A couple of questions

[trismegistus]

I'm a Pre-Pharmacy major with about two semesters worth of prerequisites left. In my state--Louisiana-- there are two pharmacy schools. One is a private school and I don't really want to go through Theology classes.

1. How hard is it to get into out of state pharmacy schools?
2. Have you heard of UL-Monroe or Xavier's programs?
3. Consensus on the board is that the jobs situation sucks. I plan on trying to get a retail job to make some money before doing research. Sound like a plan? Oh and I want the Ph.D, not just a pharmD.

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[owlegrad]

1. How hard is it to get into out of state pharmacy schools?
2. Have you heard of UL-Monroe or Xavier's programs?
3. Consensus on the board is that the jobs situation sucks. I plan on trying to get a retail job to make some money before doing research. Sound like a plan? Oh and I want the Ph.D, not just a pharmD.

1 - hard
2 - no
3 - Only the PharmD will allow you to be a pharmacist. PhD will be good if you want to go into research or academia, not if you want to be a practising pharmacist. Getting a retail job will help you make money, but it won't help you break into research. I recommend getting a job in a lab if research is your goal. (surprisingly easy). Do you mean that you want both PharmD and PhD? Dual programs exist, but again a retail job is not going to help you with your long term goal of "doing research". Get work experience in the feild you are interested. Also, I doubt the PharmD degree will go very far in helping you break into research, although if anyone here knows more about this than me they can chime in.

 

[Adaggiote]

I'm a Pre-Pharmacy major with about two semesters worth of prerequisites left. In my state--Louisiana-- there are two pharmacy schools. One is a private school and I don't really want to go through Theology classes.

1. How hard is it to get into out of state pharmacy schools?
2. Have you heard of UL-Monroe or Xavier's programs?
3. Consensus on the board is that the jobs situation sucks. I plan on trying to get a retail job to make some money before doing research. Sound like a plan? Oh and I want the Ph.D, not just a pharmD.

Excellent first post!! It sounds like you are very motivated to become a pharmacist. Let me start on your questions:

1. I believe that certain pharmacy schools accept a percentage of students that come from out of state. However, private schools do not tend to base admission of residency. In your case, I would check pharmcas for a list of schools. If you need the link, I will post it.

2. Nope. Again...PharmCas.

I would start working at a local pharmacy, wheere you can actually have a chance of a job first...

 

[crazybob]

I know a pharmacy student at ULM, but not very well. If you had specific questions about the school, I could probably ask that student and see if that person would be willing to help.

 

[trismegistus]

1 - hard
2 - no
3 - Only the PharmD will allow you to be a pharmacist. PhD will be good if you want to go into research or academia, not if you want to be a practising pharmacist. Getting a retail job will help you make money, but it won't help you break into research. I recommend getting a job in a lab if research is your goal. (surprisingly easy). Do you mean that you want both PharmD and PhD? Dual programs exist, but again a retail job is not going to help you with your long term goal of "doing research". Get work experience in the feild you are interested. Also, I doubt the PharmD degree will go very far in helping you break into research, although if anyone here knows more about this than me they can chime in.

Yes, I mean the dual programs. I mentioned retail only as a way to earn some money between the PharmD and Ph.D if for some reason I can't get both of them consecutively or at the same time. I actually hadn't thought of getting a job in a lab, maybe some will pop up when I start school. Damn, I don't want to stay down here.

 

[trismegistus]

Excellent first post!! It sounds like you are very motivated to become a pharmacist. Let me start on your questions:

1. I believe that certain pharmacy schools accept a percentage of students that come from out of state. However, private schools do not tend to base admission of residency. In your case, I would check pharmcas for a list of schools. If you need the link, I will post it.

2. Nope. Again...PharmCas.

I would start working at a local pharmacy, wheere you can actually have a chance of a job first...

Thanks for the advice! Really I was looking for non-statistical stuff on the schools, like how are the professors, the classes, etc. I guess I'll just have to stay in state.

 

[crazybob]

3 - Only the PharmD will allow you to be a pharmacist. PhD will be good if you want to go into research or academia, not if you want to be a practising pharmacist. Getting a retail job will help you make money, but it won't help you break into research. I recommend getting a job in a lab if research is your goal. (surprisingly easy). Do you mean that you want both PharmD and PhD? Dual programs exist, but again a retail job is not going to help you with your long term goal of "doing research". Get work experience in the field you are interested. Also, I doubt the PharmD degree will go very far in helping you break into research, although if anyone here knows more about this than me they can chime in.

I know some professors who still have a pharmacist license and are considered to be pharmacists when students go to screenings and meetings.

Some pharmacists go into research at institutions that professors cannot do with a PhD alone (I think). My guess is that it's projects that involve direct patient contact.

 

[trismegistus]

I know a pharmacy student at ULM, but not very well. If you had specific questions about the school, I could probably ask that student and see if that person would be willing to help.

Yes! I was starting to think that NO ONE went to a pharmacy school on this site, or at least know of someone. Basically I just want to know how the classes and professors are: class size, workload, if the professors are just bad, if he/she likes going there, if the PharmD and Ph.D is seperated, and how he/she like Monroe;because I'm from Louisiana and Monroe isn't exactly a top destination.

 

[crazybob]

Yes! I was starting to think that NO ONE went to a pharmacy school on this site, or at least know of someone. Basically I just want to know how the classes and professors are: class size, workload, if the professors are just bad, if he/she likes going there, if the PharmD and Ph.D is seperated, and how he/she like Monroe;because I'm from Louisiana and Monroe isn't exactly a top destination.

If you look at the website for ULM CoP, it shows you the contact info for a person to ask. It looks like you'd be talking to a director of research and graduate studies. That person would be best to ask about the PharmD/PhD track.