Is it okay to "pace yourself" with the classes you are taking?

[Anthony T]

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I decided that I am going to try and stick it out with Pharmacy, but I find that I do a lot better if I take only 2 science classes at once, and then another class or two.

I pre-reqs should only take two years, but will it hurt me a lot if I don't take a certain amount of credits? For example, next semester I am taking General Bio, General Chem 2, and an English course that is required by the school I am intending to apply to once I am finished with my pre-reqs. Although this only amounts to 12 credits, I feel like if I were to take another science class, it would really affect my performance. Do you think I should take another class, or is it okay for me to take what I can handle for now?

I've been working at Walgreen's Pharmacy since July, so I'm hoping maybe my work experience will make up for me not taking as many credits as others all at once?

 

[pharm B]

What other science course would you take? Physics or A&P? Honestly, two sciences at once with only one Gen Ed course seems kinda light. You're applying to a school that expects its students to maintain high course loads for the duration of the program. Are you afraid to tack on another Gen Ed or math course?

 

[docss26]

I decided that I am going to try and stick it out with Pharmacy, but I find that I do a lot better if I take only 2 science classes at once, and then another class or two.

I pre-reqs should only take two years, but will it hurt me a lot if I don't take a certain amount of credits? For example, next semester I am taking General Bio, General Chem 2, and an English course that is required by the school I am intending to apply to once I am finished with my pre-reqs. Although this only amounts to 12 credits, I feel like if I were to take another science class, it would really affect my performance. Do you think I should take another class, or is it okay for me to take what I can handle for now?

I've been working at Walgreen's Pharmacy since July, so I'm hoping maybe my work experience will make up for me not taking as many credits as others all at once?

It all depends when you want to graduate. If you can afford to pace yourself and graduate on time, then you should do it and not risk hurting your GPA with a heavy course load.

In my situation, I wasnt ready to apply to pharmacy school and I knew quite in advance. I ended up spreading out my classes to one extra semester after my anticipated graduation date. I finished my last semesters very strong!

 

[kern07]

i would strongly suggest taking another prereq, perhaps psychology or some social science class. at my interviews they asked me if i was prepared to tackle an average of 18 credits per semester. one was open file, so they asked me point-blank after looking that i took an average of 15 credits, give and take 1 credit, throughout my undergrad.

if this is your first semester in college, then i'd just go with the 12 (i took bio, chem (both with labs), honors lit class, and calculus all in one semester right out of high school. my GPA suffered 'cause I wasn't ready.)

after this semester, take at LEAST 14-15 credits and balance them out with 2 science and 2 pre-req courses that aren't as demanding as the sciences.

 

[tahi193]

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[will7678]

If that is all that you can handle right now how do you plan to be able to make it in pharmacy school? Certainly a question that you will be asked during an interview and one that you should be asking yourself before you waste your time.

 

[Em023]

I feel like if I were to take another science class, it would really affect my performance.

As science starts to get more and more difficult and the competition gets harsher I totally have had the same feeling, and I am having the same problem for next semester (I only had 13 credits, I posted a thread about it a few weeks ago actually) but I decided to take more leadership classes. They are easy but I find them really interesting. So just find something on the side you are interested in and take those classes. You'll enjoy the work from those classes and it won't seem like it takes to much time away from the chem, bio and physics.

Also if your have your major picked out, or even a minor, you can take classes for that, so just incase you don't get into pharm school right away, you can get your bachelors and then reapply the next year.

just my advice 🙂

 

[joh0472]

I thought that the beginning sciences Bio 1 and Inorganic Chem were more time consuming than upper division classes (at least at my school). 12 credits is pretty light though, I would suggest taking at least one more class, but one that is more of a social science like ecomonmics, psychology, or sociology. 16-20 credits is a healthy schedule.

 

[Anthony T]

What other science course would you take? Physics or A&P? Honestly, two sciences at once with only one Gen Ed course seems kinda light. You're applying to a school that expects its students to maintain high course loads for the duration of the program. Are you afraid to tack on another Gen Ed or math course?

I guess I could tack on another Gen Ed course, but I'm just afraid of taking another science, I guess. I'm taking Calc now, so I don't think I need another Math.

