am i waisting my time?????

[8ball2g]

Im new to this forum
Im currently in pre-pharm undergrad(community college), when i started college i had some bad grades and withdraws. but now i got my stuff together and took all those classes over and got better grades and my gpa is now 3.1(23credits completed so far) hope to get it up to a 3.6 or more by the time im done. My family is not rich so i have to work full-time and go to school. So be honest with me guys, am i waisting my time trying to get in Pharmacy or not????? Please be honest.
Thank you

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[KellyBean]

Not a lot of families out there are "rich" and most "kids" do work to support themselves while going to school.

You have only completed 23 credit hours, that's not much at all. You shouldn't worry, but only if you start doing well from now on. But the courses will gradually get harder, it might be best to cut down some work hours or just manage your time better and not to schedule too many courses all at once.

 

[ilovedimsum]

I def don't come from a well off family.. and like you I went to community college and didn't do really well.. but then i transferred to a university and did better.. the schools didnt really care for my Ws or my bad grades in community..they care more about the trend..like if you're doing better now..not many people have an immaculate record and they know that.. but you reallly should look into financial aid.. it def helped me paid off books and stuff.. and should help you cut down you work hours a little..

 

[fatevsdestiny]

To answer your question: You're NOT wasting your time here
You can do it and should be proud of what you're doing! Good luck!

 

[AntiviralsRule]

I don't think you're wasting your time at all. Just keep your grades up and think hard about managing your time. I'm working full-time too and it's tough to take more than two classes (especially if they're science classes w/labs). But by all means go for it!

I failed one class in undergrad (it was a sociology course), but retook that, got an A and now my GPA is trending upwards. Sounds like you're headed in the same direction -- up!

Good luck!

 

[themorphinerule]

Please expect to have more going for you than your GPA, because unless it's perfect and you have perfect scores with no grade blunders, you may get accepted- with nothing else... you may. With all sorts of pharmacy experience and community service, working fulltime and a few grade blunders they're usually more forgiving, from what I've seen. Again, have more going for you than just your grades because from what you say you've already made some blunders. Now, having a 3.1 with 23 credits, I calculated you have 71 or so quality points, which isn't perfectly divisible by 4, so it's not str8 A's (which you admit) and it's not str8 B's, but maybe a wide array of different grades (speculation). If you were to attempt to apply at 63 credit hours, so 40 credits to go, the max. # of quality points possible is (assigning 4 pts to an A, which is not how it's assigned, but gives you a good idea) is 160 pts. So you're entire undergrad with 63 hours is 231 quality points, or a 3.65 (good). Now if you slack off a little and get half A's and half B's from this point on, you get a 3.35. So assess the classes you must complete (Organic, organic, organic, calculus- maybe twice, stats, microbiology, A&P-maybe twice, maybe even biochem). If you think you can get A's in more than half the classes you have left and no less than B's in the rest, that gives you greater than a 3.35 average, almost the 3.5 you're attempting- then go for it. But if you don't think you can follow this prescription, then yes, you're probably wasting your time because you can't get more than an A, and for every C you get you would have to get greater than an A to balance and average around 3.5/3.65 which is not possible. Now, the saver is this. The way PharmCAS calculates, you get 16 points for an A and 12 points for a B taking "4 credit hour" courses... so if you do get C's, try to get them only in "3 credit hour" classes, and get A's in ALL of your "4 credit hour" classes, because that's the only way you can physically get more than an A's worth of points (normally 12 quality points). If you have questions, private message me. Goodluck!

