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So it looks like you answered your own question then.
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There are certain standards that all pharmacy schools must meet, but curriculums do not have to be identical just like school pre-reqs are not all identical.
i'm sure it's mostly the same material just under different course names/titles
Not entirely true.
Courses can vary greatly depending on the school. I looked into several potential schools and have seen their curricula. The school I ended up attending requires a bachelor's degree prior to matriculation and, because of this, they skip certain basic sciences since everyone has already taken them.
It depends on the schools though, some have very similar courses. Looking at prerequisite requirements may give you a good idea of what level they expect you to be on when you begin. Some start with undergraduate-level background courses and others dive right in.
Really though, just check the website for each school. Most of the course information is available.
I go to a 3 year school and we have to take micro right now and we take immunology and biochem for the next 2 quarters. And if your wondering about 3 year curriculum, it sucks! We have 2-3 exams every week for 11 weeks. You constantly find yourself behind and you can't catch up because there is no time. I guess thats what you get though if you want to finish in 3 years.
This is a bit off topic but regarding similarities I wanted to mention that all schools are not the same in regards to the culture and viewpoint of the school. For instance, at my school attendance is considered pretty darn important. Professors will actually leave out chunks of information from their notes that you can only get if you show up in class, have the printed notes, and pay attention to their slides vs. your notes. I have gotten burned on this before when I was actually there in class and either didn't have the printed notes (so I didn't know anything was missing on my version) or had the printed notes but was so engrossed in their lecture that I didn't follow along with my notes to see that anything was missing. Also, there are a decent number of professors who don't want their lectures recorded at my school. Contrast this with schools that actually record all the lectures and post them for you on the computer so that you can hear them again at your leisure. If you think differences like this will make your learning experience better or worse you might want to consider this and find out what the culture and viewpoint is of your possible schools.
I never understood how this was appropriate in a professional school where information can be life threatening. Yea, it forces you to come to class, but omitting things like max daily doses or serious side effects from the notes to do so doesn't seem like its worth the reward of having attendance. Professors are employed to give info, not force people in to attending class. Every semester I complained that if you have to trick me in to coming to class by withholding information that may kill a patient, then maybe your class isn't very good. No one seemed to listen.
Not only that, eagles: We have an annual comprehensive exam, and I don't save all of my printed out power points to review later. Once I'm done with an exam, those notes get cast aside. When I'm reviewing for the comprehensive exam for a class, notes with blanks are worthless.
I've just decided to pick up a NAPLEX review book as a supplement.
I've just decided to pick up a NAPLEX review book as a supplement.
Harrowing
This sounds like middle school. Not conducive to learning in the least.
Regardless, it is ridiculous.
Why not just get the info from a classmate?
I don't see too much of an issue with it. After all, who wants to lecture to an empty room? That is part if their job- to lecture to students. To ensure students are getting the information they need directly from the source. If you don't want to go to class, go to an online program. Besides, all the studies say good grades are correlated with class attendance.
It's annoying, sure. But "life threatening"? (as stated in a previous post).....nah.
With that said, I skip class more often than most...I have too much **** to do and sometimes prioritize. I just have a classmate get notes for me.
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Two weeks ago in class, I gave a meticulously prepared lecture on a certain topic that is constantly being updated. I pointed out all of the places where the book was outdated and verbally gave updated information. I had some of the information written down on my PowerPoint slides, but I don't put everything on there, and I often elaborate on the information on the slides.
Last week, my students presented their case studies and WHAT do you know? Some of them made recommendations based on the outdated information in their textbook. They were either not in class (I don't take attendance) or they weren't listening. Not my problem. They failed.
There are reasons to come to class. I don't require it, but if students choose not to, it is at their own risk.
Personally, for me it is an additional irritant. I am not saying whether it is right or wrong...I am too darn tired already barely five weeks into the semester to make judgment calls. However, what I am saying is figure out if that is something that would make your learning process more difficult than it already will be and if so, then you might want to A) find out what normal practice and policy is at the schools you are applying to and B) use that information to determine how to rank your preferred schools. It is just something I wish I knew about beforehand.
