Want to know the prospect of Ph.D in Pharmacy in USA

[shahriar50]

Hi All,

I am new to this community. I am basically living in Bangladesh, far from USA and working as a pharmacist after my 5 years of Bacher+MS degree. I like to come in usa for Ph.D degree and then take a job.

I would really appreciate if you please advise me the followings

1. What is the prospect of Ph.D graduate in USA? Where is my possibility of getting job if I do Ph.D.

2. Can I get fund after I come here?

3. Which universities are good for fund, study and finally getting job opportunity? Many of Bangladeshi students come to Long Island University in NY. Do you know about it? How good it is?

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[rxforlife2004]

1. No because what's the need when we have a "doctor of Pharmacy, Pharm.D" degree already...You can, however, do Ph.D in pharmacology, or whatever, though...

2. No clue
3. No clue

 

[shahriar50]

Doctor of Pharmacy is actually a 5 years course starting from the beginning. Since I already have bachelor degree and MS, I can pursue for Doctoral degree. Any advise?

 

[fenixtnlfan]

A lot of foreigners come to the US to do a Ph.D. so its not too bad I think. Now if you want funding to get through grad school, I think it is pretty easy to get. Being a foreigner though it might be different. Something to check into and ask universities you apply to. For picking universities to apply to, I suggest looking at the investigators they have and picking people you would like to work with. Also look at the program they offer. Being from a different country, US schools may not accept your degrees but I think that is pretty rare for Ph.D.

Getting a job is a whole other matter. After getting your Ph.D. you must do at least one post-doc. Then you can start thinking about applying to positions. The key to jobs is you have to publish A LOT. For the most part, you will be responsible for your own funding unless you go into industry. You can get some supplemental funds from a university, but not enough to keep you running. You have to compete with other labs for funding. The funding allocated by the government is constantly decreasing, so it's hard to get. You can get private funding, but again you are competing so it all comes down to if you are publishing or not. If you do research that is health related, it is easier to get funding because those are the topics committees believe are the most important. Most people don't stay at the university they graduated from; they mostly just go where they can get a job.

I know I painted this as a really slim possibility of getting a job, but it can be quite difficult. The amount of stress that goes into getting funding is one reason I won't do a Ph.D. I don't want to completely discourage you, but just some things to think about. For any job you have to think of the pros/cons. If you can publish and get those grants you are golden. Its the people who don't publish for whatever reason that start losing jobs. If you go into industry, you won't probably be publishing but the same principle applies where you have to be getting stuff done.

 

[shahriar50]

Hi fenixtnlfan,

Thanks a lot for your advices and descriptive opinion. I really appreciate it. After knowing a little more about ph.D, I think I have two areas where I can pursue for Ph.D

1. Ph.D in Pharmacology--a clinical side
2. Ph.D in Pharmaceutics--industry based

I am not really into faculty position hunting. I will either choose industry or clinical job.
Can someone suggest me a good school where I can find good funding opportuity to pusue my Ph.D degree? (meaning that my tution fee will be waived based on the research work I am supposed to do and I will get monthly small salary for survival).

Thanks in advance.

 

[cdpiano27]

Pharmaceutics - PhD

is very good to pursue. Very easy to get good job, you can get $90K right out of school.

IT is hard getting into programs, of course. But of course you can apply to everyone. LIU I think is pretty good.

My field is biostatistics, but I have interned at NIH and Sanofi-Aventis, so I know that people who do pharmacokinetics as their research area when pursuing the PhD have an easy time getting a high paying job either in pharm industry or FDA.

PK/PD is a great field. Period.