Looking toward the future...

[phuang06]

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I guess you can say I am a Sophomore in college with Junior standing biochemistry major, with a 4.0 GPA my first year and probably will end up with something around a 3.8-3.9 the end of this school year, and by the end of this school year, I will have taken:

Gen. Chem + labs (1 year)
Gen. Biology + labs (1 year)
Calculus
Organic Chem + labs (1 Year)
Physics + labs (1 Year)
Analytical Chem + lab
Gen. Microbiology + lab
Genetics
Organic Biochemistry
and a semester of undergraduate research working with protein domains functions

I'm trying to get into pharmacy school for dual PhD/PharmD program mainly for R&D. With my college scheduling of courses, I plan to take 14-16 credits per semester until I graduate, and with that I would graduate a semester early, end of Fall 2009. I've found that most pharmacy schools do not accept new applications for Spring semester and only accept applicants for Fall semester, so here is my question.

Should I graduate a semester early and try to get a job in the R&D sector for half a year-ish and then apply to pharmacy school, maybe securing to get that paid for by promising to work for that company for a set number of years after I graduate pharmacy school (which is all highly variable, since nothing is guaranteed) OR extend my college career by a semester and scrounge around for some more advanced science courses to take and/or spread out my next two years and make it easier on myself but waste more time since it won't be as rigorous and spend more money on another semester of school.

In my planned schedule of courses to take, I've already planned to take:

Gen. Biochemistry
Physical Chemistry
Human Anatomy and Physiology
Immunology
Public Speaking

Please help! ><

 

[phuang06]

...guess no one has an opinion or no one cares. - -

 

[UES Girl]

I have noticed that you want to do a dual Ph. D and I think in that case you should stick around and take some more extra courses and mostly do undergrad research - I know a lot of people who were going to go down the same road as you in their sophomore year(including me) and then a couple years later after doing research decided not to. I just think most people especially early in their college career without taking many upper division classes/doing research do not have clear idea what's it is like working in the lab. It's a lot more different than let's say taking an organic chem lab. So I think you should try to take more classes - preferably upper division labs - pchem lab, biochem lab - and do at least a year of undergrad research - pick something rigourous before you should truly decide if you want to go for a ph.d - I know after working in the lab for a year - I won't.

 

[UES Girl]

...guess no one has an opinion or no one cares. - -

Also if you want to go for a Ph. D - I've heard on multiple occasions that you are advised against taking the one semester courses like general biochemistry - not only that does not look good on your application but you would benefit much more from a full year of biochemistry than from just one semester. I've done the stupid thing - I've taken a general class and then took two semesters and looking back a general biochemistry course didn't give me much but a brief overview.

 

[phuang06]

general biochemistry is 2 semesters and that's what I have to and am going to take.

and I am planning on doing undergraduate research for more than 1 year as well as looking for research internships, so we'll see if I still want to pursue PhD after all that 😛