How to get an "Inside View" of a Pharm School?

[JADpharm28]

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How do you actually know if a school is right for you? I have attended a few open houses/QA sessions for schools I am interested in, but how can you know for sure what school will best fit your needs?

I wish I could talk to professors, currents students, sit in on a class, something! At the sessions I have been to, the students talk for a few minutes, but it's never enough. I want to see more than just the most attractive parts of the school that they show on tours. I feel that schools will do/show/say anything just to get students enrolled there, but I want the truth about the schools I am interested in.

How do you make such an important decision without knowing all the facts? With the money I will be paying, I want to know that I will enjoy the school that I attend and my needs will be met (ie: professors who don't blow you off, will be around to help if needed, study sessions, decent teaching skills, students enjoy going to class, students enjoy learning the material due to a great professor etc...)

Any thoughts, advice, opinions, anything?

 

[R2pharmD2]

How do you actually know if a school is right for you? I have attended a few open houses/QA sessions for schools I am interested in, but how can you know for sure what school will best fit your needs?

I wish I could talk to professors, currents students, sit in on a class, something! At the sessions I have been to, the students talk for a few minutes, but it's never enough. I want to see more than just the most attractive parts of the school that they show on tours. I feel that schools will do/show/say anything just to get students enrolled there, but I want the truth about the schools I am interested in.

How do you make such an important decision without knowing all the facts? With the money I will be paying, I want to know that I will enjoy the school that I attend and my needs will be met (ie: professors who don't blow you off, will be around to help if needed, study sessions, decent teaching skills, students enjoy going to class, students enjoy learning the material due to a great professor etc...)

Any thoughts, advice, opinions, anything?

It's impossible to "know" that a program is right for you until you're actually in it. With that caveat in mind, talking to current students is a good way to get a feel for a program, but if you don't know any already you might need to be a bit more proactive in meeting some. I assume there are some current students at the open houses/Q&A sessions that you've been attending, so make it a point to chat with as many of them as you can find while you're there.

If you want to get a feel for what courses are like, I don't see why you couldn't sit in on a few. Try contacting the schools that you're interested in to see if they'd let you. If so, that would obviously be a great opportunity to talk with some current students and professors as well.

 

[bacillus1]

I should've started a tour company when I still took classes..."get an inside view on the life of a pharmacy student, spend a full day with a real pharmacy student for only $100". How many people do you think would pay me?

 

[R2pharmD2]

I should've started a tour company when I still took classes..."get an inside view on the life of a pharmacy student, spend a full day with a real pharmacy student for only $100". How many people do you think would pay me?

👍

 

[owlegrad]

I should've started a tour company when I still took classes..."get an inside view on the life of a pharmacy student, spend a full day with a real pharmacy student for only $100". How many people do you think would pay me?

Depends. Will you write them an LOR and can they list it as pharmacy experience? How many lives do they get to say they saved?

 

[bacillus1]

Depends. Will you write them an LOR and can they list it as pharmacy experience? How many lives do they get to say they saved?

For lives saved, they could just give food/money to some homeless people near our campus. Hey, that'll even count as community service.

 

[JADpharm28]

I should've started a tour company when I still took classes..."get an inside view on the life of a pharmacy student, spend a full day with a real pharmacy student for only $100". How many people do you think would pay me?

I seriously wish that they had something like this. It would actually be quite helpful IMO. Very creative of you though haha 👍

 

[JADpharm28]

It's impossible to "know" that a program is right for you until you're actually in it....

I didn't think that any schools would be interested in letting pre-pharms come in to sit in on classes. I will have to make a few phone calls and see what I can arrange. Would it be weird to ask for emails from the students that I speak to? I don't want to be bothersome since they have a lot of work to be doing.

 

[deleted390966]

For me, the only way to know is to attend an interview and "feel the vibe" at the school.
Are the students happy?
Are the professors nice?
What do they say about the education they've got?
How do the environment, location look?

 

[Golden Bear]

Funny thing is you can still have a small enough sample size that your perception of the school is skewed. For example, two years ago when I interviewed at USN, our tour guide was someone who made the program seem really tough (I forgot whether she was P1 or P2). But last year, my tour guide seemed to handle it better and appeared happier overall and it was a totally different vibe.

So the short answer I'd give in response to the original question is: you can't know.

 

[Pharmizzle]

I didn't think that any schools would be interested in letting pre-pharms come in to sit in on classes.

It never hurts to ask. Our school sent an e-mail to us about mentoring students in the pre-pharmacy program and suggested that we could bring them to class if they wanted to experience that.

 

[PharmD for Me]

At our school we have a "Pre-to-D" program which pairs pre-pharmacy students with current P1 pharmacy students. One thing they recommended doing with our pre-pharm student is taking them to class with us, the catch being that we have to make sure it's OK with the professor first. I have yet to ask any professors about this for my pre-pharm student, but I imagine that they will all be cool with it. Some professors are super picky about their copyrights and would not let people do this though.

I bet if you contact the admissions offices they can fix you up with something. Otherwise try to get an in with a current pharmacy student or pre-pharmacy program. Good luck!

 

[JADpharm28]

It never hurts to ask. Our school sent an e-mail to us about mentoring students in the pre-pharmacy program and suggested that we could bring them to class if they wanted to experience that.

I'm glad to hear that some schools offer this type of thing. I'm hoping the ones I am interested in will have something like this.

I bet if you contact the admissions offices they can fix you up with something. Otherwise try to get an in with a current pharmacy student or pre-pharmacy program. Good luck!

Thanks! Everyone's advice leaves me with a lot of options to try. Hopefully something will work out for the best

 

[DrDre2001]

I'll actually be calling pharm schools up as well and trying to see if this is possible.

I know for a fact that an open house and talking to a few student tour guides is pretty useless as a way to know what your future at a school may be like. Sitting in a class and maybe seeing some class syllabi or something would be much much much more helpful.