In just my 5th week as an assistant professor, I am OVER students whining and bitching about stuff like having to go to class or wanting to be spoon fed the information. It's professional school. Take responsibility or don't. But don't whine! Seriously.
Everyone's different. I prefer listening in lecture, and sometimes I don't actively take extensive notes because it interrupts the listening. I wouldn't want to fail because I used the printed information provided instead of specific notes I should have written down. But that's just me.
I like having a ready reference I can go to, that is accurate, and I don't think that's necessarily unprofessional.
I like having a ready reference I can go to, that is accurate, and I don't think that's necessarily unprofessional.
Totally agree!!!!! I've said the same thing to my classmates who complain about it.
Our professors also point out outdated /incorrect information and many of our lecturers work at the UMC, community, or ambulatory clinics so what they see in practice is probably much more valuable than what is written in a book with outdated info. You can't replicate that. You can't replicate the thought process when we go through case studies they have seen in practice. From what I hear from preceptor friends, the best students are those that pay attention, take responsibility for their learning (beyond rote memorization of book material), and have critical thinking skills (developed through aforementioned exercises).
When I miss class (I rarely miss classes like therapeutics, though), I get notes/lecture recordings from a classmate, review the material, and go to the prof for any clarifications. Just the other day I met with a prof because I was totally freaking lost in kinetics. Fifteen minutes later, I understood the problems. I don't see what's so hard about that?
What did I say about whining!??!
I don't put blanks on my slides, but there is no possible way to put everything I'm going to say in class on the slides, either. Sometimes, examples from practice occur to me as I'm lecturing, so it's not even premeditated. Even if I found a way to put EVERYTHING on the slides, students would complain that the slides were too long/print was too small or they'd say "Dr. A4MD just reads from the slides!!!"
I used to skip class. But when I missed out on things, I just sucked it up and never tried to make it anyone's fault but my own. It's called taking responsibility.
You don't pay your professor. Your school does. You pay your school for the opportunity to get an education. How they choose to deliver that education is their prerogative. How the professor chooses to conduct his or her classroom is up to him or her. They only thing you have control on in that equation is your own actions. Of course, you are always free to find another school if the one you are attending doesn't suit your needs. If you don't like your professor's style, then put it in his or her evals. But don't make the mistake of thinking that just by paying tuition, students gain the right to dictate what happens in the classroom, because that is not the case anywhere.
And if you think you are going to kill someone because of life threatening information left off of a PowerPoint slide, you have a wealth of options at your disposal:
-Ask a classmate
-Ask your professor
-Ask Jeeves
-Your textbook
-Lexi Comp
Trust me, you're going to have to look up many things over the course of your career. Learning where to find info is a good skill to have. If you do happen to kill someone with an overdose of Tylenol, you won't be able to fall back on the "but my professor didn't put it on the handout!" excuse in court.
You don't pay your professor. Your school does. You pay your school for the opportunity to get an education. How they choose to deliver that education is their prerogative. How the professor chooses to conduct his or her classroom is up to him or her. They only thing you have control on in that equation is your own actions. Of course, you are always free to find another school if the one you are attending doesn't suit your needs. If you don't like your professor's style, then put it in his or her evals. But don't make the mistake of thinking that just by paying tuition, students gain the right to dictate what happens in the classroom, because that is not the case anywhere.
And if you think you are going to kill someone because of life threatening information left off of a PowerPoint slide, you have a wealth of options at your disposal:
-Ask a classmate
-Ask your professor
-Ask Jeeves
-Your textbook
-Lexi Comp
Trust me, you're going to have to look up many things over the course of your career. Learning where to find info is a good skill to have. If you do happen to kill someone with an overdose of Tylenol, you won't be able to fall back on the "but my professor didn't put it on the handout!" excuse in court.
