Medical school vs pharmacy school difficulty

[ivorychins]

I find both professions very interesting but I'm curious as to which professional school is more difficult. I'm not here to be persuaded to either route. I would assume that medical school has a much higher volume of content to memorize? I know that both schools are very difficult, but I'd think that medical school is more difficult. Has anyone here been in both?


Thanks to anyone that has any insight to this. I know it's difficult to answer since most people haven't been a student in both schools!

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[PharmDminus]

I find both professions very interesting but I'm curious as to which professional school is more difficult. I'm not here to be persuaded to either route. I would assume that medical school has a much higher volume of content to memorize? I know that both schools are very difficult, but I'd think that medical school is more difficult. Has anyone here been in both?


Thanks to anyone that has any insight to this. I know it's difficult to answer since most people haven't been a student in both schools!

I havent been in medical school (only pharmacy), but i can tell you medical school is more difficult. Your 2nd year of pharmacy school (depending on your school/program) is very demanding and probably equivalent to your easiest year in medical school. just my opinion.

 

[ivorychins]

I havent been in medical school (only pharmacy), but i can tell you medical school is more difficult. Your 2nd year of pharmacy school (depending on your school/program) is very demanding and probably equivalent to your easiest year in medical school. just my opinion.

You think medical school is that much more difficult? Sounds like you can actually have a "life" in pharmacy school then as opposed to medical school

 

[PharmDminus]

You think medical school is that much more difficult? Sounds like you can actually have a "life" in pharmacy school then as opposed to medical school

depending on how good your memorization abilities are, i think you can have a life in both. We had students in our pharmacy class that worked 10-15 hours/week

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

You think medical school is that much more difficult? Sounds like you can actually have a "life" in pharmacy school then as opposed to medical school

I think this is more reflective of the type of person that goes to medical school.

 

[UGAZ]

The only person that is qualified to answer is the one that did both pharmacy and med school. However, I would say med school is harder...no doubt.

 

[owlegrad]

I mean if med school isn't harder than something is wrong with the world.

 

[BigBoss]

Is this a serious question?

 

[ivorychins]

Is this a serious question?

Why yes. Do you know first hand that there's quite a difference?

 

[zelman]

Why yes. Do you know first hand that there's quite a difference?

One doesn't really need first hand experience to answer. I've never been a paralegal or a Supreme Court justice, but I can tell you which is harder to become.

 

[Lnsean]

Pharmacist and currently in med school and I can tell you it's like 3-4x harder...the sheer volume of material is just insane. You're not just responsible for drug mechanisms and therapy management, you are expected to have comprehensive knowledge in order to diagnose...so you're learning anatomy, extensive pathology, and crazy histology in there. Those 3 other disciplines alone contain vast vast vast amount of information. I was working throughout all of my years in pharmacy school and graduated highest honors without even trying much. While I am not failing in med school now, I am not excelling as I should (could also be due to my age and deteriorating memory and years of brain cell damage from alcohol )

 

[Charcoales]

Med school prob 4-5x harder, I was able to work 30+ hrs a week, party on weekends, and get A-Bs mostly studying only night before in pharm school...

 

[PharmDminus]

Med school prob 4-5x harder, I was able to work 30+ hrs a week, party on weekends, and get A-Bs mostly studying only night before in pharm school...

this leads me to believe there is a big difference in schools, because nobody in my class of 120 worked “30+” hours per week.

 

[trailerpark]

What's harder MD or DO schools?

 

[Sine Cura]

I got into pharmacy school (no PCAT). I did not get into medical school (34R back in the day studying MCAT for a week). In pharmacy school I typically waited until 1-2 days before exams to study.
I would say getting into medical school is harder (duh) and my lack of good study habits wouldn't lead me to fare well in medical school.

 

[Amicable Angora]

The difficulty of practicing medicine (vs pharmacy) is not really that big of a deal for the academic portion. If you have sound study habits and discipline you will be fine; the defining difference is the stress of residency and 80 hour work weeks after medical school. Which is far harder/damaging/grueling/soul stealing/anytermyouwant than pharmacy.

 

[trailerpark]

I remember people in undergrad praying to at least get a 30 so your score seemed really good. Was told DO a 26 is what you wanted.

 

[grumpyRph]

i don't understand how people compare pharmacy school and medical school. isn't a big reason anyone chooses pharmacy is to avoid the blood and guts? if you can handle blood and cuts and nastiness then why not just do med school? i like how clean pharmacy is i guess.

