Pre-req courses, what to do and where to take them?!!

[EdPharm10]

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I want to start a pharmacy program in 2011 or 2012. I already have a BA and MA in teaching so I have fulfilled all social science and humanities requirements. However I do not have the sciences. I have researched and found out the required courses by most pharm programs and I wish to start taking these classes here in the Harrisburg, Pa area. I will be moving next summer (2010) so can only take a few. I plan to take calculus, gen chem 1 and 2 and bio 1 and 2 here. My questions are:

1) Where can I take these courses where they will be accepted by pharm programs ( I worry about community college courses being acceptable to pharm schools) in the central Pa area????? How do I apply to the college to register for these courses?? SO CONFUSED ABOUT THIS
2) Knowing I must take these above mentioned courses here in PA and the other half of the pharm pre-reqs in the next state we move to , is this possible? Will the pharm programs accept pre req courses taken as non degree classes in two different colleges? I have to do this because we are definitely moving next year summer 2010 for my husband's job and I cannot compplete all courses here in one year or all the next state in one year.
3) Does the second college I take classes at care whether my prereqs were taken elsewhere, do I need to worry about transferring credits?
4) What else do you advise me to do in the next two years to improve my application (volunteering, work experience necessary). My goal is to have a competitive application and background. My previous degrees are from the Univeristy of Michigan where I graduated with 4.0, so I wish to maintain this academic acheivement in my pre-pharm preparation.

Thanks so much to all of you!

 

[tahi193]

Welcome to the world of pre-pharm! It gets confusing! 😕

First of all, try this link. It its very reliable information about all of the pharmacy schools that participate in PharmCAS. PharmCAS is a central organization that will be handling your application when you apply.

http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/directoryalphastate.htm

I think most pharmacy schools will accept community college credit. Your best bet is to look it up for each school you're interested in, or better yet, call/email each school to be safe. As for applying to the community college, you'll just have to check out their website or call them.

Moving shouldn't be a problem as long as each school you take classes at is accepted by the pharmacy school. You'll just need to request transcripts from each school when you apply.

I think as long as you're not a degree-seeking student at the colleges where you take your prereqs then you don't need to worry about transferring credit.


Advice:

Your GPA is very nice, as I'm sure you know and you went to a good undergraduate school. No matter what people say, community college courses are generally easier to do well in than university courses. Make sure if you go to community college that you keep an excellent GPA. GPA is most important but you also need to retain the information and not lose it the second the course is over. Why? Well, you'll need it in pharmacy school, but you also need to take the PCAT and this information will come up there.

The PCAT will cover general biology, general chemistry, some organic chemistry, and statistics/trig/precalc/basic calc. There's also some English language stuff.

Get some pharmacy experience. Volunteer, shadow, work as a pharmacy tech. The more hours you can get in the better.

There are a billion threads here that go into detail about GPA, PCAT, volunteering, anything else you can think of. Just have a search around the site.

 

[rphfan2009]

Welcome to the world of pre-pharm! It gets confusing! 😕

First of all, try this link. It its very reliable information about all of the pharmacy schools that participate in PharmCAS. PharmCAS is a central organization that will be handling your application when you apply.

http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/directoryalphastate.htm

I think most pharmacy schools will accept community college credit. Your best bet is to look it up for each school you're interested in, or better yet, call/email each school to be safe. As for applying to the community college, you'll just have to check out their website or call them.

Moving shouldn't be a problem as long as each school you take classes at is accepted by the pharmacy school. You'll just need to request transcripts from each school when you apply.

I think as long as you're not a degree-seeking student at the colleges where you take your prereqs then you don't need to worry about transferring credit.


Advice:

Your GPA is very nice, as I'm sure you know and you went to a good undergraduate school. No matter what people say, community college courses are generally easier to do well in than university courses. Make sure if you go to community college that you keep an excellent GPA. GPA is most important but you also need to retain the information and not lose it the second the course is over. Why? Well, you'll need it in pharmacy school, but you also need to take the PCAT and this information will come up there.

The PCAT will cover general biology, general chemistry, some organic chemistry, and statistics/trig/precalc/basic calc. There's also some English language stuff.

Get some pharmacy experience. Volunteer, shadow, work as a pharmacy tech. The more hours you can get in the better.

There are a billion threads here that go into detail about GPA, PCAT, volunteering, anything else you can think of. Just have a search around the site.

