Hey, everyone!

This is my first year going into a community college. I am currently taking pre-pharmacy and will transfer to another college. Hope y'all share how it was like to attend college your first year.

FYI: Pre-pharmacy is a required course before going into pharmacy. You'll have to take all your course classes first before you can take a pharmacy class. So many things are required before you enter into the another University/College after you're done with a two-year community college.
You'll have to take the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) prior to entering any other accredited University/College. I know, that's alot. So let's do some math: two years of pre-pharmacy and four years of pharmacy = six years of study. My goal: get some experience (a.k.a. work) in January 2008 so that way, I am much more likely to be accepted.

Hope those of you who entered the same field as I am can share your experience or goals.
Thank you! Kamsahamnida!

Pharmacy
Short way: 2+ years & 4 years of pharmacy school = 6 years
Long way: 4 years BA + 4 years pharm school = 8 years

Depending on where you want to go to college, some pharmacy school requires you to get a BA first. There is the BA in pharmacy and Pharm D. in pharmacy.

shortest way: go to a school that already has a 6 year pharmD program. (4.5 years of undergrad classes with some shadowing at pharmacies or hospitals, internships and externships for a few weeks during the summer, then the last 3 semesters are rotations with a few on campus classes) but my school is in talks about making it a 7 year program soon. I think a good 70% of my friends at school are pharmacy students. After so much time with all of them in the library I think I can pretty much recite their whole curriculum from the past 4 years and what pharmacies they do rotations at LOL.

i have a question. i am in a comm. college right now doing my pre-reqs for pharmacy school and i was just wondering does volunteering become a big factor in getting in. because i was just wondering how would you manage a job, being a full time student, and do volunteer work at the same time? and i was also wondering, instead of volunteering, what if you worked as a pharmacy clerk? would that be better?

I'm in pre-pharm too and my schools offers the 6 year program so 2 years of pre-pharm and 4 years of pharm school like mentioned above but it seems like I'll have to be in pre-pharm for an extra year b/c i'm a bit behind on my pre-reqs....anyways as for volunteering... you can always do that during the summer or spring break which is my plan. I know internships/job in the pharmacy area always looks good... i actually have a pharm internship interview at rite-aid on wednesday! By the way for those in pre-pharm... what are your required classes for pharm school? Besides the typical requried science and math courses, are microeconomics and public speaking courses required for you?

^ yea i have to take either a speech class or speech communications. and the pharmacy school i'll be applying into says that biochemistry isn't required but it's highly reccommended. but i dont think the comm. college i go to offers it. no microeconomics for me though.

but here's the full required list for me:

chemistry
organic chem.
microbiology
biology
10 humanity credits
10 social science credits
eng 101 and eng 102
elements of calculus & intro to statistics

i think thats it.

I'm also taking pre-pharmacy right now at Temple University(my 1st year). Gosh, my advisor told me that the G.P.A that got accepted to Temple pharmacy school as of 2007 is 3.5. Dang, how am I supposed to maintain a G.P.A of 3.5??? I guess I have to pray God. Good luck to you!

I'm also into pharmacy
but i'm not quite sure what i'm doing yet xD
Planning to get my BS degree in Health Science, then go to UCSF or UCSD and become a pharmacist
8 years... sighhh

^i'm doing the same thing i'm planning on getting my BS in Health Science too but i was told that's rare and that most people major in chemistry of biology
it's 2 extra years but i'll have a BS to fall back on in case something goes wrong it's longer but i feel safer

hey im at temple too!

right now im not declared as prepharm. my major right now is biochem...and i thought prepharm was a track not a major. so its ok for me to declare my major right now and just fill in the requirements for prepharm right?

my school has the 6 year program too; thank goodness for ap credits and stuff. This is my second year and i'm struggling to find enough classes to even keep me a full time student for my scholarships one more year and i'm off to the real classes. ^3.5 should be a median for pharm school entrance.....it's not very hard, just study..plus the higher your gpa the little more slack you'll have on your pcat

Kool! What year are you in? Well, yeah...pre-pharm isn't a major as long as you fullfil all the core classes 'n other requirements. My only goal is to become a pharmacist so I'm not intended to declare other major...I'll wait until I reach 30 credits and will declare my pharmacy major. Good luck to u! Hope to see u around Temple. Are you at the main campus anyway?Yeah, 3.5 is like a min. requirement. Hey, you are on ur 2nd yr. so u supposed to take organic chem. rite now rite? How is it? Can u share a lil. experience w/ us? I guess I will be taking longer than 6 yrs. since I keep taking my required courses along w/ some unneccesary(but fun) courses. I figured since I'm in college, why not take some classes that I like instead of juz study, study and study

i'm a freshie. and yea i'm at the main campus too. what classes are you taking? haha we should study together or something like that...

