Pharm School with children

[ITGUY33]

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Hi all,

I'm currently finishing up my last few pre-reqs before applying to Pharm school and have just found out that my wife is pregnant (very excited about that!). I'm wondering if any of you current Pharm students could give me any insight on how Pharm school works with children? I'm an older student (~38 at possible acceptance) and am pretty serious about my studies. I have searched and found a few previous posts on this subject but didn't find anything that answered my questions fully. Any info/advice anyone can give will be GREATLY appreciated. I am planning to apply to UGA Pharmacy School so anyone who is attending there that has any info specifically for their program that would be great as well. Thanks everyone!

 

[alenadoma]

Hi all,

I'm currently finishing up my last few pre-reqs before applying to Pharm school and have just found out that my wife is pregnant (very excited about that!). I'm wondering if any of you current Pharm students could give me any insight on how Pharm school works with children? I'm an older student (~38 at possible acceptance) and am pretty serious about my studies. I have searched and found a few previous posts on this subject but didn't find anything that answered my questions fully. Any info/advice anyone can give will be GREATLY appreciated. I am planning to apply to UGA Pharmacy School so anyone who is attending there that has any info specifically for their program that would be great as well. Thanks everyone!

I don't have children yet, but I would love to hear some insight on this topic. Are there any students who have had children during pharmacy school? I really don't want to wait to have kids until after pharmacy school. If you plan accordingly, is it feesible to say have a baby in May and then go back to school in August? Or is that just crazy?

To the OP: Congratulations!!!🙂

 

[charfdorn]

Hi all,

I'm currently finishing up my last few pre-reqs before applying to Pharm school and have just found out that my wife is pregnant (very excited about that!). I'm wondering if any of you current Pharm students could give me any insight on how Pharm school works with children? I'm an older student (~38 at possible acceptance) and am pretty serious about my studies. I have searched and found a few previous posts on this subject but didn't find anything that answered my questions fully. Any info/advice anyone can give will be GREATLY appreciated. I am planning to apply to UGA Pharmacy School so anyone who is attending there that has any info specifically for their program that would be great as well. Thanks everyone!

Congratulations! You're going to love being a dad.

I'm sure someone out there will answer this better, but I got in first so I get to give the crappy advice. 🙂 I start pharmacy school in the fall and I have a baby who will be one, so it's a pretty similar situation to yours. I will let you know how it goes, although I know it's going to be hard. It'll probably end up loading me down with more loans so that I don't have to work as much so I can see my kid once in a while. But I would say don't wait - if you have to pick a time to never see your family, I think the very earliest years would be best. Your baby won't remember you not being around. It'll suck for you, but the long-term benefit seems worth it to me.

 

[rxlynn]

PM me - I have multiple comments for you.

 

[rxlynn]

Hi all,

I'm currently finishing up my last few pre-reqs before applying to Pharm school and have just found out that my wife is pregnant (very excited about that!). I'm wondering if any of you current Pharm students could give me any insight on how Pharm school works with children? I'm an older student (~38 at possible acceptance) and am pretty serious about my studies. I have searched and found a few previous posts on this subject but didn't find anything that answered my questions fully. Any info/advice anyone can give will be GREATLY appreciated. I am planning to apply to UGA Pharmacy School so anyone who is attending there that has any info specifically for their program that would be great as well. Thanks everyone!

Generally I would say that it's certainly doable (especially since you aren't the one actually having the baby). I think there are about 25 or 30 people in my class that have at least one child or one on the way.

 

[fhx06]

Generally I would say that it's certainly doable (especially since you aren't the one actually having the baby). I think there are about 25 or 30 people in my class that have at least one child or one on the way.

For some odd reason your comment brings to mind "untrained spouses"...

 

[Fuzzychickens]

Hi all,

I'm currently finishing up my last few pre-reqs before applying to Pharm school and have just found out that my wife is pregnant (very excited about that!). I'm wondering if any of you current Pharm students could give me any insight on how Pharm school works with children? I'm an older student (~38 at possible acceptance) and am pretty serious about my studies. I have searched and found a few previous posts on this subject but didn't find anything that answered my questions fully. Any info/advice anyone can give will be GREATLY appreciated. I am planning to apply to UGA Pharmacy School so anyone who is attending there that has any info specifically for their program that would be great as well. Thanks everyone!

