International/ Foreign Pharmacy Student Advice

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Should i continue my pharmacy education?

  • yes

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  • no

    Votes: 3 100.0%

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    3

AAAD1279

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This is pretty long, sorry! This is me retelling my whole college life lol some details might not even be necessary but i hope some of you can take the time to read this and hopefully to give an advice or opinion. Thanks!

I am a fresh BS Pharmacy graduate in the Philippines and my immigrant US visa is already being processed. I will mostly likely be moving to america by the end of this year. Unlike most of my batch mates who immediately after graduating are reviewing for the pharmacy board exam (we graduated april 8 and the review class started on april 10 and board exam is on june 22) I decided to rest and get away from all the stress. I took Pharmacy based on job opportunities, salary and because i really liked chemistry when I was in high school. At first i didn't know anything about pharmacy and all i knew about the pharmacy profession was that they sell medicines (pharmacy practice in the phlippines is very poor) but when my sister who is two years older than me was looking for a degree she was interested in pharmacy, i used to tease her because i thought that a pharmacist is no different to a salesperson (not that there's anything wrong with being a salesperson) but anyway, while she was doing her research on different degrees i did my own research too and ended up being interested in pharmacy. When I was in high school i was very determined to receive an award and i did end up receiving an academic award. I had high hopes and i was full of self-confidence. I only took entrance exam to 2 universities. I failed at the other university but ended up being the highest scorer for BS pharmacy students in the university that i went to. I was really excited. In the middle of my first year we received the approval for our petition from the US embassy but we decided that we all finish our studies here because it is expensive to study in the US. During my first and second year subjects were very easy i had mostly line of 1 (1 is the highest 3 is passing and below 3 is failed) and very few line of 2. By the time i reached my third year I having fun in college. I made a lot of friends already. I learned to cut classes and went to the mall with my friends, go to bars after class or sometimes in between classes, and cheat on quizzes and exams. I had no line of 1 and only line of 2 plus i failed a subject. It very big for me because it was my first time. Second semester i tried to redeem myself. And even though i didn't go out had fun as much as i used to, third year was pretty hard. I had very few line of ones only on the subjects that i was interested in but still mostly line of 2. Third year probably had the hardest subjects. During this time i was already having thoughts on whether i should shift to another course cos i felt like pharmacy is not right for me but i know my parents would get mad and i wanted to finish what i started. Fourth year my grades were okay but it was very stressful. I had to manage my internship, thesis, academics and personal life. I commute everyday for mostly 1 and a half hours if I'm lucky only 1 hour but if there is traffic can reach up to 2 hours. It was really hard but I managed to survive. By the time i graduated i felt relieved, i knew i made an accomplishment but i wasn't really happy, i wasn't excited and i was pretty sure that i will not work as a pharmacist because i felt like a lot of the things i studied was just stored in my short term memory and not that many was really stored in my brain. And i know that a pharmacist's job is repetitive which i don't like.

My first plan was to study again and try a different field like business or just something away from the medical courses but i had no idea what to choose. Then the other plan i thought of was to be a pharmacy technician and take the ptcb exam and work and save money for maybe five years and get into the stock market. But recently i was talking to my sister who is living in the US already for 2 years already, she thought that i was going to continue my studies in the US but i told her that i plan on just working as a pharmacy technician then she told me that all my hard work would be such a waste if i didn't continue and she said that the salary has a huge difference which i know already. I know it's shallow of me if i was just going back to pharmacy just because of the money. These are the things that are going through my mind...

Why i don't want to continue my pharmacy education...
- i'm kinda doubting myself if i can do it
- i don't know if i can handle the stress again
- i will be studying in a different country with a different culture, i don't know what to expect
- i don't like routine jobs

Why i wan to continue my pharmacy education...
- salary (i know it is a shallow reason but the truth is money might not be the most important thing in the world but it is a necessity, i have a lot of dreams for me and my family and i would definitely need money in order to achieve those. And my family went through money problems before and i don't to go through that again)
- i already have a background/ knowledge about pharmacy
- it would be faster compared to starting all over again studying a different degree

Right now, when i get to the US I still plan to take the ptcb exam and work as pharmacy technician for maybe a year or two and save some money then i'll see if i still want to continue my pharmacy education and really be a pharmacist.

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I'm a bit confused. If you have a BSC pharm and it took at least five years to complete, I.E. 10 semesters to complete, and you're licensed in your home country, you can become a pharmacist in the US by taking the FPGEE, doing volunteer intern hours, then taking the NAPLAX and other required tests. Why would you have to go back to school again?

If you're dead set on going back, or your Bsc Pharm wasn't sufficient for transfer, why don't you do a BSC to PharmD crossover program? It's something like three years long.
 
I thought you need a PharmD degree in order to be a pharmacist in the US?
 
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I thought you need a PharmD degree in order to be a pharmacist in the US?

You don't have to be a PharmD, but you'd have to have what would be considered an "equivalent" degree to the PharmD, many countries pharmacies degrees are not considered equivalent. I don't know about a BS in Pharm from the Phillipines, but I think jafx is right, how many years the degree program is, is part of what makes it considered equivalent (that the program must be 5 or more years.)

To the OP, only you can know what is right for you. I don't quite understand why you didn't transfer to a US pharmacy program, if you knew you wanted to practice in the US (you said cost, but since you are talking about transferring now, if you do that, you haven't saved any money.) It's not clear if you really understand what the practice of pharmacy is about, especially here in the US. Yes, parts of pharmacy are repetitive, but pretty much every job has repetitive parts, there are no perfect jobs (where there are, they are called hobbies, not jobs!) Technician jobs are even more repetitive than pharmacists, so I'm not sure why you would prefer working as a technician over a pharmacist if you don't like repetition.

As jafx mentioned, I would look into the process of getting licensed based on your current degree.....and go that route. If your current degree is not acceptable, then I think you should work as a technician and see what you think of US pharmacy before you invest more time and effort. If you decide you really don't like pharmacy, then I think you should check into other avenues--a science degree can help you get tons of other jobs (there are plenty of places that want people to have a college degree, that really don't care what the degree is in.)
 
If your degree is good enough to transfer over based upon the FPGEC you should consider Washington State. A lot of hospitals in the Seattle area and out in Eastern Washington will take volunteer pharmacist interns so you can get your hours. Depending on your score on the FPGEE WA State requires as little as 300 intern hours to get your license.

Also, there is no state income tax. Booyah!
 
At first I planned to take a ladderized course leading to PharmD degree (pass the board exam + 2 years) at my university but I failed a subject and they don't accept students who has failed a subject into the program. And I need to leave the country when I'm 21 (that will be this year) because of our US petition. I was thinking of just being a pharm tech because i think it will be easier to get into and I'm not really planning it be my lifetime career just a job for me to save up some money. And like you said I'm planning to give myself maybe two years to see if US Pharmacy practice would suit me. Maybe I lack interest in pharmacy because of the poor practice and lack of respect to pharmacists here in the philippines, maybe it'd be different in the US. Thank you for the advice!
 
I'll take note of that:) I will be living in missouri so I hope by the time I've made my final decision I will have the courage to move or try to go to a different state.
 
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