My First Year of Pharmacy School is Over

[DaveRX]

Wow, it's definetly not what I was expecting. My head feels like a sponge saturated with information.

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[Glycerin]

Lucky! Mine will be over after my last test on May 10. But, I have only 3 days of school this week and two the next, so really only 5 more days! haha And I can't wait!

 

[kellia]

3 finals to go... mon, tues, wed! It wasn't what I was expecting either, but it went by soooo fast!! I guess there wasn't really time to think about time!! Hopefully the next few years will fly too!

 

[ethyl]

3 finals to go... mon, tues, wed! It wasn't what I was expecting either, but it went by soooo fast!! I guess there wasn't really time to think about time!! Hopefully the next few years will fly too!

So how would you guage the difficulty level for your first year at UF? Was there anything that seemed impossible or anything that required 10+ hours of studying a day... anything crazy like that? What should I expect this Fall?

 

[Trancelucent1]

So how would you guage the difficulty level for your first year at UF? Was there anything that seemed impossible or anything that required 10+ hours of studying a day... anything crazy like that? What should I expect this Fall?

No that's what second year is for I can't wait for summer and I'm 2 finals away from being done with my 2nd year! I would say that first year wasn't too bad and the spring semester was the easiest for me. One suggestion I'd make to make the first year go by quicker is joining organizations and getting involved. Surprisingly enough I've actually done better in school this semester as the President of FSHP. Most of us that are really involved are actually doing very well. Of course I'm a little biased and am always recruiting

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Wow, it's definetly not what I was expecting. My head feels like a sponge saturated with information.

Mines will be done after Pharmacology and A&P 2 final this week.

 

[museabuse]

Wow, it's definetly not what I was expecting. My head feels like a sponge saturated with information.

What did you expect? I expected pharmacy school to be very difficult, but it wasn't.

 

[DaveRX]

What did you expect? I expected pharmacy school to be very difficult, but it wasn't.

I thought it was going to be similar to undergrad but it was a lot more work. I had to take 19 credit hours this semester and had a crap load of information thrown at me each day. The crazy thing is I hear the next year is worst. The material is really not that hard, it was just a lot of it. Time management is the key. It was also hard for me to get really excited about classes like pharmaceutics and Biostatistics. Stats was an absolute waste of time and sitting through that lecture was unbearable.

 

[cdpiano27]

well, I am a PhD candidate in biostatistics, and I can tell you why they teach it to you even though it is definitely not applicable to retail pharmacy or the PharmD for that matter.

PhD biostatisticians are used quite often in the pharmaceutical industry to evaluate and analyze the data from experiments in clinical trials and drug discovery. They report back to the physicians and sometimes (not as much) the pharmaceutical sciences.

There is a very difficult class in the PhD called nonlinear models for univariate response and these are the theoretical aspects behind pharamcokinetic models.

 

[imperial frog]

Wow, it's definetly not what I was expecting. My head feels like a sponge saturated with information.

Don't worry, in the next year it will feel like a sponge that has been wrung out.

 

[sdn1977]

well, I am a PhD candidate in biostatistics, and I can tell you why they teach it to you even though it is definitely not applicable to retail pharmacy or the PharmD for that matter.

PhD biostatisticians are used quite often in the pharmaceutical industry to evaluate and analyze the data from experiments in clinical trials and drug discovery. They report back to the physicians and sometimes (not as much) the pharmaceutical sciences.

There is a very difficult class in the PhD called nonlinear models for univariate response and these are the theoretical aspects behind pharamcokinetic models.

I'm pretty sure I didn't appreciate the significance of your area of expertise when I was a student. But....I definitely appreciate it now! I hope these students really absorb the understanding because no one will be looking over their shoulder telling them what the study actually says when they are reading it. Or...what I've actually experienced, is when the result of plugging numbers into a formula comes up with a number which does not make physiologic sense!

IMO - this is an less than understood area of pharmaceutical education & very important for pharmacists to really understand the methods behind research & what makes a good study reliable or what makes a formula representative of what is going on in the body.

 

[cdpiano27]

In terms of difficulty of pharmacy school, it really depends upon the school attended.

