Classes and job/shadowing in pharmacy?

[KatKat21]

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I live in a very small town and I would like to get into a 0+6 pharmacy school. My high school has a total of about 200 students (47 total in my class) and it doesn't offer any AP or Honors classes. It does offer 2 college credit courses. I'm a junior and am taking college speech and Algebra 3 this year and either college algebra or calculus next year. I was wondering if not taking AP classes would hurt my chances when applying because I know they look for that in a potential student? Also, my town just recently got a pharmacy! I'm planning to see if I could get a job or maybe shadow there, so how should I go about that? They're only open 3 days a week and with school I'd only be able to work about 2 hours per day (they close at 5:30) so I'm not sure how it will go! Any advice or tips on the steps I should take for these next 2 years would be greatly appreciated!! I really want to get into a 0+6 school!

 

[deleted205891]

Just a warning that 0+6 programs may cease to exist within 2 years and turn into 0+7. STLCOP already came out with a press release that theirs is converting to a 7 year program for the 2014 cycle. The school that I graduated (USP, or as people refer to it now...USciences) also has plans for this, but I don't know whether it'll be 2014 or later. This is because ACPE (the accrediting body for pharmacy schools) doesn't like 0+6 programs, though IMO they prepare their grads for jobs/residencies/fellowships just as well as others.

If they do exist by then, I would say you're fine. It's actually not that hard to get into most 0+6 programs. As long as your GPA and SATs are relatively good, you can do it. No need for APs if your school doesn't have them. If you don't get a chance to volunteer at a pharmacy, it won't prevent you from getting in either, but it would still be good in order to see what pharmacy is like.