newbie with questions

[gatewasani]

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I guess you could said i'm pre-med but things haven't been too bright so I'm currently looking into different fields in the healthcare area because I fear that medical school may not be for me and quite frankly I don't think I can get accepted.
I want to shadow a pharmacist and was hoping someone could help me with this process, Is it smarter to get pharm tech licesnse and just get a job as a pharm tech?

Can someone (perhaps a current pharmacist) talk to me about the life of a pharmacist, What exactly does the job consist of? I'm pretty new to the field and am very curious.

Also I know this may sound a bit shallow or whatever but it is a serious concern that I have about the pharmaceutical field. Are the majority of pharmacists women? I am a male and do not want to work in a field that is predominately women. To be 100% honest, this is part of the reason why I never really considered nursing. Some people may be offended that I say this but whatever I go into now, I am going to be doing the rest of my life and I want to enjoy doing it. So I need a straight answer? What are the %'s of male to female pharmacists, or pharmacy students.

Thanks, anything else you want to le tme know, thanks

P.S. please don't lecture me about how I am shallow or egotistical or any of that, don't worry about me.

 

[itsblue2]

pharmacy school is not easy to get into...fyi

 

[gatewasani]

pharmacy school is not easy to get into...fyi

never said it was, it is however easier than medicine...

I'm just exploring all options right now, i'm not set on pharmacy, just tying to learn a little bit more about it...

some other questions I though of

1)What are job prospects like?
2)How much can you expect to get after graduating from pharm school assuming you work retail like at walgreens or something?
3)What is the average 10 years down the line?
4)What are the hours like?

 

[UES Girl]

never said it was, it is however easier than medicine...

I'm just exploring all options right now, i'm not set on pharmacy, just tying to learn a little bit more about it...

some other questions I though of

1)What are job prospects like?
2)How much can you expect to get after graduating from pharm school assuming you work retail like at walgreens or something?
3)What is the average 10 years down the line?
4)What are the hours like?

To be honest, all of your questions are either stickied or can be easily answered with a search or little googling.

How competitive are your stats ? I ask that, because, perhaps, if they aren't competitive enough to get into medical school, perhaps, they aren't competitive enough for pharmacy either.

What is your background like ? What kind of EC activities have you participated in ?

 

[gatewasani]

Subpar

GPA: 3.21

 

[cdhoward]

If you don't want to research the info online because all of these questions have been asked to death, you can go to any Walgreen's, Wal-Mart, CVS, etc. and ask the pharmacists there...

 

[UES Girl]

Subpar

GPA: 3.21

That's definitely on the lower range of the applicant pool. If you want to get into a decent school, you'll need either a good PCAT score to set that off or a full spectra of phenomenal EC activities: research, lots of community involvement, various volunteer work, teaching. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, but they are rather exceptions.

 

[gatewasani]

That's definitely on the lower range of the applicant pool. If you want to get into a decent school, you'll need either a good PCAT score to set that off or a full spectra of phenomenal EC activities: research, lots of community involvement, various volunteer work, teaching. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, but they are rather exceptions.

of course, but like I said before, I am not committed to pharmacy at this point because I don't really know enough about it which is why I came here. So if anyone can help me out with the questions that I have originally posted, that will help me in trying to figure out what I wanna do.

 

[UES Girl]

I wanted to add that I wish you good luck in your quest to pursue your future health profession, whatever profession that may be. If you are interested in pharmacy and don't want to do any research yourself, another thing you can do is go to your local pre-pharmacy club at school and have them talk to you/answer all your questions.

 

[Jdario86]

hah - That's not a bad question to ask. I think it's a legitimate and interesting one. I asked that question to my former pharmacist manager once and she told me that women tend to be more detail-oriented than men, and pharmacists need to be very meticulous. I'm not 100% sure how accurate her comment was. Overall, I think it just happens to be that pharmacists are predominantly female. I can tell you that you really need to be on the top of every detail to the point where you can eye-ball a vial of diovan that's off count by 3 tablets. All the pharmacists i've met had two things in common: they were all ridiculously meticulous and really good at math. so if paying attention to detail and math comes second nature to you, you'll do fine.

But like someone previously said, pharmacy school is an entirely different ball game than medical school. so one can't really compare the difficulty between 2 completely different fields. I suggest you consider other backups, if you later find out that pharmacy is not right for you.

good luck

 

[Pharmdapp87]

3.21 isn't that bad. Don't let anyone scare you. Anywhere above a 3.0 is considered good... maybe getting a 3.3 will better seal the deal, but its not bad. And as far as getting into a decent school: You can get in. Do well on the PCATs get some great extracurricular programs and it'll make you a more well rounded candidate. I have friends who got into UF with 3.1's and 75 PCATs... no worries. But you really have to want to do it. Pharmacy school is NOT easy! That bust that brain open on the first day and you don't stop till you pass your boards....

