why are you guys and gals still going into pharmacy?

[Havequestion]

Yes, I am only on these forums during down time at work so no personal time is lost. If I can save just one person from financial and emotional ruin then I will feel that I made the world a better place.

Has anyone returned and thanked you for saving him/her? Link me to that please.

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[mentos]

Has anyone returned and thanked you for saving him/her? Link me to that please.

Yes, I'm glad you asked! Here is the link.

Can't decide whether to pursue pharmacy or not

 

[Igra]

What do you enjoy about it specifically?

I worked in retail for about 4 years, and despite the common circumstances for people I had a pretty good experience. I knew all my patients and it felt good knowing them and helping them out. I enjoyed working with the people there as well (for the most part). Our patients were super nice and generous, they always brought cookies and stuff around the holidays for us. I just enjoyed going to work.

Moving on to clinical work, I got involved in pediatrics and that has been a blast getting to help out the kids, and more specifically my work in the OR has been a very fascinating line of work. I get to work firsthand with the doctors/nurses/AA's/CRNA's and the interprofessional team work is really visible versus sitting down in central pharmacy wonder how half the nurses manage to tie their shoes in the morning.

I just enjoy the work, it feels meaningful, it's fun, and I want to continue doing it on the pharmacist level instead of the technician level, is that reason enough for you?

The fact that the average number of pharmacy school applicants is down by 50% (which in reality is exaggerated, it’s probably more like 10-20%) is irrelevant to your argument. It doesn’t matter if pharmacy schools had 40,000 applicants or 20,000 applicants when there are 15,000 seats to be filled every year and pharmacy schools keep cranking out 15,000 new grads each year. The only thing that a reduced number of applicants does is further drop the standards by which to get into pharmacy school, which is why we constantly preach that all you need is a pulse and $200k in loan eligibility to get into pharmacy school nowadays.

No it's not irrelevant to my comment at all, and stop giving false numbers, i can site you the actual source that says overall applicants are down 36% and the avg per school is down 45% (iirc, which is the statistic i was referring to since there are more schools now versus a few years back)

This person must be at one of those pharmacy schools that don’t need the PCAT. I didn’t have that much free time to post on forums during my pharmacy school days...

Rotations and dealing with preceptors are gonna be tough for this one too..

And have you been following pharmacy? There is a good chance that most pharmacist work for Walgreens and CVS due to market share. They are buying everyone out and instead of student pharmacist, pre pharmers and pharmacists uniting to stand up for better work environments and demand things like lunches and bathroom breaks, we just ignore it all and deal with it...

Texas Tech, pretty good school wouldn't you say? I'd argue it's probably the best in Texas...

Also your lack of time suggests to me that you're just bad at studying or time management. I've done great in school and had a pretty reasonable amount of time to do whatever I feel like doing.




It's not that I don't agree with you guys that pharmacy saturation is a real thing and most people should consider how much they really want to get into pharmacy. I totally agree, but you guys have beat the **** out of this dead horse for a long time now, and often offer advice when it isn't asked for.

I don't think it's acceptable to go into someones thread that's asking about their PCAT scores and chances at X school to comment "LOL IF YOU HAVE PULSE AND 200K LOANS YOURE IN", nobody asked for that.

 

[Havequestion]

Yes, I'm glad you asked! Here is the link.

Can't decide whether to pursue pharmacy or not

I meant a returning sdn member, not a person who just created his/her account a couple weeks ago and is still trying to figure out what to do next. Especially not the one that suddenly posts the response after I asked you.

Do you have a better or proven success story? If you actually impacted someone’s life in positive way, you should because you have been a member since 2009. Unless, people are that ungrateful.

 

[misac]

I worked in retail for about 4 years, and despite the common circumstances for people I had a pretty good experience. I knew all my patients and it felt good knowing them and helping them out. I enjoyed working with the people there as well (for the most part). Our patients were super nice and generous, they always brought cookies and stuff around the holidays for us. I just enjoyed going to work.

Moving on to clinical work, I got involved in pediatrics and that has been a blast getting to help out the kids, and more specifically my work in the OR has been a very fascinating line of work. I get to work firsthand with the doctors/nurses/AA's/CRNA's and the interprofessional team work is really visible versus sitting down in central pharmacy wonder how half the nurses manage to tie their shoes in the morning.

I just enjoy the work, it feels meaningful, it's fun, and I want to continue doing it on the pharmacist level instead of the technician level, is that reason enough for you?



