I'm an art institute grad, but I'm thinking of going to pharmacy school... help!

[LyingFromYou]

As the title says, I graduated The Art Institute of Colorado in 06. After 2 years of random jobs to get caught up on bills, I've come to the conclusion that I don't want a job within my degree. So I started thinking about pharm, the only problem is I haven't had many science classes, even in high school I didn't take many science courses beyond what was required. Now I'm considering pharm but don't know if I have the capacity for it. I graduated HS with a 3.89, I had a 4.0 through junior year, but when I got accepted to art school right before senior year, I decided to graduate at semester and take bs classes, that lead to me slacking off and losing my 4.0. I graduated the art institute with a 3.5 and academic honors, I had A's in all my gen-ed's though. I'm in Kansas City and UMKC has a 6 year pharmacy program, I was thinking about taking the pre-reqs for the program followed by the PCAT. Do you all think its an option I should even be considering?

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[UES Girl]

As the title says, I graduated The Art Institute of Colorado in 06. After 2 years of random jobs to get caught up on bills, I've come to the conclusion that I don't want a job within my degree. So I started thinking about pharm, the only problem is I haven't had many science classes, even in high school I didn't take many science courses beyond what was required. Now I'm considering pharm but don't know if I have the capacity for it. I graduated HS with a 3.89, I had a 4.0 through junior year, but when I got accepted to art school right before senior year, I decided to graduate at semester and take bs classes, that lead to me slacking off and losing my 4.0. I graduated the art institute with a 3.5 and academic honors, I had A's in all my gen-ed's though. I'm in Kansas City and UMKC has a 6 year pharmacy program, I was thinking about taking the pre-reqs for the program followed by the PCAT. Do you all think its an option I should even be considering?

I thought 0-6 schools are only for students who are straight out of HS. If you already graduated and have a degree you'll either have to go through traditional route or apply as a transfer student.

Also if I was you I wouldn't be soo concerned with your Art Institute GPA - I'd be much more concerned with getting good grades in pre-reqs. Ultimately your art classes have nothing to do with scienc and pharmacy school curriculum is heavily science saturated so to demonstrate to admissions comittee that you are capable of handling the pharmacy class load is to have a good science GPA, get good grades in your pre-reqs and maybe take some uppper division classes beyond the masic minima.

Another thing good for you would be to explore pharmacy field. I mean how did you decide to go into pharmacy ? Most people either decide because they have experience working and they like the field or because they have science degrees and want to further their education in the health care field. Try getting the job in the pharmacy and start taking your basic science classes - maybe then you'll be able to work out a good plan. Good luck !

 

[ShewPharm]

I am in a similar situation. I graduated with an art degree in 06, spent a year working in the arts, ended up really disliking the work environment and the art field in general, and decided to switch to pharmacy last year. My mom's a pharmacist, so i already had a pretty good idea about the work stresses of pharmacy and i've always found her job pretty interesting. last summer, I started taking all the prereqs i would need. i was accepted to UHouston a few weeks ago.

You can make the switch and get into the pharm school if your prereq grades and PCAT score are high enough. But be sure to take some time and really think through the decision. It's a big jump from art to pharmacy.

 

[cdpiano27]

I am in similar situation. I was in classical piano field, and I went to music conservatory for two years, but my undergrad degree is not in music (I transferred).

Just take all the prereqs, do really well, and do volunteer work.

However, when I went to the PhD in my other field, I felt that I had NOTHING in common with anyone. But that is only because I am near the end of my degree, and probably because everyone else is married already at a very young age, especially in my current field, both in work and in graduate school. So I am sometimes rather quite upset that i cannot even have an inkling of a social life. However, you will not feel that way when you are absorbed with trying to get all A's and score high on PCAT and get through pharm school. You will instead be very focused and you will need to be.

My PhD field is different but I would say the difficulty is a quite a bit more than pharm school, in a different way.

Anyway, in two weeks. I will leave for France for a major piano competition devoted to "outstanding amateurs" in which the prize is to play in some major venues in Paris. So it is quite far from a real amateur competition. It is the first major competition that I have entered since 1995 and winning the one at my school. I had aversions against these competitions, but I just wanted to display my art once again.

It is like American Idol. Everyone is considered amateurs but in fact many of those contestants have almost professional careers (e.g. Melinda Doolittle in American Idol last year).

