Can someone please tell me why everyone (well probably 75%) in Pharmacy school takes everything soooooo seriously? Its like everyone is just so wrapped up in school they forget about all the little things in life that make life worth living. Then when you try to get them out of their shell for a day, they freak out?
My little rant
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Taking a break once in a while from school doesn't mean you'll kill someone when you graduate. I actually feel like I can focus on school better when I take a break every now and then. I totally see where the OP is coming from on the people who are in school mode 24/7/365.
I hope so... Cause this place blows and I feel like the student feed most of it...
And just because I'd like to have a beer and watch a basketball game on Friday night doesn't mean I'll kill someone in the future. Jesus.
Where did this brainwashing mentality come from?Parents/Teachers?
We only live about 78 years on average, are you really going to waste all your school years (and probably working years) stressing about every little thing? If so, I am feel sad for ya!
The same can be said about life, minus family. Perhaps pharmacists are pre-determined to be miserable?
Its hard to ignore it when you have to be at school so often. Its makes it impossible to ignore it. Then there is the judgement I get all the time from them (but I guess I'm doing the same now).
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A normal pharmacy school has students from a variety of academic backgrounds, with different life experiences, actual accomplishments, and maturity of personal growth along with all usual freaks, who were accepted partly because from their interviews they didn't come off as a bunch of socially awkward freaks.
Then you have a 0-6 like MCPHS where many who came there right out of HS only know pharmacy school in this high-school-like environment, except that you were probably more involved in high school than most here. If only they knew that sitting in the library day and night impresses no one important and does absolutely nothing for your career.
Still, at the other extreme I see a lot of the unserious, "I think I'll still get 120k/year working in Boston by just getting by," attitudes out of many of the clowns here, so it's the worst of both worlds as far as the student body composition.
Then you have a 0-6 like MCPHS where many who came there right out of HS only know pharmacy school in this high-school-like environment, except that you were probably more involved in high school than most here. If only they knew that sitting in the library day and night impresses no one important and does absolutely nothing for your career.
Still, at the other extreme I see a lot of the unserious, "I think I'll still get 120k/year working in Boston by just getting by," attitudes out of many of the clowns here, so it's the worst of both worlds as far as the student body composition.
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i really hated pharmacy school, such an artificial environment. People with no personalities, and if you did have a personality, people would look down upon you. The best advise i can give you is to stick to your goal: Pass pharmacy school and enjoy the rest of your life, its not worth even worrying about stupid **** like that. Make friends who are good study partners and non-judgmental (very rare and hard to find). Any other advise you need, pm me.
Is it those people who freak out about not getting an A in every class? And if they miss one point on an exam, they're going to argue because they want an A instead of an 89%? Do they feel like they failed an exam if they aren't confident that they got an A or a B?
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What the hell? You guys make the medical students look like a bunch of partiers and slackers. Only maybe 10% of our class are gunning. The rest of us get smashed after every exam and know when to take a day off.
Maybe it's because medical school is pass/fail and grades don't matter except Step 1.
Maybe it's because medical school is pass/fail and grades don't matter except Step 1.
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I agree with the OP, it can be a bit of a bummer at times when you are around "those "particular kind of students. But to each their own. Just do whatever you can to relieve stress, let loose and have a little fun.
For example, we started a legit and fully functional Soccer Club at Nova, West Palm Beach satellite campus. Since we are missing out on a lot of the perks and amenities of the main campus in Davie, we have begun to be pro-active. Our Soccer Club has cool jerseys, practices every Friday, 20+ members, membership dues, SGA funded and played 2 real soccer matches with refs and all. Besides that, our class of about 50 in West Palm is pretty close and a lot of us hang out on weekends or whatever to relax.
For me, it's all about balance. I play guitar everyday to clear my head and in between long study sessions. Also, just generally being active on campus and involved with other like minded people, faculty, etc is always a plus. You're always gonna have those "debbie-downers" in your class and the ones that are super stressed and always studying/complaining. Sucks, but let them be.
For example, we started a legit and fully functional Soccer Club at Nova, West Palm Beach satellite campus. Since we are missing out on a lot of the perks and amenities of the main campus in Davie, we have begun to be pro-active. Our Soccer Club has cool jerseys, practices every Friday, 20+ members, membership dues, SGA funded and played 2 real soccer matches with refs and all. Besides that, our class of about 50 in West Palm is pretty close and a lot of us hang out on weekends or whatever to relax.