No it's not irrelevant to my comment at all, and stop giving false numbers, i can site you the actual source that says overall applicants are down 36% and the avg per school is down 45% (iirc, which is the statistic i was referring to since there are more schools now versus a few years back)



Texas Tech, pretty good school wouldn't you say? I'd argue it's probably the best in Texas...

Also your lack of time suggests to me that you're just bad at studying or time management. I've done great in school and had a pretty reasonable amount of time to do whatever I feel like doing.




It's not that I don't agree with you guys that pharmacy saturation is a real thing and most people should consider how much they really want to get into pharmacy. I totally agree, but you guys have beat the **** out of this dead horse for a long time now, and often offer advice when it isn't asked for.

I don't think it's acceptable to go into someones thread that's asking about their PCAT scores and chances at X school to comment "LOL IF YOU HAVE PULSE AND 200K LOANS YOURE IN", nobody asked for that.

I agree. I have been turned off from coming to these forums because of all the comments regarding the job saturation. We do not owe anyone an explanation for why we want to become pharmacists other than the admission committees at the schools we are applying. We are just trying to utilize this forum to connect with people going through the admission process with us. We do not need to keep seeing the same posts over and over. I have been in pharmacy long enough to know what I am in for and I love what I do enough to want to move up in the field. Thanks for you unwarranted concerns but it really has become redundant.

 

[PharmtoCS]

I don't think it's acceptable to go into someones thread that's asking about their PCAT scores and chances at X school to comment "LOL IF YOU HAVE PULSE AND 200K LOANS YOURE IN", nobody asked for that.

While others might perceive this as written in jest it is mostly true. The number of pharmacy schools exploded while the number of applicants plummeted. Schools are desperate to fill their seats and will do so with students who have no business becoming a pharmacist because it means tuition $$$ which the students have to pay back when they graduate. The easy part is getting into pharmacy school but the hard part is landing a job that will help you pay back your loans.

You seem to have set a high standard for yourself. Yet the one with a pulse, 2.2 community college GPA, and single digit PCAT who never stepped foot in a pharmacy and qualified for $200k+ in student loans has the same opportunity as you to become a pharmacist. Do you think that is fair?

 

[sozetone]

I worked in retail for about 4 years, and despite the common circumstances for people I had a pretty good experience. I knew all my patients and it felt good knowing them and helping them out. I enjoyed working with the people there as well (for the most part). Our patients were super nice and generous, they always brought cookies and stuff around the holidays for us. I just enjoyed going to work.

Moving on to clinical work, I got involved in pediatrics and that has been a blast getting to help out the kids, and more specifically my work in the OR has been a very fascinating line of work. I get to work firsthand with the doctors/nurses/AA's/CRNA's and the interprofessional team work is really visible versus sitting down in central pharmacy wonder how half the nurses manage to tie their shoes in the morning.

I just enjoy the work, it feels meaningful, it's fun, and I want to continue doing it on the pharmacist level instead of the technician level, is that reason enough for you?


YES! very articulate and thought out. You sound now like one of the good ones, really trying to make a go of this. Thank you for sharing. really. be well.







T

 

[Timbo]

Pre-pharms aren't even posting in this forum anymore. They're all in the pharmacy school specific and PCAT forums

 

[sozetone]

I agree. I have been turned off from coming to these forums because of all the comments regarding the job saturation. We do not owe anyone an explanation for why we want to become pharmacists other than the admission committees at the schools we are applying. We are just trying to utilize this forum to connect with people going through the admission process with us. We do not need to keep seeing the same posts over and over. I have been in pharmacy long enough to know what I am in for and I love what I do enough to want to move up in the field. Thanks for you unwarranted concerns but it really has become redundant.

I asked a simple question which is paramount to your decision to dedicate your life to something. I never intimated anything about the job market or saturation....blah blah....you just assumed that from the barrage of comments on this board. Your right , you do not owe me an answer, you owe yourself. This is your life work now.

 

[sozetone]

Real edgy. I hope you are just trolling me and understand what I meant by dead (as in no pharmacists exist).


Another edgy post. Then why keep making threads asking people they owe you an answer? Because we all know that if your thread dies with no responses, you whine about why no one is giving you answers.


Maybe you should start somewhere else that isn't a forum meant to help undergrads. But posting up your problems like this gives a more in depth insight into this field rather than some quack asking us to "do our homework." If you guys intend to keep making these types of threads, at least do what this poster did and post up your own issues. This list would give more encouragement to the reader to look up the issues themselves without someone trying to shove it down their throat.