A research oriented school like UF, UNC-Chapel Hill, UCSF, UCSD, UT-Austin, Michigan, and you get the point is going to be very difficult when compared to a school that is simply used for training retail pharamacists. The reason is that the faculty at these research oriented schools want you to consider roles outside of retail and you will need more scientific knowledge in order to do so. So with all these posts about UF being difficult, I am sure it is hard! They are a research-based school. And in terms of UNC, I visited their school for a Glaxo Smithkline presentation, and they asked for a show of hands of who was in Rho Chi. I think that there were about 30 people in the room and only 4 raised their hand! So that means the other 26 have averages below 3.67 which is the criteria there for getting into Rho Chi (the second highest letter grade average, A- = 3.67)!

Go to a research-oriented program. You will have more options, even if you are SURE you want to do retail! you may think twice later.

 

[cdpiano27]

The biostatistics field is very, very competitive. The reason why it is that way is that you have international students who worked in their country as computer scientists, engineers and then come here and switch as a PhD candidate in statistics after 3 years working experience. So even if you are on the same level academically with them, you cannot compete with the level of experience, because most U.S. students are math or stat majors in the PhD program including myself. It is EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!! The kicker is that 50% of the students in my program are U.S. students which is highly unusual in most stat PhD programs. This is becaues they have funding from NSF to give us fellowhips of $1875 a month along with a tuition waiver, AND WE ARE CONSIDERED NC residents after one year. So I hope that there are jobs for us after PhD (I have three more years to go). Otherwise I have thougt of some backup plans (maybe pharm school, but I DO NOT WANT TO DO RETAIL!!!)

So after finishing the masters part enroute to PhD, I applied to 15 internships, and got 3 callbacks, two from NIH-NIEHS, and NIH-NHLBI and one from Merck. After the phone interviews I received intern offers at both NIH sites and never heard back from Merck. In my Merck interview, I was asked the question, have you done Java software development. MY MAJOR IS STATISTICS, NOT CS!!! I took introductory courses in C/C++ at UCF and taught Java by myself so it is in my resume. But they were looking obviously for someone with a CS undergrad and then a graduate in statistics. I was going to be editing R/S+ code or something to that extent. I still do not know why they needed Java.

Well for the interns that I was offered the NIEHS in RTP was going to be under a postdoc who got his degree from Johns Hopkins on genetic markers and gene expression and the NHLBI in Bethesda was on survival analysis related to cardiovascular studies. So I wanted to something that was considered more "classical" biostat as my first internship. So I chose the NHLBI (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) Also, I get to go out of Raleigh for the summer! Yeah!

My goal is to work at a pharmaceuticl company or FDA, CDC, NIH, after graduation hopefully in clinical trial studies.

 

[sdn1977]

The biostatistics field is very, very competitive. The reason why it is that way is that you have international students who worked in their country as computer scientists, engineers and then come here and switch as a PhD candidate in statistics after 3 years working experience. So even if you are on the same level academically with them, you cannot compete with the level of experience, because most U.S. students are math or stat majors in the PhD program including myself. It is EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!! The kicker is that 50% of the students in my program are U.S. students which is highly unusual in most stat PhD programs. This is becaues they have funding from NSF to give us fellowhips of $1875 a month along with a tuition waiver, AND WE ARE CONSIDERED NC residents after one year. So I hope that there are jobs for us after PhD (I have three more years to go). Otherwise I have thougt of some backup plans (maybe pharm school, but I DO NOT WANT TO DO RETAIL!!!)

So after finishing the masters part enroute to PhD, I applied to 15 internships, and got 3 callbacks, two from NIH-NIEHS, and NIH-NHLBI and one from Merck. After the phone interviews I received intern offers at both NIH sites and never heard back from Merck. In my Merck interview, I was asked the question, have you done Java software development. MY MAJOR IS STATISTICS, NOT CS!!! I took introductory courses in C/C++ at UCF and taught Java by myself so it is in my resume. But they were looking obviously for someone with a CS undergrad and then a graduate in statistics. I was going to be editing R/S+ code or something to that extent. I still do not know why they needed Java.

