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Pharmacist Applying To Medicine


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Hi,

 

I'm a pharmacist working in Ontario and wish to apply for medicine (it was always the goal -- long story). I've been able to pay off loans and whatnot and now am ready to apply. My stats are: 

  • UofT undergrad: 2.68
  • Pharmacy undergrad (completed in the UK): 3.36
  • MCAT: 506 (125/127/127/127) 
  • Quite extensive EC (sports, arts, dance, community work both within lower-income and new immigrants)
  • No publications/research completed as of yet

My gameplan is to do another UG and redo the MCAT. The next UG degree is actually something I'm interested in and was going to do if I didn't get into the pharmacy program in the UK. Anyways, I don't mind the long road (being financially stable and relatively young helps), and am interested to do a masters as well to strengthen my application. There will be research and a publication I will be participating in over the summer of 2017.

 

As for work, I'm working part-time/relief so I can devote all my time to my studies.

 

Just looking for any feedback, guidance, critiques, or suggestions for things that I may have overlooked.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read through this.

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I did the pharm to Med switch, its pretty common. Shoot me a PM if you have other questions, but it was a few years ago back for me. 

 

It is doable but a long battle as you know having to tackle another undergrad. The sacrifice to family, time and energy is something you have to weigh whether it is worth it or not. If it was always your goal as you said, then go for it! I did the same and don't regret it.

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Doing a 2nd undergrad would really only open up a small number of schools for you, but re-confirm this. Primarily western or queens,  unless there are other schools that only consider the most recent degree that would have a realistic number of seats for you.

Honestly, you would be a perfect candidate for just doing med abroad and gunning it for a US residency and coming back to Canada after that. You have lots of medicine knowledge from pharmacy school, and should be able to do relatively well due to this baseline.

Unless you're fine continuing to work as a pharmacist and eventually get into medical school in 4-5 years at best or more, then stick with the Canadian route.

But do the research first to figure out what school you actually would realistically have a chance at by doing another degree. A masters will 100% not help your GPA issue for medical school. You need to figure out what schools only look at the most recent degree, and/or best two years/most recent two years like queens/western. Because your 2.68 and 3.36 are going to GREATLY weight down your cGPA overall, such that every new 4.0 course is going to make a small dent only.

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Hey, thanks for your advise. 

 

That's what I'm guessing, because as much as I would love to return to UofT the prospect seems improbable, if not impossible. But I will take your advise and research those schools. Worst case, I can move to Alberta and live and work there and apply IP after finishing up this bachelor, as I remember reading the guides where they have the 10-year GPA point.

 

Will do the research. As for applying abroad, I would let that be more if all else fails. I have time and 4-5 years, or up to 6-7 years, is something I don't mind.

 

Thanks again for advise!

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Hey, I just got my acceptance letter at dal this week and I did the pharm to med switch. Definitely PM me if you have any other questions!

 

Have you considered doing a PharmD? My backup plan if I didn't get into med this year was to maybe do a PharmD since I thought it would give me another chance at boosting my GPA and contribute to my career in case med school didn't work out for me. I guess the GPA factor may depend on which PharmD program though... Also I posted my stats so you can see them on my previous posts if that helps!

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I also have done the pharmacy to medicine switch. I was in a similar situation as you, but decided to go to Ireland to study medicine. I will be graduating and returning to Canada for residency this summer.

 

If you have any questions regarding this route, feel free to send me a PM I would be happy to answer any questions.

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I also have done the pharmacy to medicine switch. I was in a similar situation as you, but decided to go to Ireland to study medicine. I will be graduating and returning to Canada for residency this summer.

 

If you have any questions regarding this route, feel free to send me a PM I would be happy to answer any questions.

Is it application deadline to irish schools already?

 

(haha sorry, just suspect that you conveniently arrived at this point!)

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Is it application deadline to irish schools already?

 

(haha sorry, just suspect that you conveniently arrived at this point!)

 

I am quite sure that applications for Irish schools are closed for this year, I think you have made the wrong assumption. My objective would not be to promote this path, but caution him on the difficulties, risks and challenges that going abroad for medicine presents.

 

Honestly, you would be a perfect candidate for just doing med abroad and gunning it for a US residency and coming back to Canada after that. You have lots of medicine knowledge from pharmacy school, and should be able to do relatively well due to this baseline.

 

Having been someone that was in similar shoes that chose this option, I am just trying to offer what I have learned through this process that I didn't know before hand. Things may have worked out for me, but it was far from easy.

 

Just trying to help. 

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Hey CES17, thanks for the offer. I completely understand, as I had to do the whole pharmacy registration route after graduating overseas. I will definitely hit you up if I decide to apply to Australia/Ireland. I feel that I'll just keep working on my application for Canadian/American schools and aim to get into somewhere in here. But thanks again, and will keep in touch.

 

Goodluck on your return journey!

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  • 3 years later...
On 3/18/2017 at 5:15 PM, DCM said:

I did the pharm to Med switch, its pretty common. Shoot me a PM if you have other questions, but it was a few years ago back for me. 

 

It is doable but a long battle as you know having to tackle another undergrad. The sacrifice to family, time and energy is something you have to weigh whether it is worth it or not. If it was always your goal as you said, then go for it! I did the same and don't regret it.

Hi , would you please guide me in that ,from where should I start ? I am an Albertan pharmacist.

 

Regards

Michel 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm currently a pharmacist working in community pharmacy (working for 3 years since graduation).  My grades were average through school (86%) and since pharmacy school, I haven't done much volunteer or extracurricular work.  I used to research during my undergraduate but nothing recently.

I'm just really curious - for pharmacists who have successfully transitioned into medicine, did you have a lot of extracurricular activities and volunteer work on top of your pharmacy degree?  Also, were you actively publishing or researching when you applied?  

Any feedback would be appreciated.

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On 3/19/2017 at 2:23 PM, rx2md2017 said:

Hey, thanks for your advise. 

 

That's what I'm guessing, because as much as I would love to return to UofT the prospect seems improbable, if not impossible. But I will take your advise and research those schools. Worst case, I can move to Alberta and live and work there and apply IP after finishing up this bachelor, as I remember reading the guides where they have the 10-year GPA point.

 

Will do the research. As for applying abroad, I would let that be more if all else fails. I have time and 4-5 years, or up to 6-7 years, is something I don't mind.

 

Thanks again for advise!

Hey friend, might I add if you are planning on moving to a different province to get that IP, I suggest Manitoba. U of M has a rule where if it has been 5 or more years between your first and second degree they will drop the GPA from the first degree entirely (given that none of the courses from your first degree has been used to satisfy any of the requirements of your second degree). I recommend moving to Manitoba because it is less competitive than Albertan schools and they put less emphasis on the GPA.

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