Surviving Pharmacy School?

[Rxasian585]

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Hello guys,

I am going to be going to pharmacy school in August. I just filled out my Fafsa.

My question is how do you guys budget and survive on your own during pharmacy school?

I am planning to quit my job and be a student full time, but i dont know how to support myself. Will the loans be sufficient for my car payments, apartment,and food?

 

[Old Timer]

Hello guys,

I am going to be going to pharmacy school in August. I just filled out my Fafsa.

My question is how do you guys budget and survive on your own during pharmacy school?

I am planning to quit my job and be a student full time, but i dont know how to support myself. Will the loans be sufficient for my car payments, apartment,and food?

YOU MUST WORK AS AN INTERN DURING PHARMACY SCHOOL
​

If you can't go to pharmacy school and work 10-15 hours a week, you will never be able to be a pharmacist. You will also have little chance of getting a job if you come out of school with no experience.

 

[Rxasian585]

I have pharmacy experience as a certified pharm tech for 3 years, also i cannot get an intern liscense untill i am finished with my first year right?

 

[BMBiology]

Will the loans be sufficient for my car payments, apartment,and food?

Student loans? Why don't you add hookers and blow to the list.

 

[ExpressMaiL]

You're probably just excited about pharmacy school. I understand. Surviving is simple, you resort to being a broke college student.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Whether or not loans will be sufficient (or even a good idea) for your day to day living expenses, depends on how cheaply you can live. Personally, I recommend living as cheaply as possible during your tenure in pharmacy school, and unless you have parents/spouse to help support you (which I assume you don't), you really do need to work to pay for at least the majority of your living expenses. Other than housing, I would not put any non-tuition related expense on student loans (and avoid putting housing on, if at all possible.) Yes, people do work full-time while going to pharmacy school, it isn't "fun", but it sure beats graduating with inflated loans, which keep inflating with interest.

 

[awval999]

LOL. So young and naive.

One, don't quit your tech job. Two, when you can, transition into the intern role.
Grades are meaningless. Work experience isn't. If you play your cards right maybe you'll be a lucky ducky that actually gets a pharmacist job because you'd have years of experience at your chain.

 

[BeLikeBueller]

Welcome to SDN, where everyone is sarcastic and your questions don't matter.

but seriously though...

1) Evaluate living expenses...create a budget
2) Minimize living expenses
A) Downsize apartment/move closer to school/get roommates
B) Pay off car or sell/trade in for one that you won't have to make payments on
C) Stop eating lobster, start eating ramen
3) Keep job as tech or intern (depending on your state laws)
4) Take out student loans for the remainder

If you have a job, I would try my best not to quit, unless you literally cannot manage it. I would try to cut back on hours to a reasonable level - 1 to 2 shifts a week. As someone who went straight into pharmacy from undergrad, it was really hard to find an intern job, simply because of the number of other students looking for intern jobs. You have an in with the company you're at...I recommend you keep it and take advantage of it, but that's just my $0.02

 

[68quebec]

I agree on all your statements except C) . Don't eat ramen noodle everyday. do grocery shopping and make your diet healthy (not as cheap as ramen noodle but you will be rewarded with better health)

Welcome to SDN, where everyone is sarcastic and your questions don't matter.

but seriously though...

1) Evaluate living expenses...create a budget
2) Minimize living expenses
A) Downsize apartment/move closer to school/get roommates
B) Pay off car or sell/trade in for one that you won't have to make payments on
C) Stop eating lobster, start eating ramen
3) Keep job as tech or intern (depending on your state laws)
4) Take out student loans for the remainder

If you have a job, I would try my best not to quit, unless you literally cannot manage it. I would try to cut back on hours to a reasonable level - 1 to 2 shifts a week. As someone who went straight into pharmacy from undergrad, it was really hard to find an intern job, simply because of the number of other students looking for intern jobs. You have an in with the company you're at...I recommend you keep it and take advantage of it, but that's just my $0.02

 

[68quebec]

Let me add little more,
Don't think you will be able to pay off student loan debt as quick as you think right now. I've seen many medical students who's so proud(????) of their loan debt (mostly 200-400k LOL). You still have time before starting your school. take some classes of financing or budgeting. It will help you manage money a lot better than 90% of other students around you (they don't realize until graduation at least).

 

[BenJammin]

I have pharmacy experience as a certified pharm tech for 3 years, also i cannot get an intern liscense untill i am finished with my first year right?

That depends on your state. In Texas you cannot be licensed as an intern until you have completed your first year of classwork. In Oklahoma you can apply for it after your first day of pharmacy school but to receive it you must forfeit your tech license.

 

[gwarm01]

YOU MUST WORK AS AN INTERN DURING PHARMACY SCHOOL
​

If you can't go to pharmacy school and work 10-15 hours a week, you will never be able to be a pharmacist. You will also have little chance of getting a job if you come out of school with no experience.

Follow this advice. In a world where everyone thinks they will "set themselves apart" from the pack, having actual experience working in a pharmacy is the real deal. I was a hospital intern throughout pharmacy school, working every other weekend and a floating day during the week. Sometimes it sucked, other times it gave me a chance to study. Bottom line, it gave me the edge to get a hospital job without a PGY1. Don't discount the usefulness of experience.

 

[sakigt]

Follow this advice. In a world where everyone thinks they will "set themselves apart" from the pack, having actual experience working in a pharmacy is the real deal. I was a hospital intern throughout pharmacy school, working every other weekend and a floating day during the week. Sometimes it sucked, other times it gave me a chance to study. Bottom line, it gave me the edge to get a hospital job without a PGY1. Don't discount the usefulness of experience.

This. So much this. Thisthisthisthisthis.THIS

 

[PharMed2016]

"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."