Where do I stand??

[nineinchnails]

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I am a married, 1st year pharmacy student, who realized he made a huge mistake in chosing pharmacy over medicine. I took the MCAT two years ago and got a 35. Had about a 3.8 undergrad in chemistry. I want to apply again this year(2007), but am unsure of my potential. I have little volunteer experience, but I have worked in a pharmacy, I did volunteer for about 6 months in a hospital before, and I definately have exposure to healthcare being that I currently work in a pharmacy. What does everyone think, should I apply, what can I do to beef up my application. I feel there isnt enough time to get much meaningful volunteer experience in. What should I say in my personal statement????? Any help is appreciated.

 

[TacoStand]

I am a married, 1st year pharmacy student, who realized he made a huge mistake in chosing pharmacy over medicine. I took the MCAT two years ago and got a 35. Had about a 3.8 undergrad in chemistry. I want to apply again this year(2007), but am unsure of my potential. I have little volunteer experience, but I have worked in a pharmacy, I did volunteer for about 6 months in a hospital before, and I definately have exposure to healthcare being that I currently work in a pharmacy. What does everyone think, should I apply, what can I do to beef up my application. I feel there isnt enough time to get much meaningful volunteer experience in. What should I say in my personal statement????? Any help is appreciated.

I figured I'd give you my 2 cents.
1. Try to get the best LORs you can
2. Be honest in your personal statement - how can you best convey your passion for medicine and why the detour to Pharmacy - what changed your mind and convinced you. Go with your story.
3. I think its not too late to do some volunteering. I know you are in school, and you probably do not have a lot of time, but see what you can do. Is there any opportunities within the pharm school?

Good luck.

 

[kelli]

I think you'll need to come up with very good reasons as to why you decided to drop out of pharmacy school, and what you learned in your first year that led you to believe that medicine was the better path for you. Some possible questions:

1. Did working in a pharmacy make you realize that you didnt want to be a pharmacist? And why didn't you make sure that you wanted to become a pharmacist before applying to pharm school?
2. What makes you think that medicine will be a better fit for you?
3. What have you done to get an accurate picture of what physicians actually do?
4. You took the MCAT two years ago. Why didn't you just apply to medical school then?
5. How do we know that you wont just drop out of medical school after the first year, perhaps realizing that medicine isn't the right path for you either? It doesn't seem like you have much medical shadowing/volunteer work at all.

If you answer something along the lines of "I'm more interested in clinical activities and think I would enjoy practicing medicine more", expect to be asked "why don't you just pursue clinical pharmacy?" Hard questions to answer, I know, but you're going to have to address all of them either in your personal statement or interviews. And bashing on other health care professions is a big no-no, so you'll have to put pharmacy in a positive light while still supporting your reasons for not wanting to become a pharmacist yourself.

It seems like you're in somewhat of a rush to apply for 2007 which, in my opinion, is a bad idea. It may be better to just to take a year or two off (after quitting pharmacy school) to get involved in more physician-related activities so that adcoms will be assured that you actually know what you're getting yourself into. That's your biggest obstacle right now, because your numbers are fine. I think overall, dropping out of anything just looks bad. It's a pretty big red flag and people will question both your motivations and possible lack of commitment.

Jumping from quitting pharmacy directly into applying to med school without any extracurricular involvement to support that decision shows a lack of forethought & self-evaluation. You're going to have to be able to convince adcoms beyond words alone (ie: through activities, work or research, etc.) that you are absolutely POSITIVE that medicine is what you want to do and that there is NO possible way you're going to quit med school once you get in. Except for a few months of hospital volunteering, you really don't have many extracurriculars that aren't pharmacy related.. so I think you still have a lot of work to do.. because at this point I don't think adcoms are going to take your sudden decision to switch into medicine very seriously. Remember that getting an acceptance isn't just about MCAT scores or GPA numbers.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

I am a married, 1st year pharmacy student, who realized he made a huge mistake in chosing pharmacy over medicine. I took the MCAT two years ago and got a 35. Had about a 3.8 undergrad in chemistry. I want to apply again this year(2007), but am unsure of my potential. I have little volunteer experience, but I have worked in a pharmacy, I did volunteer for about 6 months in a hospital before, and I definately have exposure to healthcare being that I currently work in a pharmacy. What does everyone think, should I apply, what can I do to beef up my application. I feel there isnt enough time to get much meaningful volunteer experience in. What should I say in my personal statement????? Any help is appreciated.

I don't agree with the previous poster (kelli). Your numbers are great. You don't need to take 2 years (or even 1 year) off to do volunteer/shadowing work. I do agree with the other previous poster (TacoStand) that you probably have time to get some clinical volunteer work/shadowing in before your interviews. I am in somewhat of the same boat -- I haven't had a lot of time to get volunteer work in with classes/studying for the MCAT, family, caring for my sick father, full-time work, and managing my rental properties (to me, clinical volunteer work is less of a priority than most of those. I already KNOW that medicine is the right career for me, I am just doing the clinical volunteer work because it is a de-facto requirement and to provide some tangible proof that I've adequately researched/challenged my decision to change careers to medicine.)

Nevertheless, you WILL have to answer questions like the ones that kelli mentioned. Make sure you have good answers (both to convince adcoms, as well as YOURSELF that you are making the right decision) to those questions. While changing your mind might make you look fickle, its nowhere near the end of the world. You are allowed to change your mind. At the same time, though, you need to make sure that you can make the case that you know what you are getting into, and you are making a very informed decision.

With your numbers, I think you are 75% there, but you need to make sure that 1) You don't screw up the other 25% (i.e. PS and Interview) and 2) That this is what you REALLY want. Interviewers are more perceptive than you think, and can probably tell whether you are really motivated in your pursuit of medicine as a new career. Make sure that you are.

Good Luck,

Jota

 

[kelli]

My concern with just fitting in some clinical/volunteering work in between now and when the OP is applying is that adcoms will see it as exactly that -- some last minute cramming of ECs just to try to fill that gap in his/her application. But it won't show any kind of forethought or preparation in terms of knowing what medicine really entails before abruptly switching from pharmacy. Previous volunteer work just included 6 months at a hospital and although pharmacy work does include good direct contact with patients in an outpatient setting, it's pretty far removed from physician contact (apart from just calling doctors to confirm scripts). For the best prospects at acceptance into a school, I still stand by my original assessment that taking a year off to get involved would make the OP a much stronger candidate. It would certainly make those tough questions at interviews a lot easier to handle. However, there is of course a chance that he/she could be accepted this year. The OP's numbers are great and that alone could secure some interviews. But again, he/she needs to have great answers to the questions I posed above in order to get by those interviews. 🙂