 

[lord999]

I teach and oversee both. No contest, medicine is "harder" as the basic science curriculum is more generalized than pharmacy. There's more material and much higher time pressure than pharmacy school. I don't think the conceptual difficulty is all that much harder in medicine, but the diversity of topics as well as the other two issues combine to make medicine a fairly involved didactic. On a personal level, 20-30% of my class worked at least half-time in didactic, and 8-12% including myself worked a FT with benefits schedule as interns at our respective companies. Everyone who took summa except the valedictorian and one other guy of my class worked at least half-time (and that valedictorian was more or less unemployable as he'd was so fastidious about workflow to a fault, and the other guy had five kids and a sixth on the way during rotations).

And that doesn't compare to the two clerkship years that medicine runs. I slept at least 8 hours a day and had two days completely off without any takehome duty every week in pharmacy school and never worked past 10 hours a day at the clerkship. My medicine colleagues had something like 4-6 days off a month to take care of personal business (so it's not restful) and easily worked 10-12 hours on average per day (and had more extreme hours) with their preceptors easily more abusive and demanding than ours. I enjoyed my clerkship time as relaxing from the didactic, while medicine ramps up in that period to stress the medical student out.

In the more "humane" ACGME reforms at present, the hours are not quite as insane as when I was in training. However, there's major complaints about continuity of care issues and inculcating the attitude that medicine has standing hours like pharmacy, medicine does not and will not in practice (and the physicians that do think of in straight shifts outside primary or emergency care are being quietly eliminated for productivity reasons).

Also, in terms of major student services interventions, medicine has more problems out of its students by at least an order of magnitude than the pharmacists, and that statistic is very consistent across universities that have both. Medicine is pretty hard on weak psyches in a way pharmacy training is not.

 

[lord999]

Pharmacist and currently in med school and I can tell you it's like 3-4x harder...the sheer volume of material is just insane. You're not just responsible for drug mechanisms and therapy management, you are expected to have comprehensive knowledge in order to diagnose...so you're learning anatomy, extensive pathology, and crazy histology in there. Those 3 other disciplines alone contain vast vast vast amount of information. I was working throughout all of my years in pharmacy school and graduated highest honors without even trying much. While I am not failing in med school now, I am not excelling as I should (could also be due to my age and deteriorating memory and years of brain cell damage from alcohol )

You're also no longer used to putting up with the bull**** that you did in pharmacy school because you didn't know any better about the games. It's as much a cultural shift as it is an intellectual one. This falls off pretty hard in my experience, you'll get there by summer unless you really went to some really shake and bake pharmacy school.

 

[ivorychins]

I teach and oversee both. No contest, medicine is "harder" as the basic science curriculum is more generalized than pharmacy. There's more material and much higher time pressure than pharmacy school. I don't think the conceptual difficulty is all that much harder in medicine, but the diversity of topics as well as the other two issues combine to make medicine a fairly involved didactic. On a personal level, 20-30% of my class worked at least half-time in didactic, and 8-12% including myself worked a FT with benefits schedule as interns at our respective companies. Everyone who took summa except the valedictorian and one other guy of my class worked at least half-time (and that valedictorian was more or less unemployable as he'd was so fastidious about workflow to a fault, and the other guy had five kids and a sixth on the way during rotations).

And that doesn't compare to the two clerkship years that medicine runs. I slept at least 8 hours a day and had two days completely off without any takehome duty every week in pharmacy school and never worked past 10 hours a day at the clerkship. My medicine colleagues had something like 4-6 days off a month to take care of personal business (so it's not restful) and easily worked 10-12 hours on average per day (and had more extreme hours) with their preceptors easily more abusive and demanding than ours. I enjoyed my clerkship time as relaxing from the didactic, while medicine ramps up in that period to stress the medical student out.

In the more "humane" ACGME reforms at present, the hours are not quite as insane as when I was in training. However, there's major complaints about continuity of care issues and inculcating the attitude that medicine has standing hours like pharmacy, medicine does not and will not in practice (and the physicians that do think of in straight shifts outside primary or emergency care are being quietly eliminated for productivity reasons).

Also, in terms of major student services interventions, medicine has more problems out of its students by at least an order of magnitude than the pharmacists, and that statistic is very consistent across universities that have both. Medicine is pretty hard on weak psyches in a way pharmacy training is not.

Thanks for the explanation man. This was something I was looking for. So you're a past student or are you faculty? If you're a student then why did you make the switch?

 

[lord999]

Thanks for the explanation man. This was something I was looking for. So you're a past student or are you faculty? If you're a student then why did you make the switch?