anyways i declared my major as biochem because i knew that i wanted to be involved in the medical field whether it be going to med school or researching...
i didnt really consider pharmacy until i went to visit temple for a day and they had this pharmacy seminar thingy...and that pulled me in. it's also funny how my mom went to temple for pharmacy too so i guess i'm following the footsteps of my mom

As I enrolled in my community college, I put Undecided at that time.( Freshman btw )Now I'm really interested in the Pharmacy Field and plan on becoming a pharamcist(sp). I'm not taking any science classes , only my general education classes for this fall semester. So anyone suggest I should start doing and such? I'm a newbie and all. Kamsahamnida Chingoo!

^
i'd say start taking chemistry, organic chemistry, and biology.

Hey anyone know how hard it is to get into pharmacy schools in cali?


Do you have to score like real high on the entrance exam?
After going to college in Las Vegas I wanted to go to UCSD to transfer..
then transfer to the pharmacy school..

Hey! I go to UCSD but only as an undergraduate >_<

Anyway someone told me that it's super hard to get into pharm schools in California,, like if your GPA isn't over 3.5, then there's really no point in even applying or something like that O_O And then I heard that some schools don't require the PCAT (I looked over a prep book for it and it looked so much easier than the MCAT)...

well i just started ochem so i can't say much...right now we're just going over some basic stuff from chem 1 and 2 but i hear it's very rare to get an A in it at my school.

I know. All years long I was thinking about become an engineer. But when I go to the orientation they make me want to become a pharmacist so bad. U at main campus too? I think we might seen each other at Temple already or even in the same class but we juz dun know lolz. Anyway, i'm taking Math, English, American Culture, Piano for non-major and Foreign Language courses right now. how about you?



I know. My HS teacher told me that he always got A's in other classes but he got like a C or B- on organic chem. He was like 3/4 of his class failed the course. Dat's really scary

Right now my major is Biology. Sucks I didn't make it into the six year program...now i gotta attempt to get into pharmacy school and hopefully be able to get into a school..2-4 now =(

Hi, you might want to check out http://www.GetIntoPharmacySchool.com

The ebook is very helpful and has helped many students get into pharmacy school.

Check it out!

Just to give some people a little hope and show that grades aren't everything. I got in with a 3.1 gpa, 2.9 science gpa, and a 68 on the pcat.

Keep your grades high if you can but don't freak out if you make a C or a B every now and then.

Where did you get in and did you have connections?

I got into the University of Oklahoma and I didn't have connections. I had no pharmacy experience except for like a couple weeks before my interview when I went and shadowed a pharmacist for like 2 hours and that was it. I got a letter of recommendation from my organic 2 teacher, which was purely academic letter since I didn't know him. The other one came from my organizational advisor for these two asian organizations, where I was the service coordinator, so that probably helped me out a bit. The last one came from this pharmacist my dad's friend knew and we met for like an hour and then she wrote a letter regarding that visit.

So that's basically all I did to get in. If you got any questions, feel free to ask. Oh and studentdoctor.net is a good place to get information.

Just know, grades and PCATs may be important, but it's not everything. A 4.0, 99 PCAT will get you an interview spot; it does not guarantee an acceptance. At the interview, you may think that your grades will give you an edge, which is true to an extent. It may give you a menial boost to the interviewer, but during a closed-file interview, it won't mean jack.



What i'm trying to say is, grades aren't everything. Have a social life, major in what you want (while completing your pre-reqs), and just have fun in college. From what my friends tell me, undergrad is the time to have fun, while pharmacy school is the time to study more than ever.


Btw, those rankings of pharmacy schools you see do not correlate with job offers after college. Those rankings are based on things like class-size, faculty:student ratio, research grants, etc....They should not be your primary decision making tool, when applying to school. Choose a school you can be happy at. Some may be happy at UCSF, while others might not. Some may be happy at UT, while others may not.

Oh, haha i'm in oklahoma right now at SWOSU. I hope i get in with how much i'm busting my butt for grades. I guess i should start thinking about recommendation letters since i'm applying soon...

Thank U! Now u juz gave me hopes!!! I was so stressed out becuz i didn't do well in Math nowaday, but u make me feel much better. Questions, how did u do in the interview? And is U of Oklahoma has really demanding requirements? Cuz I live in Pennsylvania and the pharmacy school I wanna go in is Temple U. Temple pharmacy school requirements are crazy so I really wanna kno u got in becuz u did good on the interview or becuz the requirements are easy

Man, I can't imagine going to SWOSU. I would get sooo bored. But best of luck to you.



