Hello, have a few Q's =)

[Kalookakoo]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi everyone. I'm a junior in high school, and have a few questions. ^_^

But before I say that, I'd like to say I looked in the FAQ and it looked like it was/and still is a great source of information, but it seems some links no longer work, and I think it would be great if someone updated them.

Now onto my Questions. Today I've had that feeling when after you read a whole wall of text and get to the end of it, you wonder what you just read. I read a pretty lengthy article on pharmacy information, and it seems they went miles around the bush when it would have been simpler (and shorter) to just say it straight and get it over with. So after that ordeal, these are my questions... 😀

1) What schools offer a Pharm Degree? I live in NY and want to go to a state school if I can for the low tuition, but I'd like to see the list. The faq's list to the list is broke. =(

2) How much schooling is required? 2 Years of basic sciences then 4 years of Pharmacy school? Am I correct?

3) I read something that kind of confused me, maybe you guys can clarify. It is possible to get work experience in pharmacy before going to pharmacy school and makes you a competitive candidate for pharm school? Why would they hire you if you have no knowledge? (Of pharm Of course) I know i've met a couple pharmacists in pharm school who were interning, but never one who wasn't in pharm school at the time.

Anything else you want to share with me would be nice.

Thank you guys, and nice website.

 

[sungieality]

Hi, and welcome to SDN 🙂

1) PharmCAS has a list of all the schools, both participating and non-participating schools. PharmCAS, as you may have noted, is the primary application service system for applying to most pharmacy schools. Here
2) There are also direct-from-high-school programs that are known as the 0+6 programs. Now that pharmacy school is getting a lot more competitive, more people are choosing to complete their education at a 4-year (or a 2-year and then transferring to a 4-year) institution to receive their Bachelor's before applying to pharmacy school.
3) You can work as a pharmacy technician or a clerk before applying to pharmacy school. The people you saw weren't pharmacists, they were pharmacy interns. It's required to obtain a certain number of hours working in a pharmacy in order to receive your PharmD, and also (as far as I know) required to get your pharmacy intern license while attending a pharmacy school.

It usually isn't required to have pharmacy work experience before applying, but there is no doubt that it is extremely beneficial and advantageous.

Hope that helped a little.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Sungie covered all the bases IMO.

+1

 

[Kalookakoo]

Hi, and welcome to SDN 🙂

1) PharmCAS has a list of all the schools, both participating and non-participating schools. PharmCAS, as you may have noted, is the primary application service system for applying to most pharmacy schools. Here
2) There are also direct-from-high-school programs that are known as the 0+6 programs. Now that pharmacy school is getting a lot more competitive, more people are choosing to complete their education at a 4-year (or a 2-year and then transferring to a 4-year) institution to receive their Bachelor's before applying to pharmacy school.
3) You can work as a pharmacy technician or a clerk before applying to pharmacy school. The people you saw weren't pharmacists, they were pharmacy interns. It's required to obtain a certain number of hours working in a pharmacy in order to receive your PharmD, and also (as far as I know) required to get your pharmacy intern license while attending a pharmacy school.

It usually isn't required to have pharmacy work experience before applying, but there is no doubt that it is extremely beneficial and advantageous.

Hope that helped a little.

Thank you, very informative.

Only question(s) I have are the following:

1) A 0-6 would be a better option than a 2+4 for what reasons beside avoiding heavy competition that the 2+4 has?

2) What should a person do prior to applying for 0+6 do be a great candidate? I get decent grades (I think my GPA is around a 89 unweighted, I'm not sure what it is weighted, but of course in the 90's) and I do extracurriculars and am in the National Honor Society. What more should/can I do?

3) I was reading this thread >> http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=624244 and it made me wonder. What exactly is the job outlook seeing as I would be out of pharm school around 2017. (Dang that's a long time from now lol)

Random question: Is the tuition the same for everyone, or is it lower for in-state residents?

EDIT: Thank you guys for the help btw, I haven't told my parents my major yet (for some reason they think i'm being a lawyer -_-") so when I do, I want to know enough about it to withstand their firing squad loaded with questions.

 

[sungieality]

1) Well, the 0+6 is better because it's shorter than the typical 4 years in undergrad and 4 years of pharmacy school. Of course, if you just received a 2-year Associates degree then it's the same length, but like I said, more people are choosing instead to pursue a 4-year degree and then continue on to apply to pharmacy school (another 4 years).
The downfall of the 0+6 is that you're essentially deciding straight out of high school that you're committed to pharmacy. I don't know about you, but when I first got out of high school I had no idea what I wanted to do. So it's definitely something you have to reflect on and think about on your own.
2) The main thing is pharmacy experience. I'm not really sure how applying to 0+6 programs work, so someone else can jump in and help here.
3) From reading about 3972598723957 of those threads, the take-home message is: as long as you don't expect sign-on bonuses and 100K+ salaries to just fall in your lap and you continue to work hard to be the best you can be - there'll be a job for you. This also depends on the area you'd like to work in, as some metro areas are obviously going to be much more saturated than the rural ones.

Tuition is the same for everyone if it is a private university.