Chances?

[collegestudent0717]

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Hi, I was previously a pre-PA student but now I've been reconsidering my options and would like to know if pharmacy could potentially fit! Next year I'll be a senior and I'm considering taking the PCAT and I'll be taking a gap year.

GPA: 3.5 (huge upward trend)
sGPA: 3.4
BS Biology major

So far I've only job shadowed PAs

Volunteering (100+ hours): Veteran's hospital ER patient transporter, veteran's hospital vital taker, mentor for student with disability at a children's hospital, taught English for a semester at an elementary school in Italy

Certifications: Phlebotomy and wine spectator

Involvement: 4 years sorority, honors humanities study abroad intersession, study abroad semester in Italy, volunteer club, pre-PA club, senior thesis

Leadership: campus coordinator for club, study abroad peer mentor

Awards: in-state tuition scholarship, honors academy scholarship, volunteer award

What kind of PCAT scores would be ideal for my stats? and would I be considered a potential pharmacy school candidate?

 

[collegestudent0717]

Hi, I was previously a pre-PA student but now I've been reconsidering my options and would like to know if pharmacy could potentially fit! Next year I'll be a senior and I'm considering taking the PCAT and I'll be taking a gap year.

GPA: 3.5 (huge upward trend)
sGPA: 3.4
BS Biology major

So far I've only job shadowed PAs

Volunteering (100+ hours): Veteran's hospital ER patient transporter, veteran's hospital vital taker, mentor for student with disability at a children's hospital, taught English for a semester at an elementary school in Italy

Certifications: Phlebotomy and wine spectator

Involvement: 4 years sorority, honors humanities study abroad intersession, study abroad semester in Italy, volunteer club, pre-PA club, senior thesis

Leadership: campus coordinator for club, study abroad peer mentor

Awards: in-state tuition scholarship, honors academy scholarship, volunteer award

What kind of PCAT scores would be ideal for my stats? and would I be considered a potential pharmacy school candidate?

Also: Chem I/II Bs and labs A, Organic I/II both As and labs A, Biochemistry A, Physiology A, Anatomy A, Nutrition A, Cancer Bio B

Senior year: taking immunology, microbiology, mitochondrial medicine, physics, endocrinology, virology and intro neurobiology

 

[collegestudent0717]

Also: Chem I/II Bs and labs A, Organic I/II both As and labs A, Biochemistry A, Physiology A, Anatomy A, Nutrition A, Cancer Bio B

Senior year: taking immunology, microbiology, mitochondrial medicine, physics, endocrinology, virology and intro neurobiology

Also do I need a job as a pharmacy tech?

 

[everyone one sees B]

You definitely have the leadership skills, GPA and clinical exp to be competitive. Anymore extracurriculars will only make you even more competitive. If you get the tech license, that will be good. I was planning on getting my tech license to work as a tech during my gap year before starting pharmacy school but I figured that if I was gonna work in a pharmacy during my rotations, I might as well take the opportunity to expose myself to other avenues of healthcare. I decided to scribe instead!

As far as PCAT scores go, doing as well as possible wouldn’t hurt. I’m not comfortable giving you a score range you should get but try and get above average - 70.

 

[lalaland33]

Yes, get pharmacy experience. Don't just shadow a pharmacist because a few hours with a pharmacist is not enough to understand what their environment is like. Either get your trainee license or take the exam and get your actaul tech license and work in a pharmacy during your gap year and see if you even like it.

Any reason why you're no longer considering PA?

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

Hi, I was previously a pre-PA student but now I've been reconsidering my options and would like to know if pharmacy could potentially fit! Next year I'll be a senior and I'm considering taking the PCAT and I'll be taking a gap year.

GPA: 3.5 (huge upward trend)
sGPA: 3.4
BS Biology major

So far I've only job shadowed PAs

Volunteering (100+ hours): Veteran's hospital ER patient transporter, veteran's hospital vital taker, mentor for student with disability at a children's hospital, taught English for a semester at an elementary school in Italy

Certifications: Phlebotomy and wine spectator

Involvement: 4 years sorority, honors humanities study abroad intersession, study abroad semester in Italy, volunteer club, pre-PA club, senior thesis

Leadership: campus coordinator for club, study abroad peer mentor

Awards: in-state tuition scholarship, honors academy scholarship, volunteer award

What kind of PCAT scores would be ideal for my stats? and would I be considered a potential pharmacy school candidate?

Interesting question... are you asking about the ideal score because you don't want to study for it? I would assume the higher the score the better your chances? I would look at average scores for accepted students from each school you want to apply to and maybe aim for that?

 

[collegestudent0717]

Interesting question... are you asking about the ideal score because you don't want to study for it? I would assume the higher the score the better your chances? I would look at average scores for accepted students from each school you want to apply to and maybe aim for that?

