A unique approach to prepharm. Advice?

[marv]

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Hello all, I'm a newbie to SDN and also very recently decided to walk the Pharm.D path. Unfortunately, my path begins with plenty of rocks, trenches, uphill sand dunes and many other obstacles that I won't go in great lengths to detail....yet.

I graduated 7 years ago from college with a degree that has nothing to do with science, and I'm looking to tackle those pesky-sounding pre-reqs since my college courseload lacks them, literally. I don't have a single science pre-req that would count toward the requirements. I've already registered at a CC to take classes (looked online to see which classes would transfer) and will take the ones that do not transfer at a 4-year school. Im thinking it will take around 2 years to finish them.

My quesitons:
1) Which classes should I NOT mix together? i.e. not calc and bio? or not chem 2 and organic chem? or not organic chem and that unnecessarily-required stats class?
2)Im going to take classes this summer at a community college, how many do you recommend taking at the same time?
3) Do you think it would be too much to take two classes, 2 labs, AND try to work at a pharmacy? Or just take one class and work/volunteer at a pharm for work experience?
4) Since I have no pharm or any other healthcare experience, do you think it would be best to apply at a retail pharmacy to at least work the counter or register or something? Is it common for someone to work at a pharmacy who hasn't had experience before?
5) My GPA is lower than an ant's ankles and my transcript is uglier than those dogs that look like they sprinted light-speed, face first, into a wall (sorry to any Pugg owners out there)...but im thinking that doing well in the pre-reqs, along with a good PCAT score, will significantly help my chances. Possible?

Any thoughts?

 

[alenadoma]

Hello all, I'm a newbie to SDN and also very recently decided to walk the Pharm.D path. Unfortunately, my path begins with plenty of rocks, trenches, uphill sand dunes and many other obstacles that I won't go in great lengths to detail....yet.

I graduated 7 years ago from college with a degree that has nothing to do with science, and I'm looking to tackle those pesky-sounding pre-reqs since my college courseload lacks them, literally. I don't have a single science pre-req that would count toward the requirements. I've already registered at a CC to take classes (looked online to see which classes would transfer) and will take the ones that do not transfer at a 4-year school. Im thinking it will take around 2 years to finish them.

My quesitons:
1) Which classes should I NOT mix together? i.e. not calc and bio? or not chem 2 and organic chem? or not organic chem and that unnecessarily-required stats class?
2)Im going to take classes this summer at a community college, how many do you recommend taking at the same time?
3) Do you think it would be too much to take two classes, 2 labs, AND try to work at a pharmacy? Or just take one class and work/volunteer at a pharm for work experience?
4) Since I have no pharm or any other healthcare experience, do you think it would be best to apply at a retail pharmacy to at least work the counter or register or something? Is it common for someone to work at a pharmacy who hasn't had experience before?
5) My GPA is lower than an ant's ankles and my transcript is uglier than those dogs that look like they sprinted light-speed, face first, into a wall (sorry to any Pugg owners out there)...but im thinking that doing well in the pre-reqs, along with a good PCAT score, will significantly help my chances. Possible?

Any thoughts?

I will try to answer your questions one by one.

1. If you are taking classes during the regular school year, I would recommend not taking more than 2 science courses at any one time. With just 2 you can focus on both and do well in both. For example, your first semester you could take Calc I, Bio I, bio lab, and a Statistics or Intro to Psych course. The following semester Calc II, Bio II and Economics.
2. I would not recommend taking more than one course over a given summer session. You could take 2 in two different sessions if the sessions are six weeks long. If they are longer, take 2. You could take Gen Chem 1 in the first session and Gen Chem 2 in the second session. Summer school schedules differ school by school, so it would really depend on how your school schedules them.
3. I think it's possible to take 2 sciences with 2 labs and work in a pharmacy. Just don't work any more than 10-15 hours max. Also, it seems like it's kinda tough to find a pharmacy position lately..hopefully you will be lucky 🙂
4. It's very common to work at a retail pharmacy with no prior experience. I was hired with no prior pharmacy experience, and my pharmacy manager actually told me that they prefer people with no experience because they are easier to train. If you have a lot of experience working at pharmacies, you will have habits that may be difficult to break. So in this case it is actually a positive that you have not worked in a pharmacy yet. When you apply make sure to tell the manager that you want to go to pharmacy school.
5. If your GPA is low, make sure you know why that is and fix those bad study habits before you start on your track to pharmacy school. You will have to show the admissions committees that you are a dedicated student that is capable of the rigorous pharmacy school workload. Study hard, get mostly A's, and understand the information. This will help you on the PCAT. Lastly, make sure you do really well on the PCAT (80+) and you should be fine. I think 2 years is a good amount of time to accomplish these things and get some good experience under your belt. Make sure to fit some other ECs, volunteering in there too.
Definitely possible if you set your mind to it.
Good luck, let us know if you have more questions!

 

[aboveliquidice]

Welcome to the Pre-pharmacy forum - you will find a LOT of useful information here. The culture of SDNs Prepharm is one of support, here are some ways to get the max benefit from SDN:

1 - Research: Use the search function and read the FAQ at the top of the forum. Many of your questions have already been answered. Respect the time of the volunteers here on SDN, and do your searches before you post.

2 - Seek out those that are doing what you want to accomplish. There are many students here that are starting over to finish pre-reqs after already completing a BS/BA.

3 - After doing the above - feel free to ask specific questions. Try to avoid posting 4 or more questions at once - It makes replying to a single post a 30 minute affair (one at a time works well).

Let us know how we can help...