This is long, but I think you need to hear it...
I have to do a year of clinical rotations, including dosing, monitoring, interventions, P&T committees, etc. I have taken a first step into the world of medicine and I want to advance my knowledge to complete the patient care circle.
Yes, but let me ask you this: Have you ever had a professor say before an exam "Answer the question that I wrote, not the question that you wished I wrote"? The reason I ask is because people often project their values onto others. Don't assume the admissions committee values any of these things you listed! I've never seen any medical school say that they look for candidates who have experience with dosing, interventions, or P&T committees.
It's the same kind of error that I think people make when they say they want to get a master's degree to help their chances of admission to medical school. I've never seen a med school suggest that they're looking for people with a master's degree.
What they do say is that they care a lot about the basic qualifiers (MCAT, GPA, and yes, usually a bachelor's degree). Then they usually say something about motivation, maturity, or interpersonal communication. Yes, your PharmD may allow the admissions committee to rank you highly in measures of experience with health care, but don't assume that they'll give you extra credit... there will also be plenty of applicants who get full credit on that scale.
No pre-med has the same experience I have when it comes to medicine, period.
I think you're over-estimating the uniqueness of your situation. I've known several registered nurses with many years of experience who go on to apply to med school, and if you dig around on SDN you'll see dentists, optometrists, physician's assistants and other experienced health care professionals, not to mention chiropractors, who are making the switch to medicine.
In any case, admissions committees neither expect nor require the kind of experience you're talking about. Your experiences may allow you to fulfill their benchmarks, but anything above that is like pouring water into a cup that's already full--it doesn't fill it any more!
NYU, which is by far the most ridiculous, said they wouldn't accept ANY Pharmacy credits...which includes English, Chemistry, Organic, Calculus, etc--ANY class done within the scope of the Pharmacy major. Why? I am at a loss for words.
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On a personal note, I am beyond outraged that schools are doing this. How can they justify this? Oh, a student was intelligent enough to get into a straight program from high school and undergoes the same requirements with a year of clinical training, but the degree obtained is inferior to a BACHELOR'S? Vomit inducing.
Do you also think that if you walk into a grocery store in New York that you should expect to buy a loaf of bread for 5 British Pounds? No, most grocery stores will expect you to pay in US dollars,
regardless of equivalency. They aren't set up to accept other denominations, and if they made a policy about British Pounds, then the next day someone would want to pay in Peruvian Nuevo Sol's, and the next day someone would want to pay in Indian Rupees. It's not reasonable to so many different currencies when it's so easy for everyone to go to a bank and get the right currency. Likewise it's not reasonable for medical schools to accept different classes from everyone when it's so easy for everyone to go to the course-bank (university) and get the right courses.
The indignation in your post reveals that you think that they should have special rules just for you, but that's not how it works. And you're not alone... Let me tell you a story: When I applied to medical school I had already finished my PhD in a biology field. Because I had not majored in biology as an undergrad, I still had to take a full year of general biology at the undergraduate level before medical schools would accept me.
I had to take a class as a student, even though I'm professionally qualified to teach the same class. I think that's more unfair than your situation, because you're not qualified to teach all of the classes that you have to go back and take.
But although there were many groans, I did retake the full year in general bio. Why? Because that's what is
required. Bio from a bio department, English from an English department, math from a math department. NOT physiology from a nursing department, statistics from the psychology department, physics from the engineering department. All of these departments may do a fine job of teaching subjects outside the field to their own students, but it just doesn't count.
So if you're serious about medicine, suck it up and do what's required. And try to stifle the vomit, because if you throw up on your professor they won't write a nice letter of recommendation.
😀
Personally, I'd suggest you drop the ambition to do MD/PhD and just pick one... either MD or PhD. In your situation I can't see how one or the other isn't a waste of time. If you're serious about clinical research, the PhD/PharmD combination is enough, and after finishing the PhD you can apply for NIH loan repayment if you have loans left over from PharmD. If you're not serious about clinical research then the PhD is a waste of time.