Faculty now.

 

[AlwaysContrary]

I find both professions very interesting but I'm curious as to which professional school is more difficult. I'm not here to be persuaded to either route. I would assume that medical school has a much higher volume of content to memorize? I know that both schools are very difficult, but I'd think that medical school is more difficult. Has anyone here been in both?


Thanks to anyone that has any insight to this. I know it's difficult to answer since most people haven't been a student in both schools!

People on this pharmacy forum also tend to discount pharmacy if you haven't figured that out by now. I do not have personal experience with medical school, but one of my best friends is in medical school and he has time to go out on weekends, studies maybe 2-3 hours a day, and generally has a life outside of medicine. The only time this was not true was when he began studying for his step 1, which he only did so for about a month and a half. I also have friends in the medical school at the same university and they are generally the same way. Though there are some medical students that all they do is study and are generally miserable.

The same can be said about pharmacy school as well. It must be said that we do not learn the same material as medical school, but what we do learn are stuff never really touched by medical students. To say it's easier or harder is tough to say, as this is entirely subjective. I know some people who don't generally study till a few days before the exam and do about average (C-B range), and I know people who study all the time and do very well. So once again, it's all down to the individual person.

I hope this was able to give you some more insight then just "pharmacy is easy" lol

 

[BidingMyTime]

Actually, it's not that uncommon for a pharmacist to go back to medical school. There are a few on this forum, and I've known a couple in real life. All of the ones I know who have commented on this, have said that medical school is harder than pharmacy school, one adding that he was unprepared for how hard medical school would be. I think the difference in the amount of material that needs to be learned, would make the harder choice for almost anyone, although if someone really, really loved anatomy/physiology, and hated chemistry and drugs, than they might find medical school easier.

 

[Rads4lyfe]

Actually, it's not that uncommon for a pharmacist to go back to medical school. There are a few on this forum, and I've known a couple in real life. All of the ones I know who have commented on this, have said that medical school is harder than pharmacy school, one adding that he was unprepared for how hard medical school would be. I think the difference in the amount of material that needs to be learned, would make the harder choice for almost anyone, although if someone really, really loved anatomy/physiology, and hated chemistry and drugs, than they might find medical school easier.

It's not only the amount/type of material that makes med school more challenging. There are a lot more hoops to jump through for residency/fellowship in med school and the competition is very steep. This is especially true for step 1, step 2, and clinical rotation grades. Doing poorly on any of these can have huge effects on the rest of your life including what type of specialty is open to you and what location/program.

 

[mentos]

Our pharmacy class had a med school drop-out from one of those bottom of the barrel Carribean schools. He never went to class, didn't study until the night before exams, made dean's list, basically breezed through pharmacy school and had time to work. He said pharmacy was much easier.

 

[ivorychins]

Our pharmacy class had a med school drop-out from one of those bottom of the barrel Carribean schools. He never went to class, didn't study until the night before exams, made dean's list, basically breezed through pharmacy school and had time to work. He said pharmacy was much easier.

Maybe he didn't drop out of Caribbean med school because he was doing bad. Maybe he didn't want to take the risk of going the Caribbean route. But anyways I guess that does say a bit in comparison.

 

[KoolKeith]

this leads me to believe there is a big difference in schools, because nobody in my class of 120 worked “30+” hours per week.

I was wondering this too, my experience was way different than those in this thread. I believe med school is harder but I definitely found pharm difficult. Then again I'm not that strong at physics and calculus so I struggled with some of the kinetic integration and derivation. Very few were able to work, those that did were one day a week. Our faculty were fond of curving our exams down if too many people did well. We often had 14-16 hour rotation days with home call. Two years of required research that most ended up publishing. A guy from the class below me who is an M2 now has said it's not that bad. Another classmate of mine that was toward the bottom of our pharmacy school class went on to absolutely destroy med school, getting a 260 on step 1. I think it really depends where you came from and where you're going.

 

[PAtoPharm]

When I was in AA school, both the AA and PA students took basic science courses together (e.g., anatomy, physiology). These were the same basic science courses that are taught to medical students at the same university. They covered more material than the equivalent courses I took when I was in pharmacy school, but ironically enough, I felt that those courses were easier in AA school because the quality of the teaching was better and more thorough. For example, the Powerpoint presentations were so thorough that you could pretty much skip every class, memorize the PPTs, and earn an A (moreso for physiology than anatomy).