I'm doing fine with a 2 year old. Here's the thing, this doesn't mean you have to work 20 hours a week to make ends meet. My wife works part time evenings while I watch the little one and study. This works great. She gets a break from my daughter and I can still get enough studying done to get good grades.

I work, at most, once a week in a retail pharmacy (helps with drug info type classes).

Your first year, don't be afraid to take out the max in student loans and try for internships in the summer. After your first year, then decide if you can handle a few more hours a week. You'll have a better idea by then.

 

[rxlynn]

For some odd reason your comment brings to mind "untrained spouses"...

HA HA - yeah - the vast majority had the kids already before they started pharmacy school, but we do seem to be having a bit of a baby boom this year.

 

[MCPharm27]

CONGRATULATIONS!

Great question, wondering that myself. I just had my first (he's 6 weeks today!) and I start pharmacy school in July. I'm nervous about how everything is going to work out....I'll let you know how it goes. 🙂

 

[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

Congratulation to all the pharmD 2 b mommy and daddy!!!

I was in your shoes and I can tell you that it's all possible..you can have it all. You need

-A good social network ( husband, parents, partner etc..) people you can turn to when exams come around. People that can step in 100% while u r studying overnight 🙂
- A " I can do it" attitude about it. I went to my interview day to get in pharmacy school with my baby 4 years ago ( the poor thing was 2 weeks old), my husband was outside the interview room with the boy. Of course the first question I was asked was: is that your baby out there? 2 weeks?😱 and then cool!😎

You will be surprise on how much schools are understanding about these issues. They will work with you around exam time if something comes up. I remember being offered to delay a set of exams cz my son was in the hospital. I nicely thanked them but asked them to give me some time to see how my study was going, cz I found out that hospital hallways are the quietest place on earth at night, nice for studying. I was able to sit for my exams with everybody else. Talk about the added pressure of taking an exam alone in a room..no thanks!!

Someone made a comment about things being ok " especially if you are not the one having the baby". I could not disagree more with this statement cz everybody in the couple is "having the baby"..trust me😀

If you r the one pushing the baby out:

If everything goes well during delivery, you will be up on your feet in no time. You will find that you can go to classes and come home quickly to rest, sleep and study. If you have labs you'll manage to survive them.

If you r not the one pushing the baby out:

Feeding, especially at night requires teamwork. You and ur partner will have to find a way to it in a way that does not compromise yur relationship because if you let her do all the night feeding cz you r the one in pharmacy school..u gonna have u a cranky GF, wife 🙂 or boyfriend ( now that guys can have babies,thanks to the "pregnant male" I don't wanna discriminate..lol)

The thing I enjoyed the most about being a parent in pharmacy school was dat I quickly learned to make the most of my study time. I was always studying, reading even out of exam "season" to take the pressure out of having A LOT to study at once. Of course if you asked my classmates, I was not exactly a fun gal, cz I had other priorities. Never joined a frat or sor, went to school parties only if I could bring my family along.

My class had a lot of parents and it seems that every year someone poped a baby out
Out of all the 20 something people we "lost" along the years, for good or repeated a year, no one was a parent. Parenthood rocks!!!😍

 

[doublestufforeo]

Awesome post! We have three small children. And possibly thinking of having another. I am ready I think to have another one, yet I do have worries of how my hubby and me are going to make it. He starts this Fall. Yippee!!!! How much loans can we take out? I don't think federal loans will be enough for tuition and enough to live on? will we be able to borrow for all of our needs (food, bills, rent, etc)???

 

[mustang sally]

Congratulation to all the pharmD 2 b mommy and daddy!!!

