Am I doing too much...and should I quit my current job?

nature88 · May 9, 2008

I plan to apply to Pharmacy and I need your sincere inputs please. I also posted this thread in the pre-pharmacy forum to get their perspectives. Yes i am a nontraditional student, so please read the whole thing.

First of all, I started my extracurricular activities late so right now I'm trying to fill as many in as I can. But my friend warned me that they might backfire and hurt my application because the adcom might think that I am obviously doing everything just to get in. I have very good ec activities and they are mostly healthcare/pharmacy related. It's just that I bascially started all of them at the same time, between February and March. And I plan to apply this December. So as you can see, I only have around 9 months of ec activities by the time I apply and that's why I try to do as many as I can to make up for the short time period. Right now, I am involved in 5 activities. But I just found a couple good ones (one being a TA for a bio class) that I might be able to fit into my schedule. Should I do them as well?

Second, besides doing ec activities, going to school full time to complete my prereqs, I work part time at an university, which happens to be one of the schools I plan to apply to. I used to work full time there until I decided to go back to school. I have been debating whether it will be more beneficial for me to quit my current job to become a pharmacy tech because my job can be very demanding. But some people think that it'd be better for me to stay in my job because that allows me to have a relationship with the university and that might help with with the adcom. I heard it both ways, so I'd really like your inputs. Thanks.

By the way, I already got my first BS in engineering. Yes, I am one of those that decided to switch over after all. I am also doing very well in my prereqs right now.

nontrdgsbuiucmd · May 10, 2008

nature88 said: ↑

I plan to apply to Pharmacy and I need your sincere inputs please. I also posted this thread in the pre-pharmacy forum to get their perspectives. Yes i am a nontraditional student, so please read the whole thing.

First of all, I started my extracurricular activities late so right now I'm trying to fill as many in as I can. But my friend warned me that they might backfire and hurt my application because the adcom might think that I am obviously doing everything just to get in. I have very good ec activities and they are mostly healthcare/pharmacy related. It's just that I bascially started all of them at the same time, between February and March. And I plan to apply this December. So as you can see, I only have around 9 months of ec activities by the time I apply and that's why I try to do as many as I can to make up for the short time period. Right now, I am involved in 5 activities. But I just found a couple good ones (one being a TA for a bio class) that I might be able to fit into my schedule. Should I do them as well?

Second, besides doing ec activities, going to school full time to complete my prereqs, I work part time at an university, which happens to be one of the schools I plan to apply to. I used to work full time there until I decided to go back to school. I have been debating whether it will be more beneficial for me to quit my current job to become a pharmacy tech because my job can be very demanding. But some people think that it'd be better for me to stay in my job because that allows me to have a relationship with the university and that might help with with the adcom. I heard it both ways, so I'd really like your inputs. Thanks.

By the way, I already got my first BS in engineering. Yes, I am one of those that decided to switch over after all. I am also doing very well in my prereqs right now.
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Not sure of what Pharmacy schools are looking for regarding extracurriculars, my tact with med schools has been to speak with admissions offices to discern the "typical" applicant's extracurriculars. Suggestion here is to watch your wording, schools' admissions offices in my experience will not say "X hours is what we want". My question has typically been "I have X hours clinical volunteer experience at two locations. Is that substantially below what a competitive applicant or matriculant has completed? This wording leaves it open to the school to say "that's a bit lower (or hopefully, that's similar to what we often see for our competitive applicants). I've also asked schools the experience that they'd see in an ideal candidate, and listened very carefully, making notes. If 3-4 schools say "community volunteer experience", then I'd look into this.

Regarding quitting and moving into a pharm tech position fulltime: I think the answer depends on your finances; doing so would provide even more relevant experience in support of your candidacy, in my case the $$ difference between what I'm qualified to do in my former field versus pay as a medical lab tech is too large for me to do the former for my glide year prior to beginning school. best of luck!

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Am I doing too much...and should I quit my current job?

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