Will med schools look down on a pharmacy tech job?

[PopeKnope23]

I've been a pharmacy tech at Walmart for nearly a year. I thought it would be a good experience because I'd be able to see medicine from a very different, yet still important, perspective and because I'd greatly improve my communication skills with patients, nurses, doctors, etc. I've found this all to prove very true, but will med schools just think "oh... she should just go to pharmacy school?" Or will they consider this job a valuable experience?

TIA!!

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[ciestar]

I had 4000 hours of pharmacy tech hours on my application.
As long as you have enough healthcare experience outside of the pharmacy world, you shouldn't have an issue.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Well, they might think that at one time you were considering pharm school, but then you decided on medicine. I don't think that they would think being a pharm tech is worthless. It has value of being medically related. You are around patients. You are likely hearing questions from them and answers given by the pharmacist.

Are you shadowing doctors as well? Doing anything else medically related?

 

[blackroses]

What admissions committee members will actually think: "this person needed a job to survive".

 

[PopeKnope23]

Well, they might think that at one time you were considering pharm school, but then you decided on medicine. I don't think that they would think being a pharm tech is worthless. It has value of being medically related. You are around patients. You are likely hearing questions from them and answers given by the pharmacist.

Are you shadowing doctors as well? Doing anything else medically related?

Yes, I am shadowing doctors, volunteering in an ER and in a free clinic, as well as volunteering in a center that assists the underserved and homeless. I also tutor and have another job as a business assistant in a retina specialist's office (doing insurance billing, records requests, etc). Will all of that make for a decent app?

 

[PopeKnope23]

What admissions committee members will actually think: "this person needed a job to survive".

I actually don't need a job to survive, persay, but I feel very accomplished and on top of things when I work, so I wanted to get a job. Is this going to be viewed as a positive or negative?

 

[Ad2b]

I actually don't need a job to survive, persay, but I feel very accomplished and on top of things when I work, so I wanted to get a job. Is this going to be viewed as a positive or negative?

FYI: it's "per se"

In before @Goro

What's the rest of your app look like?

 

[blackroses]

I actually don't need a job to survive, persay, but I feel very accomplished and on top of things when I work, so I wanted to get a job. Is this going to be viewed as a positive or negative?

It will be viewed like you're a person with a job...

 

[PopeKnope23]

FYI: it's "per se"

In before @Goro

What's the rest of your app look like?

I'm going to be a junior, so I'm not taking the MCAT til May/June. Otherwise my current gpa is a 3.99

 

[Mad Jack]

No, it won't be looked down on, that's just silly.

 

[Ad2b]

What @Mad Jack said... keep that GPA, volunteer, shadow, take the MCAT and be on with it. I think the pharmacy aspect would/could be an interesting topic to talk about in interviews. But that's just me...

 

[jm192]

I worked at McDonald's for 2 years. No one seemed too worried about my dedication to the medical field.

 

[PopeKnope23]

Thanks for your input guys! I appreciate it.