a fellow student seeking guidance/advice

[uwmissy]

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I'm a senior at the University of Washington majoring in Biochemistry. I've finished the science pre-req's needed for pharm schools, but still have biochemistry, physical chem., genome and the third quarter of calculus to complete to finish off the degree. However, my problem is that my gpa is extremely low right now ( 2.87) and I feel finishing the BS in biochem will only lower my gpa more. I am not comfortable with biochem and as for pchem... i attempted to take the class but had no idea what was going on and end up dropping it. Due to my fear of lowering my gpa even further, i thought maybe i could get a BA in econ instead. This way i'll still have a bachelor degree and possible raise my gpa with econ classes.

My worries comes in here: i feel it is a bit of waste not getting a BS in biochem after all those science classes i have taken. My concern is that I'm afraid i could/would be continually rejected from pharm schools (i think this because: cum gpa as mentioned above is 2.87; i don't know my pre-req gpa, but it's around there too; i don't have any LOR's yet since i have a difficult time getting to know profs; haven't taken pcat yet; but i JUST got a job at rite aid pharmacy as a cashier) and i won't have a backup plan. BA of econ won't really get me anywhere, whereas a BS in biochem might allow me to do research or whatnot.

i don't really know what i'm asking or looking for from you guys. i guess i just need some words of encouragement or something. any comments or advice would be great. don't be afraid to be harsh if you need to. =/

 

[CaliRx]

I'm a senior at the University of Washington majoring in Biochemistry. I've finished the science pre-req's needed for pharm schools, but still have biochemistry, physical chem., genome and the third quarter of calculus to complete to finish off the degree. However, my problem is that my gpa is extremely low right now ( 2.87) and I feel finishing the BS in biochem will only lower my gpa more. I am not comfortable with biochem and as for pchem... i attempted to take the class but had no idea what was going on and end up dropping it. Due to my fear of lowering my gpa even further, i thought maybe i could get a BA in econ instead. This way i'll still have a bachelor degree and possible raise my gpa with econ classes.

My worries comes in here: i feel it is a bit of waste not getting a BS in biochem after all those science classes i have taken. My concern is that I'm afraid i could/would be continually rejected from pharm schools (i think this because: cum gpa as mentioned above is 2.87; i don't know my pre-req gpa, but it's around there too; i don't have any LOR's yet since i have a difficult time getting to know profs; haven't taken pcat yet; but i JUST got a job at rite aid pharmacy as a cashier) and i won't have a backup plan. BA of econ won't really get me anywhere, whereas a BS in biochem might allow me to do research or whatnot.

i don't really know what i'm asking or looking for from you guys. i guess i just need some words of encouragement or something. any comments or advice would be great. don't be afraid to be harsh if you need to. =/

I'm not sure if I can be of any help but I'll try my best. First of all, ask your self if you really want to do pharmacy? and if you don't get in what is your plan B? Would you enjoy doing research with a BS in biochem or you would rather do something else with an Econ degree. That is something only you can answer. Once you have your plan B aside, work on plan A: getting that Pharm D. You still have a chance if you can re-take some of your classes to bring up your gpa to at least a 3.0 and do really well 90+% on your pcat. Get excellent LOR from your professors and have a good personal statement to explain your circumstances.

 

[Madnezz]

If you don't want to major in biochem major in something else. At my school the average student changed majors like 2-3 times.

Biology, Ecology, Pyscho-Bio seem easier than Biochem but choose the major that has classes that overlaps with classes you've already taken. If you're worried about P Chem you might wanna sit in lectures and read lecture notes of P Chem classes you're not enrolled in to wet your feet a little. Sometimes learning things from different persepctives helps.

Economics sounds fine as long as you finish all your prereqs. I doubt any schools would hold it against you but it sounds like a longer road than a Bio-related major.

You might want to consider double majoring if you do poorly on your PCAT in order to bring your grades up. Some type of pharmacy experience is a must as well.

 

[pb323]

Missy,
You mention a low GPA, but are you talking about an overall GPA. Your overall GPA will definitely play a roll, but it sounds like you have some significantly hard classes that aren't required for pharmacy.

What type of GPA are you looking at if you only calculate the pharm requirements only? When looking at your competition, your PharmCas GPA may weigh more heavily because it is comparing apples to apples. This is obviously an Adcom question, but it is something to consider.

 

[Daggum]

Can someone explain what researching in biochemistry means--like do you got to be good at chem labs to do that?

 

[FarscapeGirl]

My suggestion for uwmissy... if you really want to do pharmacy and would rather have as a second option biology research over something with econ, I'd switch your major to something other than biochemistry. Biochemistry is a hard area of biology, and you don't need p-chem to do much biology research. There's cell biology, microbiology... Plus, if you switch to a different area of biology, you may need to take science classes that aren't nearly as difficult as some of the biochemistry ones, which could raise your gpa.

If you are good at econ, have you thought of pursuing biostatistics? It's a good field, with lots of opportunities. That may be good as a second option (maybe getting a masters in public health?).

To the person who asked what biological research is like, it's not a lot like chem labs. You basically have some sort of problem, for example, you want to determine the function of a protein in a certain cell type. You use various techniques, like overexpressing it or knocking it down through siRNA (usually first in a cell type and then in a mouse model), to answer your question. You use the techniques you learned in a molecular biology lab, but research is really a lot different from that. There's often a lot of troubleshooting because experiments are not working. You sometimes switch projects because the first one you tried didn't work out. But sometimes you're lucky and everything works right at once.

FYI, I'm currently a grad student in molecular biology, and once I finish with my PhD, I'll hopefully be starting pharmacy school. I decided research wasn't for me, but I know many of my friends love it and want to stay in it.