i need an honest opinion , is pharmacy school worth it ?

[pharmacistforever]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

is pharmacy school worth the hassle. i already got accepted to one but i am not sure if i want to accept the offer. what will the job markert be in 4 years. having 200k loans scares the crap out of me. what should i do ? i want an honest and experienced opinion without bigotry or bias please

 

[PharmtoCS]

what will the job markert be in 4 years. having 200k loans scares the crap out of me. what should i do ?

The job market in 4 years will probably be more saturated than ever. There are already 3-4 new graduates entering the field for every projected job opening, and the ACPE has not shown any signs of slowing the expansion in pharmacy education.

 

[rederza]

um no and i wish i could make this offer but id gladly offer my spot in school to anyone as long as they pay me tuition. 😉
just kidding, but i am currently in the process of quitting pharm school so take that as you will.

On topic: No.

 

[Thestrugglez]

um no and i wish i could make this offer but id gladly offer my spot in school to anyone as long as they pay me tuition. 😉
just kidding, but i am currently in the process of quitting pharm school so take that as you will.

On topic: No.

Out of curiosity rederza, which school do you go to (if you don't mind me asking)? The reason I'm interested is because you seem to be from Texas (like me).

Also, congrats on your MCAT. Guessing you did well enough to switch to med school now 🙂.

 

[rederza]

Out of curiosity rederza, which school do you go to (if you don't mind me asking)? The reason I'm interested is because you seem to be from Texas (like me).

Also, congrats on your MCAT. Guessing you did well enough to switch to med school now 🙂.

Thanks! Well it's average for DO, but depending on how I feel I might retake it with some more prep this time to get into MD schools.

 

[PharmDCandidate2014]

Didn't you post a similar thread asking for opinions about the job market?

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...orking-in-the-pharmacy.1111347/#post-15973579

OP, try bumping a thread instead of creating new ones. This also should have been posted in the PHARMACY forum, as opposed to PRE-pharmacy. You'll get good feedback from practicing pharmacists and current students. Chances are, your PRE-pharmacy colleagues are going to tell you to stay, the opportunities besides retail are endless, and fairy tale endings are the norm.

ADVICE: Do some more searching on SDN, reliable articles via Google/Yahoo, look at how mainstream media has caught up to the glut of pharmacy graduates (News Republic has a good article that centers their article around Stephen Park), and then the writing on the wall should be pretty clear if you can put 2 and 2 together. @stoichiometrist posts a FACT about rapid expansion of schools. Come to your own conclusion and make the best decision that will put you in a position to succeed later in life.

 

[Thestrugglez]

Yup, texas! I can't reallllyyy disclose but it's a school that has another pharmacy school 5 minutes away from it. Soooo yeah, it's one of those two.

Thanks! Well it's average for DO, but depending on how I feel I might retake it with some more prep this time to get into MD schools.

Edit: Nvm I'm 99% sure which one of the two it is. Sadly, that is my one of my top choices due to location, but now I'll have to reevaluate.

Yeh but your undergrad GPA is close to perfect so it's almost impossible to not get into DO. If you prepped, I'm sure you could break into the 30s on MCAT and have a chance at UT Dallas Southwestern or Baylor.

 

[rederza]

Edit: Nvm I'm 99% sure which one of the two it is. Sadly, that is my one of my top choices due to location, but now I'll have to reevaluate.

Yeh but your undergrad GPA is close to perfect so it's almost impossible to not get into DO. If you prepped, I'm sure you could break into the 30s on MCAT and have a chance at UT Dallas Southwestern or Baylor.

Wow you're good. No thank god i dont, i dont think my ego could take another bruising. You can pm me for more info if this is the school you're thinking of. I'll tell you firsthand of everything that goes on here, and you can decide if you still want to, I won't dissuade you, you can come to your own conclusions. . Both me and a classmate are both dropping out this semester.

Yup, I'm getting the hell out of here.