 

[confettiflyer]

Most school explicitly or implicitly state a preference for students who have taken a heavy course load (typically 18 quarter units). You also may run into the issue of prerequisites expiring at the time of application if you take too long. Some schools limit them to 5 or 7 years, so if you apply fall 2010, anything taken before fall 2005 won't be valid.

Policies differ at each school, so do your homework...so generally speaking, no "pacing yourself" is not necessarily the best way to go.

Another potential problem is you gaining acceptance, but not having the fortitude to handle a rigorous pharmacy program since you're used to only a few classes at a time. My fall of P-1, I took 4 science courses adding up to 11 semester units. That was tough for some people, so keep that in mind.

 

[Anthony T]

The thing is, this is my 2nd year of college. My first year I was undecided, so this is technically my first year of taking my pre-requisites for Pharmacy.

I was taking General Bio, General Chem, and Calculus for a total of 12 credits. I was doing TERRIBLE in Bio, so I withdrew, and now it's only Chem and Calc, and 8 credits.

So I guess I'm screwed. Maybe I should just give up now. But do you think I can still redeem myself if I take like 16 credits next semester? I work in a Pharmacy, so I hope that makes up for some of it.

 

[confettiflyer]

The thing is, this is my 2nd year of college. My first year I was undecided, so this is technically my first year of taking my pre-requisites for Pharmacy.

I was taking General Bio, General Chem, and Calculus for a total of 12 credits. I was doing TERRIBLE in Bio, so I withdrew, and now it's only Chem and Calc, and 8 credits.

So I guess I'm screwed. Maybe I should just give up now. But do you think I can still redeem myself if I take like 16 credits next semester? I work in a Pharmacy, so I hope that makes up for some of it.

I mean, ease into it, I thought you were referring to pacing yourself the entire time? Units vary with universities, so I can't tell you if 16 is good/bad...if it's halfway between the minimum and maximum (12 and 20 at my school), that's pretty good.

I know plenty of people who started at the minimum their first year of undergrad and slowly ratcheted up each successive quarter/semester.

Another idea (which I used) was to move a heavy/hardcore class to the summer so that it's the only class you take then, while during the year, you're at a full 16-18 units. It helps..I moved 3rd quarter ochem and biochem to the summer and did weird things with my schedule.

 

[Snipy]

For me I do better when I pack my schedule with pure science classes but if I mix in a Ge course then I tend to slack off on that particular class. I guess just do what you think feels right.

 

[crazytuts]

I've never taken below 12 credits in a semester and I'm in the third year. I actually find that I do better when I take more classes and more credits because I tend to work harder. If I just take a few classes then i'll get lazy and won't do anything. You just need to be productive everyday and study ahead of time and follow all those study habits that everyone talks about but not a lot of people do.

Just like everyone else said, colleges look at your transcript and they notice if you were able to handle a full course load. I went to one open house and an advisor said that they look for patterns on transcripts that are full time, with 4 to 5 courses, and see if they do well. So a person that has full-time schedule and does well stands out better than a person that takes one or two classes. They basically want to see if u'll survive pharmacy school

As far as taking 16 credits, it's possible. i'm taking 21 credits right now to finish up many prerequisites and I work at a pharmacy and I haven't gone crazy yet (I think? lol). It's possible!

 

[Anthony T]

What about getting a degree in Health Administration? Is that a plus when applying to Pharmacy school?

 

[Kaxa2000]

It doesn't matter what you get your degree in as long as you finish the pre reqs they require. Try and stick to two science classes and then two other lighter classes.

 

[cascones92]

I know of someone who has "paced" themselves due to work (25 - 30 hours per week) and other circumstances and in interviews he has been told there are concerns that he would not be able to handle the work load a pharmacy program would throw at him. He had a solid PCAT (upper 80s), decent GPA (3.3 ish) but they were still concerned about his ability to handle the "rigorous" pharmacy school curriculum.

 

[atticus27]

plenty of people get accepted doing the 2 classes at a time thing but they typically have extenuating circumstances like a full time job+ family, or whatever. If you're not producing decent grades with just a few classes you need to change your study habits or something.

The work load of pharm school is no joke. It's usually 18-20 credits a semester but at times it feels like 25-30. add an intern job on the side, pharm ec's, and all the rest and that is why you need to show adcoms you can eat lots of poo and then ask for more.