Statistic: Did you have another Bachelor Degree before going into Pharm School?

[susan19891231]

I will be going to university this coming september, and have planned to go to get a degree in Pharmacy. But I've heard there are people who would complete a degree prior going in to Pharmacy. Would that be something to think about? Or Would it be just wasting of time? Another things is that should I go to med-school afterwards instead of Phamacy.
hope you guys can clear the mud for me~~

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[WVUPharm2007]

It's a waste of time if a PharmD is your goal and you can get in without a BS. However...if you need the boost on your app, a BS can't hurt.

 

[dgroulx]

I will be going to university this coming september, and have planned to go to get a degree in Pharmacy. But I've heard there are people who would complete a degree prior going in to Pharmacy. Would that be something to think about? Or Would it be just wasting of time? Another things is that should I go to med-school afterwards instead of Phamacy.
hope you guys can clear the mud for me~~

I had a degree in Biology first. I had to take some other courses while I was taking the pharmacy prereqs, so I just took the other needed biology courses. My school (UF) requires at least an AA degree + 32 credit hours in various science courses with labs. I already had the AA, and it was going to take me 2 years for the other prereqs, anyway, so I went ahead and got my BS. Some of my classmates went on to med school, vet school, etc. I chose pharmacy because that's what I wanted to do.

 

[genesis09]

No bachelors for me. However, at my school the percentage of bachelors degrees has increased greatly since I started. In my year, a little shy of 60% had bachelors, and for this year's P-1's, the percentage is about 70%.

 

[GatorRxGirl]

If you really want the BS then get it, but if you are having doubts about getting it, save your $$ and get the Pharm.D. I have a BS degree and it looks nice on my wall but I'll never use it.

 

[piyi]

I have a bachelors of arts in telecommunications, but that's only because I went through three years of college without really knowing what I wanted to do. The last year I decided on pharmacy, but by then I just needed a break from school; however, I wanted to get done with something in college and not just quit after going for three years. So I just got the telecom degree and took a few years off. I'm not sure if it helped me in any way get into pharmacy school; probably just a little.

 

[spacecowgirl]

I have a BA in psych. I had a wonderful time in my 4 years as an undergrad - about 1000000X more fun than pharm school. I was so much more involved in extra curriculars, got lots of leadership experience, research experience, had a few research grants, summer research program, got to study abroad. I think it made me a much better student in pharm school. I also worked in between programs which gave me some real-world experience. But that's my biased opinion and it only applies to me.

I guess what it comes down to is that when I'm 65 I will not look back and think, "gosh, I wish I would have worked an extra 3 years when I was 24." instead I'll think "Damn, I had fun, learned a lot, met cool people, went to distant places." Totally depends on your goals and preferences. Mine was to enjoy my 20s, yours might be different. That's not to say you can't accomplish some of these things in pharmacy school, but I find it impossible to believe you can do all of them and graduate in 6 years. So career wise, will a BS/BA help you in the long run? Depends on what you define as help. Will you make more $$? Probably not. But I feel it had far-reaching benefits beyond salary.

Just my two pennies.

 

[janeno]

I agree with spacecowgirl: it all depends on your priorities. I got my bachelor's degree, and I am glad that I did. During my four years of undergrad, I made great friendships and was involved in non-pharmacy related activities/work. I would not want to make those four years any shorter.

Plus, now while I am in pharmacy school, in case anything happens and I will be forced to leave the program or something along those lines, I have a back up: I have another degree with which I can get a decently paying job.

 

[pharmdinfl]

I got a bachelor's degree before entering pharmacy school. I realized during my 3rd year of undergrad that I might like to continue on with school and so I started exploring pharmacy. I didn't want to waste the time and effort I had put into my BS degree, so I decided to finish it up so that at least I'd have the degree to show for the hard work! I was on scholarship so I actually didn't pay for the schooling, but I guess you could look at it the other way in that I lost an extra few years of working....but I wouldn't have it any other way because I have so many great memories from those years.

To me, it was totally worth it to get my BS. Like a few others mentioned before, I had a lot more free time during those 4 years to participate in extra curricular activities and meet lots of new people and just grow as a person in general. I have a degree that I can actually use on its own so if I ever become bored with pharmacy, I have something else to fall back on or I can always do both jobs part-time as another option.

 

[KARM12]

I got a bachelor's degree before entering pharmacy school. I realized during my 3rd year of undergrad that I might like to continue on with school and so I started exploring pharmacy. I didn't want to waste the time and effort I had put into my BS degree, so I decided to finish it up so that at least I'd have the degree to show for the hard work! I was on scholarship so I actually didn't pay for the schooling, but I guess you could look at it the other way in that I lost an extra few years of working....but I wouldn't have it any other way because I have so many great memories from those years.

