Organic Chemistry in Pharmacy School

[Albo]

Hello,

I am a undergraduate student and pharmacy is one of the field i am considering. I have only one thing that hold me back, i am not very good with orgo and i dont really enjoy it. Is there a big deal of Orgo in Pharmacy School?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[pinkyrx]

Hello,

I am a undergraduate student and pharmacy is one of the field i am considering. I have only one thing that hold me back, i am not very good with orgo and i dont really enjoy it. Is there a big deal of Orgo in Pharmacy School?

Don't let Organic stand in your way... as long as you can get adequate grades to gain acceptance you'll be fine. I hated Organic Chemistry and in fact was pretty bad at it but I've done really well in pharmacy school.

 

[twester]

I hated organic chem as well. Medicinal chem is all about orgo, but at my school it's boiled down strictly to what's applicable to the drug in question. It's not pleasant, but not impossible to manage either. Our therapeutics class doesn't present many chemical structures - it's more about physiologic effect than anything.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

As the above mentioned, Med Chem is organic chemistry based, but it isn't all that hard - it's mostly structure memorization. I wish it was harder, actually. The stuff that requires spacial ability is what I'm good at. I love and miss Organic Chemistry. And Calculus...and physics....

 

[selo]

Hello,

I am a undergraduate student and pharmacy is one of the field i am considering. I have only one thing that hold me back, i am not very good with orgo and i dont really enjoy it. Is there a big deal of Orgo in Pharmacy School?

Well, students tend to believe that if they are not good in organic chemistry they may not do well in Rx school. But i do not think it is true. I am a P1, and can tell you that we do not do too much organic chemistry in pharmacy school. As long as you know your acid base chemistry and your functional group , you will be fine. I belive in RX we tend to do much physiology than organic chemistry because in order to study the mechanism of actions of drugs, we study the physiologyfirst.As far for my school, we did organic chemistry in the first part of pharmacodynamics 1, we went over the functionnal groups, some reactions, phase 1, and phase 2,acide base chemistry, ph of drugs, whether the drug will be absorbed or excreted.
Do not worry, you will be fine

 

[Smilescali]

As the above mentioned, Med Chem is organic chemistry based, but it isn't all that hard - it's mostly structure memorization. I wish it was harder, actually. The stuff that requires spacial ability is what I'm good at. I love and miss Organic Chemistry. And Calculus...and physics....

No kidding...organic requires knowing concepts and THINKING! I wish there were more organic and thinking type questions on our tests. Some professors actually make you think at our school and of course they are labeled "Tricky" ha ha. I dislike the memorization factor in pharmacy school.(we just got done with tablet coating produces and it was painful for me to pay attention and MEMORIZE all those steps...geesh!) We are doing pharmacokinetics now so it is not too bad at the moment. I hear that the second year is a tad less memorization and more working out clinical cases. We will see.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

I wasn't all that good at Organic, but it hasn't been extremely important for me in pharmacy school. At least not the first year.

 

[gochi]

All you need is some motivation to do well in ORGO chem....watch a documentry about PERCY JULLIAN, thats how I developed interest in orgo chem!!

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I wasn't all that good at Organic, but it hasn't been extremely important for me in pharmacy school. At least not the first year.

Wait until Medicinal Chemistry. MWHAHAHAHA.

 

[lvp0021]

I love o-chem and am so excited about taking med-chem in pharm school. My o-chem classes were the main reason why I switched from engineer to biochem and pursue pharmacy. Some people just have problems with ochem--it seems that because of the professors teaching it. I am lucky to have a nice and knowledgable one who inspired me so much that I decide to change my major. Hopefully, I'll be in good shape in pharm school 🙂

 

[wolingfeng]

I like orgo a lot. I m not sure how much orgo has involved in pharm cirriculum later. At least in p1 year it's not much. I wish there r more material invovled in p2 and p3 yr when i take PD and PK classes 😀

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Wait until Medicinal Chemistry. MWHAHAHAHA.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, I'm SKEERED!

 

[Farmercyst]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, I'm SKEERED!

I know it's different in undergrad, but my Chem 500 elective was Med Chem and it wasn't that bad. Used Grisvold's, but more as an optional reference. 95% was instructor notes. I remember we had to memorize the structure of Glucaronic acid, but glutathione we could abbreviate GSH. We were supposed to be able to figure where drugs would be digested based on pH, of the drug and octanol/water coefficient. We also had to be able to look at a drug and tell primary cleavage sites depending on whether it was GSH, glucaronate, or a few others that I can't remember anymore (2 years ago now and haven't kept up with it. alpha cleavage, demethylation, all that jazz. It'll be good to get back into it again.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Just know about pK and pH and you'll be fine. You'll need that **** to find out what crosses the BBB, and breast milk, and urine....etc. When does UK take that on, per se?

I actually have a friend named Shelly from my hometown that goes up there and is a P3 this year...know her?

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Just know about pK and pH and you'll be fine. You'll need that **** to find out what crosses the BBB, and breast milk, and urine....etc. When does UK take that on, per se?

I actually have a friend named Shelly from my hometown that goes up there and is a P3 this year...know her?

I think we do that in second year. I know of the person to whom you are referring but I don't know her. Third years are on a completely different schedule than we are and we don't interact much.