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29 too old to be a P1?
Started by BaciBella
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There's a guy in his 30s or 40s in my class.
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I'm 30 and I'm starting my P1 year this year. I see some of my future classmate's facebook pages and most of them say "High School Class of 2007" when I graduated COLLEGE in 2002. It's depressing at first, but I'm excited to start...and prove to everyone you can teach an old dog new tricks 🙂
Quite a few people went to college for science, business, psychology, or whatever before entering pharm school. So they practically will have two degrees.
hmmm med school... if i could do the last 10 years over that would be so tempting. i really doubt that would happen with cc pre-reqs for me now. at this point pharmacy is what i want to do, and im very thankful to be able to, and i know i will enjoy it. Good question what I have been doing until this point. 🙂 No regrets though... except maybe that time passes to fast.
I'm in my 30's and start next week. I'm finding school is easier/more manageable now that I'm older and focused, even though I have more on my plate with a spouse, child, pets, house, and working than I did when I was young, single, and free. 😛
Age is just a number. You're only as old as you feel. So on and so forth.
It's not that uncommon to find someone 30 or older in pharmacy school. I wouldn't worry about it. 🙂
I sure hope not. I'm soon to be a P1 and I turn 40 next month. Oddly enough, I'm not concerned about my age in the least bit. I'm happy to be back in school and plan to enjoy the experience. When I'm done, I'll still have plenty of time to be a pharmacist. I might be concerned if I was still working on getting a family or a house but I have all those things. Now I'll be working on becoming really good at what I do. What is not to like about that?
I graduated with a BS in Biology in 2002. I actually moved to Alaska and worked on a commercial fishing boat to pay off some loans 🙂
I moved back to PA and landed the most BORING job working for a billing company - took a part time job @ a retail pharmacy chain and the rest is history...
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I hope not! Next year I'll be 28 😱😱😱😱😱
I'd answer your question Mr. Pickle, but I know you know the answer.
I'd answer your question Mr. Pickle, but I know you know the answer.
1. Money, and 2. it is quite common (compared to many other professions) for 33 year olds to still be training in medicine...so you're not too out of the norm.
The best reason ever for anything IMO!
Generally costs more to go and you wait longer to get a salary while your loans increase and depending on specialty you might make less or the same unless you give up more of your time
.....how in the world is 29 or 30 old!? Esp. in a field like Pharmacy. Starting pay is *usually* pretty good. It's not like other careers where starting pay is $30k and it takes 10 years or what not to get to $60k+ I focus on finances here because it's the only real thing that matters, your never to old to learn or follow your dreams etc. The only obstacle that might get in your way is money.
So don't worry about your age! It's more important that your excited and willing to learn all there is to learn about Pharmacy. Good luck to all of you! 👍
So don't worry about your age! It's more important that your excited and willing to learn all there is to learn about Pharmacy. Good luck to all of you! 👍
Well, I'm 28, and starting P1 year, so no, I don't think so. Although I do agree that it is a little unnerving to see some of my classmates graduated from high school 8 years after I did! I have more wisdom than they do though, and I still feel like I'm 22 physically, so that's all that really matters, right?
dang..buncha old farts in pharmacy school...
I started RX school at 23.. and was considered an "older" dood...
I started RX school at 23.. and was considered an "older" dood...
Just because you can drink a beer with dinner they think youre "old."
I'll tell you a story you've probably never heard before. The drinking age in the US was 18 until 1985 or 86. In fact, I was one of the few proud brand new 18 year old who could buy alcohol on my b-day when I turned 18. Well.. right as I turned 19, the drinking age law changed to 21. But for those of us who were able to buy alcohol previously were grandfathered in.. at least down in my home state. That's some worthless trivia for you..
I was 29 as a P-1~ now a P-3.....things have worked out just fine. ...For me, I was way more serious about school and you don't take the opportunity for granted. Your "age" is definitely an advantage!! GOOD LUCK!!
money was irresistible, it took the market crashing for me to realize my original plan (pharmacy) was a more stable route. Boom/bust cycles are great if you're young, single, mobile, and pretty resilient...I was thinking ahead to kids/mortgage/family where stability and being rooted somewhere has a premium to it.
and to the OP, 29 is not old...though you'll feel old when you address some of your residents as Dr. and find out they are 25.
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I think the 21 age was tied to federal highway dollars? Each state can make its own rules, but if the min. drinking age is not 21, you lose federal hwy funds. Kind of a de facto federal regulation.