I was in your shoes and I can tell you that it's all possible..you can have it all. You need

-A good social network ( husband, parents, partner etc..) people you can turn to when exams come around. People that can step in 100% while u r studying overnight 🙂
- A " I can do it" attitude about it. I went to my interview day to get in pharmacy school with my baby 4 years ago ( the poor thing was 2 weeks old), my husband was outside the interview room with the boy. Of course the first question I was asked was: is that your baby out there? 2 weeks?😱 and then cool!😎

You will be surprise on how much schools are understanding about these issues. They will work with you around exam time if something comes up. I remember being offered to delay a set of exams cz my son was in the hospital. I nicely thanked them but asked them to give me some time to see how my study was going, cz I found out that hospital hallways are the quietest place on earth at night, nice for studying. I was able to sit for my exams with everybody else. Talk about the added pressure of taking an exam alone in a room..no thanks!!

Someone made a comment about things being ok " especially if you are not the one having the baby". I could not disagree more with this statement cz everybody in the couple is "having the baby"..trust me😀

If you r the one pushing the baby out:

If everything goes well during delivery, you will be up on your feet in no time. You will find that you can go to classes and come home quickly to rest, sleep and study. If you have labs you'll manage to survive them.

If you r not the one pushing the baby out:

Feeding, especially at night requires teamwork. You and ur partner will have to find a way to it in a way that does not compromise yur relationship because if you let her do all the night feeding cz you r the one in pharmacy school..u gonna have u a cranky GF, wife 🙂 or boyfriend ( now that guys can have babies,thanks to the "pregnant male" I don't wanna discriminate..lol)

The thing I enjoyed the most about being a parent in pharmacy school was dat I quickly learned to make the most of my study time. I was always studying, reading even out of exam "season" to take the pressure out of having A LOT to study at once. Of course if you asked my classmates, I was not exactly a fun gal, cz I had other priorities. Never joined a frat or sor, went to school parties only if I could bring my family along.

My class had a lot of parents and it seems that every year someone poped a baby out
Out of all the 20 something people we "lost" along the years, for good or repeated a year, no one was a parent. Parenthood rocks!!!😍

Wow, GabonpharmD, your post was so inspirational to me. I am P1 right now with a little boy at home and comtemplating the idea of trying to plan baby #2 around P2 year. Am I crazy? My family thinks so...I don't know, I just see myself getting older every day (past 30 now) and I don't want to keep waiting until it is too late.

 

[kerokero]

Congratulation to all the pharmD 2 b mommy and daddy!!!

I was in your shoes and I can tell you that it's all possible..you can have it all. You need

-A good social network ( husband, parents, partner etc..) people you can turn to when exams come around. People that can step in 100% while u r studying overnight 🙂
- A " I can do it" attitude about it. I went to my interview day to get in pharmacy school with my baby 4 years ago ( the poor thing was 2 weeks old), my husband was outside the interview room with the boy. Of course the first question I was asked was: is that your baby out there? 2 weeks?😱 and then cool!😎

You will be surprise on how much schools are understanding about these issues. They will work with you around exam time if something comes up. I remember being offered to delay a set of exams cz my son was in the hospital. I nicely thanked them but asked them to give me some time to see how my study was going, cz I found out that hospital hallways are the quietest place on earth at night, nice for studying. I was able to sit for my exams with everybody else. Talk about the added pressure of taking an exam alone in a room..no thanks!!

Someone made a comment about things being ok " especially if you are not the one having the baby". I could not disagree more with this statement cz everybody in the couple is "having the baby"..trust me😀

If you r the one pushing the baby out:

If everything goes well during delivery, you will be up on your feet in no time. You will find that you can go to classes and come home quickly to rest, sleep and study. If you have labs you'll manage to survive them.

If you r not the one pushing the baby out:

Feeding, especially at night requires teamwork. You and ur partner will have to find a way to it in a way that does not compromise yur relationship because if you let her do all the night feeding cz you r the one in pharmacy school..u gonna have u a cranky GF, wife 🙂 or boyfriend ( now that guys can have babies,thanks to the "pregnant male" I don't wanna discriminate..lol)

The thing I enjoyed the most about being a parent in pharmacy school was dat I quickly learned to make the most of my study time. I was always studying, reading even out of exam "season" to take the pressure out of having A LOT to study at once. Of course if you asked my classmates, I was not exactly a fun gal, cz I had other priorities. Never joined a frat or sor, went to school parties only if I could bring my family along.