I'm not arguing that you can't look it up. I'm arguing that it's ridiculous that a professor looks at his/her slides and says "I'm going to omit this really important piece of information that I've likely included on my rough copy just so the students feel obligated to attend class." There is zero to gain by doing this. It's professional school and fill in the blank style notes lost appropriateness at some point in high school. It's your job to make the class important by teaching well, not by omitting information to force attendance. In my opinion, it's lazy teaching.
For comparison, in medical school this has never happened once and it didn't happen with the classes we took in pharm school that also had med students.
Correct
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The point is your school and its instructors get to do it the way they want. I don't use fill-in-the-blank lectures, but there is absolutely no way to put everything that is going to be discussed in class on the handout. If you miss (or don't listen), you might miss out, as some of my students learned last week.
My job is to teach the material. The students' job is to learn it. They know up front that they will be evaluated on what is presented and discussed in class. If they want to skip, it's their responsibility to find out what they missed.
And I'm certain that this has happened in med school once or twice. I know of several that have mandatory attendance.
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I'm grateful more of our professors have started recording their lectures. That was my BIGGEST pet peeve.
Our school doesn't record them, but I don't care if students do. And I don't mind them sharing them with each other.
In residency (while teaching at the COP) we were supposed to record our lectures, but lots of time the equipment was malfunctioning, or people forgot, etc.
I do NOT understand why people hate attending classes so much? Just pure laziness? 😕
Attending classes makes studying so much easier. I attend all my classes and PAY ATTENTION the entire time...that saves me so much time b/c I do not have to study that much afterwards since I listen to the entire lecture and know most of it already.
It makes studying much easier and I made straight A(s) my first two years of pharmacy school and didn't have to study an insane amount B/C I attended class.
Why would someone feel the need to skip class? To save time? If you skip class you actually WASTE MORE TIME. I know due to experience. I skipped class maybe 2 or 3 times a year (NOT often at all) and those 2 or 3 days that I missed is HELL trying to make up for it and learn the material.
It takes 10X as long studying for a 4 hr lecture I skipped versus one that I have attended. I know b/c I have experience this before.
So I honestly do NOT see how it can possibly be "better" for a student to skip all their classes. Unless you are really that lazy and don't mind failing out. 😕
Attending classes makes studying so much easier. I attend all my classes and PAY ATTENTION the entire time...that saves me so much time b/c I do not have to study that much afterwards since I listen to the entire lecture and know most of it already.
It makes studying much easier and I made straight A(s) my first two years of pharmacy school and didn't have to study an insane amount B/C I attended class.
Why would someone feel the need to skip class? To save time?
If you skip class you actually WASTE MORE TIME. I know due to experience. I skipped class maybe 2 or 3 times a year (NOT often at all) and those 2 or 3 days that I missed is HELL trying to make up for it and learn the material. It takes 10X as long studying for a 4 hr lecture I skipped versus one that I have attended. I know b/c I have experience this before.
So I honestly do NOT see how it can possibly be "better" for a student to skip all their classes. Unless you are really that lazy and don't mind failing out. 😕
I do NOT understand why people hate attending classes so much? Just pure laziness? 😕
Attending classes makes studying so much easier. I attend all my classes and PAY ATTENTION the entire time...that saves me so much time b/c I do not have to study that much afterwards since I listen to the entire lecture and know most of it already.
It makes studying much easier and I made straight A(s) my first two years of pharmacy school and didn't have to study an insane amount B/C I attended class.
Why would someone feel the need to skip class? To save time?
It takes 10X as long studying for a 4 hr lecture I skipped versus one that I have attended. I know b/c I have experience this before.
So I honestly do NOT see how it can possibly be "better" for a student to skip all their classes. Unless you are really that lazy and don't mind failing out. 😕
n=1
Another thing I don't understand...LOL
If you really HATE school/college with a passion then why would you want to take out a 200K loan for it?
You are paying for the classes...yet you HATE it and don't ever want to learn from it? 😕
Then why attend college in the first place? Just go out and work. People make no sense at all sometimes.
If you really HATE school/college with a passion then why would you want to take out a 200K loan for it?
You are paying for the classes...yet you HATE it and don't ever want to learn from it? 😕
Then why attend college in the first place? Just go out and work. People make no sense at all sometimes.
