PharmD to MD dilemma

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ilead

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Hi, I'm currently a first year pharmacy student and I've been thinking about going to med school instead. I've been thinking that pharmacy is kind of a dead career for me because of the oversaturation and so much competition for hospital pharmacy jobs. I also want to learn more than just drugs and I think that medical school is the perfect place for that and I want to do more patient care.

I just started having these thoughts so I have no shadowing experience and probably less volunteering than what most applicants would have. I could probably get clinical experience from IPPE's and working as pharmacy intern. I don't want to take a gap year because I don't know if I'll have a good chance in getting into med school and don't want to be set back a year at my school. I have pretty good grades so far, 3.83 undergrad and 4.0 in professional program. I do cross country and track at my school and with multiple jobs and increasing workload I don't think I'll be able to get shadowing hours and focus on volunteering, let alone study for MCAT. I was looking at the application cycle and realized that it's much earlier than just regular 4-year college and I'm not sure if I'll be ready for the next application cycle. I'll be taking summer classes and have pharmacy rotations so I don't know if I'll be able to spend a lot of time getting ready in the summer. By the time I feel like I'm ready to apply I'll probably be 3rd year at pharmacy school and I feel like it would be a lot of financial burden to start over again with 4 more years of med school compared to just graduating with PharmD in one more year.

So I guess the question is could I be prepared just in 7-8 months, with getting shadowing hours, hopefully clinical hours and studying for MCAT (which I have never studied for) on top of pharmacy school, athletics and multiple jobs (2 on campus and pharmacy intern)?
 
ilead said:
So I guess the question is could I be prepared just in 7-8 months, with getting shadowing hours, hopefully clinical hours and studying for MCAT (which I have never studied for) on top of pharmacy school, athletics and multiple jobs (2 on campus and pharmacy intern)?
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Here are some things to consider:
  1. You likely have pre-requisite classes to complete, of which you don't want to perform badly in.
  2. Generally people shoot for at least 50 hours of PCP shadowing, 150+ hours of clinical volunteering, and some non-clinical volunteering.
  3. I have no experience with the PCAT, but I can guarantee it will be completely different from the MCAT and some people spend months studying for that alone.
To answer your question bluntly, I would say no with regards to your timeline of 7-8 months. The transition from where you are now to medical school should be considered a full time job as ideally you want to apply once.
 
Rusrus said:
To answer your question bluntly, I would say no with regards to your timeline of 7-8 months. The transition from where you are now to medical school should be considered a full time job as ideally you want to apply once.
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Yeah...I was afraid of that. I actually didn't take the PCAT because it was a 7 year direct entry program so I honestly have no idea what these graduate school admission tests are like. With increasing classes and workload I'll probably graduate by the time I have enough things to put on the application
 
Most people here discount pharmacy “clinical” work. Just a heads up on that. But truly the best way to start to figure it out is to shadow. With the clinical stuff, your IPPEs can definitely give you insight if you’re good spending time with patients for your career.
 
Rusrus said:
Here are some things to consider:
  1. You likely have pre-requisite classes to complete, of which you don't want to perform badly in.
  2. Generally people shoot for at least 50 hours of PCP shadowing, 150+ hours of clinical volunteering, and some non-clinical volunteering.
  3. I have no experience with the PCAT, but I can guarantee it will be completely different from the MCAT and some people spend months studying for that alone.
To answer your question bluntly, I would say no with regards to your timeline of 7-8 months. The transition from where you are now to medical school should be considered a full time job as ideally you want to apply once.
Click to expand...

PCAT was a joke in comparison. I didn’t prep for it and got in the 89th percentile. Prepared for the MCAT for 3.5 months.
 
2 jobs on campus and pharmacy intern and other activities. How do you have time to study for pharmacy? Your pharmacy school must be easy or have a huge curve on every exam.

MCAT is way harder than PCAT. Medical school is full-time job or even more (10 to 12+ hours of study depends on the subject). If you want to go to medical school, then do it. Take a year off, study MCAT, and shadowing. Don't wasting time and money on pharmacy school when you know you no longer passion about it.
 
ciestar said:
Most people here discount pharmacy “clinical” work
Click to expand...

We have a professor who advises people who don't want to pursue pharmacy and he told me that IPPE's would count towards clinical experience but I can see why it wouldn't be very significant. There's a scribe program at urgent care nearby and I thought it would be interesting but it requires 8 to 12 hours shifts so I haven't really thought too much about doing it but I kind of have that on the back of my mind.
 
Tommy1234 said:
How do you have time to study for pharmacy? Your pharmacy school must be easy or have a huge curve on every exam.
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I only take 14 credit hours because I got immunology done over the summer and I actually haven't started the intern job yet, I'm still in the training phase so relatively I have had an easier semester than most people in my class for sure.

