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.
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.