Good luck with your endeavors 🙂

 

[horo1988]

I guess you could said i'm pre-med but things haven't been too bright so I'm currently looking into different fields in the healthcare area because I fear that medical school may not be for me and quite frankly I don't think I can get accepted.
I want to shadow a pharmacist and was hoping someone could help me with this process, Is it smarter to get pharm tech licesnse and just get a job as a pharm tech?

Can someone (perhaps a current pharmacist) talk to me about the life of a pharmacist, What exactly does the job consist of? I'm pretty new to the field and am very curious.

Also I know this may sound a bit shallow or whatever but it is a serious concern that I have about the pharmaceutical field. Are the majority of pharmacists women? I am a male and do not want to work in a field that is predominately women. To be 100% honest, this is part of the reason why I never really considered nursing. Some people may be offended that I say this but whatever I go into now, I am going to be doing the rest of my life and I want to enjoy doing it. So I need a straight answer? What are the %'s of male to female pharmacists, or pharmacy students.

Thanks, anything else you want to le tme know, thanks

P.S. please don't lecture me about how I am shallow or egotistical or any of that, don't worry about me.

I was about to write a lot of comments to help you, but I eventually saw your little note at the bottom. So, I only want to ask you,
"DO YOU REALLY LOVE TO BE A PHARMACIST?"

Somebody might say it is EASIER to become a national soccer player than a NBA basketball player in America. IS this statement correct to you?

 

[dreezy10]

I am a male and do not want to work in a field that is predominately women. To be 100% honest, this is part of the reason why I never really considered nursing. Some people may be offended that I say this but whatever I go into now, I am going to be doing the rest of my life and I want to enjoy doing it. So I need a straight answer? What are the %'s of male to female pharmacists, or pharmacy students.

Thanks, anything else you want to le tme know, thanks

P.S. please don't lecture me about how I am shallow or egotistical or any of that, don't worry about me.

why would you want to avoid a field that is 60% woman. That's the MAIN reason I went into pharmacy *wink*😀

 

[gatewasani]

I was about to write a lot of comments to help you, but I eventually saw your little note at the bottom. So, I only want to ask you,
"DO YOU REALLY LOVE TO BE A PHARMACIST?"

Somebody might say it is EASIER to become a national soccer player than a NBA basketball player in America. IS this statement correct to you?

At this point, I can't say that I love the idea of pharmacy, I am just exploring all options. And yes that statement does sound correct to me. The competition for the NBA is far far greater than the MLS, so that statement seems valid to me.

 

[aplif3]

I don't know how you can justify that being a star in the NBA is harder than to be a star in MLS. You are assuming that the competition is greater, but they are two different sports and targeted to two different group of fans, so they can't really be compared in my opinion.

Anyways, it seems like most of the pharmacy field is females, but if you are working in retail, you won't be interacting with other pharmacists, so I don't think you really need to worry about the male to female ratios. I think it would be best if you actually shadowed a pharmacist, that would give you the best idea of what to expect.

 

[217933]

Subpar

GPA: 3.21

UM yeah. you say pharmacy is easier than medical.
well....pharmacy is still gonna need more than 3.21.
you may need to build that gpa up more if you want to even try to get into pharmacy.

just wanted to let you know since it seems you think pharmacy is the easy road. it obviously wont be for you.

 

[pharmacyanalyst]

Stick with medicine- you seem to have the right attitude to be a doc.

 

[lymmys]

You're trying to explore this career, my advice to you is to do your own research. The way people in this forum view about the career might be totally different from when you experience it yourself. If you want to get the feel of it then you can consider the followings: volunteer for hospital pharmacy, apply an pharm tech trainee at a retail, do your research, and lastly, do your research.

As for your GPA, true, it is above 3.0 but, after doing your research and you still want to be a pharmacist, try to apply to school with PCAT, ace it! Noone try to discourage you with this GPA, they just tell you the reality how competitive it is for the program so you can do extra to have a better resume. Don't get offended when I tell you this, I think becoming a doctor is easier than becoming a singer, to me. Simply because I know something about science but I cannot sing. I don't think pharmacy is easier than medical. Hope you get what I mean 🙂

G'luck to you.

 

[cdhoward]

Stick with medicine- you seem to have the right attitude to be a doc.

😆 😆

 

[diastole]

How much of a gender imbalance are you willing to tolerate? Pharmacy used to be a predominately male profession but now there are more female graduates. As those older men retire and they are replaced by women, the gender imbalance is going to grow. I don't think it will get higher than 70% women but maybe more men will decide against it in the future if it is seen as a female profession.

 

[fhx06]

If you want to work with more males, engineering would be the best field to go into; plenty of guys in there. 😵

Shadowing a pharmacist may be a good idea if you currently have no idea what it entails. Hopefully, it'll give you better insight at just what a pharmacist does but keep in mind that there are a lot of different avenues in which a pharmacy student can travel down.

I'll say this right now... if pharmacy is something you want to do only because you can't get into medical school and thinks it's just easier to get into, you are setting yourself for a pretty big let-down. School will not be easy and if you really aren't into the field, you may find yourself struggling. But who knows, maybe you'll do well, and you may like it.