how hard is pharmacy school?

[cherries]

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Hello everyone,
i have several questions for those who are already in pharmacy school right now. So i was wondering, how hard is pharmacy school compare to undergraduate? I mean how much study time do you have to put in after working? Do you have a social life while in school (meaning being able to maintain good grades as well)? Personally, I have not study as much as i should up to this point. I mean some of the prereqs were a little challenging, but nothing that i couldn't manage and i'm afraid that i will be shocked once i get to pharm school due to the level of difficulty. Any advice or inputs would be greatly appreciated! thanks

😍

 

[Farmercyst]

Hello everyone,
i have several questions for those who are already in pharmacy school right now. So i was wondering, how hard is pharmacy school compare to undergraduate? I mean how much study time do you have to put in after working? Do you have a social life while in school (meaning being able to maintain good grades as well)? Personally, I have not study as much as i should up to this point. I mean some of the prereqs were a little challenging, but nothing that i couldn't manage and i'm afraid that i will be shocked once i get to pharm school due to the level of difficulty. Any advice or inputs would be greatly appreciated! thanks

😍

My experience thus far is that it's much like upper division coursework. It's no harder than my molecular biology or microbiology. I've had a little difficulty keeping interested in some of the courses, but I've managed A/B's (depending on how finals turn out.)

 

[WVUPharm2007]

It isn't intellectually challenging at all. If you are disorganized/lazy (like me) it will be a tougher task than for those that are anal about getting **** done. But there wasn't a point during school where I felt overwhelmed by the difficulty of the stuff. Annoyed...yes. Far too much of it is useless...and they LOVE wasting your time...

 

[bigdogc]

Yes, agreed with WVU. Kind of like HS in a way. Lots and lots of time, but you really could learn all the essentials in 1/4 of the time. Theory stuff really isn't too hard, yet (im p1)... compared to undergrad, where I was stressing about making A's, its 10x easier now. Heres my first semester of p1:
Pchem is general chemistry 2 again, equilibrium, solubility, algebraic equations to memorize. Its not an easy class, but a lot easier than physics/calc prereqs.
Medchem is actually really interesting, an extension of what you do in Ochem, but the arrow pushing is a lot easier.
BioChem was completely new to me. It requires time, but it all makes sense when you sit down and read it
Anatomy and Physiology- took up the most time in my opinion. Lots of reading!
Intro to pharm/ Intro to pharm adminstration- very basic classes
Med chem lab- requires 3 hours a week, the work can get done in 30 minutes.. very frustrating
Pchem lab- 3 hours a week, could be done in 30 minutes
Pharm ad lab- 3 hours a week, talk about generic ethical issues "should pharmacists be allowed to decline plan b?"

 

[browneyes021]

I'm only a P1, but I would say it's about the same as upper lever classes only thing is is that there is so much information thrown at you that you sometimes struggle to keep up resulting in you playing catch up. I ended up playing catch up because I would get into one class, then forget about another, then focus on the forgotten class and get behind in another (plus college football on Saturdays caused me to get behind 😀), but I don't think it's too bad if you are organized and try to get a little bit done for each class at a time.

 

[ecstyle483]

For those that replied, what pharmacy schools are you guys in?

Also, what was your prereq classes course load like compared to the pharmacy courses... (in terms of number of classes, type of classes, grades. )

 

[PharmDstudent]

I'm a P2 this year. At times, I wanted to scratch my eyes out. I've learned to sleep less and stay up later; it seems to be working- I had an A average this past semester 😀. I only have one more bad semester, and after that, it's suppose to be "smooth sailing" as a P3.

Some schools are opposite- the P1s have all the trouble. Other schools leave the hard stuff to the end and drop everything on the P3s.
Either way, one year will be harder than the other years, and you have to make it through that year if you want to graduate.

 

[mike36]

I am at UT Austin, and as Bigdog described, the classes are not terribly difficult, just time consuming, at least in the first semester. And it was really frustrating that they took so much time to go through those labs. I starting skipping Pchem labs, since I figured I could do it faster by myself.

