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Should I Go For Pharmacy?


pea_lee

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Hey guys, I currently have a ~3.5 GPA in my prerequisite courses (with the exception of BIOCHEM), 3.4 in my first year and a 3.7 in my Fall 2015 semester at the University of Alberta. I'm actually in my second year at the Faculty of Education right now and I'm wondering if I should go for pharmacy. I've always thought about going into pharmacy but I kept doubting myself and didn't think I was smart enough. Do you think its worth the risk to give up on my Education degree and use my next year to take courses that will be required for the Pharm D. program? Also, practicing/graduated pharmacists, what are the job prospects like? For current pharmacy students, how do you like your program? Any insight is helpful! Thanks! 

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You should try shadowing some community pharmacies or hospital pharmacies to get a better idea of what it's like before you consider applying. Intelligence isn't everything, especially in pharmacy as clearly communicating with patients is as important as knowing drugs and interactions. In my opinion, if you have a strong foundation in sciences and good social interaction skills, you are best suited to go into pharmacy. 

 

Whether or not it's worth the risk to give up on your Ed degree is entirely up you to as only you know best what you want to do in the future. As for job prospects, almost every job in AB is feeling the effects of oil right now. As a general rule of thumb, it's not hard to get a job as a fresh grad if you look into rural pharmacies where the demand is higher. 

 

With the new PharmD program slated to be implemented in the 2017-2018 year (if gov't approval happens on sched), pre reqs will be slightly different from the current ones for the BScPharm program. As for how much the actual program changes, there are much more clinical components including longer rotation requirements. 

 

I think 3.5 pre req GPA is enough to get you an interview. 

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  • 4 months later...

Hey guys, I currently have a ~3.5 GPA in my prerequisite courses (with the exception of BIOCHEM), 3.4 in my first year and a 3.7 in my Fall 2015 semester at the University of Alberta. I'm actually in my second year at the Faculty of Education right now and I'm wondering if I should go for pharmacy. I've always thought about going into pharmacy but I kept doubting myself and didn't think I was smart enough. Do you think its worth the risk to give up on my Education degree and use my next year to take courses that will be required for the Pharm D. program? Also, practicing/graduated pharmacists, what are the job prospects like? For current pharmacy students, how do you like your program? Any insight is helpful! Thanks!

 

It really depends on how much you know about the profession and if you can see yourself doing it as a career. Job prospects are still pretty good (better for hospital pharmacists - especially in BC and Alberta from my understanding). I am currently a practicing pharmacist. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

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  • 5 months later...

Hey guys, I currently have a ~3.5 GPA in my prerequisite courses (with the exception of BIOCHEM), 3.4 in my first year and a 3.7 in my Fall 2015 semester at the University of Alberta. I'm actually in my second year at the Faculty of Education right now and I'm wondering if I should go for pharmacy. I've always thought about going into pharmacy but I kept doubting myself and didn't think I was smart enough. Do you think its worth the risk to give up on my Education degree and use my next year to take courses that will be required for the Pharm D. program? Also, practicing/graduated pharmacists, what are the job prospects like? For current pharmacy students, how do you like your program? Any insight is helpful! Thanks! 

 

Hello,

 

Class of 2018 here. I don't know how much the applicant pool has changed over these few years, especially given that pharm D is coming in, but I had similar GPA stats to you and I made it in (via wait-list). However, I was applying after my first year of undergrad, and the more experience you have/years you have, the better your LOI and Interview should (hopefully) be.

 

I think it's worth it if it really is your passion. So explore that. You have to fill out the Pharmacist Consultation Form anyways, so take some time to find out what pharmacists actually do via shadowing, interviewing, etc.

 

Job Prospects: easy as a student to get a part-time job -- helps with the tuition. When you're graduated you might have to float for awhile or work not exactly in the city, but there's lots of jobs out there. And there's still jobs in the city too, but you'll just have to be more competitive.

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