For me, it's all about balance. I play guitar everyday to clear my head and in between long study sessions. Also, just generally being active on campus and involved with other like minded people, faculty, etc is always a plus. You're always gonna have those "debbie-downers" in your class and the ones that are super stressed and always studying/complaining. Sucks, but let them be.
Having a class of only 50 students must be really nice. I like smaller class sizes. When I had college courses with 5-6 students in the class, I really enjoyed them.
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How big is your class? Small class sizes can be a two-edged sword, IMO.
120. I can't imagine going to pharmacy school where your class is 200-300 people.
I went to high school with 250 people (total), so I'm not used to extremely large crowds.
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Yea it's just cause I'm at the satellite campus, the main campus has 120. It's okay, I like it. The only downfall is that everyone tends to know everyone's personal "junk"...and if you don't like anyone specific in the class it's hard to get away from them. At least with the larger classes you can mingle with your smaller, closer group of friends and possible go years without even talking to or engaging people you don't get along with. It has it's pros and cons.
Going years without talking to or engaging with people is what I see with people who seem to spend most of their time studying. They'll talk when I ask them questions, but I kinda wonder if they don't feel like socializing and would rather spend time studying. I know there are people out there who don't feel comfortable with everyone in class knowing things about them, but I just see it as human nature when everyone gossips.
Even in the pharmacy at work, you tend to know personal stuff about everyone else, and it's just the way things go most of the time. But even with that, I choose what I want to share with people, and if I don't want something being discussed at work, I never bring it up.
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I can handle the constant studiers. It's the socially awkward people that kill me. Pharmacy school is loaded with them.
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I'm not trying to suggest my classmates have no personality or no life... I guess a better term instead of "socially awkward" would be "socially inflexible."
It's probably inevitable with a class of ~300 people (for example, everyone has the same lectures since the large lecture halls can seat 300+) that there's a lot of social fragmentation. It follows that people tend to be judgmental of others that aren't in their "clique" (actually you see a lot of this along racial lines, too, which is too bad). There's this kind of low-grade adversarial attitude when it comes to people you don't roll with, it seems.
I shouldn't really hate on people who seem to want to study all the time, too. Maybe they have to because they're barely treading water, who knows, or maybe they just want to be efficient so they can get ass-drunk on the weekends.
It's probably inevitable with a class of ~300 people (for example, everyone has the same lectures since the large lecture halls can seat 300+) that there's a lot of social fragmentation. It follows that people tend to be judgmental of others that aren't in their "clique" (actually you see a lot of this along racial lines, too, which is too bad). There's this kind of low-grade adversarial attitude when it comes to people you don't roll with, it seems.
I shouldn't really hate on people who seem to want to study all the time, too. Maybe they have to because they're barely treading water, who knows, or maybe they just want to be efficient so they can get ass-drunk on the weekends.
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I don't think of myself as having 300 classmates. I think of the 50 or so people at my campus in my year as my classmates. The other 250 people might as well go to a different school as far as I am concerned. I never see/speak/interact with them at all.
I also went to a small high school, smaller than yours actually, not that it's a contest. I miss the relative anonymity of undergrad. I loved having classes with people that for the most part I would never see again. I also like my pharm school classmates, but I miss meeting new people with every class. It has it's pros and cons.
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300 in a class??? Woah...I thought only the 0-6 programs had those numbers. Had no idea...
We now have 96 in our class. Some "fragmentation" exists here and there and there will always be a bit of drama in every class but, for the most part, everyone works together and is cordial/friendly. We try to do stuff together and there are lots of events via student organizations that build rapport.
OP, why worry what everyone else is doing? Do your best to build strong working relationships. Not everyone in your life has to be a buddy/pal. It's your ability to work together with others, despite their different personalities, that will matter when you get into the "real world". Remember, these people will be your colleagues. Respect goes both ways.
We now have 96 in our class. Some "fragmentation" exists here and there and there will always be a bit of drama in every class but, for the most part, everyone works together and is cordial/friendly. We try to do stuff together and there are lots of events via student organizations that build rapport.
OP, why worry what everyone else is doing? Do your best to build strong working relationships. Not everyone in your life has to be a buddy/pal. It's your ability to work together with others, despite their different personalities, that will matter when you get into the "real world". Remember, these people will be your colleagues. Respect goes both ways.