 

[SClENCE]

I personally would say that working conditions concern me much more than market saturation. Even if the market is super saturated as people say it will be a good candidate will find a job.

What concerns me is that most jobs are in retail. Retail alone isn't great as you have to deal with idiot customers, but what's even worse is they way the chains are operating them. CVS, for example, really doesn't have a bad system but it's not designed to fill 2,400 scripts per week on 166 tech hours. Between the register and drive through there isn't even enough people there to have someone at production half the time. Because of this you walk into 3 pages in the red as the waiters build up, the phone begins to ring, line of 6 cars at the drive through and 6 waiters in the store, the pile of rebills grows, the insurance issues that take 15 minutes to resolve... etc

Being able to thrive on this type of retail experience while still filling scripts safely and keeping the bogus store metrics up is a much bigger concern than market saturation imo, unless of course you plan on working in a different setting in which case saturation is an issue because every CVS/Rite-aid employee is applying there too

 

[lisinopril]

Ask me this question 7-10 yrs ago, I will answer "YES"

Ask me this question at this moment, I will say "NO"

 

[fewaopi]

though you're asking people on forums and its mostly doom and gloom, it's best to ask a pharmacist actually working in person. Ask in person during quieter hours a pharmacist at your local chain/store or anyone you know, how they feel about the profession, market saturation, high student debt, and ask them your concerns and what you heard from here. chances are they'll agree but get it from someone real, not just here.

to add, a pharmacist i met once when i was doing a flu clinic looked at me w/pitiful eyes and felt sorry for me, said he wouldn't recommend the pharmacy profession. this was a hospital pharmacist working a cozy job for many decades. now i look at the prepharmers here on this forum and in school and look at them w/pitiful eyes.

i don't think it's worth 200K in debt. maybe 40-50K but not more than that. yeah the job crisis is happening for more and more now. you guys, well your/our generation honestly has it the worst though the older people im sure will love to complain about us kids being lazy. if your only options are going to require 200K in debt, pick a job that you know can pay that back.

 

[rederza]

though you're asking people on forums and its mostly doom and gloom, it's best to ask a pharmacist actually working in person. Ask in person during quieter hours a pharmacist at your local chain/store or anyone you know, how they feel about the profession, market saturation, high student debt, and ask them your concerns and what you heard from here. chances are they'll agree but get it from someone real, not just here.

to add, a pharmacist i met once when i was doing a flu clinic looked at me w/pitiful eyes and felt sorry for me, said he wouldn't recommend the pharmacy profession. this was a hospital pharmacist working a cozy job for many decades. now i look at the prepharmers here on this forum and in school and look at them w/pitiful eyes.

i don't think it's worth 200K in debt. maybe 40-50K but not more than that. yeah the job crisis is happening for more and more now. you guys, well your/our generation honestly has it the worst though the older people im sure will love to complain about us kids being lazy. if your only options are going to require 200K in debt, pick a job that you know can pay that back.

One of my pharmacist was 70 and still working. So that spiel about the old gen's retiring soon aint happening. They had it best, a 4 yr program and well over 100k jobs. The other one was the PIC and she kept telling me over and over again not to to retail, and made me promise her. She didn't like me doing pharm in general, actually...well i didn't listen, I thought it was one of those things people say to keep you away from their jobs. Now I actually think she would give up her job if she could.

 

[deleted390966]

..

 

[fewaopi]

older pharmacists are not retiring contrary to the thoughts of prepharmers. if anything they are doing all they can to work. many lost their savings during the crash and are trying to recoup. many others enjoy working. others pharmacists i know of have no concept of saving and investing and blow all their money so can never retire. the older pharmacists i know also work dead end pharmacy jobs that will disappear as we move to mail order, robots, less retail so those jobs won't be there anymore for the naive prepharmers.

if you're in pharmacy school try to diversify your skill set so you can work and apply for many different job settings, pharmacy fortunately is a pretty flexible degree giving you more options. if you're not in pharmacy school but applying, i would recommend looking at other fields first before turning to pharmacy. pharmacy/nursing/law/dentistry should all be last resort options really.

