This is not a "What are my chances" thread

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WAtoFLA

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I have some pre-pre-pharmacy questions if you will. Please don't try to refer me to another thread unless you see actual specifics from my question, as I will not be asking to compare one school, or ask if I can get in to any school with this GPA.

First of all I need to provide everyone with a little background info, but if you don't care or think it will affect your answer just skip down and read my highlighted questions. I am a young professional/sales, looking to make a massive career change. I graduated from the University of Washington five years ago with a degree in history, I originally wanted to go to law school. In any case, I joined a frat and drank too much and ended up graduating with a 3.2.

After several years of working in outside sales I have become incredibly disenchanted with the BS of the business world and have decided that I want to go into something real, something based in logic and science, something where I have the potential to actually help people. After doing a great deal of research and even reading threads on this board I have come to the conclusion that I want to go to pharmacy school. I know it will kick my butt for awhile but if I can do it I will be immensely proud of myself.

My biggest question comes down to CC vs. University. I have to take literally all of the required prereqs, calc., bio, A&P, Chem, O chem, etc. Like I said I have a degree in history. I plan on taking three years to get through the prereqs. I consider myself to be pretty bright and believe that I can get great grades during this, my second chance at college. For economic purposes I would really like to take classes at a CC but I fear that, A this may not be possible, and B schools won't take me seriously when the time comes to apply to pharmacy schools. Am I right to be concerned? Should I start taking classes at CC or a four year school even though I won't actually be looking to graduate from said school? Are there some classes that would be okay to take at the CC level and some that I should take at a uni.? Will my undergrad history grades likely count or will most schools go strictly off of prereqs? Should I look into getting a second bachelor's, perhaps in biology or some such field?

I realize I will probably be 35-36 yrs old by the time I am finished but I'll still have 30 years to work. I would much rather work harder than I ever have for the next six years or so than continue to toil in the business of trying to sell people things they don't really want or need.

Thanks!

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I'd check with the schools you're looking to apply at. They'll be able to answer whether it matters if you take the classes at a CC or need to go back to a university. They'll also be able to tell you exactly what classes you need. You may think a class fulfills a requirement, but check with the school to make sure.

I think if you have a degree from UW, it probably won't matter if you take some classes at a CC. And if you study really hard and get a higher GPA, that would help your chances a lot. I'm assuming you didn't have a lot of science classes in undergrad, so if you take all those science classes now, your science GPA should be much higher than your combined.

Where are you looking to apply? If you have the ability to go more places, you don't have to worry so much about getting into just one school.
 
A couple more things: you most likely know this, but don't worry about your age. I'm going to be around 32 when I finish. I'm sure you've heard of people already in their late 30s, early 40s or older who start pharmacy school.

Also, I was really helped in my career change by a pre-pharmacy club I attended at UW. It looks like you're in FL now, but if you can find a pre-pharmacy club to attend, it will probably help a lot. I found out about so many pharmacy careers. I got some volunteering opportunities, and I also got to shadow classes with a first year.

Oh, and have you thought about volunteering or even getting a job in a pharmacy? I got a volunteer position at a local hospital, and I think it helped both get me the interview and helped me better answer questions in the interview.
 
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Not worried about where I am going to apply. That is at a minimum two years away. The only science classes I took as an undergrad were the ones that all liberal arts majors take, environmental science, geology, weather. I actually got higher grades in those type of classes than I did in my essay type classes. I would assume that no pharmacy school cares about my grades in those classes. I believe the University of Florida's website says that they only base admission on prereq grades. Can anyone verify this? Is this typical at other schools?
 
I seriously would look at the pre-reqs for several schools you're interested in and talk with them. Pharmacy schools are so diverse with their requirements. I could only apply to one school because I didn't have the pre-reqs for other schools, and I have a bachelor's in biochemistry and six years of grad school. And I still had/have to take a quarter of o-chem, microbiology, and public speaking.

Some schools might take some of your undergrad classes and count them towards pre-reqs. Some might not. PharmCAS, which many schools use, calculates your GPA off of every class you've ever had (and it's so much fun to enter all your college classes when you started taking college courses in 1998 and are still taking them over ten years later!).

There's often an option to write an essay explaining any problems with your application. You can use this to explain that you didn't work as hard in undergrad because... well, you didn't have the motivation, you were young, you had mono for six months, whatever. If schools do look at all of your grades, a much higher current GPA would help support that you're more motivated than you were, I'd think whether those classes were taken at a CC or another university.

As well, I'd start thinking about what kind of pharmacist you want to be. Do you want to work at Walgreen's? Or do you want to do something else? Some schools teach for pharmacists to go into retail community pharmacy, and some expect you to set your expectations a bit higher (even if a lot of their students still end up in retail community pharmacy).
 
I am a career changer too. I retook my prereqs at a CC because it was closer and cheaper. I found out that USN offers academic forgiveness if you retake all the prereqs and they don't count your old grades. I did that, applied a year earlier than I intended and got in. So you definitely can take your classes at a CC and get in and you can recover from a lower GPA if you ace your classes now. Of course, each school is different so if you are interested in a particular school, contact them and ask how they feel about classes at a CC.
 
I have some pre-pre-pharmacy questions if you will. Please don't try to refer me to another thread unless you see actual specifics from my question, as I will not be asking to compare one school, or ask if I can get in to any school with this GPA.

First of all I need to provide everyone with a little background info, but if you don't care or think it will affect your answer just skip down and read my highlighted questions. I am a young professional/sales, looking to make a massive career change. I graduated from the University of Washington five years ago with a degree in history, I originally wanted to go to law school. In any case, I joined a frat and drank too much and ended up graduating with a 3.2.

After several years of working in outside sales I have become incredibly disenchanted with the BS of the business world and have decided that I want to go into something real, something based in logic and science, something where I have the potential to actually help people. After doing a great deal of research and even reading threads on this board I have come to the conclusion that I want to go to pharmacy school. I know it will kick my butt for awhile but if I can do it I will be immensely proud of myself.

My biggest question comes down to CC vs. University. I have to take literally all of the required prereqs, calc., bio, A&P, Chem, O chem, etc. Like I said I have a degree in history. I plan on taking three years to get through the prereqs. I consider myself to be pretty bright and believe that I can get great grades during this, my second chance at college. For economic purposes I would really like to take classes at a CC but I fear that, A this may not be possible, and B schools won't take me seriously when the time comes to apply to pharmacy schools. Am I right to be concerned? Should I start taking classes at CC or a four year school even though I won't actually be looking to graduate from said school? Are there some classes that would be okay to take at the CC level and some that I should take at a uni.? Will my undergrad history grades likely count or will most schools go strictly off of prereqs? Should I look into getting a second bachelor's, perhaps in biology or some such field?

I realize I will probably be 35-36 yrs old by the time I am finished but I'll still have 30 years to work. I would much rather work harder than I ever have for the next six years or so than continue to toil in the business of trying to sell people things they don't really want or need.

Thanks!


Hate to say it, but there are plenty of other threads addressing all of your issues.
 
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