Questions About Pharmacy School

[BK28]

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Hi, I'm still in high school but pharmacy is definitely my main interest as a future career and I just had a few questions. My first one is just generally, what classes should I be taking in high school that will help me in the future with getting into schools? Is getting into pharmacy schools fairy competitive? And last is, I read something about how before you actually get into pharmacy school, you have to do "pre-pharmacy". What exactly does that mean? Do you have to apply to a pharmacy school and literally go for "pre-pharmacy" or would you go to pretty much any school for biochemistry? I'm very lost upon all this. If someone could answer my questions I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!

-Briana

 

[avuong]

Hello BK,

In high school, you should take honors and/or AP chemistry, biology, and physics in your junior and senior year. That will help you in college.

In college [4 year undergraduate university or community college] you take pre-requisite courses which Pharmacy schools require. These typically include: BIO 101, 102, Gen CHEM 1 and 2, Organic chemistry 1 and 2, microbiology, econ, english, etc. THese college-level courses are called "pre-pharmacy".

After you complete 2-4 years of college, you apply to pharmacy school, and if your GPA and PCAT exam score is high enough, you will be accepted.

Pharmacy school takes 4 years. A few schools offer 3 year programs.



There are also a few pharmacy schools which accept you right out of high school. Those are called "0-6" schools.

Most people take a 2+4 (2 years of community college then apply to pharmacy school)

and some take the 4+4 (getting their bachelors degrees from college) .

even fewer apply after they are 25 for career change or other reasons.



Just do well in school, get straight As and try to volunteer in a pharmacy or become a pharmacy technician. You'll make it into pharmacy school in no time!

Best of luck

 

[crazybob]

1. definitely take ap bio, ap phys, ap chem, ap calc, and ap stats if you can

2. at my school, there were 285 applicants, 240 interviewed, 120 accepted, and 35 waitlisted. 120 end up in the entering class in the fall.

3. pre-pharmacy is just taking the pre-requisite courses. it does not matter what your major is.

 

[CSUFTitans]

1. definitely take ap bio, ap phys, ap chem, ap calc, and ap stats if you can

2. at my school, there were 285 applicants, 240 interviewed, 120 accepted, and 35 waitlisted. 120 end up in the entering class in the fall.

3. pre-pharmacy is just taking the pre-requisite courses. it does not matter what your major is.

what school do you go to??

 

[crazybob]

what school do you go to??

for #2, i said at my school, but i meant the school i am going to in the fall. i'm going to uams.

 

[fenixtnlfan]

Moved to pre-pharm forum due to topic.

Have a look at the pre-pharm FAQs located here. The info there will definitely help you out.

 

[BK28]

Thank you all for anwsering my questions, and thank you fenixtnlfan for posting that link. It answered a lot of my questions. I've noticed a lot of people say to take AP classes, what if come senior year i can't get into an AP class for whatever reason. Is honors still going to be okay?

 

[swift3260]

If you cant get into AP classes, your school doesnt have that many AP classes, etc etc, honors will be fine. Just kill them. Its really your pre-req's that matter to pharmacy schools, not what classes you took in high school. AP classes just help to set you up to get great grades in college. (The exception to this would be if you want to get into one of the few 0-6 programs that are out there. AP classes are going to pretty much be a must for these, but 0-6 is by far a less common route then 2+4 or 4+4.)

 

[BK28]

Oh okay. Thank you for your help!

 

[AKN16]

To the op: In high school you should take a course load that is kind to your gpa. Your courses don't have to necessarily be all AP, but try if you can to take a couple of hard courses. I would be careful, to not take a lot of AP tests as there are some pharmacy schools that don't take them as credit if you do well on them.

Since you're in high school, and want to go to pharmacy school, first volunteer at a pharmacy to see if this is what you want to do(you won't truly know if this is for you, until you actually witness the profession up-close). One option is to volunteer at a hospital.

If pharmacy is still what you want to do, apply to 0+6 schools where you can automatically get into their pharmacy program. You'll being saving yourself a lot of money and time...

 

[BK28]

Thank you AKN16. I was stressing over taking lots of AP classes. Ha. In October I'm gonna become a technician at CVS. MY friend works as a technician and is going to help me get a job. Also, I think I understand 0+6 but I'm really lost about 2+4 and 4+4...i just don't understand what that means. Can you explain please? Thank you.

-Briana

 

[AKN16]

Thank you AKN16. I was stressing over taking lots of AP classes. Ha. In October I'm gonna become a technician at CVS. MY friend works as a technician and is going to help me get a job. Also, I think I understand 0+6 but I'm really lost about 2+4 and 4+4...i just don't understand what that means. Can you explain please? Thank you.

-Briana

No problem... 4+4 means that you do four years of undergraduate work for a bachelors degree and then after that you do four years of pharm school(total 8ys)

2+4 means that you do two years of pre-reqs at a college or university and then do four years of pharm school (total 6years)

0+6 means you go straight from high school to a pharmacy program.. you do pre-pharmacy work plus pharmacy work, all within 6 years... It's a great thing to do, if your passionate about the profession, bc you save SO much time and money.

I heard University of Toledo has a 0+5 program, if I'm not mistaken.. You might want to investigate that.