Currently a senior in high school. I have questions

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californians

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I am currently a senior in high school and I live in California. I heard that there are programs where you can go straight to a Pharmacy degree instead of taking 4 years of college and then applying, is this true? If so,what schools can I apply to(Anywhere in the U.S)? Also, how long does it take to become a pharmacist?
 
I am currently a senior in high school and I live in California. I heard that there are programs where you can go straight to a Pharmacy degree instead of taking 4 years of college and then applying, is this true? If so,what schools can I apply to(Anywhere in the U.S)? Also, how long does it take to become a pharmacist?

There are schools that you can enter into directly from high school. They take 6 years, which is essentially equivalent to taking two years of pre-requesites and then going to pharmacy school. You can look at all the pharmacy schools in the US through www.aacp.org (look at the pharmacy school locater). You'll have to do some research and look at each school's website to find out if it's a 0+6 school.
 
There are schools that you can enter into directly from high school. They take 6 years, which is essentially equivalent to taking two years of pre-requesites and then going to pharmacy school. You can look at all the pharmacy schools in the US through www.aacp.org (look at the pharmacy school locater). You'll have to do some research and look at each school's website to find out if it's a 0+6 school.
If I don't go straight to a pharmacy school, I can go to a college in California (ie. UCSC,UCM,UCSB) for 2 years and then apply to UOP,UCSF,etc.? How long would it take to become a pharmacist if I do not go straight to a pharmacy school after high school?
 
You can do 0+6 programs or 2+4 programs. Either way you're essentially doing 60 credit hours of pre-pharmacy coursework. However, with the 0+6 you're considered in the program as long as you meet their given requirements. For the 2+4 you pretty much take the same classes however you're not guaranteed admittance.... However, in the 2+4 programs you're often competing with people who go ahead and complete a bachelors degree...which some schools would favor.

Either way it takes a minimum of six years to get a PharmD.
 
You can do 0+6 programs or 2+4 programs. Either way you're essentially doing 60 credit hours of pre-pharmacy coursework. However, with the 0+6 you're considered in the program as long as you meet their given requirements. For the 2+4 you pretty much take the same classes however you're not guaranteed admittance.... However, in the 2+4 programs you're often competing with people who go ahead and complete a bachelors degree...which some schools would favor.

Either way it takes a minimum of six years to get a PharmD.
What schools offer the 2+4 program? I'm looking at the schools and they don't specifically say 0+6,or 2+4.
 
What schools offer the 2+4 program? I'm looking at the schools and they don't specifically say 0+6,or 2+4.

A state school would be much more likely to be a 2+4 program, whereas a private school, or one that is exclusively health sciences, would be more likely to be a 0+6 program.

Unless you're in a 0+6, you will not be able to just declare a pharmacy major and be done with it. You would have to do your pre-requisites and then apply. Now, when I did this 20 years ago, all I had to do was send an application and my transcripts to the schools I wanted to apply to (I applied to 4, which was unusual at the time - most people only applied to one - and was accepted at 3) but now, you send your information - what's required will vary from school to school - to a central clearinghouse whose name escapes me right now, and if you are a suitable candidate, they will probably call you for an interview. The fee is steep but IIRC you can apply to 6 schools for that single fee, which makes the schools look much more competitive than they really are.

My alma mater admits 108 people a year and receives over 1,000 applications. At the time I applied, they got about 400 but keep in mind that some people applied to more than one school. My graduating class had 86 people; yes, about 10% a year will drop out, be expelled, flunk out, change majors, or fall a year behind for various reasons.

A lot of people said to me, "Four schools? Wasn't that expensive?" and yes it was, because I was wait-listed at my first choice and admitted to my second choice and had to send a $300 non-refundable deposit to my 2nd choice school to hold my place. I still consider it the best $300 I ever spent, because yes, I was admitted to and graduated from my first choice, thereby also reducing my student loan debt by about $50,000 because that other school was a private university - in a very bad neighborhood to boot, unlike my alma mater, which is a state school in a very low crime city.
 
A state school would be much more likely to be a 2+4 program, whereas a private school, or one that is exclusively health sciences, would be more likely to be a 0+6 program.

