Pharmacy to Medical School change

[RBG]

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Hello SDN,

I am a first year pharmacy school student, but I would like to change to medical school.

I feel unchallenged and that I am getting clinical training and education which I may never use as a professional.

I applied to medical twice before, and was interviewed at a few schools, waitlisted but ultimately rejected. When my MCAT expired, I went to my backup plan of pharmacy school, but now regret the decision.

I feel like a much stronger and mature applicant now.
Do you think being a current pharmacy student would hurt my application?
Is it common for pharmacy students to make a transfer to medical profession?

Any feedback is much appreciated.
Cheers

 

[FrkyBgStok]

i cannot speak from experience but i have heard that med schools aren't going to like the fact that you started pharmacy school and want to quit. how do they know you aren't going to quit them when you find something better. now with you applying twice before it may be a different situation as you realized you didn't like your backup plan, but i don't really know. hopefully someone with better advice can chime in.

 

[benjee]

Hello SDN,

I am a first year pharmacy school student, but I would like to change to medical school.

I feel unchallenged and that I am getting clinical training and education which I may never use as a professional.

I applied to medical twice before, and was interviewed at a few schools, waitlisted but ultimately rejected. When my MCAT expired, I went to my backup plan of pharmacy school, but now regret the decision.

I feel like a much stronger and mature applicant now.
Do you think being a current pharmacy student would hurt my application?
Is it common for pharmacy students to make a transfer to medical profession?

Any feedback is much appreciated.
Cheers

If you were rejected by medical schools before, i guess you've already had a bachelor degree. In that case, I would suggest retake Mcat , reapply US med. schools MD or DO since you're not interested in pharmacy school which is not free and you still need to put time in it. So, don't waste your time and money. just go directly to your goal.
As far as transfer, it's not that common, usually, ppl would complete pharmacy school and go to medical school as a second career path.

 

[indygobu]

i cannot speak from experience but i have heard that med schools aren't going to like the fact that you started pharmacy school and want to quit. how do they know you aren't going to quit them when you find something better. now with you applying twice before it may be a different situation as you realized you didn't like your backup plan, but i don't really know. hopefully someone with better advice can chime in.

I am a 2nd year professional phase pharmacy student who is applying to MD schools, and this is the sole reason why I was very concerned at applying/interviewing. But, during my interview I didn't get any grief from it, and you can tell them that you like the clinical aspect of pharmacy, but you would rather become a physician because it suits you better. If you have significant job shadowing, I don't think switching should matter because some people change majors a few times before applying, and I think that's fine. In fact, it might even give you an edge because you have that clinical experience and the extra knowledge learned from pharmacy school.

 

[hawkeye pierce]

As a Pharmacist who applied this year. I will tell you switching careers is something they tend to frown on to begin with. Also, many schools say you must finish your current graduate degree before applying. some schools may be ok with this. However, as a student who couldn't get in before you may have even more trouble now.

 

[Quik]

it's certainly worth a shot.

 

[RBG]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, definitely appreciate it.

I will take the MCAT this summer and go from there.

good luck to everyone applying also.

 

[FarMD2012]

Always glad to see other pharmacy students on the same route as I am. I'm third year and just decided last summer to switch due to same reasons. Pharmacy is a great profession but the profession is just not enough to satisfy me and keep me going anymore. It does sucks learning all the clinical aspects in pharmacy school yet may not be able to apply what you learned in real life.

I am currently in process of application process and hoping to enter in Fall 2012 when I graduate from pharmacy school. Alot of people say it hurts us to apply and change professions and whatnot, but I think that if you are really passionate about it, then you can do it. I wouldn't have advised you to take the backup plan and just stayed on medical school track instead. But I finished 4/6 years before changing my mind to switch there is nothing much I could do other than graduate then apply to medical school.

But I think there are a couple important questions you need to answer for yourself first such as what changes have you made since last application to medical school and why the acceptance to pharmacy school and the quick change of mind. If you can answer them and think you will be able to convince admissions, then I don't think you will have a problem as long as you have competitive GPA and MCAT.

