Decisions about pre pharmacy

[Atham87]

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What would be reccommended about prepharmacy. Two years under graduate or 4 years undergraduate school.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

What would be reccommended about prepharmacy. Two years under graduate or 4 years undergraduate school.

First thing you should do is research what schools you're interested in, and what pre-reqs they require for entry. Do they require a bachelors degree? Do they require upper level courses (i.e. Biochem, Immunology)? You'd be hard pressed to complete either of those in just two years.

Additionally, you have to weigh the opportunity cost. If you can complete your pre-pharmacy coursework in two years with a competitive application, then why bother pro-longing a possible entry into a pharmacy program? Conversely, if it takes you 2.5-3 years to complete your pre-pharmacy coursework, then an additional year to obtain a bachelors might not be a bad idea, as it can only strengthen your application.

This is all assuming you're not paying a ridiculous price for tuition (i.e. private school or out-of-state)

Regardless of which path, you should hit the ground running with solid grades, extracurricular involvement, and pharmacy experience of any kind. This will afford you the luxury to decide between completing two years or fours years later on.

 

[AmyChaser]

This is one decision that might be made for you.

Find your desired schools, look at their reqs, and get started. Placement can be competitive, and you may find that even if you get all of your classes out of the way in two years, you might not get into pharm college on your first try.

So keep that in mind. Have a secondary plan even as you go for pharmacy. It's great to have something like a chem or nutrition degree. So work for that at the same time. That's kind of what I am doing. But I sure hope to get into the department before then!