Unless you're in a 0+6, you will not be able to just declare a pharmacy major and be done with it. You would have to do your pre-requisites and then apply. Now, when I did this 20 years ago, all I had to do was send an application and my transcripts to the schools I wanted to apply to (I applied to 4, which was unusual at the time - most people only applied to one - and was accepted at 3) but now, you send your information - what's required will vary from school to school - to a central clearinghouse whose name escapes me right now, and if you are a suitable candidate, they will probably call you for an interview. The fee is steep but IIRC you can apply to 6 schools for that single fee, which makes the schools look much more competitive than they really are.

My alma mater admits 108 people a year and receives over 1,000 applications. At the time I applied, they got about 400 but keep in mind that some people applied to more than one school. My graduating class had 86 people; yes, about 10% a year will drop out, be expelled, flunk out, change majors, or fall a year behind for various reasons.
Is there such thing as a 5 year program? Can I take 2 years of prereqs at a UC and then apply to pharmacy school(This would mean 6 years right?) Also, my major would be biochemistry?
 
Is there such thing as a 5 year program? Can I take 2 years of prereqs at a UC and then apply to pharmacy school(This would mean 6 years right?) Also, my major would be biochemistry?

I have only heard of two colleges in which it is possible to finish pharmacy in 5 years (LECOM and Pacific). I think Univ. of the Pacific takes people right out of high school and I heard it's insanely competitive, but I'm not sure about that program since I'm not from the West Coast.. With LECOM you can do 2 years of prereqs and then apply and do 3 years of pharmacy school. Read posts on this forum about LECOM and see if you want to go there. I actually know someone that visited there and said she'd rather not take any acceptance into pharmacy school and wait a year than go to LECOM. There are other 3-year pharmacy schools, but I'm not sure if they'd realistically take you with only 2 years of prereqs.

Why the rush to finish in 5 years? It's hard enough in 6 years. You'll get really burned out.
 
Can someone explain how the 6 year program works?
Also,what is this PharmCAS, is it only for people who are in college?
 
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Would you like fries with that?
All these questions have been answered before.
Heck, there is even a FaQ thread at the top of the forum. 👍
 
I have only heard of two colleges in which it is possible to finish pharmacy in 5 years (LECOM and Pacific). I think Univ. of the Pacific takes people right out of high school and I heard it's insanely competitive, but I'm not sure about that program since I'm not from the West Coast.. With LECOM you can do 2 years of prereqs and then apply and do 3 years of pharmacy school. Read posts on this forum about LECOM and see if you want to go there. I actually know someone that visited there and said she'd rather not take any acceptance into pharmacy school and wait a year than go to LECOM. There are other 3-year pharmacy schools, but I'm not sure if they'd realistically take you with only 2 years of prereqs.

Why the rush to finish in 5 years? It's hard enough in 6 years. You'll get really burned out.

Ferris can be 5 years.
 
It is updated when new information becomes available. The Mods+Administrators keep it up.
I saw the link for the 3 year and 5year. They just tell you what schools offer them but they don't tell what the 3year and 5/6year program is. They don't even explain. My question is, what is the 6 year program and how does it work.
 
Do the 5-year programs include summer school?
 
There are a lot of students in my pharmacy class at USC. They did the TAP program at USC undergrad and as long as they completed the requirements they were pretty much guaranteed in. Just be careful, if you don't get into a program like the TAP program and do pre-reqs and then apply you might not be able to get in because more and more schools are requiring you to have a bachelors degree now.
 
In regards to the six year program, UOP (University of the Pacific) has one. Do you mean this? http://web.pacific.edu/x9611.xml

MCPHS has one as well: http://www.mcphs.edu/academics/programs/pharmaceutical_sciences/6_yr_pharmd/

Google and searching around these forums will be your best friends. If you're looking for a comprehensive list of all of them nicely put together for you, I'm not sure if it exists, but good luck (someone may have posted it on this site in the past?) You really just need to keep looking around. ex Also, these straight from high school programs are pretty darn competitive to get into. Make sure you have a back up plan of some sort (apply to traditional four year schools, get a bachelors, and then apply to pharmacy school or go to a community college and take all your pre-requisites there and apply, etc.)

