Highschooler questions.

[Tappman]

I'm a junior currently in highschool, and am currently considering pharmacy as a career, and I was wondering what are the best pre-pharmacy programs I could get into.

I'm considering University of Toledo's mainly because I would have full tuition because of my mother who works there.

My GPA is a 4.27 out of a 4.51 maximum, or a 3.65ish unweighted .
My math GPA is about a 3.8 unweighted
Graduating with 6.75 science credits (.25 for AP sciences because of extra time spent in school), and 10-11 AP classes
Top 10% of class

I have volunteered 150+ in research at a hospital
50+ hours as an information desk worker

My SAT score is pretty low: 1900 but with a 740 math and a 550 writing.
I plan to study 100+ hours and hope to increase my writing by ALOT.

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[30Percent]

I'd look at UOP's program

 

[edenstarlite]

I'm a junior currently in highschool, and am currently considering pharmacy as a career, and I was wondering what are the best pre-pharmacy programs I could get into.

I'm considering University of Toledo's mainly because I would have full tuition because of my mother who works there.

My GPA is a 4.27 out of a 4.51 maximum, or a 3.65ish unweighted .
My math GPA is about a 3.8 unweighted
Graduating with 6.75 science credits (.25 for AP sciences because of extra time spent in school), and 10-11 AP classes
Top 10% of class

I have volunteered 150+ in research at a hospital
50+ hours as an information desk worker

My SAT score is pretty low: 1900 but with a 740 math and a 550 writing.
I plan to study 100+ hours and hope to increase my writing by ALOT.

I think you SHOULD consider U of Toledo with tuition being fully covered so that it wouldn't stress you out with out of pocket expenses. With the time you have, you can actually find a part time job in the pharmacy field to gain experience or volunteer and do extracurricular activities relating to the health field. It sounds like to me that you're a hardworking student with good grades. I think you will be fine with your transition to college. Pre-pharm programs are going to be about the same at every school, it's a matter if you do well and really learn your material to prepare for the PCAT. Then when you are ready to apply, choosing the best Pharmacy School should be the one thing you should look carefully into and then getting trying to get in. And I think it's great you are starting early in exploring your career!

 

[DrDrugs2012]

I agree with the previous poster. Definitely strongly consider the Toledo pre-pharmacy program. It is a respectable school and performing well in your courses will make you a fine candidate for graduate school anywhere in the country. The other tangible benefit is that you have an opportunity to arrive at professional school unburdened by any loans! As the market becomes slowly saturated with more pharmacists each year, it becomes more challenging to repay the debt of student loans. While others may need to consider the level of debt they can absorb in graduate school, you may be able to open your search to schools others find too expensive.

Now, for this next part, I am assuming that you are/will be accepted to Toledo - i.e. that if you want to go there, you will go there. When you are considering schools, I think you should apply to reach schools - not safe schools and the schools in between the "reach" and Toledo. If there isnt much difference between the standard of education at Toledo and some other schools, then its really a waste of an application since financially you are strongly advantaged by attending Toledo. But lets say you have an opportunity to attend an Ivy or some other Ivy-level school (e.g. Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, etc), then the equation changes... You get the point.

But I will say that I dissuade students from entering "pre-XXX" programs. I think that its a poor management of unforeseen risks. In the event that you have a change in direction from pharmacy to some other discipline, for whatever reason (personal goals, family need, anything...), there isn't much you can do with a pre-pharmacy "degree". But if you were to complete a degree in bio, chem or physics, you could do something with those degrees - including applying to a different graduate school program.

 

[edenstarlite]

I agree with DrDrugs2012. You can be a pre-pharm major but also explore the possibilities of working towards a degree as well so that you're not wasting your time so to speak. For example, I was a pre-dental major and I was taking all the pre-reqs and during mid junior year in college I had backed out of that idea of being a dentist and worked on graduating with a degree in Chemistry. And I'm capable of finding a lot of careers within the field and now after 5 years of working, I decided to do pharmacy. I was able to meet the requirements and only had to take 2 extra courses for pre-reqs.

 

[Tappman]

Thanks for all the replies!

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...

I've been thinking about this, and I agree about the flexibility of changing careers. My chance at those Ivy-level schools are a little low due to the fact of my low SAT scores. But if I can get into say, Northwestern, I would definitly consider it.

I guess I will consider Toledeo if I don't get my SAT scores higher .

 

[PharmerJax]

Toledo is nothing like Northwestern. Just as Chicago is not like Toledo. So if you like Nortwestern, you probably wouldn't be happy with Toledo. If you want to be a pharmacist, then you really wouldn't care about anything but where do I have the best opportunity to excell in learning and practicing pharmacy. That being said the next factor for most of us is price. I tried to talk my parent to getting a job at Toledo just for that purpose. But if money is not a big deal go where you feel you fit and succeed most at. Besides you may change your mind that you don't want to be a pharmd, and that is definitely one of Toledo's best programs. Also remember, after the first few years all the college fan fare usually goes away. Good Luck and ask your Mom if she could adopt me to get lower/no tuition, because the pharmd program has gotten pretty priceyin the last yaer or two.

 

[pianoiscool]

i'm a senior in hs. i applied to mcphs, acphs, northeastern, usp, upitt, ut austin, university of arizona, and university of the pacific. so far i got into all, but i'm waitlisted at pacific. btw, i also had a 3.6 but my sat score was 2060. i had pretty good ecs and letters of recs too.