Having been in the real world after my B.S. for a few years, I can assure you pharmacy school interactions are nothing the like. I do regret transferring into a 0-6 program, but I love this city on the bright side of things. And my job as well. But, I guess you can't win them all.
Sometimes I miss meeting new people too, but honestly, I feel more comfortable seeing friends I've already made. I like being able to walk into class and see familiar faces and not worry about trying to figure out what their names are.
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I will agree with whoever said that real life work relationships and interactions bear no resemblance to what is like in pharmacy school. As a matter of fact, you end up finding out that students that were cliquey and distant in class are actually friendly when you work with them during rotations.
There is something about the cliqueness and fragmentation IN the classroom that brings out what the OP is seeing or experiencing. Take the same people and place them in a different environment and they are your best friends.
There is something about the cliqueness and fragmentation IN the classroom that brings out what the OP is seeing or experiencing. Take the same people and place them in a different environment and they are your best friends.
What if they're just trying to show off and make good impressions because there are important people around? Then you wouldn't be able to tell because you don't get to be alone with them, which is when you're likely to see who they really are.
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What year are you in? I am currently a 5th year student in MCPHS-Boston. I agree that 3rd and 4th years students tend to be like that. The students change in the 5th year. The students tend to more social, professional and know how to manage time in the 5th year. In the 5th year, there is lot of group works and less exams, which force the students to be more social. A lot the high school kids tend to act more like a adult and they know how to study for exams.
The problem I have with this college is the amount of cliques this college has (more than my high school). Basically, it is really hard to get into a clique if you have not joined the clique in the freshman year. The cliques are very unfair since people in the cliques tend to pass notes, old exams, lecture recordings and etc within the cliques and if you not in a good clique, you are at a disadvantage.
The problem I have with this college is the amount of cliques this college has (more than my high school). Basically, it is really hard to get into a clique if you have not joined the clique in the freshman year. The cliques are very unfair since people in the cliques tend to pass notes, old exams, lecture recordings and etc within the cliques and if you not in a good clique, you are at a disadvantage.
I see that too. It's insane how bad it gets in pharmacy school.
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One of the advantages of having a good personality and being amiable is that you can be on friendly terms with all of the "cliques" and get the best of both worlds; keep them close, but not too close.
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Why not make your own group/clique? I don't see how self-association with a few other people is suddenly "unfair" to anyone else. You're free to do the same/not do the same.
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I am not sure how you came up with this response to what I posted. You need not assure me of anything- been there, done that. I think it is strange to complain about how "serious" your classmates are. My main point is to make the best of pharmacy school, including learning how to interact/work with others. This is an essential skill in the real world. As for pharmacy school being LIKE the real world, I will agree that it isn't. But, there is important learning that occurs in college in general (or should occur) beyond the textbook if that makes sense.
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I've noticed this too. One of the techs I work with at the nursing home tells me that I'm different from all the pharmacists/interns she's worked with because they've all been super-anal about things (not just pharmacy orders), they'd get crazy about little things like a screw up on food that we ordered for dinner or something while I have a very nonchalant personality about everything.
I've noticed this with about 1/2 of the pharmacists I've worked with, spanning 3 different jobs. They go crazy about labels on a vial that aren't 100% straight, will unpeel/reapply them 2+ times to make them perfect. They'll panic if we're short stocked on something and order 5 bottles for the next day to compensate, even if we only get a few rx/week for it. I knew one that would never trust the quantity on the bottle, if it said #30, they wouldn't just dispense, they'd open it up and count to make sure.
Thank God the other 1/2 of pharmacists I've worked with are sane.
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I have been chewed out for trusting the manufacturer's count.
I also have worked with the prescription label levelers. Also some that don't want any part of the seals left on stock bottles after it has been opened. In other words, every scrap of the seal must be removed when opening a stock bottle.
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MCPHS students just took over Simmons College's library. Over 75% kids in the library are MCPHS kids. When I was there yesterday, a Simmons' student was giving a tour to potential students/parents and she told them that their library was so good that other students from other colleges came to their library to study because a lot of the MCPHS kids were wearing the MCPHS name badge and there were many guys in the library (Simmons is a girl only college).