Some of the classes I took in undergrad were much more difficult than my first semester pharm school classes, but the load was a lot less. The week before finals last semester, we had five tests. I never had a week like that in undergrad. It was pretty crazy, but we got through it!

 

[nerv12345]

the floater i worked with yesterday said that the pharmacy school she went to (boston college of pharmacy i think) was easier than her undergrad at UC davis
she graduated from pharmacy school in '04

 

[PharmDstudent]

I am at UT Austin, and as Bigdog described, the classes are not terribly difficult, just time consuming, at least in the first semester. And it was really frustrating that they took so much time to go through those labs. I starting skipping Pchem labs, since I figured I could do it faster by myself.

Some of the classes I took in undergrad were much more difficult than my first semester pharm school classes, but the load was a lot less. The week before finals last semester, we had five tests. I never had a week like that in undergrad. It was pretty crazy, but we got through it!

I am P1 at UT Austin COP. Having just finished my first semester, I can say that it is pretty tough. It was 16 hours (9 classes). Even with the heavy load, I think that you pretty much have to give up to fail out. We have a free tutoring service for students that need help, and the professors want to see everyone pass. They are there for advice and help with the material.

Also, even if you do fail a class, you can retake it. Though this may delay graduation and increase your debt, at least you wouldn't be kicked out by failing a class.

These look like contradictory posts! Hmmm... so which is it, not terribly difficult or pretty tough?

 

[mike36]

These look like contradictory posts! Hmmm... so which is it, not terribly difficult or pretty tough?

It is tough because we had nine classes. There were always tests to study for, papers, and presentations to do. But the individual classes were not difficult. I had much harder classes in undergrad. So pharm school so far has been tough because of the quantity of classes, not because of the difficulty of each individual class.

 

[krsnyf]

It depends on your background. Personally, I think it's the load more than the level of difficulty.

 

[PharmDstudent]

It is tough because we had nine classes. There were always tests to study for, papers, and presentations to do. But the individual classes were not difficult. I had much harder classes in undergrad. So pharm school so far has been tough because of the quantity of classes, not because of the difficulty of each individual class.

I think you should wait until you get into the pharmacy "upper level" classes like pharmacology or kinetics before you tell everyone that pharmacy classes are easy. The information will be brand new to you, and you will have to manage your time wisely. Right now, you're probably learning information that is very similar to what you learned in undergrad, minus memorizing the top 200.

From my experience, working part-time 20-25 hours plus doing 6-8 hours of IPPE per week really cramped my schedule. I will always be envious of students who do not have to work, but I'm content with my life. Two and a half more years of busting my tail seems like it will take forever, but I just have to take a day at a time. Actually, I should be studying for the GRE right now, because I want to take it in August, but I'm not 😛.

Just remember, you have three and a half more years ahead of you. If you have the brains and endurance, pharmacy school is doable.

 

[mike36]

I did not mean to imply that pharmacy school is easy. I just meant that SO FAR (after the first semester), the individual classes have not been extremely difficult.

 

[twester]

I agree with Mike36. It's not the subject matter, it's the workload at my school. We were in lectures for about 21 hours per week last semester. On top of that there were all required to do outside activities that required completion of extensive written assignments, many of us worked, all of us had social and family obligations. There was never a time I wasn't studying for an exam (sometimes two on the same day). Many people in my class (including me) lost our minds last semester. It's supposed to get better starting next term. We'll see...

 

[FixLittlePeople]

I'm an applicant for 2008, just want to get an idea if 2nd and 3rd years are harder than 1st year at UT as mike36 was saying. Are there any P2 or P3's from UT Austin who can chime in on the workload?

 

[mike36]

Hey LittlePeople, I have heard that it does get more difficult in the P2 and P3 years. According to a friend at UT, the classes are more difficult, though the schedule gets more relaxed, i.e. no night tests after the first year, so you don't have to spend all day on campus.

I hope this helps. Maybe some upperclassmen at UT can elaborate more.