White Coat Ceremony experience

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kingbastek

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I will be starting my P1 year at the University of Utah in a few days and we have a white coat ceremony scheduled for August 27. Personally, I am very excited about the white coat ceremony because a lot of my family will be attending (me+15 others). We're planning on going out to dinner after the ceremony and then my cousins and I (they're around my age) are planning on going out and celebrating a bit more, if you know what I mean lol. I'm very excited about it and I would just like to know some of your personal experiences on that day and what emotions you felt throughout the whole thing.
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I never went through the experience, but congratulations! All your hard work and effort paid off, way to go! :D :thumbup:
 
Thank you! While I personally don't really need a ceremony to feel like my hard work paid off, it's a big deal for my family so that's why I'm excited for it :)
 
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15! wow....Our class has a limit of 3 guest per student..:mad:
 
isantiago82 said:
15! wow....Our class has a limit of 3 guest per student..:mad:
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Yeah I read that some schools have a limit of how many guests we could bring. I just had to call my school and make sure it was ok to bring 15 guests and our advisor said there was no limit so that was a relief :D
 
I think having a white coat ceremony BEFORE you start pharmacy school is a rather assine idea.

What do you know now that you didn't before? What have you learned to deserve being granted with a white coat which is a sign of knowledge and respect? At that point, you're no different than any other person in college.

After the first year, okay, I can see that. But not beforehand.
 
phathead said:
I think having a white coat ceremony BEFORE you start pharmacy school is a rather assine idea.

What do you know now that you didn't before? What have you learned to deserve being granted with a white coat which is a sign of knowledge and respect? At that point, you're no different than any other person in college.

After the first year, okay, I can see that. But not beforehand.
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My ceremony is about 3 weeks after the P1 school year starts. I kind of agree with you, but it's kind of like a symbolic experience and really stresses the importance of a dedication required to pursue this career.
 
phathead said:
I think having a white coat ceremony BEFORE you start pharmacy school is a rather assine idea.

What do you know now that you didn't before? What have you learned to deserve being granted with a white coat which is a sign of knowledge and respect? At that point, you're no different than any other person in college.

After the first year, okay, I can see that. But not beforehand.
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I sort of agree. My school did it at the end of the one-week orientation. Still, it's a cool formal beginning to your education. Your family will get more out of it than you will.
 
Mines is next week, one week before class starts. I would rather not go but it's mandatory, I suppose.
 
phathead said:
I think having a white coat ceremony BEFORE you start pharmacy school is a rather assine idea.

What do you know now that you didn't before? What have you learned to deserve being granted with a white coat which is a sign of knowledge and respect? At that point, you're no different than any other person in college.

After the first year, okay, I can see that. But not beforehand.
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I can agree to this, although my white coat ceremony is on the 26th for USN and im pretty excited for it. The email the assistant dean sent out said it is to symbolize the start of your professional career, so w/e Im looking forward to the experience regardless :thumbup:
 
phathead said:
I think having a white coat ceremony BEFORE you start pharmacy school is a rather assine idea.

What do you know now that you didn't before? What have you learned to deserve being granted with a white coat which is a sign of knowledge and respect? At that point, you're no different than any other person in college.

After the first year, okay, I can see that. But not beforehand.
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I actually had to wear my white coat at a pharmacy within two weeks of starting school. It would be odd to have to wear it for a whole year and then have a ceremony presenting the now not quite white coat after so much time had passed. I guess we could see which classmates have great laundry skills. Now if they wanted to give me a brand new coat, I'd totally be on board with that.
 
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My ceremony was at the end of the P1 year. It was about 5 hours after the final exam that semester. During the school year we just wore a white coat that had our names on a plastic name tag for any community events or for lab/IPPE. Now I've got one with my name embroidered on it and a nice orange patch on the sleeve.

The ceremony was a bit pointless to me. I think it's definitely more for the families. It felt like a high school graduation with our names being read and whatnot and getting your picture taken with the dean. I'm more looking forward to the ceremony in 2013.
 