To me, it was totally worth it to get my BS. Like a few others mentioned before, I had a lot more free time during those 4 years to participate in extra curricular activities and meet lots of new people and just grow as a person in general. I have a degree that I can actually use on its own so if I ever become bored with pharmacy, I have something else to fall back on or I can always do both jobs part-time as another option.

I agree with pretty much everything you wrote!

A BS degree was personally the best option for me because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I also think I matured a lot by the time I started my PharmD program. I don't think I would have been as successful in pharmacy school if I went after only 2 yrs because I was a goof off. That being said, there are very successful PharmD students that only completed 2 yrs of undergrad. It all depends on the person.

 

[lvp0021]

I have a BS in biochemistry and now a P1. Like people said, I loved those undergrad days sooo soooo much. Those good old golden days. I wouldn't trade them for anything.
Reasons to get a BS or BA before entering
-Give you extra preparation under your belly to prepare for the overwhelmingly difficult courses eg biochem, physiology during first year or med chem and pharmacology during second year.
-Give you a back up in case you decide to leave the pharmd program--you still can find a job or pursue another graduate degrees
-give you an edge for initial admission to pharmd program. They see that you've been through quite a bit with studying and learning how to study.
-Look good on your resume when applying for intern or residency or job after you graduate
-Last but not least have at least a piece of something called a degree should the pharmd doesn't work out
Having said that, it doesn't mean that a degree ahead of time will definitely give you benefits over people coming in with prereqs only. It all depends on you and how you handle the pharmd program. But in most cases, having a degree before hand should help rather than do you any harm.
Hope you get accepted this admission round

 

[Trancelucent1]

I had a BS in Biomedical Sciences before I started pharmacy school. Like many others have said I figured out in my 3rd year that pharmacy was for me (I was pre-med). I already had most of my pre-reqs by then but wanted to finish my degree. I found it helpful because my upper level classes (Cell bio, Micro, Genetics) helped during my first year of pharmacy school. Plus I was used to difficult classes so it wasn't that hard of a transition for me. I also was able to have almost a year off before pharmacy school because I got my BS in December and started the following August. That was well worth it. I'll still only be 25 when I graduate in May w/ my PharmD so I think it was worth it. Plus as others have said I had a blast in undergrad!

 

[susan19891231]

Thank u all so much for giving me the advices~~ keep more coming

 

[susan19891231]

But then now.. what Undergrad should I take...?

 

[PharmDstudent]

Thank u all so much for giving me the advices~~ keep more coming

You asked for it so here I go...

I started college as a pre-med, psychology major. My mother and I had talked about a few different things, and our initial decision was that I should pursue an MD so that I could practice psychiatry. To graduate with a BS in psychology, they required 14 hours of foreign language. So I started taking science, psych, and german classes.

Once I figured out that I didn't like the subjectiveness of psychology, it's a soft science, I decided to major in Biology and minor in German. (I still wanted to go to med school at that point). That major only lasted a semester, because I knew that there weren't any jobs that I would have wanted that required a Biology degree. So... I changed my major to German with a minor in Biology. (My plan was still to go to med school. I had already taken most of the pre-reqs so there wasn't a problem with a German major.) If all else had failed, I could teach German which is something I still would love to do. I graduated with a BA in German in 2006.

So here's the turning point: I got a job in a retail pharmacy through a friend after I came back from an internship in Germany. It was sort of a favor, because we were friends and I had gotten her a job previously. Once I had started working in a pharmacy, I eventually found out that I didn't want any more patient contact than I had been exposed to in retail pharmacy. Therefore, I dropped the med school plan and applied to pharmacy school. I was really sold on the idea after talking to one of the pharmacists who had previously worked as a clinical pharmacist and a professor for a pharmacy school.

When I was waitlisted for pharmacy school, I added a double major in Economics just in case I needed something else to study while I was waiting to get accepted. I was only 30 hours short of a BA in Economics. For the pharmacy school that I go to, it is very important for students to be continuous, i.e. they want you to stay in school the entire time prior to pharmacy school without taking a semester or two off. They stated that on their website in the prospective student part.

So... that's my story.

 

[PharmDstudent]

But then now.. what Undergrad should I take...?

I would suggest that you do whatever you enjoy plus the pharmacy pre-reqs and maybe a few upper level science courses just for the exposure.
As long as you can show that you are dedicated in what you do, you won't have a problem. Be involved, because if you sit back and only take the minimum number of classes, don't get pharmacy experience, or play dead when it comes to extracurriculars, you probably won't be successful in your pursuit to be a PharmD.