Just focus and do well. Your application will stand out if you have the same 3.7+ GPA and 90+ PCAT that everyone else has as a science degree.

If you really focus on the prereqs and take ALL of them before taking the PCAT, and practice o-chem with some MCAT books, and calculus with some AP calc AB questions, you should really be okay.

Also, you can practice general chemistry with SAT II questions and AP Chem questions, and same goes for biology. I would recommend even taking the SAT II subject tests as "practice" before the PCAT. For organic, just use the MCAT prep books.

I have aunt in pharmacy field, so I know quite a bit about pharmacy profession.

By the way, I got into PhD program in my field with only one year of CC, and two years of undergrad in that particular major. I had 3.98 GPA (only from an average school though (3rd tier research university) and a GRE in the 1400's.
And getting in was probably at least as competitive as pharm school.

So it definitely can be done for sure!

 

[alum]

If you're trying to pay bills, Pharmacy is a good profession, but you really should research it before heading into it. There are plenty of other jobs that pay bills. If you're serious about Pharmacy for whatever reason, then I would suggest that you take some of the science courses. If you do well in the (meaning As), then you can take the PCAT and apply. Good luck.

As the title says, I graduated The Art Institute of Colorado in 06. After 2 years of random jobs to get caught up on bills, I've come to the conclusion that I don't want a job within my degree. So I started thinking about pharm, the only problem is I haven't had many science classes, even in high school I didn't take many science courses beyond what was required. Now I'm considering pharm but don't know if I have the capacity for it. I graduated HS with a 3.89, I had a 4.0 through junior year, but when I got accepted to art school right before senior year, I decided to graduate at semester and take bs classes, that lead to me slacking off and losing my 4.0. I graduated the art institute with a 3.5 and academic honors, I had A's in all my gen-ed's though. I'm in Kansas City and UMKC has a 6 year pharmacy program, I was thinking about taking the pre-reqs for the program followed by the PCAT. Do you all think its an option I should even be considering?

 

[azPharmD2B]

First off, what exactly is a 'job within your degree', because I know a ton of people with degrees that don't work specifically in those fields. Just because your degree is in a specific field doesn't mean you can't move into something related. It seems like you're ready to jump ship just because the grass looks greener on the other side. This can be especially true if you've been at the same job since you graduated and have never really had to chance to branch out. You've invested this much time into it, seems silly to give up so easily.

Secondly, why pharmacy? What have you done to learn about the profession? How do you know you will even like it? What careers in pharmacy interest you?

 

[cdpiano27]

Actually, with a music or art degree it is very hard to do anything else besides that. It is so specialized that it is hard to branch into another field. When I was at New England Conservatory or even some friends that were at Juilliard, most who did want to go into music ended up taking prerequisite classes for law or medical school at a university and then applying. They could not really do much with their bachelors degree as is.

Bachelor of Music or bachelor of fine arts are performance and art degrees specifically and are specialized for that.

That is why I left my music school after two years, because I quickly found that out.

I would say go ahead and do it. As long as you get experience as a tech in a pharmacy or volunteering in a hospital, I think that will show that you are exploring the career enough.

I do not know why everyone thinks that you have to be a science major to apply to pharmacy school. That is probably true if applying to the California schools, becasue of so many applicants. But to most other schools that is CERTAINLY not the case. Just do some basic pharm tech work and you should be fine.

And regardless, you will have to get mostly A's in the prereqs and a high PCAT even if you were a science major. Those same rules apply to almost everyone.

I think that your application would stand out.

I know for a fact (and even a specific classmate at my conservatory) that some music/art/theatre majors have successfully taken the prereqs, done the volunteer work, and HAVE GOTTEN INTO ALLOPATHIC MEDICAL SCHOOLS (MD PROGRAMS), with the requisite experience and volunteering and high grades/MCAT.

 

[azPharmD2B]

Uh, I don't think this is a degree like you are thinking of. Check out the school's website.

http://www.artinstitutes.edu/denver/programdegrees.asp

 

[RNtoPharmD]

Anyway, in two weeks. I will leave for France for a major piano competition devoted to "outstanding amateurs" in which the prize is to play in some major venues in Paris. So it is quite far from a real amateur competition. It is the first major competition that I have entered since 1995 and winning the one at my school. I had aversions against these competitions, but I just wanted to display my art once again.

That's cool..
wow... How can you find time to practice since you're working??
Maybe you can post on youtube after the competition to so we can listen..