Pre-reqs: When is it good enough?

[CaptainKev]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello all,

I have just begun my senior year at the University of Colorado, Boulder (no 4/20 jokes please, I'm already embarrassed attending this school as it is), and I have just finished up my majors in MCDB (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology) and Neuroscience as of this summer. I am now finishing up my core classes, of whose usefulness can be described best through the creative use of how to consume bovine excrement via chopsticks, and, of course, pharmacy school pre-requisite classes (of which metaphors regarding consumption of any type of excrement is flattery). Now, let me explain to all of you my situation:

I LOVE my area of study, specifically molecular neurobiology and neuropharmacology. I eat this **** for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am even lucky enough to have a job in a lab focusing on drug (in my case, methamphetamine) addiction and its effects on adenosine receptor expression throughout various brain regions in the hopes of using adenosine receptor agonists/antagonists to attenuate relapse behavior in addicts (think: caffeine = nonselective adeonosine receptor antagonist).

However, I cannot f-ing stand sitting in Anatomy lecture/lab at the moment, or public speaking, and cannot imagine sitting through microbiology, economics, and physiology lecture/lab next semester. The very thought of these two semesters, void of, in the best case scenario, moderately redundant or brand spanking new-yet-utterly-useless information, makes me want to drink a gallon of vodka in the hopes of puking up my own intestines so that I may hang myself from said entrails.

My hopes are to attend the University of Colorado, Denver, pharmacy school. I am looking to you fine fellows to answer me this: is it necessary to perform the equivalent of mental suicide for the next two semesters in order to attend such a school? Or can I, perhaps, slip through the bureaucratic [ass]cracks (please, God, tell me it is so!)... and if not, can I take these classes pass/fail?

For those of you who have actually made it this far in the post and actually care, in any way at all, about some lonesome intraweb bozo who's managed to find his way onto your forum, please take into consideration my transcript thus far:

SU09 EBIO1210 3.0 T General Biology 1
000472911: BIOLOGY
SU09 EBIO1220 3.0 T General Biology 2
000472911: BIOLOGY
SU09 EBIO1230 1.0 T General Biology Lab 1
000472911: BIOLOGY
SU09 EBIO1240 1.0 T General Biology Lab 2
000472911: BIOLOGY
SU09 MATH1300 5.0 T Calculus 1
000472911: CALC AB
SU09 PSYC1001 4.0 T General Psychology
000472911: PSYCH

^^^AP Credits...lol^^^

* FA2009
( 16.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 6 COURSES TAKEN 4.000 GPA
FA09 CHEM1111 5.0 A General Chemistry 1
FA09 MCDB1150 3.0 A Intro/Cellular & Molecular Bi
FA09 MCDB1151 1.0 A Intro/Cell & Molecular Bio La
FA09 MCDB1152 1.0 P Problem Solving Intro
FA09 PHIL1100 3.0 A Ethics:Honors
FA09 PSYC2606 3.0 A Social Psychology

* SP2010
( 16.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 6 COURSES TAKEN 3.900 GPA
SP10 CHEM1131 5.0 A- General Chemistry 2
SP10 MCDB2150 3.0 A Principles of Genetics
SP10 MCDB2151 1.0 A Principle/Genetics Lab
SP10 MCDB2152 1.0 P Problem Solving Genetics
SP10 PSYC2012 3.0 A Biological Psych 1
SP10 PSYC4303 3.0 A Abnormal Psychology

* FA2010
( 13.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 4 COURSES TAKEN 4.000 GPA
FA10 MCDB3135 3.0 A Molecular Cell Biol I
FA10 MCDB3140 2.0 A Cell Biology Laboratory
FA10 PHYS2010 5.0 A General Physics 1
FA10 WRTG1150 3.0 A 1st Yr Writing/Rhetoric

* SP2011
( 15.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 4 COURSES TAKEN 3.920 GPA
SP11 MCDB3145 3.0 A Molecular Cell Biol II
SP11 PHYS2020 5.0 A General Physics 2
SP11 PSYC3101 4.0 A- Statistics/Resrch Methds
SP11 THTR1009 3.0 A Introduction to Theatre

* SU2011
( 10.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 4 COURSES TAKEN 3.970 GPA
SU11 CHEM3311 4.0 A Organic Chemistry 1
SU11 CHEM3321 1.0 A- Lab/Organic Chemistry 1
SU11 CHEM3331 4.0 A Organic Chemistry 2
SU11 CHEM3341 1.0 A Lab/Organic Chemistry 2

* FA2011
( 13.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 4 COURSES TAKEN 3.677 GPA
FA11 MCDB4300 3.0 B+ Immunology
FA11 MUEL2772 3.0 A Asia
FA11 NRSC2100 4.0 A Intro Neuroscience 1
FA11 NRSC4132 3.0 B+ Neuropharmacology