I have a clique, so I don't care. You should come to our school and you will see. A lot of the clique are very secretive, they will only pass notes/old exam to people in their clique and deny to other people that they have notes/old exams. It got worse with google-doc. Now, people collaborate notes and lecture recordings in google-doc. One good thing our school did was school limited old exams. MCPHS was notorious for student passing classes just by studying off from old exams like 7 years ago and now a lot of the classes will give zero to students if they get caught taking exams from the exam room after taking an exam.
I have a clique, so I don't care. You should come to our school and you will see. A lot of the clique are very secretive, they will only pass notes/old exam to people in their clique and deny to other people that they have notes/old exams. It got worse with google-doc. Now, people collaborate notes and lecture recordings in google-doc. One good thing our school did was school limited old exams. MCPHS was notorious for student passing classes just by studying off from old exams like 7 years ago and now a lot of the classes will give zero to students if they get caught taking exams from the exam room after taking an exam.
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Indians, I mean "cliques," (yeah, I went there, go eat one if you disagree) have to be secretive about passing around illicitly acquired exams lest their asses get busted and they get kicked the **** out (they would deserve nothing less). People are pretty good about self-assembling just to get by in the coursework, it seems.
Old exams don't help much for pharmacokinetics; there is a running joke about "picking all Cs" for the final because students here are herp derp when it comes to something that doesn't involve mindless rote memorization--because reading the slides is so difficult.
Old exams don't help much for pharmacokinetics; there is a running joke about "picking all Cs" for the final because students here are herp derp when it comes to something that doesn't involve mindless rote memorization--because reading the slides is so difficult.
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I have been chewed out for trusting the manufacturer's count.
I also have worked with the prescription label levelers. Also some that don't want any part of the seals left on stock bottles after it has been opened. In other words, every scrap of the seal must be removed when opening a stock bottle.
I've never been chewed out for it, but I have worked with a pharmacist that insisted I count anything that I opened, (like if I was using 3 bottles of 30 to make 90, I would still count all 90 out) but I don't do it anymore. This same pharmacist was also a prescription label leveler. I think she had a touch of OCD
Now that I think about it, I have seen the manufacturer's count be wrong a couple of times, but not by more than 1 pill. The chances of a tech miscounting something are probably higher than a manufacturer putting the wrong number of pills in a bottle though.
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The other thing I'm noticing is that most people in pharmacy school don't like doing anything the weekend before an exam. Being that we have exams every Friday, this probably means that no one ever goes out or anything unless its a Friday night.
For example, we had only 4 students go to Seattle this year for the APhA conference because they were more worried about the exams that were coming up instead of taking a weekend off.
For example, we had only 4 students go to Seattle this year for the APhA conference because they were more worried about the exams that were coming up instead of taking a weekend off.
I notice that too. It's so hard to find pharm students who want to hang out. They either have to go study, chose to go in to work, or chose to go home for the weekend.
Most people who looked into going to annual were concerned about the cost, and also the difficulty of finding people to room with.
Those in cliques already had rooms booked at the hotels with no more spots in the room. So if you didn't know very many people in class or didn't have close friends who were going to annual, you had a hard time finding someone to share a room. Then if you couldn't find someone to share a room, you probably didn't go.
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Out of the entire school? Or just in your class?
Because we had a down year this time and we had 70-80 total students go to Seattle (vs. 100-110 to D.C.).
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I guess it's different for me, we're the first class, so there are no "old exams" to speak of. But we do collaborate via google docs and it's cut our workload down significantly. There are about 4-5 cliques/groups in my class that operate at various levels (share notes, assigned note taking, etc...)
But yeah all of the work we do as a group stays in the group, absolute rule #1. I don't want my hard work going to someone who didn't contribute whatsoever (I'll take extensive notes & create a study guide 1 out of 6 lectures in an exam block). Even if they wanted to, we've been very selective on who is and who is not, anything more than 8-10 people is unmanageable and quality control is an issue. I 100% understand why your schools' "cliques/groups" are so secretive.
As for your school...if people can study stuff from 7 years ago and pass/do well, your school is not doing a good job. Exams need to be secured, and if they aren't, then professors need to write new questions.
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LOL, our school was willing to reimburse up to $600. Since only 4 people ended up going, we got $900 each.
Out of the whole school. We had 2 P3s and 2 P2s that went.
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the cliquey ones tend to be younger. the older students are straight up bizz and usually have their own friends and families outside of school. 😎
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