Should I go for Medicine or Pharmacy?

[BioBeaver]

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I'm having a hard time deciding whether I want to go as a Pre-pharm or Pre-med track in college. From what I understand, both career's job/improvement prospects are fairly stagnant, so I figured I might as well ask.

I think I would love to research new drugs, vaccines, and really work on improving the world more than just clinical care. So naturally I'm kind of attracted to MD/PhD and PharmD/PhD programs. But which of these would be best for drug and vaccine research, and maybe even clinical trials?

 

[FantasyVesperia]

Ah ~ Don't worry bud, I was in the (somewhat) exact same boat that you're in.

In your case, it seems like you are leaning more towards pharmacy and research because of your interest in drug development and research. I would suggest to start seeing some pharmacist in your area, clinical and retail to see the big picture first.

I remember I wanted to do pharmacy a couple months ago and realized I hated it, it was too boring for me lol. But my pharmacy friends said that they loved every aspect of pharmacy, so to each its own I guess 😛

 

[Hillo]

You can just research with a PhD.
In a PhD program, you take more advanced courses AND do research.
After that, you probably will conduct different research in a post-doc.

But the thing is, you gotta know if you like it or not.
I personally do not like how the system works.

Going pre-pharmacy or pre-med should be the least of your worries if your goal is research and development.

I just read "The biggest problem with my application wasn't numbers; it was convincing adcoms that "medical school isn't a backup." My entire application screamed research so I had to spin my research experience."

 

[JPodel]

Pre-Med.

 

[Velma Dinkley]

If you want to research new drugs, I'm not sure a PharmD alone would be the best route for that, so make sure you go the PharmD/PhD route if that's what you want.. While job prospects should certainly play a part in the decision, I don't think it should be a deciding factor. They are both holding steady.

Honestly, a PharmD/PhD combination seems to be almost exactly what you need.