 

[deleted158872]

What crash?

older pharmacists are not retiring contrary to the thoughts of prepharmers. if anything they are doing all they can to work. many lost their savings during the crash and are trying to recoup.

 

[oldstock]

What crash?

I guess you were bz playing FB then.... lol 🙂

 

[deleted158872]

Stock market crash? But if they didn't play stock, they wouldn't be affected, right?

 

[DesertPT]

um no and i wish i could make this offer but id gladly offer my spot in school to anyone as long as they pay me tuition. 😉
just kidding, but i am currently in the process of quitting pharm school so take that as you will.

On topic: No.

@rederza How did you end up here?

I've seen your signature a few times and just couldn't resist...

 

[rederza]

@rederza How did you end up here?

I've seen your signature a few times and just couldn't resist...

@rederza How did you end up here?

I've seen your signature a few times and just couldn't resist...

I thought working in a pharmacy was just a joke, and that real pharmacy wasn't like that. Wow, how delusional I was.... I thought pharmacy school would be where we get treated like professionals., not have students demanding assigned seats bc people were taking their spots, not students getting bullied for not being in certain frats etc etc.
Also I wouldn't dream that you would still be getting hazed in 'professional' school.
Call me whiny, but when I didnt have to deal with that in college, I certainly didnt want to deal with that in p school.

But I think these past two years opened my eyes up to what I should really be doing with my life, and that's something I actually like, not something that's easy.


I would just hope others don't make my mistake, and actually push for better, not settle for what's convenient.

 

[DesertPT]

I was childish, foolish, immature and laziness. I thought my already good grades in undergrad meant I should take the easy way out and cruise through pharmacy to land an easy 120k job which I could easily work for the rest of my life. The words potential and ambition I pushed aside. Needless to say I deserve to be in the position I am with people who held similar mindsets to me....well anyways, I feel like all that work was wasted now, not so much as a ticket to a golden life anymore.

If you had told me then, that I would have to cheat and kiss ass my way through school and to get a job, I would have laughed at you.

I thought working in a pharmacy was just a joke, and that real pharmacy wasn't like that. Wow, how delusional I was.... I thought pharmacy school would be where we get treated like professionals., not have students demanding assigned seats bc people were taking their spots, not students getting bullied for not being in certain frats etc etc.
Also I wouldn't dream that you would still be getting hazed in 'professional' school.
Call me whiny, but when I didnt have to deal with that in college, I certainly didnt want to deal with that in p school.

But I think these past two years opened my eyes up to what I should really be doing with my life, and that's something I actually like, not something that's easy.

And besides that, pharmacy is far from the golden life it used to be.

I would just hope others don't make my mistake, and actually push for better, not settle for what's convenient.

yikes...


hope you enjoy the next phase of your life a bit better. 😎

 

[owlbright]

I was childish, foolish, immature and lazy. I thought my already good grades in undergrad meant I should take the easy way out and cruise through pharmacy to land an easy 120k job which I could easily work for the rest of my life. The words potential and ambition I pushed aside. Needless to say I deserve to be in the position I am with people who held similar mindsets to me....well anyways, I feel like all that work was wasted now, not so much as a ticket to a golden life anymore.

If you had told me then, that I would have to cheat and kiss ass my way through school and to get a job, I would have laughed at you.

I thought working in a pharmacy was just a joke, and that real pharmacy wasn't like that. Wow, how delusional I was.... I thought pharmacy school would be where we get treated like professionals., not have students demanding assigned seats bc people were taking their spots, not students getting bullied for not being in certain frats etc etc.
Also I wouldn't dream that you would still be getting hazed in 'professional' school.
Call me whiny, but when I didnt have to deal with that in college, I certainly didnt want to deal with that in p school.

But I think these past two years opened my eyes up to what I should really be doing with my life, and that's something I actually like, not something that's easy.

And besides that, pharmacy is far from the golden life it used to be.