Yea I agree it's more for the families. I look forward to graduation though :)
 
I definitely agree with you guys that it's more for the families, but that's still something to be excited about. I mean how are you going to celebrate if there's nobody there to share it with you?
 
i feel like almost all pharm schools have their white coat ceremonies at the start of py1. the white coat ceremony at my school isn't until after you finish your py3 year, right before you start your full year of rotations. until then, we just buy a white coat from the school for lab/IPPEs. im kind of jealous i have to wait three years for a ceremony haha :laugh:
 
appalpharm said:
i feel like almost all pharm schools have their white coat ceremonies at the start of py1. the white coat ceremony at my school isn't until after you finish your py3 year, right before you start your full year of rotations. until then, we just buy a white coat from the school for lab/IPPEs. im kind of jealous i have to wait three years for a ceremony haha :laugh:
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UConn also has the ceremony P3 year (ours is in January). I think it was good to have it then. It was like we earned it then and it was a celebration of being ready to represent the school on rotations. Before the ceremony, we bought cheap lab coats on our own that didn't have the school's logo. I can't imagine keeping that thing clean for longer than a year anyway! It starts looking a little dingy after so long no matter how much you bleach it.

We also had some sort of oath ceremony about a month into P1 year. Families were also invited to this. Students prepared the oath in class. I think it was about professionalism, but it has been a while so I'm not really sure. This could be that symbolism and "celebration of entering your professional life" that others say the white coat ceremony is for their schools.
 
Our school has their ceremony at the start of P2 year, but I disagree with their sentiment that a white coat given to a student when they first enter pharmacy school means nothing. Medical students have white coat ceremonies when they enter because it indicates that they are now officially on their path.

To pick an arbitrary length of time, whether it be one year or two, and declare that the ceremony means so much more doesn't hold water with me.
 
Sparda29 said:
Really? Going out with your family? If anything, use the White Coat Ceremony to meet other students in your class and go out with them somewhere.
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Hmm...this didn't really occur to me. Probably because I thought it would be awkward since everyone is with their families anyway so how would I approach something like that? That is a really good idea though.
 
This is nice :)!!
I will be starting on Wed of this week, and they will take our white coat measurments on that day; very excited. Not sure about the white coat ceremony though :D
 
My school had two white coat ceremonies: one at the beginning of P1 year and one at the end of P3 year. Both were scheduled on weeknights when a) most families were not able to attend and b) we had exams the next day, so most students just wanted to get home and study.

I recall thinking both were a big waste of time. Maybe I'd feel differently if things had been planned better.
 
Mine is this Thursday. I'm kind of disappointed that tuition is $40,000 but they don't embroider our names on the coats.
 
kingbastek said:
Hmm...this didn't really occur to me. Probably because I thought it would be awkward since everyone is with their families anyway so how would I approach something like that? That is a really good idea though.
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I guess so, but I always thought of graduation as the event that you brought family to, not the white coat ceremony.
 
kmoogs said:
Eh? How are you so sure?
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Did it change at USC for this year? I spoke to a student from last year and she told me that they only received name tags to pin onto the coat.
 
white coat ceremonies = boring as hell

hope you have an iphone/android to play with.
 
not to poop on the parade but like another pharm student said, its boring as hell but it was worth it.
 
Out of 150 students, ~30 did not bother to show up. I wish I was as smart... :laugh:
 
We didn't even have a white coat ceremony. They just gave us our coats and sent us our ways lol
 
Why all the haters? :confused: Guess y'all aren't the sentimental/symbolic types. I suppose weddings, funerals, and such are a waste of time too?
 
PharmOl said:
We didn't even have a white coat ceremony. They just gave us our coats and sent us our ways lol
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Actually, UNC does have a White Coat Ceremony. It's held in the Spring of your PY3 year. At UNC, it's meant to symbolize your transition into your final year/year of rotations.
 
Project2015 said:
Why all the haters? :confused: Guess y'all aren't the sentimental/symbolic types. I suppose weddings, funerals, and such are a waste of time too?
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you cannot compare a white coat ceremony to a wedding or a funeral.
 
nexus14 said:
you cannot compare a white coat ceremony to a wedding or a funeral.
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... but they are all types of ceremonies that take up a lot of time, don't have a lot of active participation, and are purely symbolic.
 
I don't mind boring ceremonies so much if there is free food involved. White Coat Ceremony has free food so it is not so bad.
 
diastole said:
I don't mind boring ceremonies so much if there is free food involved. White Coat Ceremony has free food so it is not so bad.
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Seriously? Free food? Lucky. Not only did we not get free food, but we had to pay for parking. Huge buzzkill.
 
I hope they have free food at ours!
 
Ours isn't until January. They said it was because by then we should know enough about professionalism to earn our short sleeved coats. We have another ceremony in October for our long sleeved coats for our labs, etc. I'm kind of excited! :D
 
It was kind of awkward but it was less than an hour so it wasn't too bad.

I still had to pay for parking. That sucked (even if it was cheap).
 
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