How do I become a Pharmacist?? My story

[KM86]

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[twester]

[...]What should i do now to start my pharmacy career? [...][...]What should i do and how to get started? [...]Where can i take my pre requesits at? any college or does it have to be a university? [...] and since i have no idea about chemistry and calculus i was afraid if i take the prerequesit i will end up having bad grades[...]

My situation is about the same as yours, except I'm 20 years older and worked as a technician in IT/telecom for about 10 years. I did not do well in high school at all and was lucky to graduate. My teenage years were troubled and there was more going on than I could handle. Anyway...

The good news is that college is a fresh start. I don't know of any 4-year pharmacy programs that ask anything about high school except its name and your date of graduation. You can take your pre-reqs at any accredited school that you can get admitted to - university or community college. I've heard rumors that there are a few pharmacy schools that don't accept courses from community colleges, but I've never seen proof of that (and I'm not asking for proof from other SDN'ers - thanks).

The ambiguous news is that you might have a little more work ahead of you than a lot of pre-pharm students. If there are areas that you feel you might need help in - like chemistry and mathematics - then take some extra courses to get your skills up to speed. I took a year of intro chemistry and math courses. It added more time to my pre-pharm curriculum, but served as good preparation for the main pre-req classes like gen chem and calculus.

Be sure to utilize the academic advising department at whatever school you enroll in. Admission to pharm school has a lot of steps and it's important that they all be covered. Good luck.

 

[KM86]

so i should take intro chem and calculus in community college first and then after i do well take the needed prereq subjects for pharmacy?

 

[twester]

It depends on your situation. I took the intro chem and math classes along with my other pre-reqs. My first semester back to school I took 15 credit hours: Fundamentals of Chemistry w/ lab, College Algebra, Sociology, and English Comp I. Only sociology and english were pre-reqs. By the time I got to the second and third years, I was working on pre-reqs exclusively. Because I covered some of my pre-reqs in my first year, I had some time to do some extra coursework in my third year, which almost always looks good to admissions committees. I did all of my coursework at the same school.

 

[KM86]

where can i find the list of subjects for the pre req. of 2 years.

 

[twester]

PharmCAS is a good place to start. For schools that don't participate in PharmCAS, you can usually find a list of their pre-reqs on their websites.

http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/directoryalphastate.htm

Also check out the SDN pre-pharmacy FAQs if you can find them, because I can't. Where'd the FAQs go?

 

[kvl1027]

so i should take intro chem and calculus in community college first and then after i do well take the needed prereq subjects for pharmacy?

I took all of my pre-reqs in Community College. In my honest opinion, I feel that the level of education is higher in a Community College setting at least for core classes. The CC I went was ranked higher than a lot of Unversities in the Country so I feel no shame in saying that I went to CC. I think you get a lot more one on one with you Prof. and the smaller classes make for a overall better work environment.

So long as you get the knowledge, what does it matter? Do well on the PCAT and get good grades in your pre-req classes. Good Luck!

 

[pharmd4me@510]

I think you should get a B.S in either biology or chemistry to make yourself more competitive. Majoring in Bio or Chem means you don't have to worry about what classes to take because most of the required classes for the major are preq. for Pharm school. You might need to take some additonal classes depending the schools you're going to apply to.
Having transferred from a community college to a university, I agree with kvl1027 that some classes at community college are harder than at the university. Any school is a good school if the person is willing to learn

 

[senzabee]

I took all of my pre-reqs in Community College. In my honest opinion, I feel that the level of education is higher in a Community College setting at least for core classes. The CC I went was ranked higher than a lot of Unversities in the Country so I feel no shame in saying that I went to CC. I think you get a lot more one on one with you Prof. and the smaller classes make for a overall better work environment.

So long as you get the knowledge, what does it matter? Do well on the PCAT and get good grades in your pre-req classes. Good Luck!

In addition to what kvl1027 said, if you go to a CC, you should definitely go to a top notch one. I've heard of stories where students transferred from a CC to a university and just couldn't handle it. Although you get more interaction with your professors at a CC, the class and material itself may not be as rigorous as universities and you might not be prepared enough for pharmacy school.

I'd say at least with the psych, speech, and math classes, take it at a CC and get it over with. I would take your sciences at a college.

 

[cdpiano27]

I assume that kvl1027 is assuming that he went to Valencia Community College.

That is an exception to a normal community college, and they actually offer the same freshman and sophomore classes more frequently than the University of Central Florida, the four-year public school in Orlando.
They have a well-known brain bowl team as well.

However, I know for sure (from a pharmacist friend who talks to members of the admisisons committee) that UF does not care where the prereqs are taken and only looks at grades.

So if applying to UF take it at the school where you think you will do well. If you want retail and do not care about clinical, then the grades will not matter in pharmacy school as long as you finish, pass the NAPLEX, and the law exam in your state.

Check the school first to see if two-year versus four-year makes a difference. In FL it seems to make no difference but in CA there seems to be a big difference.

If you want other areas of pharmacy, then maybe you should be super-competitive in pharmacy school.

In terms of pay, the only thing I think that will pay higher than retail as of now, is for those people who get the pharmaceutical industry jobs after fellowships, and then go to a big pharm company. This is very hard to get into, and is 1-2 years of fellowship training past pharm school. ANd I think going to Rutgers would be best for this (since most pharm companies are in New Jersey) followed by maybe UNC-Chapel Hill (even though more go to hospital from that school). Rutgers is impossible to get into unless you go there directly from high school. I would suggest maybe the PharmD-MBA track for this type of thing.



Or on the west coast, then defintely UCSF and UCSD are the best choices.

The startring pay at a pharm company will be initially the same or a little lower than a retial pharmacist. However, there is big growth potential unlike retail pharmacy.

 

[MattZheng]

I took all of my pre-reqs in Community College. In my honest opinion, I feel that the level of education is higher in a Community College setting at least for core classes. The CC I went was ranked higher than a lot of Unversities in the Country so I feel no shame in saying that I went to CC. I think you get a lot more one on one with you Prof. and the smaller classes make for a overall better work environment.

So long as you get the knowledge, what does it matter? Do well on the PCAT and get good grades in your pre-req classes. Good Luck!

Let me guess, Lake Sumter? Because I have heard that Lake Sumter is like the best CC in the state of Florida.

 

[cdpiano27]

I think kvl goes to Valencia Community College.

Who is right?