I would just hope others don't make my mistake, and actually push for better, not settle for what's convenient.

Thanks for all thie input. I just got into your school and a few other public schools in the same state. But my heart has been debating ever since. Mega city vs. small town? Proximity to world's largest medical center definitely entices me other than harsh competiveness. However, I was also afraid of all the bullies and negativity mentioned above. Is it friendly to foreign students? For the same reason and rumors in the air, I did not apply to the school in the vicinity just a few blocks away (Surely you have decent insights). I also took MCAT prior to 2010 and got mid-30s, but did not get into any due to my scraggly English, lack of strong recommendation letters and (previous) F1 visa (prohibited to work/intern outside of campus). I chose pharmacy due to my commitment to healthcare field but the future prospect is just too bleak.

 

[rederza]

Thanks for all thie input. I just got into your school and a few other public schools in the same state. But my heart has been debating ever since. Mega city vs. small town? Proximity to world's largest medical center definitely entices me other than harsh competiveness. However, I was also afraid of all the bullies and negativity mentioned above. Is it friendly to foreign students? For the same reason and rumors in the air, I did not apply to the school in the vicinity just a few blocks away (Surely you have decent insights). I also took MCAT prior to 2010 and got mid-30s, but did not get into any due to my scraggly English, lack of strong recommendation letters and (previous) F1 visa (prohibited to work/intern outside of campus). I chose pharmacy due to my commitment to healthcare field but the future prospect is just too bleak.

.

 

[deleted390966]

.

 

[Thestrugglez]

Thanks for all thie input. I just got into your school and a few other public schools in the same state. But my heart has been debating ever since. Mega city vs. small town? Proximity to world's largest medical center definitely entices me other than harsh competiveness. However, I was also afraid of all the bullies and negativity mentioned above. Is it friendly to foreign students? For the same reason and rumors in the air, I did not apply to the school in the vicinity just a few blocks away (Surely you have decent insights). I also took MCAT prior to 2010 and got mid-30s, but did not get into any due to my scraggly English, lack of strong recommendation letters and (previous) F1 visa (prohibited to work/intern outside of campus). I chose pharmacy due to my commitment to healthcare field but the future prospect is just too bleak.

Didn't you ED to A&M?... I didn't know A&M let you apply to other schools if you did ED?

Your MCAT is very good. If I had your stats, I would not have changed from medicine to pharmacy. Are you a permanent resident now? If not, I don't think you have much of a chance at med school.

Also, how did you score in the mid 30s with scraggly English? You must have gotten 13s or 14s on BS and PS, because I scored 10 on the MCAT verbal section twice, but got a 97 on the PCAT RC section.

 

[deleted390966]

Thanks for all thie input. I just got into your school and a few other public schools in the same state. But my heart has been debating ever since. Mega city vs. small town? Proximity to world's largest medical center definitely entices me other than harsh competiveness. However, I was also afraid of all the bullies and negativity mentioned above. Is it friendly to foreign students? For the same reason and rumors in the air, I did not apply to the school in the vicinity just a few blocks away (Surely you have decent insights). I also took MCAT prior to 2010 and got mid-30s, but did not get into any due to my scraggly English, lack of strong recommendation letters and (previous) F1 visa (prohibited to work/intern outside of campus). I chose pharmacy due to my commitment to healthcare field but the future prospect is just too bleak.

How could you have mid-30s MCAT and not get in? How was your GPA? Was there a downward trend in your GPA?
LORs are not that important. As long as they're positive, they're fine.

 

[68quebec]

200k loan is little too much. if it's less than 100k loan, then it's worth trying. (if it's over 300k? no comment)

 

[Professionally Lost]

if you're in pharmacy school try to diversify your skill set so you can work and apply for many different job settings, pharmacy fortunately is a pretty flexible degree giving you more options. if you're not in pharmacy school but applying, i would recommend looking at other fields first before turning to pharmacy. pharmacy/nursing/law/dentistry should all be last resort options really.

