Need some advice.

[Anasee]

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Hi there,

I graduated college with a BA in Economics about 7 months ago but I don't like the type of jobs I am being offered. Right now I am an account analyst at an investment bank and this isn't really what I wanted to do with my life. Growing up I had this delusion(Think Wolf of Wallstreet lol) of how and investment bankers went about their day to day activities and now that I am here I don't really like the way this industry is. It's very superficial and cutthroat and I just don't want to deal with the tension all that entails.

After a lot of thinking I have decided to go back to school and pursue a doctorate in Pharmacy but I understand I don't have the pre-requisites to get into Pharmacist program. So here's some questions I have for you guys out there:

1.) Does it matter where I take my pre-requisite courses? I graduated from Hunter College - CUNY and I would prefer to go back there for the pre-requisites. I have a meeting scheduled with an adviser to talk about this but I still wanted to ask about it here.

2.) My cumulative GPA is a 3.4 but my Math scores are much higher than the others and I haven't taken any of the pre-requisite science courses so that's still up in the air, how much does GPA matter in comparison to PCAT scores, extracurricular activities, and job experience?

3.) Are there any others out there in a similar position? If so do you have any tips I can use?

Thanks for taking the time to read the thread and I hope you guys the very best.

A. Nas

 

[romylove]

While you are certainly not the first person to graduate and regret their career options, I have to seriously wonder what is driving you to change from a math/business based course to a course heavy in science. It's not a small change, like going from banking to being an accountant, this is nearly a 180.

Do you have any pharmacy experience? If not, I would STRONGLY encourage you to call around to your local pharmacies and ask them if you can be allowed to shadow for a day. Try to get a little bit of everything, but focus on retail (CVS, Walgreens, WalMart, etc.) because odds are, that's where you'll end up if you forge on ahead with this idea.

1) Generally, no. Except for some schools, most don't care where you go, so long as you make good grades. Some of the more "prestigious" schools have a bit of a word-of-mouth reputation for favoring students who have been in their system though. Though to be fair, for pretty much any claim you hear about a school, there will be people out there who deny it based on their experiences.

2) It seriously depends on the school. A perfect GPA and PCAT will not help you if you cannot live up to the expectations that a school has for an interview. Like, if you show up in ripped jeans and a sweater, most schools would seriously doubt your professionalism. If you have a holier-than-thou attitude, the interviews can tell, and you probably won't be accepted. It's important to be knowledgeable and personable. Knowledge helps you not kill people ("100mg of amlodipine bid? Sounds good to me! The doctor says it's fine."). Personality makes your future patients more willing to talk to you when they have questions, and therefore more likely to follow through with a course of treatment and improve their health ("So, what you're saying is, if I take this pill, I am significantly less likely to just kick the bucket suddenly from a heart attack?")

3) I don't know anyone personally, but there have been others who chose to pursue a new course once they'd finished a degree in another field.

 

[Jessica1992]

1.) Nope!

2.) I would say GPA is pretty important to get to the first stage of getting an interview. You want to be sure you have strong grades in biology and chemistry. Your PCAT score can balance out your GPA, for example if you have a high GPA, getting a below average PCAT score won't hurt you, and if you have a low GPA you better get a high PCAT. Job and/or volunteer experience in a pharmacy setting is very important - it makes you stand out, since there are a tons of people who have good grades. I would recommend as well trying to find a technician position ASAP - your boss as a pharmacist will also be a great source for a recommendation letter when you are applying.

3.) Nope, I was chemical engineering my first year of college, but I switched to biology my 2nd year and the freshman courses were basically the same. If you feel strongly about this major change in career choice, be prepared to work hard and study!

 

[RN2RPh]

I would say that you should keep your current job now while taking the pre-req for pharmacy because you don't know if you can do pharmacy yet. If you go any General Chem 1 class, you'll see that the majority of them are pre-engineering, pre-med, pre-pharm, pre-dental. However, usually after gen chem 2, the majority of them would become pre-business, pre-psy, pre-edu.

You are new at your job, it's normal for you to feel stress and don't like your job. Every job/career (including pharmacy) has it's pros & cons. Take your time to explore pharmacy before you give up your current career for it.

 

[Anasee]

While you are certainly not the first person to graduate and regret their career options, I have to seriously wonder what is driving you to change from a math/business based course to a course heavy in science. It's not a small change, like going from banking to being an accountant, this is nearly a 180.

Do you have any pharmacy experience? If not, I would STRONGLY encourage you to call around to your local pharmacies and ask them if you can be allowed to shadow for a day. Try to get a little bit of everything, but focus on retail (CVS, Walgreens, WalMart, etc.) because odds are, that's where you'll end up if you forge on ahead with this idea.

1) Generally, no. Except for some schools, most don't care where you go, so long as you make good grades. Some of the more "prestigious" schools have a bit of a word-of-mouth reputation for favoring students who have been in their system though. Though to be fair, for pretty much any claim you hear about a school, there will be people out there who deny it based on their experiences.