Well, OU's requirements are like 2.5 to 4.0 gpa but they have cutoffs for interviews. When I got in, the cutoff was 3.1 so I got really lucky and got an interview. I don't remember my years admission statistics but this years was 3.5 avg gpa, 74 avg pcat, and 3.41 avg science gpa. They had like 411 applicants with 211 invited for an interview and from that, 143 got in.

My interview was in a friendly atmosphere and didn't seem like an interview at all. It had like 2 pharmacists and one student interviewer. Before we had the interview I had to send in this form of what my weaknesses and strengths were. I also had to tell them about any jobs I had, any community services, pharmacy experience and hobbies and such. The interview was just based off that form and some generic questions. They asked me why pharmacy, what kind of community services did you run, pharmacy experience, and then one about if a tech made a mistake on a drug, what would happen and what would you do then they asked me what I would do to correct my weaknesses. Then it was my turn to ask questions and that was it.

Hope this was helpful.

*edit*
Heh I forgot to answer your question. My interview went good, I answered all the questions without much hesitation and I sounded confident. I guess I was too charming that they couldn't let a catch like me get away =P. But honestly, I was pretty shy at the time so you can picture how nervous I was at the beginning of that interview but then I relaxed after I realized this wasn't an interrogation.

And just a little advise, if you are just average but you have something to offer, that would be a lot better than someone who makes a 4.0 and is just a complete bookworm. At least sound interesting and enthusiastic about pharmacy. I'm not saying not to try at school as much but be well rounded. Have a life, enjoy your undergrad, and go party. But study and try to find some volunteering that you can do also.

I got an interview at USC Pharmacy School on Nov. 10!!! woooooo. anyone gonna be there as well?

Thanks for answering. So I guess the interview is really another important factor after all? Too bad, I'm really bad at being interviewed. I got all shaky and stuffs. Few more questions if you dun mind to answer. What community services did you do? And also, would u mind telling me/us some of ur answers to those questions. Thanks a bunch. And btw, congrats on ur admittance!!!

arent u stressing a little too much?
look into studentdoctor.net

What kind of jobs do you guys think one could get after a BS in biochem?

I'm a pharmacy service associate right now and its a heck of a lot of work same goes with pharm tech. I'm considering this field so thought the job might look good on my resume for the future.

Ehhh don't worry, I'm not a very good interviewer either. I just looked up on studentdoctor.net and found some generic questions and then practiced the night before and rehearsed with someone on what I was going to say. Practicing will help you feel more confident and less likely to be shaky and nervous.

Well anyways, I was the service coordinator for asian american student assoc. and vietnamese student assoc. so that helped a lot just b/c I was in charge of setting up the volunteering. It was like easter egg hunts, feed the children, christmas headstart and stuff like that every month or so. I did not do any pharmacy related volunteering on the side either.

Well, here are the questions and answers. These are going to be very short and choppy. Football is on.

Why did you choose pharmacy? (I would rehearse this one b/c they tend to ask this everywhere)
Dad wanted engineering. Brother in law was going into medical field, he talked about pharmacy. I was like OOooo Ok. Dad wanted me to go to Oklahoma state university for engineering. I was like eff that and went behind his back and just filled an application for university of oklahoma for undergrad. I got in and here I am studying pharmacy. And that was it.


You say one of your weaknessess is time management, Pharmacy will be very time consuming. How will you work around that weakness?
(I pretty much BSed here) Well by naming one of my weaknesses, it's the first process in fixing that weakness. I would start by spreading out my time and studying the notes once class lets out and keep ahead of the material. and blah blah blah stuff along those lines

Well since you are a service coordinator, have you gone outside of the typical yearly services your organization offers?
I was lucky on this one because the easter egg hunt was a new thing so I was like well next week we're having an easter egg hunt.

You say here that you went to shadow a pharmacist, how was that experience and what did you do?
Well I went to the homeland in Norman and I met pete the pharmacist. I told them he was a nice guy blah blah blah. Then I joked around saying how pharmacists like telling you that they have their medications in alphabetical order and like to show you each row. Then I told them I watched him for a few hours interacting with the patients and I really liked that aspect.

If one of your techs were to make an error and put the wrong drugs for someone and the customer comes back knowing it was the wrong drug. What would you do?
I told them that even though the tech made the mistake, the pharmacist would be held responsible for their mistake. And that the pharmacist should go talk to the patient and try to resolve the issue. Talk to the tech and show them the mistake so they can learn from it. Offer the customer something to make them less irate or anything. Well something along those lines, I wish I remember what I said because I bet it sounded better than what I typed today.


