Hello everyone, i’m a senior at my university and am in a situation. I have been pre pharmacy my entire college career and was planning on applying for the fall 2021 cycle but lately i’ve been questioning whether or not i should really pursue pharmacy. I have shadowed a couple of retail pharmacists and do not mind the job whatsoever but with people telling me how saturated the field has becoming i’m beginning to question if i really wanna go through with pharmacy school if i’m not even guaranteed a job when i graduate? I have been looking at pursuing dental at this point but my main concern is the following, i have retaken gen-chem1 3 times, environmental bio 3 times as well as psych101 3 times. I took these classes my freshman year and didn’t do so hot my first semester and wanted to receive at least a B or A in the courses and took it until i did. So far my gpa is at a 3.6 i believe, also have a pcat score within the 80th percentile, and have 4 letters of recommendations (2 from professors, 1 from a pharmacist, and another from a physician i shadowed in a clinic) Given my stats do i still have a chance at another field? do schools care about classes being retaken? all the help would be much appreciated, thanks.
Pursue pharmacy? need help
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First of all, i just want to point out that shadowing retail pharmacists is completely different from working as one (especially for a 12 hour shift) for multiple shifts. Also, you may have shadowed pharmacists in an independent pharmacy because I don't ever recall this being common in a major chain pharmacy.
My advice is to put up the time and effort now rather than in the future when things become unstable and more likelihood of unexpected life changes. A 3.6 GPA is definitely competitive for other healthcare avenues depending on if you have extracurriculars/research/leadership experience to add to this. Most schools will usually give you a chance to explain when a class is being retaken during an interview, otherwise you usually get granted an interview with what is shown on the face of your application (especially GPA).
My advice is to put up the time and effort now rather than in the future when things become unstable and more likelihood of unexpected life changes. A 3.6 GPA is definitely competitive for other healthcare avenues depending on if you have extracurriculars/research/leadership experience to add to this. Most schools will usually give you a chance to explain when a class is being retaken during an interview, otherwise you usually get granted an interview with what is shown on the face of your application (especially GPA).
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No, do not pursue pharmacy.
Very true that no on will hire you once you graduate. Your best chance would be to get a job at cvs for $25/hr which is $5 more than a tech. If you've worked as a tech for 4 years, you would be getting about the same amount of money. With big box pharmacies pushing to de-value pharmacists as much as they could, techs now have legal ability to do pretty much everything. By the time you graduate, the spineless state board of pharmacies will have let the big companies walk all over them and change the laws to make pharmacists obsolete and let cashiers check prescriptions since they successfully turned our profession into where's wally. You look at one side of the screen and match it with the other side of the screen.
So, no, pharmacy is not for you.
Very true that no on will hire you once you graduate. Your best chance would be to get a job at cvs for $25/hr which is $5 more than a tech. If you've worked as a tech for 4 years, you would be getting about the same amount of money. With big box pharmacies pushing to de-value pharmacists as much as they could, techs now have legal ability to do pretty much everything. By the time you graduate, the spineless state board of pharmacies will have let the big companies walk all over them and change the laws to make pharmacists obsolete and let cashiers check prescriptions since they successfully turned our profession into where's wally. You look at one side of the screen and match it with the other side of the screen.
So, no, pharmacy is not for you.
D
deleted1066189
Your GPA is lower than you think, if those class grades were replaced on your school transcript.
If you really want to know what retail pharmacy is like, then spend some time working as a tech (CVS is always hiring). It is definitely an environment one can burn out in, and retail pharmacist jobs don't have stability (negative job growth, lowering hours AND pay, and the floater issue)
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3.6 GPA sounds like the university replaced your lower grades with your higher retakes and did not bother to average out all 3 grades from each repeated class. When you apply to PharmCAS, it will average all of your repeated credits and not take the highest grade. This will of course bring your cumulative and science GPA down.