My class had a lot of parents and it seems that every year someone poped a baby out
Out of all the 20 something people we "lost" along the years, for good or repeated a year, no one was a parent. Parenthood rocks!!!😍

Thanks GabonpharmD. This gives me alot of hope. I am planning on getting married and having kids while I'm in pharm school, too. I know this is crazy. One concern I do have is how this will affect the extracurricular activities aspect of my CV. My family and school will be my priorities, but I also want to do a residency. I heard that, not only should you have at least a 3.5 GPA, but you should have alot of extracurricular activities in order to be a competitive applicant esp if you're applying to CA hospitals. Is this even possible? Should I focus on 2-3 activities? Since the school I am going to is a 4 year program, I will have summers off so I plan to do most of my activities during the summer. Is this a good idea?

 

[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

Awesome post! We have three small children. And possibly thinking of having another. I am ready I think to have another one, yet I do have worries of how my hubby and me are going to make it. He starts this Fall. Yippee!!!! How much loans can we take out? I don't think federal loans will be enough for tuition and enough to live on? will we be able to borrow for all of our needs (food, bills, rent, etc)???

congrat!! you r my hero😀 I am trying to get to 3 babies ASAP. I am preggo with my second one and can't wait to pop this one out, rest some and then have the third one.

If you can feed 3 you can feed four. The questions about bills and living expenses remain te same. Yur hubby can call the school and try to find out the max he can take out. Keep in mind that because of our bad economy, it's my understanding that student loans r hard to come accross. Some lenders have stopped lending period.

On a positive note, Mr president was talking about injecting money for student loans to kick back up. I don't wanna start a political debate. but for your specific situation it could be a good thing to wait and see and how the world of student loans evolve in the next year or so if the 4th baby decision is tied up to your family ability to borrow.

 

[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

Wow, GabonpharmD, your post was so inspirational to me. I am P1 right now with a little boy at home and comtemplating the idea of trying to plan baby #2 around P2 year. Am I crazy? My family thinks so...I don't know, I just see myself getting older every day (past 30 now) and I don't want to keep waiting until it is too late.

The end of the second year is a good time "reevaluate" the decision for an addition to the family. Because by then you will know what kind of student you are. You will know your strenghts or weaknesses. You'll see, it's either you r going to feel confortable about adding a baby or you'll feel like you have enough on your plate and will decide to put the idea on ice.

I am with you not wanting to wait until it's too late. I am in the same situation, turning 31 and playing catch up !! But you wanna do it the right way. Struggling in school, with kids, it not the most pleasant situation to be in.

 

[LiveLoveFartRepeat]

Thanks GabonpharmD. This gives me alot of hope. I am planning on getting married and having kids while I'm in pharm school, too. I know this is crazy. One concern I do have is how this will affect the extracurricular activities aspect of my CV. My family and school will be my priorities, but I also want to do a residency. I heard that, not only should you have at least a 3.5 GPA, but you should have alot of extracurricular activities in order to be a competitive applicant esp if you're applying to CA hospitals. Is this even possible? Should I focus on 2-3 activities? Since the school I am going to is a 4 year program, I will have summers off so I plan to do most of my activities during the summer. Is this a good idea?

congrats on the plans..sound like you r going to have an exiting life pretty soon😀

Few pointers I can give you:

- When they talk about extracurricular activites (ECA), they r talking about being involved with student organizations and that's mostly during school. I did manage to squeeze in some ECA, like being a co-chair of the APhA pediatric committee of my school for a year, some health fair..but that was pretty much it.
ECA r time consuming. I've seen some single, no kids, students get into in so much that they ended up struggling grade wise and were put on probation and asked to step aside of their ECA duties.
-Some thing you can do during the summer r thing like health fair, community outreach programs.
-Do not underestimate the power of the grades. I know some friends who where all over the ECA things, but did not get residencies because they had the false impression the putting, ASP-AphA and other organizations on yur CV is the key to a residency..well not always.

My 2 cents:

-Treat your choices like a receipe, add one ingredient at a time and see how things work out, before adding the next one.

