Transfer from pharmacy to podiatry

[barsRx]

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Hi everyone,

I am in my 5th year of pharmacy school at a 6 year program. As of now, I have my application set and ready to apply to podiatry schools. Everything except verification. My question to you guys is would you finish out the pharm.D program and apply for the 2014 cycle? Or instead, try and get my applications in by April 1st and enroll for fall of 2013?

My main concern is that my 6th year of tuition at my pharmacy program will run just over $50k for tuition + another $6-8k for living expenses. Not to mention a VERY stressful year of clinical rotations. Or would it be a smarter option to just finish out the degree, tack on the debt, and try to work part time while in POD school (I have a friend that works p/t for CVS while in medical school so I assume it's possible). It's such a tough decision to potentially withdraw from a program I have put so much time into..I just wish I was pre-med/pre-pod from the start!!

 

[msion]

Hi everyone,

I am in my 5th year of pharmacy school at a 6 year program. As of now, I have my application set and ready to apply to podiatry schools. Everything except verification. My question to you guys is would you finish out the pharm.D program and apply for the 2014 cycle? Or instead, try and get my applications in by April 1st and enroll for fall of 2013?

My main concern is that my 6th year of tuition at my pharmacy program will run just over $50k for tuition + another $6-8k for living expenses. Not to mention a VERY stressful year of clinical rotations. Or would it be a smarter option to just finish out the degree, tack on the debt, and try to work part time while in POD school (I have a friend that works p/t for CVS while in medical school so I assume it's possible). It's such a tough decision to potentially withdraw from a program I have put so much time into..I just wish I was pre-med/pre-pod from the start!!

I would suggest taking that PharmD first. Only 1 more year left and it will never hurt to have that credential. I am not sure what's your main motivation to pursue podiatry, but I think you should be albe to find a job in retail phamacy if you are not too picky about locations. Six figure salary might be a long shot for pharmacy right now, but you should be able to find entry level positions starting at $70-80k. Honestly, I recommend against pursuing another health profession degree, as your debt load can be atrocious. If you are looking into podiatry because you can be a physician treating patients, there are also fields in pharmacy that you can specialize as well. I know someone who's doing nuclear medicine, pretty cool stuff and very well compensated.

 

[AMDG83]

Finish pharmacy school! Then come back to this in a year. I assume this 6 year program is something you enter straight from high school right? If you're that young, pursing podiatry might not be a bad idea if you don't like pharmacy. However I still highly recommend finishing pharmacy school.

 

[barsRx]

msion - Thanks for the response. My debt situation is in good shape right now. It's just my 6th year tuition that is outrageous because of clinical sites and its a full year with only winter break. You're right, there are some great areas of clinical pharmacy and I have shadowed/rotated through a lot of them! I have rotated/shadowed with pharmacists working outpatient/amb. care clinics and inpatient settings with infectious diseases and crit care. In a nutshell - it doesn't give me the satisfaction I'm looking for in a long term career.

AMDG - Do you or any of your peers pick up part time or per diem hours while in pod school? I've always worked a ton of hours while in pharmacy school interning for a retail chain and working at a hospital so I can definitely handle a heavy course load. I'm sure pod school is a lot more demanding time management wise though...

 

[feet2017]

since you are so close to graduating, I'd say start working first. At that point if you find it intolerable then you should consider pod school. Have you shadowed a Podiatrist yet? I am just assuming you have, but I just wanted to double check.

 

[heybrother]

I think you should finish your degree and research podiatry further. Try the world on for awhile. This forum has led me to believe that the pharmacy world has problems, but if you think podiatry doesn't have its own pitfalls then you haven't done any research. If you don't think there's anything to be worried about then you are overconfident. Apparently that's a line in Bobby Knight's new book.

 

[ldsrmdude]

We had a pharmacist in my graduating class who would pick up a few hours working at a hospital or a retail pharmacy. It's possible. Plus, he had one heck of a head start on our pharmacology class 😀

 

[hematosis]

Hi everyone,

I am in my 5th year of pharmacy school at a 6 year program. As of now, I have my application set and ready to apply to podiatry schools. Everything except verification. My question to you guys is would you finish out the pharm.D program and apply for the 2014 cycle? Or instead, try and get my applications in by April 1st and enroll for fall of 2013?

My main concern is that my 6th year of tuition at my pharmacy program will run just over $50k for tuition + another $6-8k for living expenses. Not to mention a VERY stressful year of clinical rotations. Or would it be a smarter option to just finish out the degree, tack on the debt, and try to work part time while in POD school (I have a friend that works p/t for CVS while in medical school so I assume it's possible). It's such a tough decision to potentially withdraw from a program I have put so much time into..I just wish I was pre-med/pre-pod from the start!!