Then time was almost up, they asked me if I had any questions. BTW when you get an interview, I would make sure to ASK questions at the end. I asked all three of them why pharmacy. They went on a rant and then time ended. And that was it.

how did you guys know that you wanted to go into pharmacy?
i really want to do something in the medical field, but i can't decide between medical or pharmacy school?

I thought about medical school. I want to work with cancer and cancer patients. Being an oncologist sounded nice, but my friend (who's father is a doctor) told me that the oncologists do not interact with the patients as much as the oncology pharmacist. That and:

1. I don't want to spend 3 Years in IM Residency + 1-2 Years in Oncology Residency.
2. I don't like to see a lot of blood (unless it's in movies).
3. I want to have patient contact and create the chemo treatment for them.
4. I want to have a family life.


I'm pre-pharmacy right now.

I'm currently a junior at a community college in cali. i read in one of the previous posts that it is incredibly hard to get into a pharmacy school in california. can anyone suggest a better place to go? right now, my eyes are set to going to University of the Pacific in Stockton or maybe USC. [all are in cali]

i really want to get into pharmacy school, but with a 3.61 and no volunteering, shadowing, or working in the field what-so-ever, I feel like I wont be able to get in, which is why I'm trying to go to UCSD/UCI and get a BS in general biology first. Is that a good idea? My friend, who is a lab tech and is also going into pharmacy said that he regreted taking a hard science major and wish he'd taken a soft science [like psychology] so that his gpa woul be higher. Would that be better then taking science classes now?

Sorry for the million and one questions and thanks ahead of time to anyone who can hep me out.

UOP is one of the best choice u got. some people will choose UCD or UCSD for the heck of it.
OR
u can go to state and finish it up quickly and then work 1 yr then go for your masters :].

those are the common choices xD

best after USC, of course. USC = Best school in the Universe. fight on!

Thank you so much! What do you guys think about schools outside of Cali?

okay... im not sure what ur talking about. are you talking about programs that accept high school students, or normal track regular professional programs? Why would you wanna go anywhere outside california?

word to the wise... go to pharmcas, studentdoctor, or whatever, and do ur own research. check out schools' websites and then decide which one fits you best. it does no good for you to go to soompi and ask that kind of question considering this isnt a pre-professional website.

if you asked me... it doesnt matter which school you go to, as long as you enjoy it, try your best, and get your degree.

i'm in biochem right now but i'm gearing towards pharmacy. i might change my major because my science classes are eating me alive right now. i was planning on applying to UOP pharm school since i'm currently attending the university but my chances are very slim. there's all the pre-pharm students i'm competing against .___.

i'm in pharmacy but i'm in canada... here it's 1 yr undergrad + 4 yrs in pharmacy school
but i heard in US it's a 6 yr entry program to pharmD.. so i don't know what the whole 2 yr community college is about
but i didn't have any experience at all applying for pharmacy school.. but it might be different in US.. experience is always good but marks and writing skils are probably very important..

bio chem hereim thinking about med or pharmpharmacy is my backup, but im leaning more towards it being what i really wantmight go into the military for nuclear pharm training in the us theres an accelerated program where you do 2 years of pre reqs and do 4 years of pharm schoolyou can do this but you want get a bachelorsyour senior year biochem will be harder than the first year of pharm schooldont worry, if you get good scores and okay grades, they'll see you did biochem

Are there any less competitive pharmacy schools in LA, Southern California area?
I want to transfer there for pharmacy school later on ..
but the thing is i'm not that smart, i don't think i could compete with all those top students to get into USC, etc...
I mean really I'm not that smart, I can work hard, but iono if I can do it

with that attitude, dont bother applying anywhere. you're not gonna make it in, or through it.
You seem like the type of person that either doesnt have enough drive or will to do something challenging. No character in it. To your information, Pharmacy school is just as hard as ANY graduate/professional program (i.e. med school, dental, PhD, etc). People may tell you otherwise becuase they dont know the nature of each program... but the bottom line is that no matter what, you will end up working hard for 4 years. EVERY pharmacy program is going to be comparately hard... USC, western, UCSF,... they are ALL within the graduate realm.

As a soon to be pharmacy student, i would NOT want to have a weak attitude like that. As a patient... i would not want to receive health care from someone who took the easy way out. If you feel so discouraged to apply to USC and to study a par with these "top USC students", then maybe you have some growing up to do.

bla..i got my pcat scores back today...63.....i don't know if i should take it again or just apply because my gpa will be close to a 4.0....should have studied more than just the weekend before....

hotspicedcider, just curious, how did your interview with USC go? and are you a cali resident? what's your stats if you don't mind :P

i know some pharmacy schools are better than others but i thought that there really wasnt any ranking with pharmacy schools...like with med, law, and grad schools

i could answer that question in about a week. cuz that's when i find out whether i got in or not.