For fun

step 1- School + marriage= 😕
step 2-School + marriage + ECA = 😕
step3- School + marriage + ECA+kids=😕😍 ( this being your ideal situation)

Good luck, you can have it all, but don't overwhelm yourself, yo still need some " me" time in this big picture.

 

[Farmercyst]

Hi all,

I'm currently finishing up my last few pre-reqs before applying to Pharm school and have just found out that my wife is pregnant (very excited about that!). I'm wondering if any of you current Pharm students could give me any insight on how Pharm school works with children? I'm an older student (~38 at possible acceptance) and am pretty serious about my studies. I have searched and found a few previous posts on this subject but didn't find anything that answered my questions fully. Any info/advice anyone can give will be GREATLY appreciated. I am planning to apply to UGA Pharmacy School so anyone who is attending there that has any info specifically for their program that would be great as well. Thanks everyone!

What questions did you need answered? Gabon covered a lot of ground, but I'd be willing to add if you have other questions. Currently 31, P2 @ USC with 2 kids + 1 hopefully the week AFTER finals. Involved in AMCP, APSA (which at our school encompasses APHA/ASHP+state affiliates), a frat, and work ~12 hrs/week. My GPA has suffered, but not disproportionately to what I have on my plate. I'm still hovering around a 3.0. So there's a few things I could talk about. Anything in particular you want to know about?

 

[ITGUY33]

Wow! Thanks to all the replies. Sorry I haven't been on in a while due to work. I got a lot of good information here. It sounds as though it's generally possible to do Pharm school with kids. I think some of the major things that I had questions about were about the length of the class days (which I know will vary from school to school), amount of time one could spend working and not affect grades too much, how much time was needed to be spent on good grades (which will also vary from person to person), etc. My wife will be graduating Nursing school in May of '10 and I was kind of trying to get a feel as to whether we would be able to make it with a baby/small child on one income if I wasnt able to work much while in school. These are probably typical questions that everyone asks at one time or another, but I wanted to see if I could get info from a few people in a closer situation to mine and all you guys and gals stepped up to the plate and have helped. I appreciate all the advice and comments. Thanks.

 

[FarscapeGirl]

So after seeing some of my friends after having kids in grad school, which is a bit more flexible than pharmacy school, I'm kind of curious how women who have a baby during pharmacy school handle having a kid. From what GabonPharmD says, I guess many come back right away. I have seen a few of my friends do that and I'm always impressed. They do look a little more tired than usual, but it seems to work.

Do any of these women who give birth during pharmacy school breast feed? I'm trying to imagine pumping with a full class load.

Also, I know a lot of pharmacy students work full time during the summer with internships. Do any of these women take time off from their internships right after having the baby?

 

[pharmdisme]

So after seeing some of my friends after having kids in grad school, which is a bit more flexible than pharmacy school, I'm kind of curious how women who have a baby during pharmacy school handle having a kid. From what GabonPharmD says, I guess many come back right away. I have seen a few of my friends do that and I'm always impressed. They do look a little more tired than usual, but it seems to work.

Do any of these women who give birth during pharmacy school breast feed? I'm trying to imagine pumping with a full class load.

Also, I know a lot of pharmacy students work full time during the summer with internships. Do any of these women take time off from their internships right after having the baby?

Hi Farscape,
I just wanted to add a bit more to what others have already said. I had a 15 month old when I started pharmacy school, now he is 4 and I had a baby over the summer. Yes, I breastfeed her (still am) it helps that I have my kids in the childcare on campus. I pump at home though my school provided me with a room to do so. Yes, I am tired somedays 😴 between the night time feedings and trying to keep up with school work.

Last summer I worked a few days a week till I had my baby, I actually worked the day I had her - crazy I know. I went back about three weeks after but only worked on weekends and for about 5 hours at a time. My husband will bring the baby during my break so I could feed her.

You can make it work, in my case my husband is about 500 miles away, so I am alone with my kids most of the time. It has it challenges but with the help of our student support services, I have been able to stay on track in order to graduate on time and will start my rotations in a few weeks -yay. Yes, my GPA is not a 3.5 but it is decent enough - I think.

I hope that helps out a bit.