Definitely finish your Pharm Degree. No doubt about it. There is no guarantee with any of these professions. You could get sick/fail a class/accidents/ not match into a residency (just this year 104 qualified applicants didn't match). You will always have a PharmD to fall back on.

 

[pod101]

I will match your questions barsRX with a few questions of my own.

Why do you want to be a podiatrist?

Why do you want to leave pharmD?

 

[hughesn2]

You should finish! You are 83% way through and you just now want to quit? If you are worrying about the debt then you should have thought about that 5yrs ago. If you quit now your parents may just look at you and say "So for the last 5yrs you haven't been satisfied or happy with your decision and you are just now figuring out you want to go into Podiatry?"

Most parents I know that would frustrate them. If you are worried about this last yrs $50K+ tuition and living expenses then what about the last 5yrs of most likely you had up to $200K in tuition then.

I don't want to sound like an a-hole here, but you really should have thought more about what you wanted to do at least 2yrs ago while you were just half way through this program, not in the end.
Is this a Masters program? I am not really familiar with these 6year Pharmacy programs right out of HS. I had to search to find out where these places exist and found why I have never heard of these programs. None in Michigan, two in Ohio, and the next closest one is in Pennsylvania.
Why did you decide that Pharmacy wasn't for you and why Podiatry???
I kinda wanna hear the answers to pod101 questions because it is important to know why you actually want to do the other

 

[flyhi]

It's a Pharm.D. program, like he said.

OP, finish your program. Leaving this close to finishing is no bueno. Make yourself employable and THEN make the decision. Best of luck

 

[EK18]

I'm gonna go ahead and jump on the "Finish Your PharmD" bandwagon that's going on. You're already very close to finishing it. Even if afterwards you still decide to become a Podiatrist, I'm sure a PharmD/DPM combo will open a lot of doors. Better to just wrap up that last year now as it will pay off for the rest of your life.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

I'm gonna go ahead and jump on the "Finish Your PharmD" bandwagon that's going on. You're already very close to finishing it. Even if afterwards you still decide to become a Podiatrist, I'm sure a PharmD/DPM combo will open a lot of doors. Better to just wrap up that last year now as it will pay off for the rest of your life.

Someone just posted on here about a Podiatrist that was making tons of money from big Pharm repping their products. You could probably double that with a Pharm.D. behind your name... That extra 60k plus interest will be worth it if one of your goals money.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using SDN Mobile

 

[barsRx]

It's great to see so much activity in this thread. I'll give a little more background information about myself since I may have given the impression that deciding on medicine/podiatry has been arbitrary. I will try to make this concise and to the point so it doesn't sound like you are reading my personal statement.

I enrolled in the pharm.d program straight out of high school. I did 2 years of pre-reqs and met all requirements for direct admission into the program. Myself, and so many of my classmates, all entered the field of pharmacy for the same reason...health care profession, 6 year degree, killer paycheck to start. Well, in my 4th year I started my clinical rotations in hospital institutions and outpatient clinics and I loved every second of them. It gave me patient exposure and interaction with the medical team on rounds ect..

I had tunnel vision on going MD/DO for the past year and a half going on 2 years now. I studied my @*$ off for the MCAT as much as I could while working full time over the summer and with a super heavy course load in pharmacy school/working it was nearly impossible to find full days put forth to study, let alone take full lengths. I shadowed some physicians and clinical pharmacists at the hospital I work at (the hospital is affiliated with my pharmacy program so all the clinical professors also work at the hospital). This past winter I shadowed a podiatrist for the first time and have done so a few more times this past month. I'm scheduled to see some surgeries in the next week with some of the F/A Ortho guys and DPMs with hospital coverage.

All in all, I liked podiatry better than any of the medicine specialties I have seen. I love primary care and infectious diseases and podiatry incorporates both of theses aspects into the profession. Not to mention the shift towards being so highly surgical based is only a bonus. Awesome variability in your work, 3 year residency to get into a highly specialized field, and much cheaper tuition than DO/MD school..how can you not like this profession with even the slightest interest in medicine?

The whole doom and gloom of the pharmacy profession is definitely exacerbated to the max on these forums. My friends all matched into the residencies they wanted. Those who worked retail received their job offers months ago..the lowest offer I have even heard of in this class was $95,000 to start with ACME/Save-on, the average being around $115,000 for CVS, walgreens, RAid..and some as high as $130,000 with target pharmacy. And many of these jobs were in the Philadelphia area; apparently the most saturated region next to So.Cal in the U.S. I have a strong resume and I am confident it can get me a job/residency SOMEWHERE in pharmacy but the profession does not give me the level of satisfaction I want out of a career.