Can anyone actually pull of partying and grades well?

[jjeangi]

Are any of you hopefuls actually partying most weekends and still keeping your grades high so you can actually get accepted into a pharmacy school.

That's my fear that when I go to college, I'm going to get so enveloped in the social aspect that it's going to hinder my grades...

I'd like to hear from people that actually pull it off.

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[Pancakesteve]

Thousands of anecdotes are going to do nothing for you either way. The balance between schoolwork and social life is something that you're going to have to figure out for yourself, because it will be entirely dependent upon your school (their grading, the demand per class, etc.) and your personal abilities.

 

[type b pharmD]

yes. pharmacy school is easy as hell.

I cant expose too much about myself, but let me just say this... It's very possible to spend more time partying than on schoolwork and still maintain a 3.5+ gpa in pharm school.

1st step: dont attend class
2nd step: study only high yield material

of course, it takes years of practice to build up to this level, of alcohol tolerance among other things.

First thing you should do is find out your most efficient way of studying. This sometimes takes semesters or years to find. Look into learning style inventories. Practice studying as little as possible, and then increasing or decreasing your level of effort depending on how grades come back. Undergrad is a good time to do this, as well as P1 year of pharmacy school. What i usually do in the beginning of a semester is put in a decent amount of work (either attending classes or reading notes) and then if I get an A, i scale back my effort until I drop down into the A/B or B range.

Undergrad for me was harder than pharmacy school, -- you'll find it varies from school to school. However i've been told I attend an "easy" pharmacy school.

Learn how to relax early, and stay relaxed, and everything you do in life actually will seem easy.

 

[Moni526]

Thousands of anecdotes are going to do nothing for you either way. The balance between schoolwork and social life is something that you're going to have to figure out for yourself, because it will be entirely dependent upon your school (their grading, the demand per class, etc.) and your personal abilities.

I agree with this 100%. It all depends on the person. At some schools, attendance is MANDATORY, so you couldn't get away with skipping class and just watching lectures. Get all your partying done this summer; that's what I am trying to do.

 

[type b pharmD]

I agree with this 100%. It all depends on the person. At some schools, attendance is MANDATORY, so you couldn't get away with skipping class and just watching lectures. Get all your partying done this summer; that's what I am trying to do.

DO NOT go to a pharmacy school where attendance is mandatory. If you do, utilize a higher yield studying method during the lectures. When there is a lecture I have to attend (like once a month) I will spend the time doing review of my own notes or the appropriate online resources, texts, etc. While everyone learns differently, I personally get very little out of listening to someone. I have to be very active to learn well. Consider your own learning style before choosing which pharmacy school to attend. Different schools do it differently, group work wise, paper writing, quizzes, etc. DO find out your best learning style before pharm school.

 

[Garfield3d]

Thousands of anecdotes are going to do nothing for you either way. The balance between schoolwork and social life is something that you're going to have to figure out for yourself, because it will be entirely dependent upon your school (their grading, the demand per class, etc.) and your personal abilities.

I definitely agree with this perspective.

You're leaving a lot of gray area and undefined space when you ask if people can party and still get good grades. The simple answer is: Yes, you can certainly party and still get good grades.

However, the process is really more of a balancing act than anything else. You can't party all of the time, not study at all, and not pay attention in class and expect to do well. It's easy to single out one particular student and say, "Everytime I see him, he's getting out and drinking, or bar hopping, etc..." and then wonder to yourself how a person can do well in school when you never see them study.

Saying something like that, though, is fraught with a ton of observer bias. Since you don't live with the guy, and since you don't follow him around every waking moment, you don't have a good representation of how he spends the entirety of his time. And since you usually visit your friends to have fun, as opposed to staring at them while they study silently, your cross-section of time with your friends is going to be skewed heavily to only seeing them when they're having fun. It's easy to say that someone "barely studies" when you don't endeavor to see them studying.

Rest-assured that if you intend on getting out a lot, you're going to feel it pinch you somewhere else. You'll probably lose more sleep cramming, and your schedule will probably feel more full and less flexible. If you're going to ask the question "Can anyone actually pull off partying and grades well?" then I'm going to tell you to err on the safe side and avoid 'partying' as much as you can. If you have to ask that question, it sounds like you don't have a very strong reference point for the amount of time commitment and focus that you'll need to study for each class.

In fact, I'm going to go ahead and change my answer to "No, it can't be done," because I get the feeling that some people will take a "Yes" (the truthful answer) as a free-pass permission to blow out whole weeks partying every other night with the false sense of security that they still have enough time to study.

