If you were accepted into a 6 year program,would you take the opportunity?

[californians]

If you were accepted into a 6year pharmacy program(0+6), would you take the opportunity? I'm an only child and my dad is retired. My mom makes a little less than 30k a year. Is it better to get prereqs/Bachelor's at a UC(University of California) and then apply to a school of pharmacy or take the 0+6 program. I thought I'd ask this because it's a opinionated question. Money is an issue =/. In the long run, I guess I'll be at the same end.

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[Passion4Sci]

If you were accepted into a 6year pharmacy program(0+6), would you take the opportunity? I'm an only child and my dad is retired. My mom makes a little less than 30k a year. Is it better to get prereqs/Bachelor's at a UC(University of California) and then apply to a school of pharmacy or take the 0+6 program. I thought I'd ask this because it's a opinionated question. Money is an issue =/. In the long run, I guess I'll be at the same end.

If you KNOW you want to be a pharmacist, I'd take the 0-6 in a heartbeat.

For ME, I couldn't have done it. I needed time to figure out what the hell I was going to do, as evidenced by me going from Stanford to a new degree at UCD to the Army and now to pharmacy school.

If you feel that pharmacy really is "your" thing, then hell yes, take it and run with it. You'll be so young and have such an amazing career ahead of you. Several of the pharmacists at the hospital where I volunteer are 0-6 graduates and they're 23/24 making 6 figs. That's so much 401k money, other investment money, etc... it's unreal for future planning. Own your home by 27, etc...

 

[kmapes]

If you were accepted into a 6year pharmacy program(0+6), would you take the opportunity? I'm an only child and my dad is retired. My mom makes a little less than 30k a year. Is it better to get prereqs/Bachelor's at a UC(University of California) and then apply to a school of pharmacy or take the 0+6 program. I thought I'd ask this because it's a opinionated question. Money is an issue =/. In the long run, I guess I'll be at the same end.

If you're absolutely 100% sure that you want to become a pharmacist, then by all means...you should do a 0+6 program. I know for a fact that I would not have been able to do one of those programs. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to be when I graduated high school.

However, if you aren't completely sure that you want to be a pharmacist, I would recommend going to general college first. It'll give you some time to sort things out and really know who you want to be and what you want to do.

 

[monkieez]

If you were accepted into a 6year pharmacy program(0+6), would you take the opportunity? I'm an only child and my dad is retired. My mom makes a little less than 30k a year. Is it better to get prereqs/Bachelor's at a UC(University of California) and then apply to a school of pharmacy or take the 0+6 program. I thought I'd ask this because it's a opinionated question. Money is an issue =/. In the long run, I guess I'll be at the same end.

If you decide to go for the Bachelor's route, please don't limit yourself to just applying to UCs. If you apply to some richer private schools, they will give you much more financial aid and often in the form of grants (because you would be in their low-income bracket). So the best is to broaden your scope and just see which school offers you the most money. UCs give financial aid in the form of loans and work-study (which means you are still paying for it) where as some private schools might give you grants (ie free money). For me, a UC would have been much much much more expensive and my undergrad was practically free.

Edit: oh yeah and of course don't forget to apply for financial aid on time.

 

[ewKinematics]

If money is an issue, 6 years would be better than 8 years (bachelors degree + 4 years of pharmacy school), right? Do 0-6 programs cost more? I wouldn't know. Like the previous posters said, if you know you want to to be a pharmacist FOR SURE, then of course go for it! It's guaranteed! The other route isn't. Remember the 0-6 programs have strict GPA requirements (I think you need to maintain ~3.5 every semester through the duration of the program?) If you can handle that, I definitely would suggest going for it. I have a friend who's 24 and already doing her residency at the Children's Hospital in Fresno. She did the 0-6 program at UOP with no regrets. She knew she wanted to be a pharmacist since our freshman year of high school though.


EDIT: Sorry it wasn't 0-6. It was 3-3.