How soon into college can I start jumping into the prerequisites?

[JAT]

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I'm 18 and I start college in fall this year. My first year can I start taking any of the Pharmacy prerequisites or do I have to do the common freshman classes?

I want to know because right now I'm a business major and I don't know if I want to change that yet, so I don't want to miss out on any first year opportunities to complete the pharmacy prereqs.

 

[FarscapeGirl]

My first year of college, I took general chemistry, math, and English, all of which are pharmacy school pre-reqs. I'd look at what classes are required and recommended for a few of the schools that you're interested in, and then maybe talk to a guidance counselor at your school to plan out your schedule. You can talk to both someone in the business school and in some sort of biology office.

You might want to keep the business degree, especially if you're interested in ever running your own pharmacy. You can minor in something like biochem to get the pharmacy pre-reqs.

There may even be a pharmacy school adviser and a pre-pharmacy club at your college. If so, attend the meetings and schedule a meeting with the adviser.

The only difficulties I can see with getting any pre-reqs done is if your college restricts class registration to those with certain majors. But they usually don't do that for freshmen classes.

 

[FarscapeGirl]

One more piece of advice: don't take all the easy pre-reqs at once. Throughout college, I took one or two harder math or science classes along with two or three easier classes. It's easier to keep your GPA high that way.

 

[ffpickle]

In my first semester, I took
Bio 1 + Lab
Gen Chem 1 + Lab
Physics 1 + Lab
Calc 1
Computers Course

It wasn't too bad, though Physics was challenging, partly because I didn't get a good grasp of it in high school. Then again, don't take these courses if you aren't comfortable.

 

[JAT]

Cool thanks for the help

 

[Deja]

you should take care of the pre-reqs as soon as possible while taking advantage of the easy classes for freshmen (Idk if your school have those)... I finished my pre-reqs for pharmacy school first, then I started to take the classes I needed for my finance degree

 

[avuong]

🙂

 

[ffpickle]

Hi OP,
May I ask how you decided to pursue pharmacy?
If youre not sure, I would definitely suggest you also look into optometry.
http://www.opted.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3347or dentistry?
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291023.htm

make sure you know for certain pharmacy is the right career for you. Volunteering, working as a pharm tech, or shadowing will be very helpful because you will see what working in a pharmacy or hospital is really like (its not all glamour, you know). I suggest you do some very deep soul searching these next few years in college. Dont limit yourself to the traditional bio and chemistry courses. You may find you have a passion in political science, gender studies, philosophy, or performing arts, for example. Take your time to explore and discover yourself, because you may find something very beautiful.
Have courage and Best of Luck!

I can't figure out if I'm angry about this post or if I just feel sorry for the person who posted it

 

[eightonesix]

if you aren't too sure, take the courses that will overlap with both requirements and business majors. For instance, I'm sure business will require to take stats or calculus or an english course... the same goes with most pharmacy school requirements. And in the meantime of your first quarter or semester, get a feel of what a pharmacy environment is like to see whether or not you think it fits you. Just a suggestion =)

 

[Deja]

I can't figure out if I'm angry about this post or if I just feel sorry for the person who posted it

I saw other posts by him suggestin to ppl to switch to optometry lol not that it's a bad career, my mom was an optometrist... just seems a lil werid he's tryin to convert ppl on the pre-pharm forum 😀

 

[pharm093]

Try having a more rounded course load, meaning some GE and some pre-reqs.
I find it helpful