

Okay, because I keep hearing about admissions standards being lowered...

Can someone please provide me the exact info of this purported student I keep reading about on SDN who got into pharmacy school with a 2.3 GPA and 37% PCAT score? What's his/her name, what school does he/she go to?

This elusive student is turning into the next "Million dollar Alaska contract". Everybody talks about it like it's fact, but nobody seems to have any hard proof.

 

[RxMTM]

I'd rather take an 18-year-old go-getter with great stats than someone who took 10 years to finish undergrad because they could never handle the full-time course load, or a 30-year-old engineer who got laid off and wanted a career that paid really well. It's about the whole application, not the year the person graduated high school.

The irony of your post it that my school has both 18 year olds, and up to 40 year olds that got laid off low-paying jobs. They had to beg people to fill up their remaining seats.

 

[RxMTM]

Who said we were trying to flame 18-20 year olds on this thread? We are supposed to be flaming the damn schools that are pretending to be "competitive" but they have a shi*ty candidate pool and pretend like they have the top students in the world.

 

[Its Z]

Who said we were trying to flame 18-20 year olds on this thread? We are supposed to be flaming the damn schools that are pretending to be "competitive" but they have a shi*ty candidate pool and pretend like they have the top students in the world.

thats because you couldnt get into a "real" pharmacy school.

 

[rxlea]

thats because you couldnt get into a "real" pharmacy school.

Real pharmacy school = ???