Pharmacy: Fifth year of undergrad or no study abroad?

[TaiwanesePharmGirl]

Hello. I know there are similar threads but they don't exactly give me the information that I want.

I am currently a first year undergraduate student thinking about studying abroad in the fall next year. However, I recently found out that the university I signed up for abroad does not offer many classes that I need for my major/GE in English. For personal reasons, I really want to go despite this problem. If I don't go now I doubt I will ever study abroad, again for personal reasons.

However, if I do go, I may have to take an extra quarter in the fifth year (with summer session included) due to courses I need at my university not being available every quarter, making what was once a rather solid four year plan a bit of a gamble.

Since I'd only be doing a quarter in the fifth year, I am hoping that I can use that fifth year to work on an internship (I am currently in a research laboratory as a first year) and/or find a temporary job while working on my application. I'll take the PCAT either junior or senior year, depending on when I finish all the courses that have material tested on the PCAT. The fifth quarter would most likely be to finish up major courses not required for pharm school or some of the courses that are unique prerequisites for certain pharmacy schools.

For those with experience taking five years of undergrad or know someone who did, do you think a fifth year would be a bad idea? I really want to study abroad but if it could potentially hurt my career I'll withdraw from the program.

I know that was a lot to read. Sorry. Thanks for your time and help!

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[88888888]

study abroad if you can afford it. life is too short. Sounds like a plan.

 

[guernica10]

8 nailed it. If you can afford to study abroad, most definitely do it. It will change your life.

That being said, I would think you can still graduate in four if you are willing to make the following semesters a little more difficult. As a sophomore, you wouldn't even have to add more than one class per semester to make up for lost time if you take zero reqs abroad. If you're set on extending by two quarters, take some time off and just go live there and have fun then jump back into your course load. It would be cheaper too.

 

[TaiwanesePharmGirl]

I am willing to make the following quarters (my school goes by quarter system) more difficult, but I don't know if I can handle what I'm looking at if I choose not to extend.

For example, I'm looking at having to take o chem with intense writing courses and a quarter of mol bio, microbio, and upper division bio lab if I don't spread my classes out more evenly. And that last part would be during fall quarter of my fourth year, so during application season woohoo . So far I've only taken lower division stuff, so I don't know how I will fare in these classes. I mean, do you think I stand a chance if I currently have a 4.0 taking lower div bio, chem and calc ?

 

[TaiwanesePharmGirl]

Oh, and I didn't make it explicit but my study abroad would only last a quarter.

 

[radio frequency]

There are also opportunities to study abroad in pharmacy school (through APhA/IPSF), but your time is much more limited during the PharmD program...

 

[lunesta]

I did five years for my undergrad (graduating Saturday, woo!) and got into pharmacy school this cycle as well. I finished all my prereqs for pharmacy in my first two years and have since just been pursuing a degree, so I don't think you taking a fifth year to complete major requirements is an issue. As long as you keep trying to make yourself a better candidate, which I think studying abroad would definitely do, I don't think adcoms really care about how long your undergrad is...unless it's something ridiculous like 10 years oh, it should also be said that you should try to keep your course load as difficult you can stand. Adcoms do look at that, and it's really beneficial for your app if you show success with a difficult course load. Good luck!

 

[TaiwanesePharmGirl]

Thanks a bunch for all the input. Just one (and the only) bump to see if I can get a few more!