I'm not really positive that nursing and dentistry can really be lumped into the same category as the pharmacy and law job markets...

 

[fewaopi]

I'm not really positive that nursing and dentistry can really be lumped into the same category as the pharmacy and law job markets...

Then you really have no idea what's going on and have more research to do. Ask around, even better ask the current graduates from as many professional schools how hard it is to find a job. Of course location makes a difference, but increasingly it's hard. it's simple supply and demand. prepharmers will say well older people and baby boomers will help offset demand. i was in prepharm once before too and i know how naive we/you can be. won't make difference and not enough demand to meet supply. pharmacy has the advantage of working in different settings though (it's like a bachelor's degree) as opposed to dentists and nurses who primarily practice. yes nurses can diversify too, idk how much compared to pharmacy though. my advice is to think outside the box and look for opportunities where there aren't as many pharmacists.

some posters here are in easier to hire or no one wants to live there areas. others are in more saturated areas. nursing is pretty bad in my area, if not worse than pharmacy actually. dentistry isn't too bad but is getting worse. dental students tell me they wouldn't recommend dentistry to anyone either but it's not where pharmacy is at. there's also no boom in the # of dental schools as there are for pharmacy/nursing/law. law by far is probably the worst of all.

 

[Professionally Lost]

Then you really have no idea what's going on and have more research to do. Ask around, even better ask the current graduates from as many professional schools how hard it is to find a job. Of course location makes a difference, but increasingly it's hard. it's simple supply and demand. prepharmers will say well older people and baby boomers will help offset demand. i was in prepharm once before too and i know how naive we/you can be. won't make difference and not enough demand to meet supply. pharmacy has the advantage of working in different settings though (it's like a bachelor's degree) as opposed to dentists and nurses who primarily practice. yes nurses can diversify too, idk how much compared to pharmacy though. my advice is to think outside the box and look for opportunities where there aren't as many pharmacists.

some posters here are in easier to hire or no one wants to live there areas. others are in more saturated areas. nursing is pretty bad in my area, if not worse than pharmacy actually. dentistry isn't too bad but is getting worse. dental students tell me they wouldn't recommend dentistry to anyone either but it's not where pharmacy is at. there's also no boom in the # of dental schools as there are for pharmacy/nursing/law. law by far is probably the worst of all.

I'm certainly not arguing that pharmacy is terrible right now, I willingly transferred out of P1. I was just stating that I think it is a gross exaggeration to say either nursing or dentistry are anywhere near as competitive/limiting as a pharmacy degree. That propaganda that the schools sold you about different setting opportunities for pharmacists is a farce. Those jobs are few and far between and very few clinics/hospitals can justify keeping essential staff on payroll let alone relatively elective staff like clinical pharmacists. I'd argue that dentists are easily more versatile considering they not only can bill for their services (justifiably) and can choose to work in their own practice, chain dental mills, hospitals etc. Not to mention they can specialize, giving them real world skills as opposed to the profit hungry pharmacy residencies. I think people vastly underestimate the value in having tangible skill sets. Yes, pharmacists are crucial to the safety of the health care system, no one's denying that. But does the general population recognize them as vital to their well-being or as a service provider? Arguably not. At the end of the day, people are only going to pay for things they find personal value in, pharmacy is unfortunately not usually one of those things...

As far as the nursing diversification, I'm certainly no expert in that field but I don't think it's unreasonable to say that CRNA, NP, etc. is a hell of a lot more useful then some arbitrary pharmacy residency training that really provides you with nothing in terms of upward mobility or job prospects.

Side note: not intending to offend you at all, just trying to add some balance to your points

 

[rederza]

Seriously? Just go read the dental forums. They're not nearly as negaqtive as this one is. Stand alone, a dentist can provide a hell of a lot more tangible skills than a pharmacist can.

Wtf is this comparison. A pharmacist checks off a physican's work. They double check. a dentist can PROVIDE service. As in, if I hurt, they were taught how to alleviate it.


