Feeling lost and hopeless :-(

[Superwoman1990]

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had an amazing holiday so far! Here's my story:
I graduated from an undergrad program in Canada and applied to pharmacy with a GPA of around 3.9 in the last 3 years. I was accepted, and was SO excited-- I absolutely loved pharmacy. I was passionate and enthusiastic about it; I did my research going in, and I was certain that this was what I wanted to do.
Shortly after starting pharmacy school, within the first semester, I started feeling less enthusiastic about the whole prospect. Suddenly, the profession was not all that is seemed.. I went in excited to learn, but the quality of education was sub-par, and of course the first year was filled of rather useless classes. Now I understand that's normal for the first year of any program, so I decided to stick it through. The rotations didn't help reinvigorate my love for pharmacy... I felt like a slave in retail pharmacy; hospital pharmacy was not a great experience either. I finished my hospital pharmacy rotation wishing I had applied to medicine.

The idea of transferring to another program never occurred to me until now. For some reason, I went into pharmacy thinking this was the end of it--- I had made a decision and I should stick to it. The unfortunate thing is that I am almost near graduation. I went through pharmacy school not putting in 100% effort like I did in undergrad , but spent a good chunk of my time working. My pharmacy GPA is around a 3.3, but I know it could have been much higher if I had put in the time and effort.

My dilemma is now that have the idea of transferring into another program, I am highly worried about my pharm GPA ruining my chances. I was thinking of working as a pharmacist for a couple of years, assessing how I like it, and then applying to medicine. However, I have no idea what medical schools in Canada will even take me with this GPA (I haven't written the MCAT at all; volunteering experience is good). My question now is, is it too late, or should I just pursue a different path within pharmacy?

I appreciate you all reading this!

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[esob]

I don't know about Canada, but here it seems the two most determining factors are MCAT and undergrad cumulative and science GPA. I've read numerous posts where people have noted that graduate grades are not as important as UG grades. The larger issue may be the "career hopper" label you would get for abandoning pharmacy too soon.

 

[frenchyn]

I think you should really try to explore different path of pharmacy to make sure you really hate it and can not imagine your life doing it. If not, then take the preq if you have not while trying to bring up your GPA as high as you can, and take MCAT. I have seen people with lower MCAT than yours who were able to bring it up and got in US MD medical schools with a 30+ MCAT. It is definitely possible. Just need some work🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

If you want a good application you'll be much better off having actually given pharmacy a fair shake, and also done a fair amount of due diligence about medicine before applying. If you "feel like a slave" in retail pharmacy, what makes you think you won't in medical training where you have even less of a say in schedule, hours, call, and are frankly going to log double the hours?

You have three biggest hurdles (1) why were you so excited about pharmacy going in but so unenthusiastic about pharm after actually seeing it, and why should Adcoms think you aren't similarly just enamored with medicine from the outside? (2) med schools want people drawn to medicine for some concrete reason, not people running from another bad situation. No profession wants another's malcontents and washouts. And (3) the biggest indicator of someone not seeing through on a medical education and training is someone with a history of already not following through on another professional education. Adcoms want people who will actually become doctors, that is a mission they take seriously -- they can't give a seat to someone who just wants to give it a try".

All of these issues can be addressed by really looking before you leap. Meaning significant time, maybe years, of shadowing and volunteering and talking to doctors and soul searching before you pull the trigger and take a postbac course or sign up for the mcat. Medicine is not a good fit for everyone. So yes, you should probably finish your pharmacy program and give it a try first, especially at a hospital setting where you'll have access to doctors and can pick their brains. and at the same time do some volunteering and shadowing to see what's what. After a fair amount of research you can be better assured you aren't just jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

 

[Labrat07]

@Law2Doc give you a lot of golden advice.

 

[italiancowgirl]

If you want a good application you'll be much better off having actually given pharmacy a fair shake, and also done a fair amount of due diligence about medicine before applying. If you "feel like a slave" in retail pharmacy, what makes you think you won't in medical training where you have even less of a say in schedule, hours, call, and are frankly going to log double the hours?

You have three biggest hurdles (1) why were you so excited about pharmacy going in but so unenthusiastic about pharm after actually seeing it, and why should Adcoms think you aren't similarly just enamored with medicine from the outside? (2) med schools want people drawn to medicine for some concrete reason, not people running from another bad situation. No profession wants another's malcontents and washouts. And (3) the biggest indicator of someone not seeing through on a medical education and training is someone with a history of already not following through on another professional education. Adcoms want people who will actually become doctors, that is a mission they take seriously -- they can't give a seat to someone who just wants to give it a try".

