applying to pharmacy school

[beng]

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Hi I'm trying to understand the basics of applying to pharmacy school without an undergraduate major (let's say I want to do 2 years at my university and get my pre-reqs out of the way). Do I apply in the second semester of my sophomore year? Can I be currently enrolled in my second semester bio/chem classes? And lastly when do I need to take the pcat in this case? Thanks. If someone can give me a brief outline of applying under these circumstances it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[patmcd]

You will need to start the application process the summer/fall the year before you want to start pharmacy school. So say you want to enter school in the fall of '08, you'd start your application the summer/fall of '07.

You can continue to take prereq classes during your application process, most people do. The more classes you have done before the the better.

Still assuming that you want to start pharmacy school fall '08, you'd want to start looking at taking the PCAT early in '07 to leave yourself enough time that you could retake it in the fall of '07.

 

[dana92085]

here is the schedule that i followed (i am a sophomore and have been accepted to UH and have an interview at UT)

-march 2005--got CPhT license
-june 2005--PCAT (i took it before i took any ochem but i was going to retake it in oct if i had dont bad)
-june-aug 2005--worked at a pharmacy
-oct 2005--applied to pharmacy school
-feb 2006--accepted to pharm school

i started college in fall of 2004 so i had to get on the ball fast.

 

[RoyalBean]

here is the schedule that i followed (i am a sophomore and have been accepted to UH and have an interview at UT)

-march 2005--got CPhT license
-june 2005--PCAT (i took it before i took any ochem but i was going to retake it in oct if i had dont bad)
-june-aug 2005--worked at a pharmacy
-oct 2005--applied to pharmacy school
-feb 2006--accepted to pharm school

i started college in fall of 2004 so i had to get on the ball fast.

Good job getting everything done in two years. You hear a lot of people talking about completing pre-reqs in two years, but few actually do, as I am sure a poll of users of this board would reveal. I originally was going to try and do everything in 2 years, but somehow I found myself half-way through my sophmore year and I hadn't done a thing toward pharmacy school yet 🙄 .

A word of advice to people trying to do all prereqs in 2 years: It sure does seem that more and more people have a bachelor's degree, so to remain competitive without a degree, you have to plan well and actually follow through. I think you definitely need experience in a pharmacy (you might need this even if you did complete a BS degree), and you should also have a loaded resume with lots of leadership stuff in particular, something to show you have "cultural competance," such as taking liberal arts or humanites courses (this is very important at some schools, I have a friend who got rejected 🙁 , and one of the reasons they gave him was "lack of cultural competance") and you need to have an outrageously high GPA and PCAT.

You have to choose your classes wisely, since you may not be able to complete prereqs for every school in 2 years, so you have to know what schools you want to go to by the time you start your first semester. (For example, I was originally going to apply to Minnesota after 2 years, but they wanted microbiology, a class I couldn't take till my third year at the earliest since my school requires 1 Year Bio, THEN 1 year A&P and THEN micro.)

 

[patmcd]

Personally I'm not a fan of the 2 year plan, even if you know pharmacy is what you want to do. Finish a BS degree makes you take a much broader range of classes and really better prepares you for pharmacy as well as life in general. Just finishing prereqs for many schools leaves out a solid liberal arts education.

As royalbean said many schools are moving towards admitting more students with a degree and in some cases schools like Ohio state are alrady saying that before long they will require one for entrance.

 

[alwaystired]

Personally I'm not a fan of the 2 year plan, even if you know pharmacy is what you want to do. Finish a BS degree makes you take a much broader range of classes and really better prepares you for pharmacy as well as life in general. Just finishing prereqs for many schools leaves out a solid liberal arts education.

As royalbean said many schools are moving towards admitting more students with a degree and in some cases schools like Ohio state are alrady saying that before long they will require one for entrance.

I tend to disagree....go with the prereqs and start applying. Getting into pharmacy school can be tough. If you don't get in the first couple times, use that time to get your batchelors. I just feel that the longer you wait to apply to pharmacy school, the more competitive it gets. These days, it seems everyone one (especially every technician) wants to be a pharmacist (lots of benefits, + great pay, + get to be in a profession that helps people) and this is going to make it increasingly difficult to get in.

 

[Lo|a]

I personally think everyone should go through life with a plan A & B. Get your bachelor's degree first then pursue a career in pharmacy. At least you'll have a degree to do something with your life -- if you don't make it in the field of pharmacy.

 

[ghabpharm]

I personally think everyone should go through life with a plan A & B. Get your bachelor's degree first then pursue a career in pharmacy. At least you'll have a degree to do something with your life -- if you don't make it in the field of pharmacy.

personally, i did the 2-year thing...and now if i dont get accepted to pharm school this year, i can still get my bachelor's degree next year and try again for pharm school.

 

[patmcd]

personally, i did the 2-year thing...and now if i dont get accepted to pharm school this year, i can still get my bachelor's degree next year and try again for pharm school.

If you don't get in multiple times w/o a BS degree, getting one isnt going to help unless you drastically change your experience level or gpa/pcat at the same time.

 

[patmcd]

I personally think everyone should go through life with a plan A & B. Get your bachelor's degree first then pursue a career in pharmacy. At least you'll have a degree to do something with your life -- if you don't make it in the field of pharmacy.

Thats exactly why I'm getting my bs first. If I hadn't been accepted into school, I could have found a job and built up my resume to help my reapplication, or if I ever want to change fields I have a degree to fall back on. Also, for a while I was considering doing a combined degree program like a pharmd/phd and having a bs was more a less required.