Very well put! I totally agree with you. I'm in the pre-pharm boat as well 🙂

BTW, I'm taking my pre-reqs at a regular 4 year college...my prospective pharmacy schools don't like community colleges. So you are right about that...people need to look into each school individually.

As for retaining the info...totally agree with you as well. I look at it this way: we are responsible for peoples lives and need to know that information.

How much more to you have to go? Best of luck again 🙂

 

[aboveliquidice]

Welcome to the world of pre-pharm! It gets confusing! 😕

First of all, try this link. It its very reliable information about all of the pharmacy schools that participate in PharmCAS. PharmCAS is a central organization that will be handling your application when you apply.

http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/directoryalphastate.htm

I think most pharmacy schools will accept community college credit. Your best bet is to look it up for each school you're interested in, or better yet, call/email each school to be safe. As for applying to the community college, you'll just have to check out their website or call them.

Moving shouldn't be a problem as long as each school you take classes at is accepted by the pharmacy school. You'll just need to request transcripts from each school when you apply.

I think as long as you're not a degree-seeking student at the colleges where you take your prereqs then you don't need to worry about transferring credit.


Advice:

Your GPA is very nice, as I'm sure you know and you went to a good undergraduate school. No matter what people say, community college courses are generally easier to do well in than university courses. Make sure if you go to community college that you keep an excellent GPA. GPA is most important but you also need to retain the information and not lose it the second the course is over. Why? Well, you'll need it in pharmacy school, but you also need to take the PCAT and this information will come up there.

The PCAT will cover general biology, general chemistry, some organic chemistry, and statistics/trig/precalc/basic calc. There's also some English language stuff.

Get some pharmacy experience. Volunteer, shadow, work as a pharmacy tech. The more hours you can get in the better.

There are a billion threads here that go into detail about GPA, PCAT, volunteering, anything else you can think of. Just have a search around the site.

This is excellent advice.

 

[rphfan2009]

Amen.

 

[EdPharm10]

Thanks guys!
SoI have not yet taken a single class. I found a university here (Millersville) that has an Assoc degree program in Chem which fulfills most pre-pharm requirements. This is a 60 credit program. Now (knowing I will be moving somewhere else summer 2010) I am trying to decide whether to pursue this program here and now and strive to complete it by then by taking 4 classes summer, winter, fall, and summer 2010 (which I think I can do, all through undergrad I took 20+ credits...I know I am crazy) but I have always been in some type of rush in my life for one reason or another. OR I can keep my job and take 2 classes a semester and then complete the other half of the courses where ever we end up moving to in fall 2010. THis is my preference, but I worry about doing this and whether pharmacy schools would care that I took some classes in one University and the other classes in another. IS THIS A PROBLEM OR DRAWBACK IN MY APPLCIATION? Also, based on my research and your comments, I am going to try and take these classes at a 4 year college/university rather than comm college. So is a no name university such as MIllersville good enough? Unfortunately there are no other Universities in the area I am in! Thanks!

 

[Spock87]

Thanks guys!
SoI have not yet taken a single class. I found a university here (Millersville) that has an Assoc degree program in Chem which fulfills most pre-pharm requirements. This is a 60 credit program. Now (knowing I will be moving somewhere else summer 2010) I am trying to decide whether to pursue this program here and now and strive to complete it by then by taking 4 classes summer, winter, fall, and summer 2010 (which I think I can do, all through undergrad I took 20+ credits...I know I am crazy) but I have always been in some type of rush in my life for one reason or another. OR I can keep my job and take 2 classes a semester and then complete the other half of the courses where ever we end up moving to in fall 2010. THis is my preference, but I worry about doing this and whether pharmacy schools would care that I took some classes in one University and the other classes in another. IS THIS A PROBLEM OR DRAWBACK IN MY APPLCIATION? Also, based on my research and your comments, I am going to try and take these classes at a 4 year college/university rather than comm college. So is a no name university such as MIllersville good enough? Unfortunately there are no other Universities in the area I am in! Thanks!

- Taking classes from different universities will not be a draw back in your application. You should, however, take the bio/gen chem/o chem series at one university. For example, if you need BIOL 201, 202, 203, you should take all of them at one university. Don't split them up. You can take the chem series at a different university if you need to.
- A "no name" university should not be a problem as long as you do well. I took most of my pre-req at a community college.
- Since you want to pursue this Chem degree, make sure the other university have some what similar degree and the credits transfer
- Like other posters said, you already have good GPA, keep it up! Get pharmacy experiences like volunteer, etc etc etc.

Good luck!