2) It seriously depends on the school. A perfect GPA and PCAT will not help you if you cannot live up to the expectations that a school has for an interview. Like, if you show up in ripped jeans and a sweater, most schools would seriously doubt your professionalism. If you have a holier-than-thou attitude, the interviews can tell, and you probably won't be accepted. It's important to be knowledgeable and personable. Knowledge helps you not kill people ("100mg of amlodipine bid? Sounds good to me! The doctor says it's fine."). Personality makes your future patients more willing to talk to you when they have questions, and therefore more likely to follow through with a course of treatment and improve their health ("So, what you're saying is, if I take this pill, I am significantly less likely to just kick the bucket suddenly from a heart attack?")

3) I don't know anyone personally, but there have been others who chose to pursue a new course once they'd finished a degree in another field.

Thanks for the response! I have worked in a Pharmacy before but I was working as a cashier/stock person back in my undergrad days so I have a little understanding of what went on in the back. I am reaching out to some of my pharmacist friends to see what they say about it and so I can discuss the decision with them.

A little background about me, I entered college without any direction of what I wanted to be. All I knew was that I enjoyed doing Math and loved to explore Economic theories (this was around the financial meltdown happened). Any ways long story short I picked up on Economics because the ideas behind it were very interesting to me.

1.) Nope!

2.) I would say GPA is pretty important to get to the first stage of getting an interview. You want to be sure you have strong grades in biology and chemistry. Your PCAT score can balance out your GPA, for example if you have a high GPA, getting a below average PCAT score won't hurt you, and if you have a low GPA you better get a high PCAT. Job and/or volunteer experience in a pharmacy setting is very important - it makes you stand out, since there are a tons of people who have good grades. I would recommend as well trying to find a technician position ASAP - your boss as a pharmacist will also be a great source for a recommendation letter when you are applying.

3.) Nope, I was chemical engineering my first year of college, but I switched to biology my 2nd year and the freshman courses were basically the same. If you feel strongly about this major change in career choice, be prepared to work hard and study!

Thanks for the response!

I would say that you should keep your current job now while taking the pre-req for pharmacy because you don't know if you can do pharmacy yet. If you go any General Chem 1 class, you'll see that the majority of them are pre-engineering, pre-med, pre-pharm, pre-dental. However, usually after gen chem 2, the majority of them would become pre-business, pre-psy, pre-edu.

You are new at your job, it's normal for you to feel stress and don't like your job. Every job/career (including pharmacy) has it's pros & cons. Take your time to explore pharmacy before you give up your current career for it.

Thanks for the response! Yes, I will keep my job for the time being just in case things don't go as I planned.

 

[68quebec]

Hi there,

I graduated college with a BA in Economics about 7 months ago but I don't like the type of jobs I am being offered. Right now I am an account analyst at an investment bank and this isn't really what I wanted to do with my life. Growing up I had this delusion(Think Wolf of Wallstreet lol) of how and investment bankers went about their day to day activities and now that I am here I don't really like the way this industry is. It's very superficial and cutthroat and I just don't want to deal with the tension all that entails.

After a lot of thinking I have decided to go back to school and pursue a doctorate in Pharmacy but I understand I don't have the pre-requisites to get into Pharmacist program. So here's some questions I have for you guys out there:

1.) Does it matter where I take my pre-requisite courses? I graduated from Hunter College - CUNY and I would prefer to go back there for the pre-requisites. I have a meeting scheduled with an adviser to talk about this but I still wanted to ask about it here.

2.) My cumulative GPA is a 3.4 but my Math scores are much higher than the others and I haven't taken any of the pre-requisite science courses so that's still up in the air, how much does GPA matter in comparison to PCAT scores, extracurricular activities, and job experience?

3.) Are there any others out there in a similar position? If so do you have any tips I can use?

Thanks for taking the time to read the thread and I hope you guys the very best.

A. Nas

1) you must have done pre-requisite classes from accredited schools..and CUNY is definitely so.

2) I have very different opinions from a lot of SDN people here for this one. As long as you hit minimum GPA and PCAT scores, more important thing that many schools look over is your experience (leadership, pharmacy work, volunteer). Who whould you choose? 4.0 GPA with 99% PCAT but no leadership experience (maybe 10~20 of shadowing hours..but that's not enough) or 3.2 GPA with 70% PCAT but having many leadership experiences including pharmacy technician one at retail and hospitals for 2~3 years?
i would definitely choose second one. (of course this doesn't mean forget about GPA at all though.. do your best on GPA too)

3) Like everyone says, maintain your GPA solid, have some work experiences..and you will be fine 😉

 

[Anasee]

Another thing I have been thinking is I want to move out of my parents house soon. Is it possible being a full-time pharmacy student and still be able to work enough to live on my own(or perhaps with a roommate)?

I have been researching about this and it seems like most people stay at home through their pharmacy school experience.

 

[RN2RPh]

Another thing I have been thinking is I want to move out of my parents house soon. Is it possible being a full-time pharmacy student and still be able to work enough to live on my own(or perhaps with a roommate)?

I have been researching about this and it seems like most people stay at home through their pharmacy school experience.

You can definitely live on your own because there is something called "student loan" 😉