I was just wondering if I would need a REALLY above average score just since my GPA is very average. But yes I do plan to try my hardest and thanks for the suggestion!

 

[collegestudent0717]

Yes, get pharmacy experience. Don't just shadow a pharmacist because a few hours with a pharmacist is not enough to understand what their environment is like. Either get your trainee license or take the exam and get your actaul tech license and work in a pharmacy during your gap year and see if you even like it.

Any reason why you're no longer considering PA?

I'm still somewhat undecided on PA but I enjoyed my biochemistry classes more than the anatomy side, and although I enjoyed shadowing PAs I'm just not sure if I'm willing to take multiple gap years out of school to have the thousands of patient care hours needed

 

[TimeZero]

I'm still somewhat undecided on PA but I enjoyed my biochemistry classes more than the anatomy side, and although I enjoyed shadowing PAs I'm just not sure if I'm willing to take multiple gap years out of school to have the thousands of patient care hours needed

So you are looking for the path of least resistance? It would likely take the same amount of time to complete the patient care hours needed plus PA school as it would pharmacy school. I can't speak for the PA job market and outlook, but the pharmacy projections are quite bleak. Some are predicting at least a 20% new graduate unemployment rate in the near future; underemployment is also a major concern among many in the field. I recommend you go check out the Pharmacy forum, if you have not done so already. There are a multitude of threads that discuss the current trajectory of the profession.

Pharmacy has become nothing more than a cash cow for greedy for profit institutions. The stats and ECs you posted will get you into pharmacy school regardless of your PCAT score. The only real requirement is the ability to borrow 150-200k+ in fed loans. Hopefully this sets off a red flag in your mind and better helps you weigh your options. It used to be that a pulse and a pharmD were all that was needed to find quality employment. Now a pulse and willingness to take on inordinate amounts of debt are all that are needed for pharmacy school acceptance. It really is amazing how quickly the paradigm shifted.

Check out the pharmacy forums, do your research and attempt to shadow pharmacists if you are serious about the profession.

Feel free to PM me with questions.

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

So you are looking for the path of least resistance? It would likely take the same amount of time to complete the patient care hours needed plus PA school as it would pharmacy school. I can't speak for the PA job market and outlook, but the pharmacy projections are quite bleak. Some are predicting at least a 20% new graduate unemployment rate in the near future; underemployment is also a major concern among many in the field. I recommend you go check out the Pharmacy forum, if you have not done so already. There are a multitude of threads that discuss the current trajectory of the profession.

Pharmacy has become nothing more than a cash cow for greedy for profit institutions. The stats and ECs you posted will get you into pharmacy school regardless of your PCAT score. The only real requirement is the ability to borrow 150-200k+ in fed loans. Hopefully this sets off a red flag in your mind and better helps you weigh your options. It used to be that a pulse and a pharmD were all that was needed to find quality employment. Now a pulse and willingness to take on inordinate amounts of debt are all that are needed for pharmacy school acceptance. It really is amazing how quickly the paradigm shifted.

Check out the pharmacy forums, do your research and attempt to shadow pharmacists if you are serious about the profession.

Feel free to PM me with questions.

I would agree with this.

I still think pharmacy is a great career to get into but big cooperations have made it difficult for pharmacists to do their real job. Considering how saturated the market is right now, especially on the clinical side, and retails cutting hours left and right, it may not be the best time to get into pharmacy right now. Lots of luck and networking would be needed to land a job that you can enjoy and be happy with.

Now on the other hand, if you get board-certified in a specific field, i.e. BCGP and such, it's a completely different game. In Texas, there are 1000+ nursing homes and each nursing home is required by law to have a pharmacist on staff. So basically your job security would be protected by law considering there aren't that many consultant pharmacists in state of Texas.

Problem with being board certified is that you would need to spend extra time studying/residency or need to have been practicing pharmacy for a number of years to qualify. So... bottom line is, go to med school lol

 

[lalaland33]

I'm still somewhat undecided on PA but I enjoyed my biochemistry classes more than the anatomy side, and although I enjoyed shadowing PAs I'm just not sure if I'm willing to take multiple gap years out of school to have the thousands of patient care hours needed

With a Bachelor's degree, becoming a pharmacist takes about 8 years. Becoming a PA is going to be about the same depending on how much time you take off to get your patient contact hours. My math is that if you work full-time for about 6 months, you should be able to get your 1000 hrs in.

Before committing to pharmacy, I would highly recommend working in a retail pharmacy or hospital pharmacy (not just shadowing) because you may end up disliking that environment and work more than the PA environement and work (or maybe you'll end up liking it! Better to know from experience...🙂)

 

[Amicable Angora]

Time to test/prepare you for your interview:

Why pharmacy (and not PA?)