Yeah, if anything I think the "older" students will be more motivated and organized than the "youngins" (though I still refuse to believe that 29 give or take a few years is actually "old"). I can even see some of them becoming "mentors" for the younger members, esp. if they've been out there dealing with taxes and children and what not. My 2 cents
Don't feel down about your age. At first, you may feel that you're out of place because you're older, and that most of your class are younger than you. It's okay. There will be other students who are older too in your class. In fact, I find the older students with a lot more wisdom, diligence, and motivation to do well in school. They are more focused, and they get along with a lot of the younger students. I find myself making better friends with the older students than with the younger students (or students my age). The older students are definitely not frowned upon, not by me at least! The older students also get on better terms with professors easily, and I think it's because of their maturity. So you have a lot going for you, don't feel down about being older. Use it to your advantage. 🙂
So I'm 28 and starting this fall in pharmacy school.
The weird thing I've found is I'm relating more to the residents who are working where I am for my internship in some ways more than the interns. The main reason is that the residents and I are in more similar places in our lives socially. As well, I just defended my thesis proposal and am about to turn in my written thesis. If I had stayed in my field, I'd be about to start a post-doc right now, which is somewhat like a residency.
When you enter pharmacy school when you're older and when you've had a different career, you have to be willing to learn from and listen to people who are probably around your age or even younger. And you have to be willing to do some of what you may consider menial tasks (ringing people up, for instance). It isn't hard for me, both because I realize how little I know right now and the fact that in a lab (my previous workplace), everyone has to do somewhat boring things at times (i.e. making reagents and taking care of waste).
The weird thing I've found is I'm relating more to the residents who are working where I am for my internship in some ways more than the interns. The main reason is that the residents and I are in more similar places in our lives socially. As well, I just defended my thesis proposal and am about to turn in my written thesis. If I had stayed in my field, I'd be about to start a post-doc right now, which is somewhat like a residency.
When you enter pharmacy school when you're older and when you've had a different career, you have to be willing to learn from and listen to people who are probably around your age or even younger. And you have to be willing to do some of what you may consider menial tasks (ringing people up, for instance). It isn't hard for me, both because I realize how little I know right now and the fact that in a lab (my previous workplace), everyone has to do somewhat boring things at times (i.e. making reagents and taking care of waste).
I was 38 when I started.
The only time where I've seen age to be a problem was in undergrad. Some of the older students (40s), didn't take so well to being taught by a 28 year old.
I was 29 when I started pharmacy school and when i decided to switch careers, I started working as a tech while a finished a few pre reqs. It was humbling experience when someone I used to work with at my corporate job would come to pharmacy and I would have to ring up their rx along with their dog treats.
I met someone who was changing careers at age 57. He was in culinary school and used to be a director of a hospital. He had to intern at an event that a lot of board members of his hospital were at and he was the omlette guy. He was pursuing his passion and was happy.
I guess thats all that matters. He moved to vegas and got a job at the four seasons but later realized he could not handle being yelled at by the head chef, so quit and now is managing a cooking/chef store.
costs- I'm not too sure about, from the schools I've looked at, med school is sometimes the same, and other times only slightly more...i.e. the 4-yr tuition differential might be the same as the physician-pharmacist salary differential over a few months.
Almost all physicians make more than almost all pharmacists....ya you wait longer, but your salary could easily be 50% more than a pharmacist (if you stay away from the really low paying specialty)....and 500% or 600% more if you go for a competitive specialty.
i guess i would just say med since you already have less earning years so you might as well make the most out of your working years by investing a few extra yrs in the residency....true, you have to put more time in for medicine..really, i see doctors in their 30s training all the time, especially foreign grads, and i see a lot of practicing pharmacists who are in their mid-late 20s....so the OP would feel like the fit better with the former category.
Medicine is NOT equal to pharmacy. So it doesn't necessarily matter how much money you make if you chose pharmacy for other reasons besides JUST money. In many cases the extra money gained wouldn't necessarily equal greater enjoyment of your life (average physicans works 60 hours a week, nature of the work etc.). Your also not calculating taxes and mal-practice insurance for physicians.
OK, so calculate taxes and mal-practice. On average, physicians still make more money. I know money isn't everything, but I'm just sayin....
We have a 54-year-old P1. That might be too old, but for cost reasons in terms of how much working life you'll be getting out of your investment. I haven't talked to her about what she wants to do with the degree, but my hunch tells me it's not retail chain pharmacy. I mean, it pays pretty well, but not THAT well.
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