On the other hand, when I was in pharmacy school, these courses were taught by sh*tty teachers who were old, bad at teaching, and only had jobs because of their tenured status. Not only did the teachers themselves tend to suck at teaching, but the PPT files were poorly-constructed as well; most of the slides had two or three lines of random text or simply a random graphic/chart/other visual scanned-in from the textbook. So even though the courses covered less material than the medical school equivalents I took, they were actually more difficult to study for since it was practically a guessing game to figure out what to study for. I still made A's in these courses, but it felt like they were harder to earn than in the medical school-level courses I took.

 

[Lexington2012]

We had a student at my pharmacy school who has an MD degree. Apparently he was unable to get a residency, so he went to pharmacy school. He said he was surprised how difficult it was. Almost, but not quite as tough as a lower tier MD school.

 

[BidingMyTime]

On the other hand, when I was in pharmacy school, these courses were taught by sh*tty teachers who were old, bad at teaching, and only had jobs because of their tenured status. Not only did the teachers themselves tend to suck at teaching,

That is a fair point. It can be very difficult to learn when one teachers are very poor communicators. Fortunately, at my school, I only had about 3 teachers who classes were very difficult--not because of the material, but because of their poor teaching style and inability to write test questions that could be understood. So poor teaching can definitely bias one's perception on whether medical or pharmacy school is "harder."

 

[MindGeek]

I still made A's in these courses, but it felt like they were harder to earn than in the medical school-level courses I took.

So you went to medical school @PAtoPharm ?

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Actually, it's not that uncommon for a pharmacist to go back to medical school. There are a few on this forum, and I've known a couple in real life. All of the ones I know who have commented on this, have said that medical school is harder than pharmacy school, one adding that he was unprepared for how hard medical school would be. I think the difference in the amount of material that needs to be learned, would make the harder choice for almost anyone, although if someone really, really loved anatomy/physiology, and hated chemistry and drugs, than they might find medical school easier.

Lol, I don't understand why anyone would ever do that.

It makes leaky

We had a student at my pharmacy school who has an MD degree. Apparently he was unable to get a residency, so he went to pharmacy school. He said he was surprised how difficult it was. Almost, but not quite as tough as a lower tier MD school.

I wonder if it was a carribean program

 

[PAtoPharm]

So you went to medical school @PAtoPharm ?

No, I took several of the same basic science courses that are taught to medical students (same teachers, same material, same PPT files, same tests). Why do you think it is so easy for medical schools to open up all these PA/AA programs? Much of the didactic curriculum for PA/AA students is comprised of the same courses that are taken by medical/dental students during their "basic science" years, so they only have to hire new professors to teach the PA/AA-specific courses.

 

[MindGeek]

Why do you think it is so easy for medical schools to open up all these PA/AA programs?

@PAtoPharm , if I went to Nova Southeastern U for my PharmD and took the common basic science courses that medical, dental, and pharmacy students take together in the same lecture hall, I still wouldn't say I took medical and dental school courses. I would simply say that I took a lot of my early didactic classes with a lot of medical and dental students.

 

[AlwaysContrary]

@PAtoPharm , if I went to Nova Southeastern U for my PharmD and took the common basic science courses that medical, dental, and pharmacy students take together in the same lecture hall, I still wouldn't say I took medical and dental school courses. I would simply say that I took a lot of my early didactic classes with a lot of medical and dental students.

One of my pharmacy classes had engineering students in it. I'm basically an engineer

 

[Rouelle]

I went to pharmacy school at a place that also had med, dental, PA, nursing, etc on campus. At the time it was generally agreed that the program ranking (starting with the most difficult) was as follows: PA>med>dental>pharmacy>nursing

 

[PAtoPharm]

@PAtoPharm , if I went to Nova Southeastern U for my PharmD and took the common basic science courses that medical, dental, and pharmacy students take together in the same lecture hall, I still wouldn't say I took medical and dental school courses. I would simply say that I took a lot of my early didactic classes with a lot of medical and dental students.

@PAtoPharm , if I went to Nova Southeastern U for my PharmD and took the common basic science courses that medical, dental, and pharmacy students take together in the same lecture hall, I still wouldn't say I took medical and dental school courses. I would simply say that I took a lot of my early didactic classes with a lot of medical and dental students.

Then that's your choice on how to describe the courses you took. You could say you took several of the same basic science courses as medical and dental students. The simple fact is, I have taken the same basic science courses at a school that teaches pharmacy-specific versions of them, as well as the equivalent courses at a school that teaches them to both PA and medical students, so the basis for making a comparison exists.