Tommy1234 said:
Take a year off, study MCAT, and shadowing. Don't wasting time and money on pharmacy school when you know you no longer passion about it.
Click to expand...

I want to keep pharmacy as a backup if medical school doesn't work out. I don't want to work retail my entire life but honestly if it came down to it, I wouldn't mind being a pharmacist. I guess it's just like I'll be a pharmacist, but I want to be a doctor more if it is possible. If I really lost passion in pharmacy like 100% I wouldn't mind taking a gap year and focusing on getting into med school, but I still have passion for pharmacy and what I learn in school, just afraid of what the outcome of that degree will be. I need to make a decision sooner than later but that's why I'm having a difficult time deciding
 
ilead said:
We have a professor who advises people who don't want to pursue pharmacy and he told me that IPPE's would count towards clinical experience but I can see why it wouldn't be very significant. There's a scribe program at urgent care nearby and I thought it would be interesting but it requires 8 to 12 hours shifts so I haven't really thought too much about doing it but I kind of have that on the back of my mind.
Click to expand...

What your professor says and what an adcom thinks are two different things.

I had two pharmacy student co-workers who did their IPPEs mostly in retail settings. I had thousands of pharmacy tech experience while applying and was told it doesn’t really count as clinical. As I said, be weary.
 
ilead said:
I only take 14 credit hours because I got immunology done over the summer and I actually haven't started the intern job yet, I'm still in the training phase so relatively I have had an easier semester than most people in my class for sure.



I want to keep pharmacy as a backup if medical school doesn't work out. I don't want to work retail my entire life but honestly if it came down to it, I wouldn't mind being a pharmacist. I guess it's just like I'll be a pharmacist, but I want to be a doctor more if it is possible. If I really lost passion in pharmacy like 100% I wouldn't mind taking a gap year and focusing on getting into med school, but I still have passion for pharmacy and what I learn in school, just afraid of what the outcome of that degree will be. I need to make a decision sooner than later but that's why I'm having a difficult time deciding
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Since you are in first year of pharmacy so materials are easy but how can you handle classes when you in tough semester. How can you balance out between school and work. Wait until you take pharmacotherapeutics.

I don't know where you live but if you want to go back home and work near family and that place is over saturated. Then, you have no luck landing pharmacist job there. Too many pharmacy schools and too many pharmacy grad. Jobs are very competitive. If medicine is what you love, then forget about pharmacy. Pharmacy's prerequisite and medicine's prerequisite are similar therefore you can apply to medical school. You just need to take MCAT and have shadowing.

After reading your first post and second quote, I feel like you choose a medical school because of a stable job rather than focusing on saving lives and truly love medicine. If you have that mindset, I don't think medicine is for you and you will not succeed as a physician. Patients are number one priority for any healthcare professionals.
 
Last edited:
Don't quit or take time off from pharmacy.

To study for the MCAT, you need about 4 months where you have minimal other commitments (one job, or a half courseload would probably be fine). Is there any way you could cut down on the amount of things you're doing next summer, so you could study for the MCAT over those 4 months?

Lastly, don't rush yourself. If it's going to take two years to put together a good application then it's going to take two years.
 
This is a tough scenario, but whatever you decide, always keep in mind about the financial burden that you put on yourself regardless if you go through with pharmacy or switch to medical school.
 
ilead said:
Hi, I'm currently a first year pharmacy student and I've been thinking about going to med school instead. I've been thinking that pharmacy is kind of a dead career for me because of the oversaturation and so much competition for hospital pharmacy jobs. I also want to learn more than just drugs and I think that medical school is the perfect place for that and I want to do more patient care.

I just started having these thoughts so I have no shadowing experience and probably less volunteering than what most applicants would have. I could probably get clinical experience from IPPE's and working as pharmacy intern. I don't want to take a gap year because I don't know if I'll have a good chance in getting into med school and don't want to be set back a year at my school. I have pretty good grades so far, 3.83 undergrad and 4.0 in professional program. I do cross country and track at my school and with multiple jobs and increasing workload I don't think I'll be able to get shadowing hours and focus on volunteering, let alone study for MCAT. I was looking at the application cycle and realized that it's much earlier than just regular 4-year college and I'm not sure if I'll be ready for the next application cycle. I'll be taking summer classes and have pharmacy rotations so I don't know if I'll be able to spend a lot of time getting ready in the summer. By the time I feel like I'm ready to apply I'll probably be 3rd year at pharmacy school and I feel like it would be a lot of financial burden to start over again with 4 more years of med school compared to just graduating with PharmD in one more year.

So I guess the question is could I be prepared just in 7-8 months, with getting shadowing hours, hopefully clinical hours and studying for MCAT (which I have never studied for) on top of pharmacy school, athletics and multiple jobs (2 on campus and pharmacy intern)?
Click to expand...
For the reasons you have written, I can't recommend medical school. One other major problem you face is the concern that you'll bail on Medicine like you did on Pharm.

