I would appreciate some advice or guidance for my situation. I graduated with a bs in science chemistry premed with a cGPA of 3.23 in 2013. I have been out of school since then working lab jobs that I don’t really like. In college I did my undergrad research in an ochem lab and my favorite classes I took were my pharmacology classes. After much research and thought I have decided that I want to go to pharmacy school. My main goal is to work in the industry side of pharmacy. I know that I have been out of school for a while so my plan is to get my pharmacy tech certification and start working as a pharm tech and go back to school to get my post baccalaureate certificate and do some research in a lab so I can get letters of recommendation. Then I can take the pcat and apply to pharmacy schools. Is this a good plan? Is there another route to take? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks
-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
Pharmacy school preparation
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
Personally, I think that if you like the pharmacology aspect, your interests may be better suited for a PhD in the pharmaceutical sciences. Pharmacy school will focus on the clinical aspects of medicine rather than the knitty gritty sciences. It’ll probably be easier for you to land into a PhD program given your extensive experience in research also!
Given this quote here, "After much research and thought I have decided that I want to go to pharmacy school. My main goal is to work in the industry side of pharmacy." I think pharmacy is perfect for you. Pharmacetical industries value PharmD's BECAUSE of the clinical aspect that we bring to them. My friend is currently very interested in industry. She could either go PharmD then fellowship training then industry but she's getting her dual PharmD/MBA degree to be competitive.
As far as you getting certified in being a technician... I dont think that's totally necessary. Pharm school's nowadays are accepting a lot of different kinsd of students. your research background gives you an edge. It would be nice to have a pharmacists letter of rec tho. What i did was worked as a cashier in an independent pharamcy and got close to the pharmacists that way and they wrote me a letter. Never got certified as a tech.
I think any kind of experience in pharmacy (even volunteering in a hospital or shadowing). Then make sure you have your pre reqs and get at least in the 70's on your pcat... I think you'll be good.
I have the names of some good pharamcy youtubers that share how they got into pharmacy school if you'd like some specific direction that way. Hope i helped!
As far as you getting certified in being a technician... I dont think that's totally necessary. Pharm school's nowadays are accepting a lot of different kinsd of students. your research background gives you an edge. It would be nice to have a pharmacists letter of rec tho. What i did was worked as a cashier in an independent pharamcy and got close to the pharmacists that way and they wrote me a letter. Never got certified as a tech.
I think any kind of experience in pharmacy (even volunteering in a hospital or shadowing). Then make sure you have your pre reqs and get at least in the 70's on your pcat... I think you'll be good.
I have the names of some good pharamcy youtubers that share how they got into pharmacy school if you'd like some specific direction that way. Hope i helped!