 

[PAtoPharm]

One of my pharmacy classes had engineering students in it. I'm basically an engineer

What's so funny about that is, if you really were an engineer, then of course you wouldn't be on SDN copying threads about the job market that I have already started just so because the fact that the thread was started by me doesn't sit well with you.

And no, your analogy is not valid, because only taking a class that enrolls both pharmacy and engineering students without also taking the equivalent course that is only taught to pharmacy students means you can't make a direct comparison between the course taught to engineering students and the course that is taught exclusively to pharmacy students.

On the other hand, I am able to make such a comparison, which is why I made the observation that the pharmacy school-specific courses were inferior to the same courses that are taught to medical students.

 

[MindGeek]

The simple fact is, I have taken the same basic science courses at a school that teaches pharmacy-specific versions of them, as well as the equivalent courses at a school that teaches them to both PA and medical students, so the basis for making a comparison exists.

So your classmates were only other PA/AA students.
Please tell me the other offerings at least had the same prefix and course catalog number.

 

[PAtoPharm]

So your classmates were only other PA/AA students.
Please tell me the other offerings at least had the same prefix and course catalog number.

Yes, they were the exact same classes. There were a couple medical students (maybe 2 or 3) that had apparently failed one of the courses when they took it as medical students who were retaking it with us.

BTW, the reason that a PA-to-DO bridge program now exists is because the licensing boards for DO's acknowledge that some PA schools teach their PA students the same basic science courses as they teach to medical students.

 

[Dred Pirate]

Yes, they were the exact same classes. There were a couple medical students (maybe 2 or 3) that had apparently failed one of the courses when they took it as medical students who were retaking it with us.

BTW, the reason that a PA-to-DO bridge program now exists is because the licensing boards for DO's acknowledge that some PA schools teach their PA students the same basic science courses as they teach to medical students.

do you seriously have no life?

 

[PAtoPharm]

do you seriously have no life?

Why is it that when I respond to arguing points instigated by others towards me, I'm accused of having no life, but the posters who actually started arguing in the first place aren't lobbed with the same accusations?

 

[Dred Pirate]

Why is it that when I respond to arguing points instigated by others towards me, I'm accused of having no life, but the posters who actually started arguing in the first place aren't lobbed with the same accusations?

because "we" don't go to other professions' boards and continuously preach doom and gloom

 

[AlwaysContrary]

What's so funny about that is, if you really were an engineer, then of course you wouldn't be on SDN copying threads about the job market that I have already started just so because the fact that the thread was started by me doesn't sit well with you.

And no, your analogy is not valid, because only taking a class that enrolls both pharmacy and engineering students without also taking the equivalent course that is only taught to pharmacy students means you can't make a direct comparison between the course taught to engineering students and the course that is taught exclusively to pharmacy students.

On the other hand, I am able to make such a comparison, which is why I made the observation that the pharmacy school-specific courses were inferior to the same courses that are taught to medical students.

lol bro I was kidding

 

[owlegrad]

I'm so confused, I took undergraduate courses with people who were pre-med does that mean I took some Medical School courses?

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[Rouelle]

I'm so confused, I took undergraduate courses with people who were pre-med does that mean I took some Medical School courses?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile

I’ve met and sat in the same room with several Nobel Laureates. By association I too have won a Nobel Prize.

 

[Son_Goku]

Pharmacist and currently in med school and I can tell you it's like 3-4x harder...the sheer volume of material is just insane. You're not just responsible for drug mechanisms and therapy management, you are expected to have comprehensive knowledge in order to diagnose...so you're learning anatomy, extensive pathology, and crazy histology in there. Those 3 other disciplines alone contain vast vast vast amount of information. I was working throughout all of my years in pharmacy school and graduated highest honors without even trying much. While I am not failing in med school now, I am not excelling as I should (could also be due to my age and deteriorating memory and years of brain cell damage from alcohol )

Had enough of Walgreens, eh? How often do you still work and are you paying for med school out of pocket?

 

[ivorychins]

Had enough of Walgreens, eh? How often do you still work and are you paying for med school out of pocket?

I find it crazy that someone would go through all of that work to get a pharmD and then move to medical school. I'd like to know his story in much more detail.

 

[Seriously Serious]

We had a student at my pharmacy school who has an MD degree. Apparently he was unable to get a residency, so he went to pharmacy school. He said he was surprised how difficult it was. Almost, but not quite as tough as a lower tier MD school.

He undoubtedly obtained a low tier, foreign, MD degree.