EDIT: I myself don't know what this 0-6 vs 3-3 vs 4-2 jargon is, but what I do know is, the direct from HS programs are really hard to get into so you better be brilliant and PharmCAS is a centralized application system for pharmacy schools. Others are telling you to check out the list there because there's info for many different schools and their programs listed on their "School Information" page.
 
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Can I do 2 years at a UC and then apply for a pharmacy program? Would that take 6 years?
 
Can I do 2 years at a UC and then apply for a pharmacy program? Would that take 6 years?

2 years of pre-pharmacy and 4 years of pharmacy school takes 6 years, and that's a common path to take.
 
Plese, please do some research. If you are really interested in the profession you would at least do a little footwork.
 
Plese, please do some research. If you are really interested in the profession you would at least do a little footwork.

Those websites don't tell you if its competitive or not to get into 6year programs or 7 year programs at all. Or if I take 4 years at a UC and then apply to a school of pharmacy, how many years would it take.
 
Those websites don't tell you if its competitive or not to get into 6year programs or 7 year programs at all. Or if I take 4 years at a UC and then apply to a school of pharmacy, how many years would it take.

Let's see: 4 years undergrad + X years pharmacy school = ?

Unsolvable. They really should put that information on the website.

Let's look at it this way: 2 years undergrad + 4 years pharmacy school = 6 years total. Now let's up that to 4 years undergrad and see what happens:

4 years undergrad + 4 years pharmacy school = ? - drat, still unsolvable.

As for being competitive - I can only speak to the 2 + 4 route. Not competitive at all. I mean like 1/10th of how competitive people make it out to be. Easy, easy, easy. Easier than trying to figure out how long 4 years of undergrad plus X years of pharmacy school is, I assure you.
 
Let's see: 4 years undergrad + X years pharmacy school = ?

Unsolvable. They really should put that information on the website.

Let's look at it this way: 2 years undergrad + 4 years pharmacy school = 6 years total. Now let's up that to 4 years undergrad and see what happens:

4 years undergrad + 4 years pharmacy school = ? - drat, still unsolvable.

As for being competitive - I can only speak to the 2 + 4 route. Not competitive at all. I mean like 1/10th of how competitive people make it out to be. Easy, easy, easy. Easier than trying to figure out how long 4 years of undergrad plus X years of pharmacy school is, I assure you.
So regardless it's always going to be 4 years pharmacy school
 
Also,did you know if you google 2+4 it would pop up 2+4 pharmacy schools? Isn't that amazing?
 
So regardless it's always going to be 4 years pharmacy school
Do you not read? Several times in this post, 3 year pharmacy schools have been mentioned. They attend summers as well to make it 3 years rather then 4.
 
The biggest thing you'll need to learn as a pre-pharm is to be pretty good at taking care of yourself. A lot of us didn't necessarily have advisors, or good ones at least. It's good that you're asking questions and getting answers, but it might be better for you to do some of the legwork yourself.

The FAQ above isn't entirely out-dated. It's kind of a perpetual work-in-progress. It will give you a good idea of what your options are. From there, I'd start reading a lot of the threads here, and search for specific topics in previous posts.

It's hard to get your bearing at first, but once you do, it's really easy to see how a majority of programs work, regardless of their differences, including: 3 and 4 year programs, and schools that do/don't use PharmCAS, etc.
 
This is my last question. I just looked at the 3 year Pharm.D program in the FAQs thread. I'm assuming this is the 4+3 program(4 years at a college and then 3 years of pharmacy school). Is this really competitive to get into?

:beat:
 
The 2+3 year programs are summers also I believe. P4S is in one and I believe that is what he said.

Edit: an example is Midwestern
http://www.midwestern.edu/Programs_and_Admission/AZ_Pharmacy.html

This is my last question. I just looked at the 3 year Pharm.D program in the FAQs thread. I'm assuming this is the 4+3 program(4 years at a college and then 3 years of pharmacy school). Is this really competitive to get into?
😴
 
I'm trying not to be a rude, but are you serious? Your question is "Are all 3 year programs 4+3?" I mentioned earlier that is not the case with a website to back up my claims. Then you give me a "?" and a website that is a 4+3 program. If you choose to ignore advise, don't ask.
Well please excuse me on how I phrase my questions then. I'll edit the other post.
 
