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- Pre-Pharmacy
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Alright SDN. After searching and reading through a number of threads, I finally am stepping up to get some advice. While this isn't necessarily a pre-pharamcy question, pre-pharm is what I am studying and getting my pharm.d is what I want to do with my life. I would really value the advice from you guys/girls.
Tl;dr mid way through, if you don't want to read through the 2 paragraph introduction.
My first year of college everything was great, walked out with a 3.7gpa with little to no effort. That summer I decided to move back home and that was where I went wrong. I began to get depressed while living in my home town, and my grades suffered as a result. I had little to zero motivation. After living in my home town for 2 semesters (summer/fall) I moved back to where I was my freshman year. While I was exponentially happier back where I belonged, I learned that during my social hiatus I developed some sort of an anxiety problem. Spring semester I would study and understand the material with no problem just like my freshman year, but when it came to test time I would take one look at the exam and my mind would go completely blank. (Also now when I have to speak in front of large groups my begins to race, voice shakes, ect, but that's a tangent that is unnecessary for this post.) Since that summer semester that I decided to move back home, my overall gpa has steadily deteriorated. I've gotten very few a's, more b's and c's, and a few F's. I feel as if ever since that first summer it has just been a downward spiral, and with the continuous situation of me stressing over doing poorly in classes then actually doing poorly in said classes as a result from the stressing is doing nothing but accelerating that downward spiral, making me feel worse and worse.
It is not that I do not enjoy what I am learning about, nor do I have problems understanding the concepts of the material being covered in my classes. The science classes I am taking are easy (standard pre-pharm classes), sitting through lectures I honestly don't understand where the majority of my classmate's questions come from. The professor lectures, I practice, and I know it. It is black and white. In every single science lab that I have had, if I'm not able to opt into being the group of 1 person because there are an odd number of people in the class, I am carrying my partner on my back answering all of the questions they have that they should have learned in lecture.
I wake up tired, stay tired all day, have trouble sleeping, constantly feel pessimistic, loss of interest in things that I once enjoyed, feelings of apathy, ect. The motivation for me to practice and put forth effort is no longer there, no matter how much I tell myself "if I fail this class I'm ****ed."
Tl;dr: Bad GPA as a result of undiagnosed depression. Taking a year off to "fix myself".
I plan on talking to my doctor about my concerns of depression and anxiety very soon. However with exams on Wednesday and Thursday, it will have to wait.
Over the past few days I have come to the conclusion that I may need to take a temporary hiatus from school and take the time to get my "life back on track". Get my happiness back, or something. My GPA right now is not going to get me into ANY pharmacy school. I have zero retail-pharmaceutical experience, and this would be an opportune moment for me to obtain some. I was considering taking off not this coming up spring/fall, but next fall/spring. Ideally I would get a job as a pharm tech, and just take it easy for a few months. I wouldn't HAVE to get certified first, but I'd really like to. Then after that time off, go back to school and rip it in half again, just like I did my freshman year.
I am concerned how this current episode in my life is going to reflect on my chances of admittance to a pharmacy school. I have skimmed the other "bad gpa" threads and gotten a lot of advice out of those, however a personal account is always best I guess.
What would you do? Would it look better if I changed my major to something else (where I could graduate spring 12) to graduate with a degree unrelated to pharmacy, then go back a year later and finish/retake the science courses? Also, are there any other pharmaceutical-related jobs that I could hold that would be beneficial to my pre-pharmacy/pharm.d studies?
Sorry for the livejournal post, I don't have very many friends to talk to. Also for any grammatical errors. I'm currently in the middle of writing multiple lab reports. Heh.
Tl;dr mid way through, if you don't want to read through the 2 paragraph introduction.
My first year of college everything was great, walked out with a 3.7gpa with little to no effort. That summer I decided to move back home and that was where I went wrong. I began to get depressed while living in my home town, and my grades suffered as a result. I had little to zero motivation. After living in my home town for 2 semesters (summer/fall) I moved back to where I was my freshman year. While I was exponentially happier back where I belonged, I learned that during my social hiatus I developed some sort of an anxiety problem. Spring semester I would study and understand the material with no problem just like my freshman year, but when it came to test time I would take one look at the exam and my mind would go completely blank. (Also now when I have to speak in front of large groups my begins to race, voice shakes, ect, but that's a tangent that is unnecessary for this post.) Since that summer semester that I decided to move back home, my overall gpa has steadily deteriorated. I've gotten very few a's, more b's and c's, and a few F's. I feel as if ever since that first summer it has just been a downward spiral, and with the continuous situation of me stressing over doing poorly in classes then actually doing poorly in said classes as a result from the stressing is doing nothing but accelerating that downward spiral, making me feel worse and worse.
It is not that I do not enjoy what I am learning about, nor do I have problems understanding the concepts of the material being covered in my classes. The science classes I am taking are easy (standard pre-pharm classes), sitting through lectures I honestly don't understand where the majority of my classmate's questions come from. The professor lectures, I practice, and I know it. It is black and white. In every single science lab that I have had, if I'm not able to opt into being the group of 1 person because there are an odd number of people in the class, I am carrying my partner on my back answering all of the questions they have that they should have learned in lecture.
I wake up tired, stay tired all day, have trouble sleeping, constantly feel pessimistic, loss of interest in things that I once enjoyed, feelings of apathy, ect. The motivation for me to practice and put forth effort is no longer there, no matter how much I tell myself "if I fail this class I'm ****ed."
Tl;dr: Bad GPA as a result of undiagnosed depression. Taking a year off to "fix myself".
I plan on talking to my doctor about my concerns of depression and anxiety very soon. However with exams on Wednesday and Thursday, it will have to wait.
Over the past few days I have come to the conclusion that I may need to take a temporary hiatus from school and take the time to get my "life back on track". Get my happiness back, or something. My GPA right now is not going to get me into ANY pharmacy school. I have zero retail-pharmaceutical experience, and this would be an opportune moment for me to obtain some. I was considering taking off not this coming up spring/fall, but next fall/spring. Ideally I would get a job as a pharm tech, and just take it easy for a few months. I wouldn't HAVE to get certified first, but I'd really like to. Then after that time off, go back to school and rip it in half again, just like I did my freshman year.
I am concerned how this current episode in my life is going to reflect on my chances of admittance to a pharmacy school. I have skimmed the other "bad gpa" threads and gotten a lot of advice out of those, however a personal account is always best I guess.
What would you do? Would it look better if I changed my major to something else (where I could graduate spring 12) to graduate with a degree unrelated to pharmacy, then go back a year later and finish/retake the science courses? Also, are there any other pharmaceutical-related jobs that I could hold that would be beneficial to my pre-pharmacy/pharm.d studies?
Sorry for the livejournal post, I don't have very many friends to talk to. Also for any grammatical errors. I'm currently in the middle of writing multiple lab reports. Heh.
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