Well for the interns that I was offered the NIEHS in RTP was going to be under a postdoc who got his degree from Johns Hopkins on genetic markers and gene expression and the NHLBI in Bethesda was on survival analysis related to cardiovascular studies. So I wanted to something that was considered more "classical" biostat as my first internship. So I chose the NHLBI (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) Also, I get to go out of Raleigh for the summer! Yeah!

My goal is to work at a pharmaceuticl company or FDA, CDC, NIH, after graduation hopefully in clinical trial studies.

hmmm....as much as I appreciate your field....I think you've gotten a bit off the topic of how difficult the first year of school is for some pharmacy students.

But...best of luck to you!

 

[museabuse]

I think that there were about 30 people in the room and only 4 raised their hand! So that means the other 26 have averages below 3.67 which is the criteria there for getting into Rho Chi (the second highest letter grade average, A- = 3.67)!

Isn't Rho Chi the top 20% or those above a minimum GPA. At my school only the top 20% are in Rho Chi, which means someone who has a 3.75 may not be in Rho CHi because the top 20% minimum GPA may be 3.8.

 

[SpirivaSunrise]

Isn't Rho Chi the top 20% or those above a minimum GPA. At my school only the top 20% are in Rho Chi, which means someone who has a 3.75 may not be in Rho CHi because the top 20% minimum GPA may be 3.8.

That's how it works in my school as well (top 20%) through your P2 year. Membership is granted at the beginning of our P3 year. http://www.rhochi.org/

 

[Trancelucent1]

At UF it was also 20% which ended up being a 3.5. They were inducted the beginning of their 2PD year. You had to have a 3.5 GPA or higher every semester. I only had a 3.5 for one semester so I didn't make it

 

[dgroulx]

At UF it was also 20% which ended up being a 3.5. They were inducted the beginning of their 2PD year. You had to have a 3.5 GPA or higher every semester. I only had a 3.5 for one semester so I didn't make it

During my year a 3.5 wasn't good enough. There were two students (one from our campus) who had a 4.0. The others were pretty close to a 4.0 I was nowhere near the cutoff with a 3.4, which has since dropped to a 3.27

 

[imkim01]

During my year a 3.5 wasn't good enough. There were two students (one from our campus) who had a 4.0. The others were pretty close to a 4.0 I was nowhere near the cutoff with a 3.4, which has since dropped to a 3.27

*bump*

Any other p1 who just finished?

DrugDealer, are you still there?

 

[sdn1977]

ooops - in the side track, we forgot to congratulate you on finishing your first year - good job!

 

[DrugDealer]

*bump*

Any other p1 who just finished?

DrugDealer, are you still there?

Yeah, I'm here, but I haven't finished yet! 3 more finals to go!

 

[imkim01]

Yeah, I'm here, but I haven't finished yet! 3 more finals to go!

Oh, I thought your final was last week. Good luck!!

 

[DrugDealer]

I'M DONE!!!! Or am I...since I go to a 3-year school? Maybe my first year isn't over until August....

Either way, I am soooo looking forward to the one whole week I get off!

 

[genesis09]

I'm done! No classes until August! Yay.

 

[Glycerin]

Still 3 more exams to go... I'm still beaming over the 96 I made on my pathophysiology final exam this past week.

 

[dgroulx]

Still 3 more exams to go... I'm still beaming over the 96 I made on my pathophysiology final exam this past week.

Congrats! Pathophysiology killed me. I never got better than a B on any exam.

 

[kellia]

Congrats! Pathophysiology killed me. I never got better than a B on any exam.

I managed to get an A on one PBD exam this term.... stroke of luck I think!! But it's over!!! Yay!!

 

[Trancelucent1]

Dana, they also didn't have cumulative finals. Those kicked my ass in PBD! I had an A going into the the second semester PBD final and I lost it

Oh well I'm done with my second year and couldn't be happier! And I got a 3.27 GPA this semester so I'm thrilled!

 

[dgroulx]

Dana, they also didn't have cumulative finals. Those kicked my ass in PBD! I had an A going into the the second semester PBD final and I lost it

Oh well I'm done with my second year and couldn't be happier! And I got a 3.27 GPA this semester so I'm thrilled!

