Do I stand a chance in pharmacy school?

[bluecolors]

I want to know if I have a chance, usually I am 3.5+ student but, one semester something happened in my life which got me a very low grade. Then the year after that I was still dealing with it but, managed to get like a 3.2 gpas, now this semester I got a 3.5+ gpa for both semester, taking upper division, This year I will be a senior and will take my PCAT in October.

I already have 100+ hours of volunteering/shadowing and reference letters. I have done some leadership roles and I am smart and I work hard just that one semester got me. I have around a 3.1 gpa for the sciences and math. I don't know if I will make it to pharmacy school what are your thoughts?

My current gpa total is a 3.34.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deuce_plus]

I have heard of folk getting into pharm school with GPAS in the 2.6 ballpark. Yes, you read that right, TWO POINT SIX I.E. CRAP!

The profession is going downhill fast. The major schools are expanding and trying to fill seats to secure government loan money. The job market is currently in the toilet and headed rapidly for the sewer. Next step after that? complete obsolescence as the profession gets fully automated by more advanced technology. Do not believe me? Do some research on the advanced AI experiments Google has been doing and then come back. Technology moves swiftly - It will happen.

Whatever you do, do NOT take out any loans for pharmacy school you will be sorry you did.

 

[bluecolors]

Really? So what will become of the profession, the outlook said pharmacy was going to increase.

Now, with all the automated machines, aren't all jobs at risk? I mean as technology get more advanced especially with robotics, AI and quantum physics all jobs could either be obsolete or be reduced to mindless tasks. The only higher positions would be really skilled professions which is hard to obtain then what?

Secondly I see that pharmacy is saturated in the city but, what about outside the city area aren't their tons of opportunity?

 

[MyRealNameIs]

Do well in PCAT and you will be fine.

Most schools have minimum 3.0 GPA tho, keep that in mind and don't drop below it

If you want to improve your application, you can get a job as a pharmacy technician.

And I will believe computers replacing pharmacists when I see a general population that isn't clueless and stupid. They can't even figure out how to slide their card on the pinpad half the time.

 

[bluecolors]

For the PCAT how do you guys prepare for the writing/reading portions?

 

[MyRealNameIs]

You don't really for writing section

I know many schools don't really care about the writing portion of the PCAT besides the schools that require writing test on interview dates. It is ridiculously easy to get a 3 even if you know nothing about the topic and 4 if you know something about the topic. Just read the sample essays posted by Pearson to get an idea of what quality essay gets a 4, which should be good enough for any pharmacy school.

If you really want to study, Dr.Collins has past essay questions. You should come up with possible answers to those questions that are versatile so you don't waste time thinking about an answer during the test.

You prepare for reading section by doing practice problems. Once you get used to the type of questions they give, it gets pretty easy.

Bio/Chem/Math are easy sections to improve. Unless you are consistently getting 90+, I would focus on those.

 

[mayyyygz7]

I have heard of folk getting into pharm school with GPAS in the 2.6 ballpark. Yes, you read that right, TWO POINT SIX I.E. CRAP!

The profession is going downhill fast. The major schools are expanding and trying to fill seats to secure government loan money. The job market is currently in the toilet and headed rapidly for the sewer. Next step after that? complete obsolescence as the profession gets fully automated by more advanced technology. Do not believe me? Do some research on the advanced AI experiments Google has been doing and then come back. Technology moves swiftly - It will happen.

Whatever you do, do NOT take out any loans for pharmacy school you will be sorry you did.

Can you please not post things like that here? They were not asking about job outlook, and this kind of pessimistic post is getting old. to me at least. If people want to go to pharmacy school then we can do that. stop trying to steer people away from it. please and thank you. being a pharmacist is more than just counting pills. it is being there for people and helping them. People look up to pharmacists for recommendations and for advice. and they trust them. Can't do everything with a machine. You don't have to go to pharmacy school, but some of us still have a passion for it.

Really? So what will become of the profession, the outlook said pharmacy was going to increase.

Now, with all the automated machines, aren't all jobs at risk? I mean as technology get more advanced especially with robotics, AI and quantum physics all jobs could either be obsolete or be reduced to mindless tasks. The only higher positions would be really skilled professions which is hard to obtain then what?

Secondly I see that pharmacy is saturated in the city but, what about outside the city area aren't their tons of opportunity?

I agree with you 100%. There are plenty of opportunities outside major cities.

 

[nutripharma]

I have heard of folk getting into pharm school with GPAS in the 2.6 ballpark. Yes, you read that right, TWO POINT SIX I.E. CRAP!

The profession is going downhill fast. The major schools are expanding and trying to fill seats to secure government loan money. The job market is currently in the toilet and headed rapidly for the sewer. Next step after that? complete obsolescence as the profession gets fully automated by more advanced technology. Do not believe me? Do some research on the advanced AI experiments Google has been doing and then come back. Technology moves swiftly - It will happen.

Whatever you do, do NOT take out any loans for pharmacy school you will be sorry you did.

So you talk like you have the experience, but you probably don't. There are already enough of those " DON'T DO IT OR YOU'LL BE HOMELESS" types of people on here, stop making everything sound so complicated. It's boring and redundant. The profession isn't going anywhere, literally its stagnant. Having a PharmD gives you many options.

 

[nutripharma]

I want to know if I have a chance, usually I am 3.5+ student but, one semester something happened in my life which got me a very low grade. Then the year after that I was still dealing with it but, managed to get like a 3.2 gpas, now this semester I got a 3.5+ gpa for both semester, taking upper division, This year I will be a senior and will take my PCAT in October.

