Good Grades or Work Experience??

[048860]

Im debating if work experience if better to have then getting good grades. I have a 3.7 gpa currently in my second year of pharmacy school and thinking about getting a job because all I have been hearing is that experience will help you more then good grades. If I get a job, my gpa could go down to 3.0 or less "on the bad side". Is it worth it to get experience and have a low gpa or have my current 3.7 gpa and have no experience in this job environment?

Any feedback is welcome..

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[zelman]

Work experience is worth more. Especially if it's somewhere you want to work after graduation.


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[TheBlaah]

Get a job you bum

 

[njac]

When I'm evaluating residency candidates GPA is more or less a yes or no litmus test, while work experience can up your pre interview score more.


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[deleted820760]

Work experience AND good GPA. You can do it!

 

[Corpseman]

A job should not drop your GPA that much

 

[048860]

A job should not drop your GPA that much

We had a student last semester barely pass after starting a job. They were one of the top students before that.

 

[gwarm01]

Assuming you don't have a 2.0 then work experience will propel you ahead. I was a hospital intern for three years during school, working weekends and one partial evening during school. I managed to graduate with a 3.0 (and plenty of my colleagues had way higher GPAs. I was a slacker). I got a job as a clinical pharmacist fresh out of school, 2013, in a saturated and desirable coastal city. The only reason I got that interview was due to my previous work experience. I'm not saying that situation is going to happen when you graduate, but the work experience can only help you. You aren't going to become a hem/onc or transplant specialist fresh out of school that way, but I was able to get into an ICU and build experience, get some solid training, and make myself a strong candidate for higher level jobs within a few years. Straight out of school, no working 80 hours/week for 40k as a resident. It can be possible depending on where you are and how strong you are as an individual.

 

[PromisedNeverland]

A job should not drop your GPA that much

A stressful job @ CVS or RiteAid for example will definitely drop your gpa

 

[PharmDBro2017]

We had a student last semester barely pass after starting a job. They were one of the top students before that.

Having 3.0+ is fine and dandy, but work experience is what matters.

The next waves of grads are going to suffer from saturation so bad, good luck finding a job without work experience.

 

[BidingMyTime]

It depends what your goals are. If you want to do a residency, GPA matters. If you plan to go straight to work, nobody, literally nobody, will ever ask or care what your GPA was. Work experience by far trumps GPA when it comes to getting a job (but keep you GPA high enough that you graduate!)