Basic Pre-Pharmacy/Pharmacy Questions

[dramaQueen16]

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Okay.. so I don't know if I'm posting in the right place or not, but I just had a few questions regarding Pre-Pharmacy and Pharmacy that I'm going to try and keep as basic as possible.

I'm finishing HS this year and I am quite interested in becoming a pharmacist as it seems to be a interesting and stable career choice. I live in British Columbia and I'm hoping to attend the University of British Columbia.

1) How long does becoming a Pharmacist REALLY take for the average student? I talked to my local pharmacist and he said it took him 5 years flat. Looking at some posts here however, I found that many people say it's taken them as much as 8 or 10 years.
2) Typically how intelligent do you need to be to become a Pharmacist? Everybody tells me you need to be VERY, very smart and that it is extremely difficult. I get average grades, maybe a little above average, but I'm not one of those genious students. Would I survive the program?

Directed mainly at UBC, I was thinking 1-2 years of Pre-Pharmacy at UBC Okanogan and than 4 years Pharmacy at UBC Vancouver. Is that being optimistic? Would I really be able to finish that quickly?

How hard is it to get into UBC?

Also, if anyone has any information about UBC as a school when it comes to difficulty, cost, acceptance rate etc. vs other schools that would be very helpful!

Sorry if these questions are very obvious.. I just needed information specifically for me. Thank you so much in advance!

 

[UBCmicrobi]

How long does it really take?

I'm sure you are aware that a minimum of 1 year of undergraduate studies is required before you are eligible to apply to the pharmacy program. Many students complete their pre-requisites in one year, and apply to pharmacy right away for their second year of university studies.

The majority of students, however, have done more than 1 year of undergraduate studies. Not necessarily because they have to though (there are of course students that need more than one year to complete their pre-reqs successfully or don't get in the first time they apply to pharmacy). But most of the students who have done more than 1 year did it because it took them a while to discover pharmacy or want to complete their undergraduate degree once they have started it.

If you know you want to go into pharmacy right from the get go, it is possible to do it in "5 years flat". This requires extreme dedication and good grades. Let's face it, transitioning from high school to university can be a challenge, and many students struggle in that first year and their grades drop significantly from HS. You are primarily being judged on your grades, so if they are not up to par, you aren't getting in after only 1 year of undergrad.

In my opinion, having a 2 years of undergrad will improve your chances of being accepted, better prepare you for the pharmacy curriculum and will make your course load lighter in 1st/2nd year pharmacy (in fact I feel that there should be a minimum of 2 years of undergrad studies required....).

Studying at UBC Okanagan then applying to UBC Pharm is definitely a viable option (assuming all the pre-reqs are offered at UBC Okanagan), and probably a better option than going to UBC initially (bigger school, away from home for the fist time etc if that applies to you).

UBC pharm is competitive, but so are the other pharm schools in Canada, and most have "out of province" student limits, so your best bet is UBC (but applying to other schools as well is wise).



PS I'm a second year pharm student at UBC 🙂