No but seriously, what? pharmacy=dentistry now?

 

[oldstock]

Seriously? Just go read the dental forums. They're not nearly as negaqtive as this one is. Stand alone, a dentist can provide a hell of a lot more tangible skills than a pharmacist can.

Wtf is this comparison. A pharmacist checks off a physican's work. They double check. a dentist can PROVIDE service. As in, if I hurt, they were taught how to alleviate it.Which is why I laugh when they keep demanding provider status, when the best thing they have provided me is a gift card every time I transfer my new prescription in.


No but seriously, what? pharmacy=dentistry now?

skills or not, it is all about supply and demand. Greed/money rules the scene. Boom and burst.

some good reads,

http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=27460

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/e...ine-dentistry-education-engineering.html?_r=0

schools will close when students stop going in (and they stop going in because jobs/pays decline and jobs/pays decline because there are too many grads out there)... but schools have nothing to worry about as they always get paid first, unlike students who got in debts first (student loans) for going to schools....

thus, for an individual, it is all about timing. The question is, do you want yourself in a profession when it is going down and you might not have the luxury to wait for it to go up again ??

is pharmacy going down now ?? I think yes because the supply side has been expanding crazily driven by school's greed. All the warning signs are already there. It is only a matter of time when things break. It is going to be ugly like laws recently or dental in the not so distant past 😉

 

[PharmDCandidate2014]

The job market in 4 years will probably be more saturated than ever. There are already 3-4 new graduates entering the field for every projected job opening, and the ACPE has not shown any signs of slowing the expansion in pharmacy education.

Which organization is more corrupt?

FIFA or ACPE?

I can't believe FIFA is playing their next two world cups in RUSSIA and QATAR. Such a far outcry from Brasil!

 

[oldstock]

Which organization is more corrupt?

FIFA or ACPE?

I can't believe FIFA is playing their next two world cups in RUSSIA and QATAR. Such a far outcry from Brasil!

ACPE 🙂 jk

money corrupts thing... if not now then it will later... just the way it always is...

 

[rederza]

skills or not, it is all about supply and demand. Greed/money rules the scene. Boom and burst.

some good reads,

http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=27460

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/e...ine-dentistry-education-engineering.html?_r=0

schools will close when students stop going in (and they stop going in because jobs/pays decline and jobs/pays decline because there are too many grads out there)... but schools have nothing to worry about as they always get paid first, unlike students who got in debts first (student loans) for going to schools....

thus, for an individual, it is all about timing. The question is, do you want yourself in a profession when it is going down and you might not have the luxury to wait for it to go up again ??

is pharmacy going down now ?? I think yes because the supply side has been expanding crazily driven by school's greed. All the warning signs are already there. It is only a matter of time when things break. It is going to be ugly like laws recently or dental in the not so distant past 😉

I think it's ridiculous to compare pharmacy to dentistry though. And any newly grad that i've talked to has the same plan, work as an associate, then open a business. The only problem with that is that dental school tuition is immensely high, but that's nothing compared to starting your own business which could easily have an overhead of 500k-1 mill as well as establishing your patient base.

*personal story time* ( read; "biased")
However the pay off is great, at least in my area alone. My aunt (who isn't my dentist) works by appt only, which is about 4 hours a day, 4 days a week and has substantial savings. She expressed disappointment that I would have chosen pharmacy as I could have just taken over for her. Her business is small, and is nothing compared to my actual dentist, who is in his mid 40's running an office with about 12 staff members, and has the most easy going lifestyle I've yet to see. He too tells me he loves dentistry.

It's all who you talk to.

 

[oldstock]

I think it's ridiculous to compare pharmacy to dentistry though. And any newly grad that i've talked to has the same plan, work as an associate, then open a business. The only problem with that is that dental school tuition is immensely high, but that's nothing compared to starting your own business which could easily have an overhead of 500k-1 mill as well as establishing your patient base.

