M.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology thinking of Pharmacy School please help.

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Mcs0503

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I go back and forth on MD or PharmD. I have acquired a MS in Cell Bio in 2008 with a 3.27 GPA and my BS in bio in 2004 has a GPA of 2.87.

What are my chances of getting into Pharmacy school? What do I need to do? I have recently enrolled in a special masters program to boot my grades. At the moment I have encountered financial hardship and job problems that won't allow me to go back.


I simply want to do more with my life than work at the bench I have a background in customer service as well for about 15 years or so. Please help. All input is appreciated.

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Firstly, you have to contact the schools you are interested in and ask them what additional prerequisite courses you need to take. Take these courses and the PCAT. Then you are good to apply. Good luck!
 
What about my GPA? Is it too low to take classes for?
 
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I don't think your BS or MS GPA is very important for admission to Pharmacy school. It is the GPA of your prerequisite coursework that is more important. You can check with the pharmacy schools regarding the required prepharmacy coursework.
 
I don't think your BS or MS GPA is very important for admission to Pharmacy school. It is the GPA of your prerequisite coursework that is more important. You can check with the pharmacy schools regarding the required prepharmacy coursework.


I see so all I have to do is follow what the prereqs are. My classes are pretty old as well. Sorry for my ignorance or if this is asking you to repeat but they dont weigh the MS at all?
 
I have many friends who entered pharmacy school in the south-east and their undergraduate GPA was important. Some schools look at your overall undergraduate GPA, and also your 'science' GPA as a separate metric.

I don't know how important your Master's GPA will be. They might not consider it as heavily as your bachelor's GPA, but simply having an advanced degree could separate you from many applicants.

It might be a good idea to research the application standards for various pharmacy schools, and then determine a set of schools that could be worth applying to. Doing well on the PCAT could open some doors as well.
 
It sounds like it's a crap shoot. SOme will look at it some won't.
 
I go back and forth on MD or PharmD. I have acquired a MS in Cell Bio in 2008 with a 3.27 GPA and my BS in bio in 2004 has a GPA of 2.87.

What are my chances of getting into Pharmacy school? What do I need to do? I have recently enrolled in a special masters program to boot my grades. At the moment I have encountered financial hardship and job problems that won't allow me to go back.


I simply want to do more with my life than work at the bench I have a background in customer service as well for about 15 years or so. Please help. All input is appreciated.

Take the MCAT and the PCAT then come back and report to us.
 
Lol. What do you mean?

I should probably tackle some of these pre reqs too.
I took the PCAT, got into pharmacy school, left after P1 year to finish my bachelors, took the MCAT, and got into medical school. I thought both tests were very difficult and different enough that it would be insanity to study for both exams in the same year. They also aren't exactly cheap to sign up for, or to get study material for.

I would instead choose which profession you enjoy more, and pursue that one. Also, I don't know what options you would have if you went for medical school. a 2.87 undergraduate GPA means you would have a legendary uphill battle to enter M.D. schools, and even D.O. schools have above a 3.3-3.4 average these days. Maybe Caribbean MD? I don't know anything about that though.
 
I took the PCAT, got into pharmacy school, left after P1 year to finish my bachelors, took the MCAT, and got into medical school. I thought both tests were very difficult and different enough that it would be insanity to study for both exams in the same year. They also aren't exactly cheap to sign up for, or to get study material for.

I would instead choose which profession you enjoy more, and pursue that one. Also, I don't know what options you would have if you went for medical school. a 2.87 undergraduate GPA means you won't get into M.D. schools, and even D.O. schools have above a 3.0. Maybe Caribbean MD? I don't know anything about that though.

I am also pursuing a SMP here at Wayne State that I had to stop taking momentarily. It helped people get into medical school as well. I figure itd be good for me to take this major b/c i havent been in class for a while.

Damn dude what made you switch like that. I wish I could just switch up like that..
 
I am also pursuing a SMP here at Wayne State that I had to stop taking momentarily. It helped people get into medical school as well. I figure itd be good for me to take this major b/c i havent been in class for a while.
Have you shadowed or worked with pharmacists and physicians yet? It would be nice if you discovered which path you enjoy most so you could pursue it entirely.

Damn dude what made you switch like that. I wish I could just switch up like that..
It wasn't for me, and it was entirely my mistake for ever entering pharmacy school. I was so disillusioned in undergraduate about what I wanted to do. I have family members who are pharmacists, and so the field was part of my life growing up; I just blindly walked in their footsteps without really searching for what I personally enjoyed.

I knew things were wrong one day when all my pharmacy friends were talking about how excited they were to work as pharmacists. How they had so much fun on our retail and hospital internships. How they were happy. I wasn't. I was miserable, so I left. Don't let my story dissuade you from pharmacy though. My friends are becoming PharmD's this year, have jobs or residencies lined up, and say they couldn't envision doing anything different. You just need to discover what puts a smile on your face.
 
Hey good for you man. You can pm me with why you didnt want to go with it. I would actually like to hear more.

I havent shadowed yet either. I work in a clinical lab and discovered I just want to do more. Hence going back and forth. I also want to be realistic about what I am able to do based on my grades and background. I have many interests
 
I have a B.S. and M.S. and thought that I wanted to do research, but it wasn't for me. I think that the M.S. helps if your grades are good because it shows that you can handle the work of pharmacy school. Some schools will only accept pre-req classes that are less than 5 years old, so I would double check with the school that you want to attend.
 
I have a B.S. and M.S. and thought that I wanted to do research, but it wasn't for me. I think that the M.S. helps if your grades are good because it shows that you can handle the work of pharmacy school. Some schools will only accept pre-req classes that are less than 5 years old, so I would double check with the school that you want to attend.

Yeah my grades need working on for the age of them and for the fact that they weren't that great. That's something I knew going in though lol. I checked officially with Wayne State Pharmacy and they pretty much confirmed it. I COULD get a waiver b/c I was a TA in Bio and an Adjunct in A and P. But we will see. I will still need to take some classes over either way.
 
I'm not sure how competitive the schools are over there, but in California for example, one of the schools, UOP, states that nearly 99% of their applicant pool that gets accepted have some type of experience in pharmacy, whether it's as a tech or shadowing.

I'm not sure if you checked PharmCAS yet for Wayne State (link), but it seems like the average GPA acceptance is 3.6. This doesn't take into consideration that you have an MS. Start with a PCAT book (Or maybe grab Dr. Collin's)
 
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