All of these issues can be addressed by really looking before you leap. Meaning significant time, maybe years, of shadowing and volunteering and talking to doctors and soul searching before you pull the trigger and take a postbac course or sign up for the mcat. Medicine is not a good fit for everyone. So yes, you should probably finish your pharmacy program and give it a try first, especially at a hospital setting where you'll have access to doctors and can pick their brains. and at the same time do some volunteering and shadowing to see what's what. After a fair amount of research you can be better assured you aren't just jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

+1 on all of this great advice! This sort of thinking is reflected in my medical school as well. If you give pharm a fair bit of time, really do your research on medicine and truly know (not guess but know) medicine is the path for you, then there very well could be a place for you. I don't think the GPA will kill you but I think the previous comment about graduate GPA now counting is naive. It counts even more but they are more lenient if you were in a challenging program. It is all about context. GL!

 

[Goro]

Platinum advice, actually. I'm so stealing it!

@Law2Doc give you a lot of golden advice.

 

[DrZeke]

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had an amazing holiday so far! Here's my story:
I graduated from an undergrad program in Canada and applied to pharmacy with a GPA of around 3.9 in the last 3 years. I was accepted, and was SO excited-- I absolutely loved pharmacy. I was passionate and enthusiastic about it; I did my research going in, and I was certain that this was what I wanted to do.
Shortly after starting pharmacy school, within the first semester, I started feeling less enthusiastic about the whole prospect. Suddenly, the profession was not all that is seemed.. I went in excited to learn, but the quality of education was sub-par, and of course the first year was filled of rather useless classes. Now I understand that's normal for the first year of any program, so I decided to stick it through. The rotations didn't help reinvigorate my love for pharmacy... I felt like a slave in retail pharmacy; hospital pharmacy was not a great experience either. I finished my hospital pharmacy rotation wishing I had applied to medicine.

The idea of transferring to another program never occurred to me until now. For some reason, I went into pharmacy thinking this was the end of it--- I had made a decision and I should stick to it. The unfortunate thing is that I am almost near graduation. I went through pharmacy school not putting in 100% effort like I did in undergrad , but spent a good chunk of my time working. My pharmacy GPA is around a 3.3, but I know it could have been much higher if I had put in the time and effort.

My dilemma is now that have the idea of transferring into another program, I am highly worried about my pharm GPA ruining my chances. I was thinking of working as a pharmacist for a couple of years, assessing how I like it, and then applying to medicine. However, I have no idea what medical schools in Canada will even take me with this GPA (I haven't written the MCAT at all; volunteering experience is good). My question now is, is it too late, or should I just pursue a different path within pharmacy?

I appreciate you all reading this!

If you follow Law2Doc advice and eventually apply to medicine your best bet will be McMaster or American schools that take Canadians. My experience in My province corroborated by several of my friends experiences were that non-trad applicants are not highly valued at most Canadian schools. I'm not sure what province you are in but I'm imagining you experienced the same.

Good luck to you. Nothing is ever hopeless and things have a way of working themselves out.

 

[Superwoman1990]

Thank you everyone! That is solid advice. I am going to continue on my plan and graduate from pharmacy, work for a few years , talk to physicians and shadow, and if I am still inclined, then apply to medicine.

Law2Doc, you raised a lot of great points. In the province I live, pharmacists have one of the greatest scope of practices in the world. We can prescribe Schedule 1 drugs, order lab values, etc. I appreciate this autonomy but when I started working at a pharmacy, I realized that no one exercises these powers nor is it favoured to do so. Pharmacists are still spending the majority of their time filling prescriptions, which after a while, makes the past 8 years of schooling seem questionable. Most pharmacists are not given the opportunity to use their knowledge. That is the reason why my love for pharmacy has subsided. Thank you again for the great advice!

 

[futuremdforme]

Thank you everyone! That is solid advice. I am going to continue on my plan and graduate from pharmacy, work for a few years , talk to physicians and shadow, and if I am still inclined, then apply to medicine.

Law2Doc, you raised a lot of great points. In the province I live, pharmacists have a greatest scope of practice in the world. We can prescribe Schedule 1 drugs, order lab values, etc. I appreciate this autonomy but when I started working at a pharmacy, I realized that no one exercises these powers nor is it favoured to do so. Pharmacists are still spending the majority of their time filling prescriptions, which after a while, makes the past 8 years of schooling seem questionable. Most pharmacists are not given the opportunity to use their knowledge. That is the reason why my love for pharmacy has subsided. Thank you again for the great advice!

Just because that is the norm doesn't mean that you need to subscribe to it. You could look specifically for pharmacists who go beyond filling prescriptions to a more active role in patient health, and see if you can work with them, or at least figure out how they set up a career that way. You could create a nice niche for yourself and if you still want to do medicine, you can apply later.

I agree with the others that you may have better luck in the US but it's not impossible in Canada either.