*personal story time* ( read; "biased")
However the pay off is great, at least in my area alone. My aunt (who isn't my dentist) works by appt only, which is about 4 hours a day, 4 days a week and has substantial savings. She expressed disappointment that I would have chosen pharmacy as I could have just taken over for her. Her business is small, and is nothing compared to my actual dentist, who is in his mid 40's running an office with about 12 staff members, and has the most easy going lifestyle I've yet to see. He too tells me he loves dentistry.

It's all who you talk to. If money is your main goal however, pharmacy is a huge risk, with almost no guarantee you could make it on your own because it's profession as a whole depends on someone to hire them---essentially the power to raise, but mostly lower wages, resides in the hands of corrupt businesses and hospitals who are more than willing to take advantage of the massive influx of new students gladly.

Which brings me back to my point; a pharmacist does not have any particular skill set bestowed on them that could guarantee a good chance of success as a stand alone, like a dr or a dentist does.

agreed w you 1000%.

I would like to add that it is hard to not to think about money when you are carrying on your shoulder a chip the size of $150K+. Anyone who is saying that they love pharmacy too much and does not care about money, imho, is BS'ing. In fact, money is a main/important factor when one is considering a future career.

I also would like to say that the market is paying you according according to supply and demand, not how much tangible skills or schooling you have. Case in point: when the dental scene went down in the 1980s, many dentists even quit and changed professions vs. pharmacists who made good money in the late 1990s - early 2000s vs computers in the late 1990s - early 2000s and now. The point is, when supply outstrips demand, things will go down. If dental schools start opening up again like pharmacy now, they are too going to suffer.

that brings me back to the point of timing... 😉

 

[Truth_In All]

Here is an article. That very well captures the Truth

 

[PharmtoCS]

is pharmacy school worth the hassle. i already got accepted to one but i am not sure if i want to accept the offer. what will the job markert be in 4 years. having 200k loans scares the crap out of me. what should i do ? i want an honest and experienced opinion without bigotry or bias please

The job market will be like the Hunger Games by then.

 

[BC_89]

is pharmacy school worth the hassle. i already got accepted to one but i am not sure if i want to accept the offer. what will the job markert be in 4 years. having 200k loans scares the crap out of me. what should i do ? i want an honest and experienced opinion without bigotry or bias please

For my first line of thinking : have you had real world work experience prior to your acceptance in pharmacy school? You may or may not have, because by most things I have read the past few years, many individuals are in a much different boat of "thinking" when compared to those applying after a year or so of basic coursework requirements. Though I believe pharmacy schools should mandate a degree WITH a level of work experience to be completed prior to attending the professional school (help open up the eyes of people who dont take the time to at least "think" about a long term financial set up or the roles and actual reality lifestyle of a pharmacist ---but I see you have given it some thought), the question boils down to are the loans worth it....are you patient? do you need that set house mortgage right away? are you willing to buy your freedom (cheap apartment to get stable)? are you under an assumption that with a 6.8% interest on 200k ( which may / may not equate to 2300 a month for ten years ) is too much with a vehicle / utilities / misc. bills and not to mention those emergency life crisis payments? If this helps any: it is based on patience and your OWN definition of comfort. Me for example, I dont want to live in a metropolitan area. Im well with my ol' cabin in the woods. I dont necessarily need nor want the latest things or "toys" of this world right away... Yet, I see many people after taxes cleared out carry an annual income ( 40k a year with 80k in debt ) seeming to get by with their families one way or the other. To me, what seems to get them going is they have some degree of passion of what they do. No one has a crystal ball to tell you how badly saturated the career will be in four years ( even though in most cases it will be cuz it is now) but thats with many other job prospects. If you are willing to move and re-locate and be the best you can be you WILL get a career (or job if $ is the driving force since it wont feel like a career probably)... I have reasons why i chose this much different than others, but to be frank : its up to you... if all professional schools paid the exact same how many would be in this field? There are other ways and routes that pay great with less loans, but if you manage and be patient my friend you will have comfort more than you will imagine... I managed to support my wife and child on $11 an hour in a welding / machine shop factory and it can be done. I mean if everyone wants to retire a millionaire, open up a mutual fund that compounds interest for you at a high percentage by dumping in $50 - $100 a month to it til you retire (just dont pull it out before retirment you'll get penalized)... not many will simply start a small mutual fund cuz it takes patience. Anyway, didnt mean for this to go on forever lol ... think of the lifestyle you want, sit down and imagine it yourself and take time on it...if it really bothers you that you in no way will land a job, then dont go into this with doubt, it will cut you down and soon put you in a financial hardship should you not follow through. But take some faith if you have passion for it to some degree even if it means getting hours you may not want right at the beginning. Anyway, i have some recorded judge judy i wanna see not sure how I got to this particular thread ..