Its a simple question to a HUGE decision in YOUR life. I never implied anything negative or about the job market, thats not what this is about. I really want to hear aspiring pharmacists reasons for entering the field. Like what motivated them, inspired them...etc. your taking ,my question as a setup to barrage you with what you already have heard, so ill spare you. fair? just tell me why you chose pharmacy. But as i always say, you dont owe me an answer, you really owe yourself.

 

[Igra]

.

Eh maybe it’s top 5? Texas tech really tanked this year with Naplex and MPJE scores. Mid-high 80S..ouch. I’m sure your dean is concerned.

I was actually great at studying and time management, thanks for asking! Maybe if you are in the North Dallas area for retail rotations I will have the great honor to precept you...or maybe I won’t

Yeah they weren't 'great' this year, but they certainly weren't terrible, I suspect many schools have their ups and downs, but top 5 really? if anything top 2. I know a few managers in hospitals in dallas the almost exclusively hire texas tech grads. My friend is a PGY2 in dallas and says their talking about dropping UNT as a rotation site because of problems with knowledge/professionalism (not that i would have considered UNT > Tech). I think you'd love to have me as student, I was the bomb at retail years back!

 

[King2440]

Yeah they weren't 'great' this year, but they certainly weren't terrible, I suspect many schools have their ups and downs, but top 5 really? if anything top 2. I know a few managers in hospitals in dallas the almost exclusively hire texas tech grads. My friend is a PGY2 in dallas and says their talking about dropping UNT as a rotation site because of problems with knowledge/professionalism (not that i would have considered UNT > Tech). I think you'd love to have me as student, I was the bomb at retail years back!

UNT - def NOT impressed.

Just one guy on the internet here but I’d say UH=UT, then tech...generally speaking as a whole when you look at a 10 year profile. UIW/A&M have some up and down years and *could* be debatable if you look at year by year scores.

Anyways best of luck with the rest of your program!

 

[DagS132]

Its a simple question to a HUGE decision in YOUR life. I never implied anything negative or about the job market, thats not what this is about. I really want to hear aspiring pharmacists reasons for entering the field. Like what motivated them, inspired them...etc. your taking ,my question as a setup to barrage you with what you already have heard, so ill spare you. fair? just tell me why you chose pharmacy. But as i always say, you dont owe me an answer, you really owe yourself.

You say that but we all know how angry you get when you dont get any responses. I mean, just look at how many threads you created because your previous ones failed.

 

[Gilakend]

Is there any non-anecdotal (meaning not "I/my friend got a job offer") that the saturation will decrease or the job market will improve? I have no horse in the race and am going into a different field, I just peruse the subsections on here and have wondered this for awhile. I was a pharmacology and toxicology major in undergrad so I did my coursework with the P1/P2 classes (minus the pharmacy law classes and add toxicology) and never once heard anyone mention saturation of the market, despite knowing it existed and every thread in the pharm forums talking about it, even if it is off topic.

Just curious to see what info is out there for the sake of my own knowledge of the medical field.

 

[alpha12]

I meant a returning sdn member, not a person who just created his/her account a couple weeks ago and is still trying to figure out what to do next. Especially not the one that suddenly posts the response after I asked you.

Do you have a better or proven success story? If you actually impacted someone’s life in positive way, you should because you have been a member since 2009. Unless, people are that ungrateful.

I was convinced not by this forum specifically but by pharmacists while worked as a tech 10 years ago and other prehealth students. I became a software engineer and I am much happier. I disappointed a lot of people in my family that think that it was an easy 6 figure job but now they look back and see that I was right. I make more money than pharmacists and the job is less stressful. Plus I love computers so I am doing something I actually like. If saturation was bad 10+ years ago when I was pre pharm than it has be worse now. These pharmacists are doing the public a service. They don't want to see their profession diminished. I respect that.

 

[KidPharmD]

I was convinced not by this forum specifically but by pharmacists while worked as a tech 10 years ago and other prehealth students. I became a software engineer and I am much happier. I disappointed a lot of people in my family that think that it was an easy 6 figure job but now they look back and see that I was right. I make more money than pharmacists and the job is less stressful. Plus I love computers so I am doing something I actually like. If saturation was bad 10+ years ago when I was pre pharm than it has be worse now. These pharmacists are doing the public a service. They don't want to see their profession diminished. I respect that.

Off topic but why does a software engineer come back to SDN 10 years later?

 

[alpha12]

Off topic but why does a software engineer come back to SDN 10 years later?

I didn't post for a long time but I got a job at a much maligned 3 letter pharmacy chain as an engineer so I just started visiting again. I was curious to see if I made the right decision and there are a lot of posts about benefits from my company from other employees that are very insightful.