* SP2012
( 12.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 4 COURSES TAKEN 3.925 GPA
SP12 CHEM4611 3.0 A Survey of Biochemistry
SP12 GRMN2301 3.0 A Inside Nazi Germany
SP12 MCDB4426 3.0 A- Cell Signaling/Devel Reg
SP12 NRSC4032 3.0 A Neurobio Learn & Memory

* SU2012
( 3.0 HOURS TAKEN ) 1 COURSE TAKEN 4.000 GPA
SU12 MCDB4777 3.0 A Molecular Neurobiology

Overall GPA: 3.92
Dean's List
Recently became a member of Phi Beta Kappa (which I have serious doubts about....)


Thank you all for reading, any insight would be greatly appreciated.

-Kevin

🙂

 

[DrDrugs2012]

There will always be a part of life or some requirement of life which one may find rather unpleasant. In your academics, you find the general education component rather tasteless. In your workplace, even as a researcher, perhaps you might find grant writing equally tasteless. No matter where you go or what you do, you are always going to find some aspects of your occupation boring, repetitive leaving you unfulfilled. It is only by recognizing that those same mundane aspects are what enable you to ultimately derive pleasure from what you do will you actually begin to fully appreciate the potential of future experiences.

Or in other words, learn to deal with the good and bad. No one really enjoys paying taxes... but you pay them anyways.

 

[CaptainKev]

There will always be a part of life or some requirement of life which one may find rather unpleasant. In your academics, you find the general education component rather tasteless. In your workplace, even as a researcher, perhaps you might find grant writing equally tasteless. No matter where you go or what you do, you are always going to find some aspects of your occupation boring, repetitive leaving you unfulfilled. It is only by recognizing that those same mundane aspects are what enable you to ultimately derive pleasure from what you do will you actually begin to fully appreciate the potential of future experiences.

Or in other words, learn to deal with the good and bad. No one really enjoys paying taxes... but you pay them anyways.

As much as I hate to say it...

You, sir, are absolutely right.

And I am humbled.

 

[Guitarmacy]

I think we all know the feeling. I started out as a music student and ended up making it my minor. As bad as you don't want to take speech, I didn't want to learn to sight read music (do re mi fa so blah). After 16 classes (for a damn minor) and all the general ed bs (felt like I was repeating high school) I'm actually happy to take anatomy, microbio, etc.

The point is, yes it sucks to go through all that somewhat pointless schooling, but it makes the stuff you're really interested in that much better.. especially if you're passionate about it which it seems like you are.

By the way I'm at Metro State also looking to go to CU SOP. Are you applying for Fall 2013?

 

[mustang sally]

If they are the prereqs for that school, then yeah, you have to take them.

I was short one class (economics) when I decided to apply to pharm school and took it as a community college night class after I got off work every Monday. Let me tell you how much I enjoyed that. 🙂 You do what you gotta do.

 

[xtsukiyox]

Can you take Anatomy & Physiology as a combined course? You will probably enjoy the physiology aspect of it. If it is not offered as a combined course - my condolences. I took A&P combined, and I have no idea how I would have made it through if it were just anatomy.

I will tell you that these classes become important when your instructors assume that you have the anatomy knowledge to swallow from the fire hose that is pharma school instruction. Well, at least in the initial P1 stages (I can tell you more in a year 😉 ). I am astonished at things that I thought were useless, one-off bits of information from my prereq studies that keep coming back up. The most recent example is reaction rate orders - or whatever they call it - that came up in my Pharmaceutics class. Blast from Gen Chem II.

Unfortunately, in order to become a pharmacist, you will need to take the prerequisites required to do so. In many cases, the classes are not necessarily to make you remember the subjects well, but simply to expose you to a wider variety of thought. In American higher education, we apparently believe that our educated should be Renaissance men with a breadth of thought and knowledge rather than strict specialists, and our system reflects such.

 

[smercer]

Hello all,

I LOVE my area of study, specifically molecular neurobiology and neuropharmacology. I eat this **** for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am even lucky enough to have a job in a lab focusing on drug (in my case, methamphetamine) addiction and its effects on adenosine receptor expression throughout various brain regions in the hopes of using adenosine receptor agonists/antagonists to attenuate relapse behavior in addicts (think: caffeine = nonselective adeonosine receptor antagonist).


Thank you all for reading, any insight would be greatly appreciated.

-Kevin

🙂

I think you would find going to grad school better than pharmacy school. Not many pharmacists will do the type of work that you seem to have fallen in love with.

Also I think you should get some pharmacy experience in the typical settings (Hosptial/retail) that will give you a better idea of what you should expect life to be like after pharm. school. From your post, I am not so sure it is what you want to do.