Yeah, I felt so good when I finished year two. I could actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. Year three is very hectic, but there are very few exams and lectures. It's pretty easy to get on the Dean's list. I just missed it because of that stupid zero for being late. Congrats on the GPA!

 

[nikkai]

~Fin

This is the last I will ever take 24 credits. Yikes.

 

[imkim01]

I'M DONE!!!! Or am I...since I go to a 3-year school? Maybe my first year isn't over until August....

Either way, I am soooo looking forward to the one whole week I get off!

Congratulations!

I believe your P1 is done and your P2 starts earlier since you go to a 3 year school.

I envy you...........

Was it ok? Hope a lot of your classmates are heading to next year without being dropped.

 

[TCB]

Done with my P1 year

life is good

 

[TCB]

Done with my P1 year

life is good

Kind of sad because two of my friends failed medecinal chemistry... therefore have to wait a year... one of them is considering not coming back.

 

[Glycerin]

FINISHED!!!! Although, I just want to say... I HATE PHARMACEUTICS! Whew! Now that that's out, nah, I really don't hate it, but that exam was AWFUL! And, my recollection of the material wasn't stellar either. I don't think it should have been my last exam, because I overstudied for all my other exams and didn't have enough time to study everything as well as I'd like to for 'ceutics. Ugh. My brain was just completely fried today.

I could have had an A in the class, but I'm either gonna get a B or a C, which'll put my semester GPA at either a 3.6 or 3.333, respectively. Not too shabby for a first year since my first semester GPA was 3.7. Still not high enough for Rho Chi.

ETA: Got the B! I've never been so excited over a B in my life. hahaha

 

[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

This year went by so fast..i can't believe that i am done..with my first year..and survived it....Congrat to myself!!! life is good..

I will be working only part time this summer..and spend plenty of time with the family...i hope to see my son catch his first fish this summer..( even if he is not two yet , barely 15 months)

but he can stand , walk and break everything in the house.so...he better be able to hold a fishing line before the end of the summer

 

[Jonno1288]

2 more finals! (5 total) back to back to back

In this order: Pharmaco-kinetics, Pharmaceutics, Pathology, A&P II, Biochem II

Almost there.

I can taste it.

 

[DrugDealer]

Was it ok? Hope a lot of your classmates are heading to next year without being dropped.

Yes, I thought it was fine. It was easier than I expected, but I did have a pretty strong background in many of the intro courses we take our first year. I'm very excited about starting the hardcore drug stuff this summer, though I know it will be much, much harder and I hope I can keep up.

I can only think of a few students who aren't with us anymore, and as far as I know, they dropped out for personal and health reasons, not grades.

 

[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

Yes, I thought it was fine. It was easier than I expected, but I did have a pretty strong background in many of the intro courses we take our first year. I'm very excited about starting the hardcore drug stuff this summer, though I know it will be much, much harder and I hope I can keep up.

I can only think of a few students who aren't with us anymore, and as far as I know, they dropped out for personal and health reasons, not grades.

I would not qualify my first year as being a breeze..but i made it thru...

Next semester will be the most challenging of the next 3 years..and i am scared to death...i try no to think about it...

Some people failled from last semester and this semester....

We did not have "intro course" all where like hardcore drug stuff...I think that my school ( UT Memphis) is among the few ones to give pharmacology as a first semester class..we are just the second batch to test the new curriculum..

but the good side is that we are also among the first schools (if not the first one) to have a year and half of rotations..most schools i believe have 1 year....in order to do that they got ride of intro courses..by putting them in the pre-pharm requirement..so that the students are ready to jump to hardcore stuff from semester one..no warming up period..... some of us did not jump high enough obviously

 

[dgroulx]

but the good side is that we are also among the first schools (if not the first one) to have a year and half of rotations(

How many rotations do you do and how many months are each rotation? I have 2 that are 8 weeks long and 7 that are 4 weeks long. Only 4 of these are electives and the others are mandatory. I also get 1 month off.

Will you get to pick more elective rotations by going the extra 6 months? That would be nice.

 

[Glycerin]

How many rotations do you do and how many months are each rotation? I have 2 that are 8 weeks long and 7 that are 4 weeks long. Only 4 of these are electives and the others are mandatory. I also get 1 month off.