Er, so in conclusion: Tread carefully.

--Garfield3d

 

[type b pharmD]

I definitely agree with this perspective.

You're leaving a lot of gray area and undefined space when you ask if people can party and still get good grades. The simple answer is: Yes, you can certainly party and still get good grades.

However, the process is really more of a balancing act than anything else. You can't party all of the time, not study at all, and not pay attention in class and expect to do well. It's easy to single out one particular student and say, "Everytime I see him, he's getting out and drinking, or bar hopping, etc..." and then wonder to yourself how a person can do well in school when you never see them study.

Saying something like that, though, is fraught with a ton of observer bias. Since you don't live with the guy, and since you don't follow him around every waking moment, you don't have a good representation of how he spends the entirety of his time. And since you usually visit your friends to have fun, as opposed to staring at them while they study silently, your cross-section of time with your friends is going to be skewed heavily to only seeing them when they're having fun. It's easy to say that someone "barely studies" when you don't endeavor to see them studying.

Rest-assured that if you intend on getting out a lot, you're going to feel it pinch you somewhere else. You'll probably lose more sleep cramming, and your schedule will probably feel more full and less flexible. If you're going to ask the question "Can anyone actually pull off partying and grades well?" then I'm going to tell you to err on the safe side and avoid 'partying' as much as you can. If you have to ask that question, it sounds like you don't have a very strong reference point for the amount of time commitment and focus that you'll need to study for each class.

In fact, I'm going to go ahead and change my answer to "No, it can't be done," because I get the feeling that some people will take a "Yes" (the truthful answer) as a free-pass permission to blow out whole weeks partying every other night with the false sense of security that they still have enough time to study.

Er, so in conclusion: Tread carefully.

--Garfield3d

im gonna go ahead and agree with garfield, you cant do it ALL. Personally, I dont participate in school events, research, or student organizations (prefer to cultivate good industry contacts and high quality work experience myself). Whereas I know people who DONT party, who get great work experience AND research and student orgs.

You do have to prioritize. Once you get into pharm school, you will be faced with the decision of going the academic route and doing the research, high GPA, student orgs, etc, to try toget into academia, or cultivating work experience specific to your industry in pharmacy. I mean, you can do them both, but its unnecessary in my view. If you want to go into retail, work your ass off in retail to impress people. For hospital, industry, etc, same applies. For clinical/academia, pharmacy school will be more of the same as undergrad.

In short, you DO have to sacrifice something, and, its important to set priorities and stick to them.

ps: by academia i am also talking about academic med centers, which is where clinical specialists practice.

 

[jjeangi]

Thanks guys for all these posts.

I'm currently in high school, so I don't have hard-core partying experiences like some of you college guys but I'd like to say that I've had my share of partying and illegal antics.

I ask because I don't have experience balancing the two. In high school parties aren't as huge of an aspect in one's social life as it is (or can easily be) in college.

I wasn't asking about partying during pharmacy school. I mainly meant partying while one is an undergrad. The thing is, if you screw up when you're an undergrad, it'll be really hard for you to actually get accepted into a half decent pharmacy school.

Thanks in advance for any more insight you can provide.

 

[Zekecb]

Thanks guys for all these posts.

I'm currently in high school, so I don't have hard-core partying experiences like some of you college guys but I'd like to say that I've had my share of partying and illegal antics.

I ask because I don't have experience balancing the two. In high school parties aren't as huge of an aspect in one's social life as it is (or can easily be) in college.

I wasn't asking about partying during pharmacy school. I mainly meant partying while one is an undergrad. The thing is, if you screw up when you're an undergrad, it'll be really hard for you to actually get accepted into a half decent pharmacy school.

Thanks in advance for any more insight you can provide.

If you plan on going into retail, a PharmD is a PharmD no matter where you received it.

 

[type b pharmD]

Thanks guys for all these posts.

I'm currently in high school, so I don't have hard-core partying experiences like some of you college guys but I'd like to say that I've had my share of partying and illegal antics.

I ask because I don't have experience balancing the two. In high school parties aren't as huge of an aspect in one's social life as it is (or can easily be) in college.

I wasn't asking about partying during pharmacy school. I mainly meant partying while one is an undergrad. The thing is, if you screw up when you're an undergrad, it'll be really hard for you to actually get accepted into a half decent pharmacy school.

Thanks in advance for any more insight you can provide.

