What Should I Do?

[SMRama87]

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Hello! So, I need a bit of advice...

I'm a recent graduate from the University of Central Florida (August) with a degree in Microbiology and Molecular Biology. I graduated with an alright GPA - 3.4 Overall, 3.3 Science. Upon graduation, I worked as a biotechnology research intern for 6 months. While at UCF, I did lots of volunteer work (mostly health related) in several different countries, I also worked as a volunteer at a retail pharmacy for 1 year and at a hospital clinic pharmacy for 1/2 year. Now, my internship has ended and I'm spending the next 6 months shaping up my pharmacy applications and studying for the PCAT (I'll probably take kaplan), so I can have my applications submitted on the first day the applications become open for Fall 2011. Now, I'll have an entire year off and I don't know what to do. I currently have two options...

1) Go to Barry University for a year and do an accelerated masters program in biomedical sciences OR
2) (my fave option) Join Teach for America and be apart of the corps for a year.

I really want to go to UF College of Pharmacy, preferably the Orlando branch. I can't find much information about the Orlando branch and the number of applicants/students at the school. If anyone has that information, that would be wonderful.

Thanks for reading this and I look forward to reading any comments.

 

[Monalyce]

Teach for America is a great program, and if you are accepted, I'd definitely do it.

 

[Passion4Sci]

I think the "community service" aspect of TfA will be worth more qualitatively than the biomed. degree, TBH.

 

[Tinkerbell22]

Search lower in the pre-pharmacy thread and there is a topic called "It begins... UF c/o 2014" or something like that... there is a lot of information regarding the distance campuses, particularly Orlando because some students have recently been granted interviews there.

One thing about UF though... you don't need to worry about applying to a particular location because you just apply to UF COP in general and then there is a campus ranking form on the supplemental application. You rank the campuses 1-4 and give reasons for your top two choices. If you would never be willing to attend a certain campus then you don't rank it at all. Rumor has it that there are about 2000 applications, however this greatly depends on the particular year. Apparently they invite about 320 students to interview, and accept ~300-310. I think about 150 go to Gainesville and another 50 go to each distance campus. Some current UF students said that if you chose a distance campus first, like Orlando, you will most likely get your first pick. Most people chose the main campus making that more competitive.

Teach for America sounds really cool... someone came into one of my classes during my last semester of college and gave a presentation. I think that would be much more impressive and help you stand out among the other applicants. A lot of them probably already have master's degrees, but I bet hardly any have something like that on their resume.

 

[SCP08]

I think a Teach for America term lasts two years, not the one year you have to spare; you should look into that to be sure though. To offer another suggestion--I spent a year (a full term) after college graduation as a member of AmeriCorps, working in a free clinic. It was an amazing, fantastic experience ("life-changing" is cliche, but true). I learned a ton and made a real difference in people's lives, and when I finished, I had a pretty significant Education Award available to me (enough to pay for a full post-bacc year at my state university). There are lots of AmeriCorps positions in a wide variety of settings, not just healthcare, if you have other interests. Check out this site to do a specific search for positions: https://my1.americorps.gov/mp/listing/publicRequestSearch.do

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or anything!

 

[bacillus1]

I believe TFA is 2 years, but City Year is 1 year, so you could do that.

 

[SMRama87]

Thanks for the input everyone. Since my GPA is only alright, I wasn't sure whether it would be in my best interest to strengthen it by doing a masters program. I'll look for the UF thread and ask my specific questions there. Thanks again!