 

[33 year pharmacist]

is pharmacy school worth the hassle. i already got accepted to one but i am not sure if i want to accept the offer. what will the job markert be in 4 years. having 200k loans scares the crap out of me. what should i do ? i want an honest and experienced opinion without bigotry or bias please

Not being able to pay your loans back is one worry. With so many new PharmDs many won't find jobs and employers knowing there are so many candidates for their jobs have in many cases changed to per diem, part time workers. They are reducing the pay fast. Pay was not so good before the pharmacist shortage. Pay will not be so good again. Most people don't realize the working conditions. Everything must be done correctly with chronic understaffing and no time to go to the bathroom. You sound like you know this. Why would you waste your time and money on something where you will have pay and working conditions similar to a long haul trucker. There are other professions that could be good options. I got divorced because my wife could not understand why I could not settle down with children while I had that "good pharmacist job". Other medical professions are having a similar problem. Don't get yourself in a field where you are dependent on third party payment. If people are not willing to pay you for your services directly it is because they don't respect what your services are.
Third parties are a third of the problem, chains are a third of the problem, now too many graduates will make it so any kind of pharmacy job will pay less, be hard to find and will have bad working conditions. Accounting?

 

[rederza]

Not being able to pay your loans back is one worry. With so many new PharmDs many won't find jobs and employers knowing there are so many candidates for their jobs have in many cases changed to per diem, part time workers. They are reducing the pay fast. Pay was not so good before the pharmacist shortage. Pay will not be so good again. Most people don't realize the working conditions. Everything must be done correctly with chronic understaffing and no time to go to the bathroom. You sound like you know this. Why would you waste your time and money on something where you will have pay and working conditions similar to a long haul trucker. There are other professions that could be good options. I got divorced because my wife could not understand why I could not settle down with children while I had that "good pharmacist job". Other medical professions are having a similar problem. Don't get yourself in a field where you are dependent on third party payment. If people are not willing to pay you for your services directly it is because they don't respect what your services are.
Third parties are a third of the problem, chains are a third of the problem, now too many graduates will make it so any kind of pharmacy job will pay less, be hard to find and will have bad working conditions. Accounting?

The thing that sticks out most to me is the fact youre paying to work in awful conditions. I mean there are some goood ones, but why play russian roulette with that when you're paying over 150k for it?

 

[PharmHopefulLonghorn2015]

I have been asking myself the same question OP. Too many negatives just stick out.

 

[CVS Rph 1980]

No

 

[deleted158872]

Short answer: no.
Long answer: heck no.

 

[UGAZ]

It was well worth it back then if tuition is <100,000 a year and the job prospect was excellent. For now, NO

 

[RxStudentatUB]

It was well worth it back then if tuition is <100,000 a year and the job prospect was excellent. For now, NO

You aren't even exaggerating for some schools! Wasn't there one in California that charged $73,000 per year without living expenses? After living expenses especially in expensive California, easily can hit $100K per year. Good luck paying back those loans in an unpredictable job market.

 

[MatCauthon]

Starting wages and jobs for pharmacists are going down and tuition is going up. Is this the kind of curve you would like to be on?