So if you chose to drop out of pharmacy school, remember the drop out will not look good on your resume and you still need alot of volunteer, shadowing hours and research work to apply to medical school. Secondly, you still need time to retake MCAT and take another year to process the medical school applications, so what are you going to do in the meantime if you drop out?

On the other hand, if you stay hesitant to drop out and remain in the pharmacy program after reading the last paragraph, there is also some concerns. In the pharmacy school years they give you a load of school work and it may be alot harder than undergrad to maintain a competitive gpa, I mean it is a doctoral degree program afterall. So is it worth it to stay knowing your heart is not where its at, and possibly may affect your overall performance in pharmacy school that may ultimately lead you to never reach the path of medicine? Subsequently, if you stayed in pharmacy school you also have to fulfill many requirements such as IPPEs and APPEs, which are basically rotations at different pharmacies with different preceptors. They take up a lot of time and I can DEFINITELY tell you trying to apply to medical school and having to take care of pharmacy school requirements is not something easy to do. A lot of things may change in four years, your will to go to medical school may not be an exception.
But the one thing I can tell you about pharmacy school is that it does give you a lot of clinical exposure in the hospital and seeing patients in community wellness clinics etc. My pharmacy school even offers us a clinical research track in which we work with our own faculty mentor, write up a protocol, do our own clinical research project and submit for publication. All of these I am very thankful of for pharmacy school, for the experiences and teachings, and for letting me realize pharmacy is not for me which gave me the will and excitement to go to medical school.

So in conclusion, it is up to you. You need to determine your will to follow medicine. Because if you chose medicine and change your mind again, it'll be very hard for you to get back into another graduate program. So are you ready for a lifelong commitment to patients? Putting patient's needs before yours and your families? Are you willing to do hours and hours of paperwork outside of seeing patients? Oh yea, like one doctor said, 40 hours per week is really just part time for medicine. Hope this helped.

Edit: Sorry didn't see your last comment, so you will be going into P2 and trying to apply for fall of 2012. But most of the comments still apply.

 

[HaloKing]

I've been a pharmacist for over a year now and contemplating making a run on the MCAT.. Everything just really seemed to come together for me that last year of school. With the average lifespan around 80 and retirement past 65, there is a good chance you will have many years to practice medicine…

I personally would recommend getting your PharmD first if you are a P1 now. You may feel like a stronger and more mature applicant, but feelings do not get you accepted into medical school, accomplishments do! Good Luck!

 

[indygobu]

I've been a pharmacist for over a year now and contemplating making a run on the MCAT.. Everything just really seemed to come together for me that last year of school. With the average lifespan around 80 and retirement past 65, there is a good chance you will have many years to practice medicine…

I personally would recommend getting your PharmD first if you are a P1 now. You may feel like a stronger and more mature applicant, but feelings do not get you accepted into medical school, accomplishments do! Good Luck!

I agree with this. You will definitely look much stronger having graduated from pharmacy school and then applying to an MD school. But, from my perspective, the opportunity costs of the 2 years of my life (and probably lowering my GPA) are too great to finish a program that I will not practice. Albeit, the information I learn in pharmacy school will apply eventually. But, most of that will be taught in medical school.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

I've been a pharmacist for over a year now and contemplating making a run on the MCAT.. Everything just really seemed to come together for me that last year of school. With the average lifespan around 80 and retirement past 65, there is a good chance you will have many years to practice medicine…

I personally would recommend getting your PharmD first if you are a P1 now. You may feel like a stronger and more mature applicant, but feelings do not get you accepted into medical school, accomplishments do! Good Luck!

This seems to assume you can only apply once!

I say apply to medical school now, but don't leave pharm school until you're accepted to medical school.

I can look bad to switch from one field to a second field, but the way to minimize the negative impact is to show that at least you're leaving because you've grown and not because you're failing out of pharmacy school. If your pharm grades are strong then it shouldn't look too bad.

You could even try to get one of your pharm professors to write you a letter. "This student would have made a very successful pharmacist, but after talking with him/her I think it's clear that his/her interests are much more aligned with being a practicing physician."