College classes or Pharmacy Tech experience

[shenbot]

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Hi there,

I'm a pre-pharmacy student that's also a Pharmacy Technician and going to be 20 in 2014. I'm not in any particular program or school since I've been told that I could just go to community college, take general education courses, get a Bachelor's Degree and then transfer into a pharmacy school. But I have recently discovered that there are 0-6 year pharmacy schools on the east coast that I can transfer into and am planning to apply to them.

The problem is what do I do in the mean time while I await a response from them? The community college I go to is a terrible learning environment and I had a bad experience with a couple of my teachers and thus I have been getting bad grades. So would it hurt my chances if I drop community college entirely and concentrate being a Pharmacy Technician while the Pharmacy schools look at my application? Would the argument that I am learning valuable information and experience working in a Pharmacy be a valid reason?

I know I can do well in Pharmacy school or any college. I had a 4.0 GPA my senior year of high school and took 5 AP courses straight and passed all of them with A's and got high marks on the AP exams (an A and a 5 for AP Bio). Will the people who look at my application for Pharmacy school consider that while they look at the one C in Biology from my community college as well as the Withdraw from my math course as well as the fact that I didn't go to community college and worked instead while I wait for their response on my application?

 

[Amicable Angora]

They will have questions about why you were so promising in high school and then struggled at community college.

You will need to have an answer for this, as well as an answer to how you can guarantee passing grades while in their pharmacy program. The best way to show this is to excel academically in the future. Just because you do well as a technician does not correlate to academic achievement. On the other hand, if you do well academically, it's a good predictor of whether you will succeed in further study or not.

 

[Misaenator]

Hi there,

I'm a pre-pharmacy student that's also a Pharmacy Technician and going to be 20 in 2014. I'm not in any particular program or school since I've been told that I could just go to community college, take general education courses, get a Bachelor's Degree and then transfer into a pharmacy school. But I have recently discovered that there are 0-6 year pharmacy schools on the east coast that I can transfer into and am planning to apply to them.

The problem is what do I do in the mean time while I await a response from them? The community college I go to is a terrible learning environment and I had a bad experience with a couple of my teachers and thus I have been getting bad grades. So would it hurt my chances if I drop community college entirely and concentrate being a Pharmacy Technician while the Pharmacy schools look at my application? Would the argument that I am learning valuable information and experience working in a Pharmacy be a valid reason?

I know I can do well in Pharmacy school or any college. I had a 4.0 GPA my senior year of high school and took 5 AP courses straight and passed all of them with A's and got high marks on the AP exams (an A and a 5 for AP Bio). Will the people who look at my application for Pharmacy school consider that while they look at the one C in Biology from my community college as well as the Withdraw from my math course as well as the fact that I didn't go to community college and worked instead while I wait for their response on my application?

To be honest with you, the 0-6 year pharm programs in east coast are very competitive. They select students fresh out of hs, and these students have to show lots of qualifications in order to get accepted. Now, i'm not saying you can't stand a chance, but i advise you to make a conscious decision if you want to go for the 6 year program route. The accepted students have to take early assurance offer and take specific pre-pharm courses before they get into the professional phase. There are alot of commitments involved. My advice for you is try to expose yourself to the pharmacy world for a little bit and see how you like it first. Don't jump into something and regret about it later. You're only 20, take it easy and feel yourself out. Also, since you did so well in hs, how come you have such a hard time getting good grade at community college level if you don't mind sharing? Also, community college can't provide the bachelor degree anyway. Don't listen to what people tell you, go do your own research and call the specific pharm school what you have to do to be eligible for application. It's your future and education at the end of the day, just do your research and homework. You're smart, you will know what is best for you. Hope this helps.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Thepharmdgentleman]

TECH Experience matters more.