The problem with school is that (aside from maybe therapeutics) the material doesn't require the student to engage in higher level thinking and discussion. If I have to sit there and be a sponge I'll do it wherever I please... and fortunately I have that luxury.
Another thing I don't understand...LOL
If you really HATE school/college with a passion then why would you want to take out a 200K loan for it?
You are paying for the classes...yet you HATE it and don't ever want to learn from it? 😕
Then why attend college in the first place? Just go out and work. People make no sense at all sometimes.
My good friend Mark once told me: "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." 🙂
Another thing I don't understand...LOL
If you really HATE school/college with a passion then why would you want to take out a 200K loan for it?
Nobody is talking about hating school.
You are paying for the classes...yet you HATE it and don't ever want to learn from it? 😕
Then why attend college in the first place? Just go out and work. People make no sense at all sometimes.
Nice!
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Yeah, there are some classes that my school did not teach because they were prerequisites for the program.
At the same time, we had quite a lot of rotations that were not offered at other schools.
At the same time, we had quite a lot of rotations that were not offered at other schools.
I had the most HARROWING dream after reading this thread before bed last night. I dreamt I was back in pharmacy school on the first day, except all my classmates were old high school classmates. The teacher kept putting up overheads crammed with writing, and then taking them down before anyone could copy all the stuff down. After class, everyone was wanting to see the overheads to get what they missed and the teacher refused to show the overheads or go back over any of the missed stuff. Then I was going to my next class, but I couldn't find my schedule and I didn't remember where my next class was. HARROWING!
Ha! If pharmacy students had to take notes the way I did in high school and in undergraduate, they would cry so much... PowerPoint is great but it's spoiled us all.
I miss actually getting up and walking to my next class. Going to school for us is like sitting in a movie theatre for hours on end, but there's never anything good playing.
I never saw a powerpoint presentation in school until my junior year of college. Seriously.
My first widespread experience with them was in pharmacy school. We definitely didn't have them in undergraduate (early to mid 90's) and if they were used a lot in grad school (1999 to 2001), I don't remember them.
Same here...but I kinda prefer taking notes by hand b/c PowerPoint is very expensive. I have to buy ink to print every single slide out ALL the time.
If you come to my room and look there is paper stack up taller than me in there.
The ink ain't cheap! At least not for my printer. PowerPoint saves time (no writing) but it's very expensive to print everything out everyday.
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Same here...but I kinda prefer taking notes by hand b/c PowerPoint is very expensive. I have to buy ink to print every single slide out ALL the time.
If you come to my room and look there is paper stack up taller than me in there.
The ink ain't cheap! At least not for my printer. PowerPoint saves time (no writing) but it's very expensive to print everything out everyday.
What kind of schools do not have almost free printing? You probably already pay for it, might as well use it. Four years ago, we could print as much as we want. I printed bibles, comic books, and chit. During my last of pharmacy school, they started imposing limit how many pages you could print in a semester but I still printed like I was a publisher; never hit my quota, well got close but not over...
I spent ~$0 in ink literally...
We used to have free printing until people like you abused it. Now there is a limit but if you have to buy more copies, it's cheap.
One of the perks of becoming a PhD student is the free printing
Wow I feel ripped off...
In undergrad I took all my notes by hand due to no powerpoint. But it was 7 cents a copy! No free printing.
At Columbia it was 250 pages a semester limit....you print MUCH more notes than 250 pages.
At Mercer it was 10 cents a copy for black and white and 15 cents for color. NO free printing ever.
I never had free printing at any school. 🙄
High school and Middle school students use powerpoint now too?
WOW I feel OLD NOW...I didn't start using PowerPoint till I was a student at Columbia dental school.
I thought it was a huge waste b/c ink was so expensive.
WOW I feel OLD NOW...I didn't start using PowerPoint till I was a student at Columbia dental school.
I thought it was a huge waste b/c ink was so expensive.
Wow. Sometimes I forget you're only a year younger than me. Pushing 30 and no hubby yet?