I already have 100+ hours of volunteering/shadowing and reference letters. I have done some leadership roles and I am smart and I work hard just that one semester got me. I have around a 3.1 gpa for the sciences and math. I don't know if I will make it to pharmacy school what are your thoughts?

My current gpa total is a 3.34.

You will totally make it to pharmacy school. Next step is to nail your personal statement and your interview. Apparently, as long as you talk about how you've improved and you use positives, you will do awesome. I'm applying as well, good luck!

 

[PharmtoCS]

Pharmacy schools are pumping out graduates at a rate of roughly 14,000 (soon to be 15k) per year, whereas job growth is expected to be around 4,000 per year. Even with pharmacists retiring, there still won't be enough jobs for new graduates, unless if more pharmacists are being hired part-time, which is already happening in many areas. Even rural positions will be filled quickly since there is always going to be someone who needs to pay off a $200k+ student loan.

 

[nutripharma]

Pharmacy schools are pumping out graduates at a rate of roughly 14,000 (soon to be 15k) per year, whereas job growth is expected to be around 4,000 per year. Even with pharmacists retiring, there still won't be enough jobs for new graduates, unless if more pharmacists are being hired part-time, which is already happening in many areas. Even rural positions will be filled quickly since there is always going to be someone who needs to pay off a $200k+ student loan.

That is why I mentioned there are more opportunities with a PharmD than people think.... I wasn't talking about just the pharmacist job market alone. You can become a professor, a researcher, and more. The CDC is desperately looking for pharmacists.... so I'm not really feeding into anything.

 

[PharmtoCS]

That is why I mentioned there are more opportunities with a PharmD than people think.... I wasn't talking about just the pharmacist job market alone. You can become a professor, a researcher, and more. The CDC is desperately looking for pharmacists.... so I'm not really feeding into anything.

That is what the schools love to tell you: that you can land that unicorn job by getting a PharmD.

The reality is that bout 61% of all pharmacists work in retail, followed by 23% in hospital (including clinical). The other 16% covers everything else including industry, academia, etc. These niches are even more saturated than hospital (already extremely hard to land) and typically require at least 1 year of residency and/or fellowship.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm#tab-3

 

[nutripharma]

That is what the schools love to tell you: that you can land that unicorn job by getting a PharmD.

The reality is that bout 61% of all pharmacists work in retail, followed by 23% in hospital (including clinical). The other 16% covers everything else including industry, academia, etc. These niches are even more saturated than hospital (already extremely hard to land) and typically require at least 1 year of residency and/or fellowship.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm#tab-3

I didn't get this information from schools, I got it from people who are close to me. My cousin found her job through the CDC and she was interested in becoming a professor before that. I have these conversations with her on a monthly basis.

 

[StudyLater]

That is what the schools love to tell you: that you can land that unicorn job by getting a PharmD.

The reality is that bout 61% of all pharmacists work in retail, followed by 23% in hospital (including clinical). The other 16% covers everything else including industry, academia, etc. These niches are even more saturated than hospital (already extremely hard to land) and typically require at least 1 year of residency and/or fellowship.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/pharmacists.htm#tab-3

So why are you using data about currently employed pharmacists to predict where future grads will go? You said yourself the landscape is changing and that there aren't enough "Pharmacist" jobs to handle all of the outgoing graduates. Therefore, new grads would have to change the way they are approaching their job search. It seems to me you kind of answered yourself here with your previous post.

Also, why provide a ref for your numbers here and no ref for the projected job growth you stated (i.e. 4000)?

 

[PharmtoCS]

So why are you using data about currently employed pharmacists to predict where future grads will go? You said yourself the landscape is changing and that there aren't enough "Pharmacist" jobs to handle all of the outgoing graduates. Therefore, new grads would have to change the way they are approaching their job search. It seems to me you kind of answered yourself here with your previous post.

Also, why provide a ref for your numbers here and no ref for the projected job growth you stated (i.e. 4000)?

The figure of 4,000 is actually closer to 4,140, which would be the average yearly growth rate of pharmacist positions. The BLS provides a growth estimate of 41,400 over the next 10 years.

Pharmacists have traditionally worked primarily in retail followed by hospital dispensing. How many of these niche jobs are really being created relative to the number of pharmacy students graduating? Add to that the competition from current pharmacists with experience who are trying to flee from retail to hospital and even from hospital to industry.

 

[bluecolors]

One way pharmacy can go is either less job or less pay and more employment. So, I been looking around couple of websites and wondering why is it that pharmacist make 70,000 a year in various countries across Europe, while in the US we make 100,000+? I am not complaining just worried why we get paid more. Is it because pharmacist here have a pharmd?

 

[StudyLater]

One way pharmacy can go is either less job or less pay and more employment. So, I been looking around couple of websites and wondering why is it that pharmacist make 70,000 a year in various countries across Europe, while in the US we make 100,000+? I am not complaining just worried why we get paid more. Is it because pharmacist here have a pharmd?

Why are you worried? Doesn't seem like the right word. Did you mean to say you were just interested in why we're paid more?

Medication costs more here than in most other countries, I believe. That may be a contributing factor.

 

[MyRealNameIs]

One way pharmacy can go is either less job or less pay and more employment. So, I been looking around couple of websites and wondering why is it that pharmacist make 70,000 a year in various countries across Europe, while in the US we make 100,000+? I am not complaining just worried why we get paid more. Is it because pharmacist here have a pharmd?

Pay in US is generally higher across many professions.

Doctors and nurses make more money in US than other European countries too. The pay for pharmacists are just in line with other health care professionals.

 

[PharmtoCS]

Not just for the health professions but others as well. Software engineers, for example, are paid significantly less in Europe. Doctorate level health professionals also do not have to take out $200k in loans, and they work fewer hours per week than in the US.