I feel offended now. English is not my first language and it feel like there's hostility between prospective students and pharmacy students. Some non-profit organization this forum is, >.>
 
You got quite a few good responses from different users. I'd say this thread has enough info for you to be at least a little more informed. More importantly, people have shown you where to look for more information, which is one of the biggest things you need to know when setting yourself up to apply to almost any professional program.
 
I'm not asking you guys to do the research for me. I mean if you guys just know through the top of your head then just help a person out. Sometimes one can't find the information on a college website(they don't list out 3+3,0+6,4+4,4+2,etc.) so it's difficult to interpret what they tell us.
 
I feel offended now. English is not my first language and it feel like there's hostility between prospective students and pharmacy students. Some non-profit organization this forum is, >.>

The hostility that you're feeling is when you ask questions after clearly showing you haven't taken the initiative to look up the answers yourself. The information is all around you if you just take the time to look it up. Read through school websites and the FAQ thread, look at the pharmcas website and aacp.org, google some stuff. If you come here expecting people to reiterate information again and again for things that are clearly already stated elsewhere....do I need to finish?

Furthermore, many of us are not pharmacy students. Many are actually pre-pharmacy, who are going through trying to get their prerequisites done or are in the application process. We had to go through the same things, find the same information ourselves, and work to get where we are.

We're not trying to put you down here...but we are trying to point you in the right direction, which you seem to be ignoring. You also do not give us enough information when asking questions. For example, when you refer to a school in the FAQ section, please tell us what the school is.
 
Okay I will be a little nicer because I don't want to scare you away.

What year in High school are you? I'm asking because 0-6 programs require you to apply to them while in high school. I don't know the process so you will have to look it up on each schools website.(You can find a list of schools in the FAQ at the top of the forum). However, keep in mind they are very competitive.
Next, you seem to be very interested in CA schools. I assume this is your home state. If it is keep in mind the UC schools are very competitive and I believe require you to have a bachelors, but I don't think you have to take the PCAT.
Then you have the private colleges in cali like Western and UoP. They are less competitive.

Pharmacy schools like mentioned in your other thread are leaning towards requiring a bachelors degree.
I know your parents think 8 years is to long, but it is what it is.
There is also no formula to being excepted into pharmacy school. Some people here have been admitted with sub3.0 GPA's but they have steller EC's. Others have been admitted with 4.0's and near nothing in the way of EC's.
To see what stats people are applying with there is the WAMC threat at the top of this forum.

We on this forum can be brutal towards people who don't do leg work. So try to find out the informations first(this includes a websearch, Pharmcas, and the search option). If you can't find something then start a thread.
 
Okay I will be a little nicer because I don't want to scare you away.

What year in High school are you? I'm asking because 0-6 programs require you to apply to them while in high school. I don't know the process so you will have to look it up on each schools website.(You can find a list of schools in the FAQ at the top of the forum). However, keep in mind they are very competitive.
Next, you seem to be very interested in CA schools. I assume this is your home state. If it is keep in mind the UC schools are very competitive and I believe require you to have a bachelors, but I don't think you have to take the PCAT.
Then you have the private colleges in cali like Western and UoP. They are less competitive.

Pharmacy schools like mentioned in your other thread are leaning towards requiring a bachelors degree.
I know your parents think 8 years is to long, but it is what it is.
There is also no formula to being excepted into pharmacy school. Some people here have been admitted with sub3.0 GPA's but they have steller EC's. Others have been admitted with 4.0's and near nothing in the way of EC's.
To see what stats people are applying with there is the WAMC threat at the top of this forum.

We on this forum can be brutal towards people who don't do leg work. So try to find out the informations first(this includes a websearch, Pharmcas, and the search option). If you can't find something then start a thread.
Only UCSF and UCSD offer pharmacy program, so the rest is just private I guess. I'm in 12th grade.
 
Only UCSF and UCSD offer pharmacy program, so the rest is just private I guess. I'm in 12th grade.
I don't know the deadlines for 0-6 programs, but if its passed then you are looking at attending undergrad before pharmacy school.

UCSF & UCSD are among the most competitive schools to get into.

However, if you don't keep a California bias there are plenty of great schools across the country.

Just remember to check the pre-reqs of the schools you are applying to make sure you have them covered. There is no universal set of pre-reqs so schools often vary in what they require.
 
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