Adjusting to Pharmacy School

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i'm a first year pharmacy student and I'm having a really difficult time adjusting to life here. I moved across the country not knowing anyone, not having a car, not having a lot of money, to attend school. It's really hard for me to make friends when all i want to do is study. All my classmates are out having fun enjoying themselves, joining frats or hanging out.

I received my first exam back and even though i got a B, I studied really hard! It's beginning to feel really lonely here and there's no one i can talk to who understands..I'm not sure what I should do...

 

[njac]

I hear you - I just moved across the country for a residency. With my dogs. At first it wasn't so bad but it definitely waxes and wanes.

I can't help you a ton because I haven't found the solution either. But go talk with other out of state students, they may be feeling the exact same way you do.

**I forgot to mention that the point of bringing up moving here with my dogs is that then I had to put down my 11 year old dog about 2 months into residency. I have never felt so alone as I did that Friday night at the emergency clinic - but there was an outpouring of support from coworkers and people who I barely knew. You may feel super alone but there is a sense of camaraderie between students.

 

[type b pharmD]

there are a lot of people out there like you. I moved from the midwest to a large city and it feels like people are way different out here, particularly in my class, a lot of people are either super uptight about studying or else all they want to do is go out to the "hip" night spots which are all vastly overpriced, etc. I dont have tons of advice about getting to know people, as I do not socialize that much myself , but i would say get involved with some study groups, since you want to study.. there you can get to know people and then meet them to do things outside of class. Also, keep in mind that grades in pharmacy school for the most part do not matter, so maybe take it easy on yourself and lighten up a bit about your performance. Life isn't all about grades.

 

[crazybob]

my situation is only sort of similar to yours. i've lived in my home state for about 11 years now. and i've met a lot of people from going to schools in five different cities, but i'm actually friends with only some of them. before i started pharmacy school, i knew 2 (out of 120 total) people in my class. there was no one from my undergrad college and no one from my high school. and also no one from my middle school or elementary school.

i had to make an effort to try to meet people and talk to them every day. i joined some clubs and from that met even more people in my class. i ended up running for an officer position and got elected as a liaison for the entire p1 class since more than half of my class voted for me 🙂

but, i will say though, that it takes time. and you won't automatically know people just because time passes. if you decide one day to take five minutes out of your day to go talk to that girl who sits in front of you, you two might end up talking to each other more from being in class. and then she might introduce you to her friends, and then you'll know more people, and so on. so you don't always have to take time every single day to talk to people. they understand that you're busy. but if you just take a minute out of your day to talk to them, it will be a good thing in the long run.

as for studying, i studied a lot more than i probably did back in college, and i still do. and on my first test, i also made a B, but i thought it was difficult. and then i started to wonder why i was so worried about it. from then on, i started realizing that i could take time to hang out with friends and go downtown sometimes and still improve my grades and studying habits.

i know it seems difficult right now, but you'll find what works for you. and when you do, school will be a bit easier to get used to.

 

[Rebel78]

Just hang in there, lots of good advice in here.

Don't forget, everybody in there is adjusting. You may not think so, but there are plenty of folks in your class who feel the same way you do. Just be yourself.

 

[mustang sally]

I have had to move many times now (unfortunately), and I am going to agree with Crazy Bob that these things just take time. It has usually taken me at least one to two years to adjust to each new city. Sounds like a long time, but time does go by fast! I would try to find some small activity you could get involved in at school to try and meet new people. Also find some activities or hobbies you can do to cheer yourself up when you are feeling down.

There are probably other people in your class who are feeling exactly the same way you do right now; you just aren't aware of it. I moved across country for pharmacy school and I felt like everyone else had already attended that school and they already all knew each other; now I realize that really wasn't true at all. Hang in there, it will get better!

 

[crazybob]

I have had to move many times now (unfortunately), and I am going to agree with Crazy Bob that these things just take time. It has usually taken me at least one to two years to adjust to each new city. Sounds like a long time, but time does go by fast! I would try to find some small activity you could get involved in at school to try and meet new people. Also find some activities or hobbies you can do to cheer yourself up when you are feeling down.

There are probably other people in your class who are feeling exactly the same way you do right now; you just aren't aware of it. I moved across country for pharmacy school and I felt like everyone else had already attended that school and they already all knew each other; now I realize that really wasn't true at all. Hang in there, it will get better!

i had this feeling to on my first few weeks of pharmacy school. there were 42 people from one state school, and about 20 from another state school. those two groups made up half of our class. so whenever i saw those people, they had already known each other from being in the same classes, and also their pre-pharmacy club.

sometimes you are going to talk to people about how their weekend was or how their tests went. and depending on people you talk to, they'll always say it was a great weekend, or they aced a test when you didn't. and that might make you feel bad (and it made me feel like i was the only one struggling). but if you talk to everyone else, they talk about how their weekend was busy with working as a pharm tech, or about how they really struggled on the test and made somewhere below average or just barely passed.

you might feel a bit nervous right now with trying to talk to people in your class because you might not know many people. but other people in your class are also nervous about getting to know new people and talking to someone for the first time. if you just take that first step to say "hey" or say "hi" to someone, talking to them afterwards is a lot easier. usually, if you say "hey" to someone like you two have known each other before (which is extremely hard to do when you meet someone for the first time) then you can both feel less nervous and become close friends 👍

 

[lizjunk]

This is where I give kudos to my school, Regis University for their TBL program. We work in teams and there are a lot of interactions among students so for us, we have to talk and discuss topics all the time and this help us getting to know each other. So my suggestion would be to just ask questions to students around you and I completely understand the no car thing but you can definitely can get help through interacting with other students too through the situation. Because I have no car, through talking to other students, they were willing to help me out and this establish a great rapport!

 

[WhiteSnows]

If u are from Nova, let me know, cause I will be able to help you.