I've run into several non-trad pharmDs or pharmacy students aspiring to do med on this forum. I'm wondering what experiences in pharmacy school caused you to change your minds. I was admitted 6 months ago into a pharmD program and over the last few months I've also begun to think medicine might be what I want to do had I gone through the same 4 year process. To tell you the truth, if I had infinite money and time, I'd probably do both pharm and med to get the whole picture. I kind of have a hunch that after learning all that pharmacology, I would feel like I'd want to learn the rest of the med curriculum and take on higher responsibilities. The problem being I'm not sure and I kind of want to use first year of pharmacy to help me figure that out. But I'm wondering if I should just not even start the pharmD program and just study the MCATs and apply next June and perhaps pursue some other activity that might help me decide without taking up a seat. The other routes would be to start the pharmD program to gain more clinical experience for a year and still apply next June although as I've heard its highly looked down upon to drop out of one professional school in lieu of another. I honestly wouldn't mind paying for 1.5 years of pharm school to make my final assessment. On the other hand, I am hesitant to drop $200K+ on 4 years on pharmD schooling which is what many non-trad pharmDs plan on doing. Are there any non-trad pharmDs who plan on dropping out? And if so, how did you guys get letters of recs from pharmacy faculty who might be reluctant to write your rec letters? Does doing 1 or 2 years of pharmacy increase your chances of med admissions or getting a good residency if you ace the classes or is it negligible? I'm 26 years old already and have a BS and MS already in engineering fields. My Ugrad gpa is a subaverage 3.4 and grad gpa is 3.7. My e/cs are the usual volunteering some club involvement but nothing spectacular. What would be the smartest move for me?
in a stupid possible flame-inducing pickle
- Thread starter pickel
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I am no pharmD, but I can tell you for sure that if you did one year of a pharmD and then dropped out and tried to go to med school it would really be looked down upon. It shows a great deal of indecision and lack of commitment. What is to say you won't drop out of med school? I highly recommend you do not plan on starting towards a doctoral degree and dropping out after a year and applying to medical school.
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Since you're not sure yet, why not take a year off to try to figure it out?
Med/pharm school aren't going anywhere.
No use wasting $ yet.
Get some work and clinical experience and try to make a more informed decision. With a 3.4, you might need to do some work on the GPA first if med school is your choice.
As the above poster said, pharm school will not help in the admissions process. If anything 1-2 years followed by a dropout will be a negative.
Med/pharm school aren't going anywhere.
No use wasting $ yet.
Get some work and clinical experience and try to make a more informed decision. With a 3.4, you might need to do some work on the GPA first if med school is your choice.
As the above poster said, pharm school will not help in the admissions process. If anything 1-2 years followed by a dropout will be a negative.
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Don't drop out of Pharm school if you've already started. i.e. If you plan to matriculate, you've made your bed. Lay in it.
Also, keep in mind that we don't learn nearly as much pharmacology as the PharmD students do - there's simply not enough time in a medical school curriculum. You learn enough as a doctor to be able to do your job very well, prescribe appropriately, and to converse intelligently with the PharmD on your service (if applicable). On the other hand, the PharmDs don't learn clinical medicine the way we do. We have completely different job descriptions. Pick which one you'd rather do, and go with it. Unless you want to spend 8+ years in school.
Also, keep in mind that we don't learn nearly as much pharmacology as the PharmD students do - there's simply not enough time in a medical school curriculum. You learn enough as a doctor to be able to do your job very well, prescribe appropriately, and to converse intelligently with the PharmD on your service (if applicable). On the other hand, the PharmDs don't learn clinical medicine the way we do. We have completely different job descriptions. Pick which one you'd rather do, and go with it. Unless you want to spend 8+ years in school.
Thanks for the input guys. Regarding trying to up the GPA, isn't that impossible? Considering that my BS degree has been already obtained, isn't that GPA unchangeable? More than half of the courses I took for my MS were undergraduate level. Does that count toward my BS degree? If that's the case, my GPA is probably more like 3.5+. Not sure if that's competitive.
Another question I have for some of you non-trads is where did you guys get your letters of recommendation from? If you've been out of school for like 1-2 years, do your old profs still know you well enough to be able to write you good letters?
Another question I have for some of you non-trads is where did you guys get your letters of recommendation from? If you've been out of school for like 1-2 years, do your old profs still know you well enough to be able to write you good letters?