Will you get to pick more elective rotations by going the extra 6 months? That would be nice.

Touro in CA has two years of rotations, but it's yet to be seen how that will work, since their inaugural class just finished their first year.

 

[dgroulx]

Touro in CA has two years of rotations, but it's yet to be seen how that will work, since their inaugural class just finished their first year.

That doesn't leave much time for traditional learning, unless they go summers too. Or maybe they have rotations during the first two summers when you normally intern to make money. Any Touro students out there that can explain how it works?

 

[Glycerin]

That doesn't leave much time for traditional learning, unless they go summers too. Or maybe they have rotations during the first two summers when you normally intern to make money. Any Touro students out there that can explain how it works?

This might explain a little: http://www.tu.edu/departments.php?id=39&page=271

 

[gablet]

Okay, so my first year is not done till the summer (3 yr school). But, this quarter was so jammed with classes and tests (2 per week) that now that it is over, I feel like I just graduated!

10 days off and I'll be ready for more. Bring it on!

 

[december]

Done with my P1 year

life is good

Kind of sad because two of my friends failed medecinal chemistry... therefore have to wait a year... one of them is considering not coming back.

----------------------------------

Hi TCB,

I am interested in Hampton's Pharmacy program and am applying for fall 2007. I am really ...really... looking forward to get into hampton-- for now that seems to be my only dream. Since you are a Pharmacy Student at Hampton, may be I could ask you a few Q's. About personal statement- what do the admissions committee really look for? what prerequisites( like college course work) are needed? I called and asked the school of pharmacy to send me the admissions booklet but it wont be available anytime before October.

Also, I really want to know how the Hampton's Pharmacy program is. The only thing I am concerned about it is that it is a private institution. Is it good enough to spend the next 4 yrs of my career there....???? Also, is PCAT required for Hamton and is a work experience in a pharmacy required? Plz any kind of response wud be greatly appreciated. I sent you an email using

[e-mail address removed by Glycerin], I wasn't sure if this is your ID.

 

[TCB]

Hey december I just got your email , then I decided to get on here...

I will email you back.


Good luck with everything !

 

[Stephie]

I will be P1 at Touro this Fall so maybe I can hel answer your question. So far I've gathered that to fit in the extra year of rotations we start eatlier in the Summer (beginning of August), have only 10 days or so for Winter break, and go a couple of extra weeks at the end of the Spring semester. We get a lot of elective rotations because of the extra time so I'm looking forward to that.

Steph

That doesn't leave much time for traditional learning, unless they go summers too. Or maybe they have rotations during the first two summers when you normally intern to make money. Any Touro students out there that can explain how it works?

 

[ZpackSux]

Wow, it's definetly not what I was expecting. My head feels like a sponge saturated with information.

Drop out while you still have some time...with only 1 year of student loans..

 

[Caverject]

Drop out while you still have some time...with only 1 year of student loans..

that's fantastic advice

 

[imount]

So for all pharmacy students out there, how difficult and time consuming is pharmacy school compared to undergrad? What was your major and average credit load? Is pharmacy like a 8/10 and undergrad like 3/10 in difficulty, etc?

 

[andrewattheU]

In terms of difficulty of pharmacy school, it really depends upon the school attended.

A research oriented school like UF, UNC-Chapel Hill, UCSF, UCSD, UT-Austin, Michigan, and you get the point is going to be very difficult when compared to a school that is simply used for training retail pharamacists. The reason is that the faculty at these research oriented schools want you to consider roles outside of retail and you will need more scientific knowledge in order to do so. So with all these posts about UF being difficult, I am sure it is hard! They are a research-based school. And in terms of UNC, I visited their school for a Glaxo Smithkline presentation, and they asked for a show of hands of who was in Rho Chi. I think that there were about 30 people in the room and only 4 raised their hand! So that means the other 26 have averages below 3.67 which is the criteria there for getting into Rho Chi (the second highest letter grade average, A- = 3.67)!

Go to a research-oriented program. You will have more options, even if you are SURE you want to do retail! you may think twice later.

in your list of research pharmacy schools you forget to mention the top Pharmacy PhD program namely UW