As for wondering if you still have a chance in another field, it'd be best if you go ahead and post your concerns in the field of interest on the SDN main forum page (ie dental, medical, physical therapy, etc).
As mentioned, shadowing a pharmacist is not anywhere close as working with a pharmacist. This field has the rare opportunity of which you can work and get paid to put in hours in the pharmacy to see the tempo of the job. You'll get a better grasp of basic HIPPA regulations, basic control II-V drug rules, understanding sig codes, and how insurance works. All of this is something you'll need to have some level of grasp with should you pursue your future endeavors as an intern and eventual pharmacist. Of course this wont be close to seeing how it works as a pharmacist, but it's a lot better than shadowing (especially for yourself).
As for schools caring if classes have been retaken, yes. Nonetheless, it's not the end of the world and many still get interviews in other health professions if you can explain your situation and back it up with an upward trend and higher science credit courses (i.e. repeated molecular biology but got an A in advanced molecular biology). Again, you'd be served best asking your concerns in the specific healthcare forums if you want more details to be competitive. At this point, shadow shadow shadow in as many health-fields as you can. It's worth taking a year after school to solidify what you want to pursue for the next 35+ years of your working life by shadowing while working as a tech.
Good luck.
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There are unemployed pharmacists from the class of 2019 and 2020. Market rate is currently $45-50/hr with only 30 hours per week if you're lucky enough to find a job. Do you know how long it will take to payoff $200,000 in student loans with that low salary?
You have a great chance of getting into pharmacy school. The real hard part is actually finding a job after you graduate with $200k+ in loans.
There are much better professions, i.e. computer programming, finance, accounting, engineering, the trades, etc. that are in demand, pay well, offer far better job conditions, and most importantly do not require you to take out $200k+ in loans and spend an additional 4 years of your life in school.
There are much better professions, i.e. computer programming, finance, accounting, engineering, the trades, etc. that are in demand, pay well, offer far better job conditions, and most importantly do not require you to take out $200k+ in loans and spend an additional 4 years of your life in school.
Oh, heck, basket-weaving is probably a better major than pharmacy nowadays.
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If you really desire to do something in healthcare besides pharmacy and worry about your undergraduate grades, take out loans and do a postbacc (you can do a pre-health postbacc for like 20k if enrolled in a formal prehealth postbacc program or less if you do a DIY postbacc - feel free to pm me for details on this if you want to know more) - sure it's more debt but it will let you become competitive for many other healthcare fields. Taking out 200k or more on loans for pharmacy is just not a good investment. If you're in CA, you are likely looking at 250-300k debt following pharmacy school assuming your family is not paying your tuition / you don't get substantial scholarships. Pharmacy should not be a default because you think you can't get into other healthcare programs. Only go to pharmacy school if you are 100% committed to the field and can't see yourself nor desire doing anything else for the next 20+ years of your life. Also don't assume residency is a given. I know several students who applied to PGY1 residency programs who failed to match despite having 3.5 GPAs in pharmacy school and lots of experience; consequently they are either resigned now to floater pharmacy jobs part-time bc that was the best they could find or are simply still unemployed despite graduating last May 2020. Understand also, if you do go, you very well might not be able to find full time work in your city and might need to relocate to a rural area out of necessity. The choice is up to you. My strong recommendation however is to forget pharm, do a DIY postbacc if passionate about patient care, and apply to PA, nursing, PT, med, dental, or opto school. All of those will yield a better ROI than pharmacy. Good luck!
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Engineering, programming does not pay 45-50$ an hour.. its yearly salary of 60k and you work day time, and have weekends/ midnight meetings and work being on phone late night with people in China and India if you are lucky to find a job.
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The lowest paid engineers in my graduating class 15 years ago made $60k+ for simple 9 to 5 civil engineering jobs after a bachelors. They all certainly earn far more now (especially the programmers), most with no or extremely few night and weekends.
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15 years ago, the sign on bonus for pharmacists were more than yearly salary noted above.
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