Question about pharmacy pre-reqs

[UES Girl]

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Hi, there !
First I'd like to say thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post. If you know the answer to my question - I would really appreciate any input.

Here's the situation:

I am a senior majoring in biochemistry 2 classes away from graduation who plans to graduate in spring 2008. I am currently applying to pharmacy schools yet I do not have one of the pre-reqs - a second semester 5 unit introductionary biology course - 3 lecture units and 2 lab units. I have taken this class two years ago and failed it - got an F. Without going into too many personal details - I want to say I realize this sounds really bad - but I had a serious personal tragedy that semester- - and I honestly could not care less about my grades at that time. Since that time - I have taken many, again MANY upper division biology and chemistry courses - and got As and A- in nearly all of them. Even though I am a biochem major I've taken enough upper division biology electives to double major in cell bio if I wanted too. So here's the dillema. Next semester is my last semester and I have to take pchem 2 and pchem lab. I could cramm that general bio course and retake it as well. But I honestly do not want too. I'd much rather take another couple of upper division courses like molecular genetics or inorganic chem. So I am wondering do pharm schools ever 'forgive" pre-reqs ? I feel as since I have a ton of upper division bio courses with excellet grades - I shouldn't have to go back and take that remedial sophmore class again. Can anything be done or should I just grind my teeth and take that sophomore class ?

 

[fenixtnlfan]

I'm pretty sure you are going to need to take the bio, especially since you failed it the first time. Your situation may depend on the school though, so your best bet is to contact the school and ask if they will let you skip the bio pre-req. I haven't heard of anyone getting out of a pre-req before.

 

[117296]

Hi, there !
First I'd like to say thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post. If you know the answer to my question - I would really appreciate any input.

Here's the situation:

I am a senior majoring in biochemistry 2 classes away from graduation who plans to graduate in spring 2008. I am currently applying to pharmacy schools yet I do not have one of the pre-reqs - a second semester 5 unit introductionary biology course - 3 lecture units and 2 lab units. I have taken this class two years ago and failed it - got an F. Without going into too many personal details - I want to say I realize this sounds really bad - but I had a serious personal tragedy that semester- - and I honestly could not care less about my grades at that time. Since that time - I have taken many, again MANY upper division biology and chemistry courses - and got As and A- in nearly all of them. Even though I am a biochem major I've taken enough upper division biology electives to double major in cell bio if I wanted too. So here's the dillema. Next semester is my last semester and I have to take pchem 2 and pchem lab. I could cramm that general bio course and retake it as well. But I honestly do not want too. I'd much rather take another couple of upper division courses like molecular genetics or inorganic chem. So I am wondering do pharm schools ever 'forgive" pre-reqs ? I feel as since I have a ton of upper division bio courses with excellet grades - I shouldn't have to go back and take that remedial sophmore class again. Can anything be done or should I just grind my teeth and take that sophomore class ?

I'd say there's a 99% chance that you will need to take it, but ask individual schools.

 

[UES Girl]

Thanks for your replies, guys. I wil defintely contact the schools, yet I was wondering that maybe something else can be done. Maybe I didn't describe the situation correct - the class that I have failed is an intro bio class. Since that time I have taken ( and did great in ) nearly every upper division biology class in the department. Like I said - I have enough biology classes to double major and graduate with a cell biology degree. I feel like it's almost redundant and pointless to retake an intro class because it's an "official " prereq when my knowledge and further classes I took far exceed anything covered in that class. Isn't there anything tht can be done ?

 

[FLPharm2Be]

It really depends on the school, if the school requires an intro course, they will probably require you to retake it. If they only require Bio credits, than you may get away without retaking the course. That is why you should contact the schools you are applying to. I understand the redundancy, I took AP Calc as a high schooler many years ago and took calc 2, calc 3, and diff. eq. in college. One school required me to send my archived AP scores from high school to fulfill their Calc 1 requirement. Some things just have to be done. 🙄

 

[jspwinter]

why don't you ask the school? I don't think any one of us is in admissions and wouldn't know for certain.

 

[UES Girl]

why don't you ask the school? I don't think any one of us is in admissions and wouldn't know for certain.

the reason why I was asking because I thought maybe somebody had a similar situation and could share their experience with me. I also thought maybe there is some kind of alternative to taking a pre-req like taking some kind of test that would let you test out and skip a certain prereq. Like I said I will definately ask the school but wanted to test the waters first and see if anything else can be done.

 

[FLPharm2Be]

the reason why I was asking because I thought maybe somebody had a similar situation and could share their experience with me. I also thought maybe there is some kind of alternative to taking a pre-req like taking some kind of test that would let you test out and skip a certain prereq. Like I said I will definately ask the school but wanted to test the waters first and see if anything else can be done.

There are clep exams that you can take to test out of courses. You can also ask your schools about their opinions on them. One negative is that you won't receive a grade for the course on your transcript, just the credits.

 

[UES Girl]

There are clep exams that you can take to test out of courses. You can also ask your schools about their opinions on them. One negative is that you won't receive a grade for the course on your transcript, just the credits.

Thanks, FLPharm2Be - you rock. I will definately look into that.

 

[Hels2007]

There are clep exams that you can take to test out of courses. You can also ask your schools about their opinions on them. One negative is that you won't receive a grade for the course on your transcript, just the credits.

Not all schools accept CLEP exams for prerequisites. Mine didn't.