The timeline you have come up with is inadequate. It will look like you're merely checking boxes.
 
Tommy1234 said:
After reading your first post and second quote, I feel like you choose a medical school because of a stable job rather than focusing on saving lives and truly love medicine. If you have that mindset, I don't think medicine is for you and you will not succeed as a physician. Patients are number one priority for any healthcare professionals.
Click to expand...

I never said that I want to be a doctor just for the stability of the job. If I wanted that, I could've always went into engineering or something else that's an emerging field. I chose health care in the beginning because I wanted to help people and focus on patient care. Sure pharmacy doesn't have as much patient care as a doctor would have but they are still both important part in ensuring patient safety and improving health. If it was only a matter of providing service to people, I could live with being a pharmacist because there is still some patient interaction. I'm just saying that maybe it's not worth staying in pharmacy with oversaturation and if I could focus on patient care being a doctor instead, which is more suitable with my personality
 
Goro said:
For the reasons you have written, I can't recommend medical school. One other major problem you face is the concern that you'll bail on Medicine like you did on Pharm.
Click to expand...

So basically anyone who changes career in the middle of college isn't suited to anything because they "bailed on it"?
 
ilead said:
So basically anyone who changes career in the middle of college isn't suited to anything because they "bailed on it"?
Click to expand...
No, I think he means is you literally haven't finished 1/3 of your training in a graduate program you spent the time to apply to. It comes off as you either not doing the research on what you actually wanna do, or you lacking the commitment necessary to make it through medical school. If you have a legit reason for switching (besides just 'I wanted something different'), you may not be completely dead in the water. It reflects quite poorly on you that you didn't make sure its what you wanted to do, so why would a medical school take a chance on you when you might leave after a year or less?
 
Chibucks15 said:
No, I think he means is you literally haven't finished 1/3 of your training in a graduate program you spent the time to apply to
Click to expand...

I went to pharmacy direct entry program because I thought that I wanted to be a pharmacist after high school. It's my fault for not looking into it thoroughly beforehand but I will say that I was naive when I was making my decision. I was just thinking I like chemistry, I want to know how drugs work, pharmacy would be great. I just went through undergrad believing that I was going to pursue Pharm.D and didn't really think too much about it because I was surrounded by everyone else who was going the same route. When you say I took all the time to apply to, it really didn't take much. Basically it was just undergrad admissions and a writing assessment + interview to progress from undergrad to professional program. Honestly it didn't take much to get here nor did it give me a reason to think too deeply into pharmacy as a career other than the ideals and hopes I had as a high school student.
I have thought that it is stupid to change since I'm already here. I thought about PT even though it's less money, but it meant building relationships with the patients and providing direct patient care. i could really care less what I get paid, pharmacist vs. doctor, I just wanted more direct patient care (which pharmacists do, but I realized that it's not as much)

I know that this is all words but I love my school and love what I learn. I will admit that job field was the reason why I thought about changing. But the more I thought about it, it became more about my desire to learn more than just drugs and doing more. As for limited job, I've been moving around all my life and I'd be willing to move anywhere to get the job I wanted. I just want to be sure that I don't regret for not trying to go further for the sake of satisfaction of just being on a path
 
ilead said:
I went to pharmacy direct entry program because I thought that I wanted to be a pharmacist after high school. It's my fault for not looking into it thoroughly beforehand but I will say that I was naive when I was making my decision. I was just thinking I like chemistry, I want to know how drugs work, pharmacy would be great. I just went through undergrad believing that I was going to pursue Pharm.D and didn't really think too much about it because I was surrounded by everyone else who was going the same route. When you say I took all the time to apply to, it really didn't take much. Basically it was just undergrad admissions and a writing assessment + interview to progress from undergrad to professional program. Honestly it didn't take much to get here nor did it give me a reason to think too deeply into pharmacy as a career other than the ideals and hopes I had as a high school student.
I have thought that it is stupid to change since I'm already here. I thought about PT even though it's less money, but it meant building relationships with the patients and providing direct patient care. i could really care less what I get paid, pharmacist vs. doctor, I just wanted more direct patient care (which pharmacists do, but I realized that it's not as much)

I know that this is all words but I love my school and love what I learn. I will admit that job field was the reason why I thought about changing. But the more I thought about it, it became more about my desire to learn more than just drugs and doing more. As for limited job, I've been moving around all my life and I'd be willing to move anywhere to get the job I wanted. I just want to be sure that I don't regret for not trying to go further for the sake of satisfaction of just being on a path
Click to expand...
I agree with the post above me. Give it a shot. As long as you have a genuine, well reasoned answer then its okay. The point I guess I was insinuating is that many people don't have legit reasons so it looks pretty bad
 
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