 

[firstgeneration]

Please expect to have more going for you than your GPA, because unless it's perfect and you have perfect scores with no grade blunders, you may get accepted- with nothing else... you may. With all sorts of pharmacy experience and community service, working fulltime and a few grade blunders they're usually more forgiving, from what I've seen. Again, have more going for you than just your grades because from what you say you've already made some blunders. Now, having a 3.1 with 23 credits, I calculated you have 71 or so quality points, which isn't perfectly divisible by 4, so it's not str8 A's (which you admit) and it's not str8 B's, but maybe a wide array of different grades (speculation). If you were to attempt to apply at 63 credit hours, so 40 credits to go, the max. # of quality points possible is (assigning 4 pts to an A, which is not how it's assigned, but gives you a good idea) is 160 pts. So you're entire undergrad with 63 hours is 231 quality points, or a 3.65 (good). Now if you slack off a little and get half A's and half B's from this point on, you get a 3.35. So assess the classes you must complete (Organic, organic, organic, calculus- maybe twice, stats, microbiology, A&P-maybe twice, maybe even biochem). If you think you can get A's in more than half the classes you have left and no less than B's in the rest, that gives you greater than a 3.35 average, almost the 3.5 you're attempting- then go for it. But if you don't think you can follow this prescription, then yes, you're probably wasting your time because you can't get more than an A, and for every C you get you would have to get greater than an A to balance and average around 3.5/3.65 which is not possible. Now, the saver is this. The way PharmCAS calculates, you get 16 points for an A and 12 points for a B taking "4 credit hour" courses... so if you do get C's, try to get them only in "3 credit hour" classes, and get A's in ALL of your "4 credit hour" classes, because that's the only way you can physically get more than an A's worth of points (normally 12 quality points). If you have questions, private message me. Goodluck!

Well with all that in mind..i guess i am having the similar situation and but i have more credit... i have about 300 credits as an undergraduate from and didn't do too well on the classes..i didn't fail them per se but recieved C's on majority of the prereq courses especially the 5 credit courses. I have retaken physiology and anatomy which i recieved better grades in but those like you say are smaller credits...should I retake organic I, physics I and II, because I recieved a C in it. I am scheduled to take orgainc II soon. Or what do u suggest I do?? Also school only need the last 60 credits usually...i don't if i am making sense. Please help??

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

Well with all that in mind..i guess i am having the similar situation and but i have more credit... i have about 300 credits as an undergraduate from and didn't do too well on the classes..i didn't fail them per se but recieved C's on majority of the prereq courses especially the 5 credit courses. I have retaken physiology and anatomy which i recieved better grades in but those like you say are smaller credits...should I retake organic I, physics I and II, because I recieved a C in it. I am scheduled to take orgainc II soon. Or what do u suggest I do?? Also school only need the last 60 credits usually...i don't if i am making sense. Please help??

If the last 60 credits or so show an upward trend and they are preq courses then yes those are important but all schools will look at all your credits not just the last 60, they take it all into account when reviewing your application. I would consider retaking some prereqs if you have a lot of Cs in them. A couple Cs in prereqs is one thing but if there are half a dozen or so , in my opinion you should being retaking courses to get As to show schools that you can master the material and handle upper division courses. Retaking courses is a pain but if possible you could enroll in accelerated summer courses for organI and the physics courses, since you have already taken them it would not be too bad taking them accelerated and you could get them done quickly. It is always nice to have 3 more As in the prereqs!

 

[8ball2g]

thank you guys for your honesty, I feel alot better. I have one more question, I currently work as an LPN( thats a nurse who mostly give meds to patients) I work at a hospital, would that look good on my application or should I try to get a job at a pharmacy as a Tech.

 

[Farmercyst]

thank you guys for your honesty, I feel alot better. I have one more question, I currently work as an LPN( thats a nurse who mostly give meds to patients) I work at a hospital, would that look good on my application or should I try to get a job at a pharmacy as a Tech.

LPN experience would be just fine. It probably pays as much as a tech anyway. It shows you can interact with patients and other healthcare professionals, know at least a little about medications (dosage forms, importance of right patient/route/dose/etc) If you want a little more pharmacy experience just to test the waters you could go for tech, but I'd say use your interaction with giving meds to try to get to know the pharmacist who's dispensing them. See if you can arrange for shadowing or something. Ask him/her questions in your off time, etc. If the pharmacist isn't on site there are still other options.