Dont worry. You'll figure it out as you go. Im sure everyone in here has had the experience of partying just a little too hard and getting that occasional C or D on an exam (I know i did my first semester of college). Basically, my biggest advice to you being new on the college/partying/academic balancing scene , is to be extremely open minded about different ways to study things. A lot of people think they can just go to class and then party as much as they want, but really for a lot of people that isnt necessarily the best method. Reading the book works amazingly for some, flashcards, visual cues, writing notes or rewriting the class notes, etc etc.

Think about how you are studying and how much time each part of your studying takes you. Honestly it amazes me every week how inefficiently people will study, even in pharmacy school. For example, people who attend class but do not pay any attention (playing counterstrike for example or watching sports), and then spend at least as much time again at home re learning the material, all while complaining.

Recognize early which classes will be easy and which will not. If you pull an A++, spend less time on the class next exam cycle. The law of diminishing returns hold true for studying time. It probably isnt worth that extra 2-3 hours of studying just to add 5% to your grade.

Pay a LOT of attention to the professor when they explain their syllabi in the beginning of the courses (*definitely* attend these) through this, you can analyze what will be important and what wont. Pay attention to whether or not he will refer to the text, lecture powerpoints, or in class presentations when he makes test questions. If for example he teaches exclusively from a powerpoint -- bam, there's one class you definitely do not have to attend all semester. A key here is you'll hear them say "everything on my tests is from my powerpoints".

If something like attendance is worth 1-2% of your grade, ask yourself if it is worth it. If the midterms come by and you have A+s, blow of a good amount of steam for the rest of the semester, after all, you can get a B or lower from that point on and still keep your gpa above 3.5.

Go into college with the idea that it will be a lot of fun, and that it will be some work too. The fact that you are here on SDN means you must be either smarter or more motivated than the average college freshman, so I suspect you dont have anything SERIOUS to worry about as far as first semester of college. Put in more work than you think you need to for the first few months, and after you get a bunch of As start looking for ways to be more efficient. That said it's pretty easy to party really hard several nights a week even as a novice and still do relatively well if you keep on top of your studies too. PARTITION your time. If you set aside time each day to do academic work and not mix any social / facebook / etc time in , you will work more efficiently.

If somethings not working or is taking what you consider to be too much time, switch up study techniques. One tip to start with: don't read any of the small print on slides or text during your review, just get all the big ideas and their applications/examples the professor is looking for, and dont pay any more attention to that class or topic.

HTH ! The fact that you're already aware of the need for balance and sort of see the risks coming, means you'll probably be alright. The guys I know who screwed up college would NOT have been asking themselves this question.

 

[adpi87]

Thanks guys for all these posts.

I'm currently in high school, so I don't have hard-core partying experiences like some of you college guys but I'd like to say that I've had my share of partying and illegal antics.

I ask because I don't have experience balancing the two. In high school parties aren't as huge of an aspect in one's social life as it is (or can easily be) in college.

I wasn't asking about partying during pharmacy school. I mainly meant partying while one is an undergrad. The thing is, if you screw up when you're an undergrad, it'll be really hard for you to actually get accepted into a half decent pharmacy school.

Thanks in advance for any more insight you can provide.

I partied pretty hard during my undergrad (which I'll finish in may), and I've been accepted to Pharmacy school. You'll learn your freshman year how to handle partying and studying. Don't worry too much now. Your first semester will teach you a lot about yourself. If you party too much then, and don't do well, retake classes as soon as you can. Don't wait. Take summer classes to stay on track. Have fun and live it up because undergrad is a blast! I don't expect to be able to have as much fun when I get to pharmacy school!

 

[jjeangi]

Thanks guys. I'm worried that once I do hit the scene, fun is going to take precedence over school. I mean seriously, who wouldn't enjoy going out with friends than studying...

See what I mean?

I'll definitely not have to skip out on those organic chemistry, physics, and calculus classes.

I took physics my freshman year of high school and it kicked my ass. I gurantee college physics will be worse. I'll probably have to retake it. That's one class I'll have to study for....

 

[Tinkerbell22]

I disagree on the mandatory attendance thing. I actually find it much easier to balance social life and school work if I actually do attend class because I have a good memory and I study about 2-3 times faster if I already know most of the stuff from lecture. I can teach myself if I have to (I taught myself physics and calculus II) but it makes studying go slower.

Plus... how are you going to meet as many people if you never go to class or join student organizations?

When I was in undergrad I partied the most my first 2 years and I had the best GPA. I didn't party really at all my last two years and my GPA was okay. It wasn't because the classes were harder or I was involved in more stuff... my personal situation was just different and I had some rough things going on. So it all depends on the person/situation like the other guys said.