Hello Everyone,
My best friend recently hooked me up with this web site and I believe that it could not have happened at a better time. I am currently a pharmacy student and I was thinking about continuing on to medical school after I finish. I was wondering about your thoughts on whether or not a pharmacy degree helps with medical school admittance and coursework. I was also wondering what is the best way to study for the MCAT. Thanks for your help everyone.
Are you at FAMU? Fellow Floridian here.
🙂
I agree that the Pharm D won't help you as far as med school admissions goes, but I do think it will be very helpful when it comes to some of your coursework. There is some overlap between pharmacy and medicine, such as pharmacology, that will be a breeze for you and that many of your classmates will struggle with mightily.
For the MCAT, the previous posters had some good advice. You should make sure to have completed all four pre-req courses (one year each of physics, bio, chem, and organic) before you begin to study for the MCAT. You've probably taken most if not all of those already, but if you haven't, that's your first order of business. Then you should take as much time as you need to thoroughly review these subjects and take multiple practice tests under timed conditions and on a computer. Most people study for 2-3 months for the MCAT, but if you need extra content review because you took the pre-reqs so long ago, you can study longer as SC suggested.
Two other things you need to start thinking about ASAP:
1) Whom will you ask for your LORs? Many schools require one from a science prof and one from a non-science prof. Ideally the writers should know you well and should be able to comment about your ability and motivation for a career in medicine. As a non-trad applicant, you can usually also submit extra letters from employers if applicable. Our state schools also ask for a peer LOR, so you should think about whom you will ask to write that for you as well if you are planning to apply in-state.
2) What experiences have you had that will convince you and adcoms that you are making an informed decision to switch careers? This gets into what SC was saying. If you haven't already, you should start shadowing and/or volunteering in some kind of clinical setting so that you can get clinical experience. Clinical experience is VERY important to most if not all med schools, so don't blow off doing this.
Hope this helps, and best of
to you.
🙂
