Will I regret it after my 4 years have passed?

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JamesL1585

TheAntiSavior?
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Okay, so I just found out I was accepted to Pharmacy school 2 days ago....

Before this I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get in, and I got 3 offers for summer research in Pharmacology and picked the one @ Michigan State University. I accepted on April 2nd. I got a 4th offer for research with NASA like a week ago, and was kind of iffy about it, but my job in Houston in the TX medical center as pharmacy tech pays like $16 an hour and I needed to save for my move to Chicago in the fall.

I called my mentor yesterday at Michigan State to tell her I needed to save so I picked the NASA research (it pays the same as hers, and I still get to keep my job) and she was pissed! Man I felt bad, but I just wanted to know, should I even care? Will I regret this? I really do want to do grad school after obtaining my Pharm D. in Pharmacology, and the reason I picked MSU was because it was the best professor, and I thought I might actually have wanted to go there for grad school if I didn't get into pharmacy school next year either... so should I care? Will I regret this later if I apply to MSU after pharm d? Or what...

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You definitely have to strategize your decisions in order to have them work out for you in the long run. At the same time you have to do what is right for you. You don't want to be in a position 20 years later asking yourself what would my life have been like if I had taken that job I wanted?
 
Okay, so I just found out I was accepted to Pharmacy school 2 days ago....

Before this I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get in, and I got 3 offers for summer research in Pharmacology and picked the one @ Michigan State University. I accepted on April 2nd. I got a 4th offer for research with NASA like a week ago, and was kind of iffy about it, but my job in Houston in the TX medical center as pharmacy tech pays like $16 an hour and I needed to save for my move to Chicago in the fall.

I called my mentor yesterday at Michigan State to tell her I needed to save so I picked the NASA research (it pays the same as hers, and I still get to keep my job) and she was pissed! Man I felt bad, but I just wanted to know, should I even care? Will I regret this? I really do want to do grad school after obtaining my Pharm D. in Pharmacology, and the reason I picked MSU was because it was the best professor, and I thought I might actually have wanted to go there for grad school if I didn't get into pharmacy school next year either... so should I care? Will I regret this later if I apply to MSU after pharm d? Or what...

I hope you realized that doing PhD after PharmD requires a lot of commitment. PharmD is by no means an easy program plus loans. With your stipend from PhD you will not be able to contribute much to paying off your loans. Another thing to consider is that if you pursue PhD at the same school from which you obtained your Pharmd, the PhD program might be a little bit shorter for you just because faculty will realize your background and let you skip some required Phd courses. Another option is to just got for a fellowship focusing on Pharmacology.

So as you can see there are so many paths that you can follow. Thus, I think it is too early for you just to be deadset on pursuing PhD from Michigan State. Who knows maybe you change your mind completely after you enter pharmacy school, and will follow completely different path. So as of right now, just do what you think is the best for you and don't worry about rejecting the program.
 
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Okay, so I just found out I was accepted to Pharmacy school 2 days ago....

Before this I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get in, and I got 3 offers for summer research in Pharmacology and picked the one @ Michigan State University. I accepted on April 2nd. I got a 4th offer for research with NASA like a week ago, and was kind of iffy about it, but my job in Houston in the TX medical center as pharmacy tech pays like $16 an hour and I needed to save for my move to Chicago in the fall.

I called my mentor yesterday at Michigan State to tell her I needed to save so I picked the NASA research (it pays the same as hers, and I still get to keep my job) and she was pissed! Man I felt bad, but I just wanted to know, should I even care? Will I regret this? I really do want to do grad school after obtaining my Pharm D. in Pharmacology, and the reason I picked MSU was because it was the best professor, and I thought I might actually have wanted to go there for grad school if I didn't get into pharmacy school next year either... so should I care? Will I regret this later if I apply to MSU after pharm d? Or what...

Holy ****, $16 an hour? That makes the decision right there does it not. Just kidding, as a resident, I make less than that...

Nope, you shouldn't care. You seem like an ambitious dude, and they almost always end up finding themselves in favorable situations (I should know....damn I am humble). Not sure why you didn't think you'd get in to Pharmacy school though (while simultaneously getting job offers at NASA), maybe I am giving you too much credit. Someone who knows what they want to do so early on would strike me as a person who would have tried to get accepted into a combined PharmD/PhD program. Was this not an option?

Either way, I think you will be alright in the long run.
 
Congrats James! First off, you're very lucky to have these options to you. Michigan has a great pharmacology program and I'm sure that working for NASA will raise a few eyebrows when you show em' your resume!

As I see it, you're in a qwirky situation at the moment. If pursuing a dual PharmD/PhD is still in your future after 4 years of pharm school, then you may have just ramped up the difficulty for yourself to apply in the future. The general gist I've heard from fellow RA's is that turning down a research mentor in academia is sort of like a black mark on your record for attaining a research or fellowship position, again. I know you were in a slightly different situation, looking at a summer internship and all, but I probably would have done the same. You gotta pay your rent somehow, right?

If you're that concerned about it, contact their program director, explain the circumstances and talk about it. Perhaps they'd be able to accomodate you somehow, if not out of pocket, then by providing free room/board? Doesn't hurt to bargain! Good luck and PS, what's the research about w/ NASA?
 
I think the NASA program he is refering to is the research where they shoot doctors and blonde drug representatives into space to see if lower gravity on the rep's breasts further reduces the doctor's ability to make informed decisions about what medications to prescribe for his patients.

If this gravity defying research establishes a correlation, then by finding a way to increase gravity here on earth, patient health will improve drastically.
 
I think the NASA program he is refering to is the research where they shoot doctors and blonde drug representatives into space to see if lower gravity on the rep's breasts further reduces the doctor's ability to make informed decisions about what medications to prescribe for his patients.

If this gravity defying research establishes a correlation, then by finding a way to increase gravity here on earth, patient health will improve drastically.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
A dual program is good, better than doing the 2 degrees separately, as long as after you graduate you still like what you're doing.

I have spoken to many people about this, including my college's dean and assistant dean of pharmacy, and they say that a pharmD is not a good degree to do bench research with, and that it's better to get a regular degree (in pharmacology, for instance) and then a PhD, that will take you less time.

If you want to do clinical research (what I want to do so far, but that may change), you don't have to do a PhD. A PharmD plus a residency and/or fellowship will suffice (as said by both my assistant dean of pharmacy and a clinical researcher I've spoken to).

So far, from studying 2 years prepharm at a direct-entry program, it seems like pharmacy is a really good major choice, just because there are so many paths to specialize in (if you're willing to put in the extra effort) and so many job options.
 
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