NeuN Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Hey guys, I finnished my first BSc and I didn't do well. Now, I'm thinking of doing another Bachelors to improve my chances of getting into Med. I want to do my second UG in something that I can fall back on, in case I don't get into med school. I'm not saying that I don't have the motivation to do well in my 2nd UG, I'm gonna work my ass off to get that 4.0. As a backup I'm thinking of doing pharmacy at Waterloo/UT or CA program under dpt of Math at Waterloo. What do you guys think of these programs? Are they difficult to get high marks? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharmingHedgehog Posted July 30, 2011 Report Share Posted July 30, 2011 Warning: long speech coming up Having a back up plan in case you don't get into medicine is a great idea. Choose your back up carefully though. I entered pharmacy sure that I don't want to be a doctor. About 10-20% of my classmates (out of 240) entered pharmacy wanting to be a doctor. 1 person got accepted after first year, 1 after 2nd year, none after 3rd, and 2 after 4th year. That's a a total of 4 people out of the 24-48 people who actually made it to medicine from pharmacy. There are also several people who are planning to apply a year or two after graduating. Keep in mind, my classmates are not regular life sci people who just decided one day that medicine is a good idea or whatever. They are keeners who get great grades, and who obviously had taken serious steps to prep for med admissions (since they thought of using pharmacy as backup). Yet, only 4 people made it to med school after the 4 years. In the original class, 8 people actually failed a year throughout the 4 years, and didn't graduate with us. There are several pros to using pharmacy as a back up: > You get to know a lot more about the health care system as a whole, and how stuff works > You learn the drugs and therapeutics, so you may have an easier time in med > if you get off your butt and get good jobs, you'll also get lots of patient interaction experiences, and develop communication and empathy skills that everyone likes > You learn what not to do as a doctor when it comes to patient care, collaboration, and prescription writing > You get pretty awesome ECs if you try. As pharmacy students, you'll get to be involved in EC/Jobs with a professional flavour (e.g. volunteer pharmacy student at student-run clinic, quality improvement initiatives for med rec, etc). Pharmacy students can get really hands-on jobs > You get lots of free swag (ok, not a pro for medicine, but still pretty awesome). Not lame ones like pens and stickies, but cool ones are La Roche samples, and office supply > You get to know some pretty awesome people > You'll give lots of presentations to everyone, and be able to interact with other health care professionals There are also several cons to using pharmacy as a back up: > Your grades will suck if you aren't careful. I had a 3.97 average in my first year (because I got a 3.7 in biology). I ended up with a 3.6 cumulative average in pharmacy. I know of many people out of the 24-48, who couldn't apply because they didn't have good grades. > Will you be OK being "stuck" in pharmacy? I had a friend who is very resentful of the fact that "the faculty" gave him low marks, and he is not able to apply for medicine. He is disgruntled with staying in pharmacy. Do you want your pharmacist to be like that? > Tuition is super expensive. UT floats at around 13K+, and UW should be more expensive due to the co-op program. > The job market is not the greatest. With recent cuts from the government (by London's very own Deb Matthews), pharmacy revenue is decreasing, leading to pharmacies more reluctant to hire Canadian grads, and more likely to hire international grads who will accept less pay and go wherever they want. > You might decide medicine is not that great. Once you graduate pharmacy, you can make 35-45/hr easy. If you are any good, you'd look for a job during the summer and get a taste of what your future will be like. Then, it may be a tough decision to give up the future of 70K-90K/yr income and start at the beginning of studentship again. > You are taking a spot away from someone who actually want to be a pharmacist. This is a major argument many people uses against using pharmacy as a back up. Professional faculties are a little special in that the government subsides our tuition. In my opinion, if you somehow managed to "settle" for pharmacy, you'd better be a good pharmacist! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 Short answer to ur question, yes it is a difficult path to take to get good marks. I'm classmates with the above poster and the other person who was accepted into med after 4th year. My gpa dropped from 4.0 in lifesci at ut to 3.89. I agree with most what she says except that there are more people who got in after 1st year. At least 3 that I know of. This is a path that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Sure it gives u extra insurance, but its harder to maintain good marks and u pay a lot more tuition. But its not impossible. The program itself gives u a better understanding and a fresh perspective on health issues which I think helps a lot with the admin process. Its a double edged sword. I dun regret going into the program at all because I think I gained a lot useful knowledge that I can use in medicine as well. Although I'm sure I would feel differently if the admin cycle didn't go as well for me as it did. Make ur own judgement based on what we have to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharmingHedgehog Posted August 2, 2011 Report Share Posted August 2, 2011 Keep in mind that the people who got in after first year didn't actually use their pharmacy GPA =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasRolland Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 I think dumbadum (lol...) makes good points. You have to acknowledge the possibility that you never get into medicine. Then will u be ok being stuck at Shoppers Drugmart your whole life? Make sure pharmacy is something u also enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarathonRunner Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Pharmacy is also extremely competitive to get into, from what I understand. Not as bad as medicine, but still, successful applicants tend to have high GPAs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skymall88 Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 I think dumbadum (lol...) makes good points. You have to acknowledge the possibility that you never get into medicine. Then will u be ok being stuck at Shoppers Drugmart your whole life? Make sure pharmacy is something u also enjoy. lol....clearly you are not very familiar with the pharmacy profession if you think that all pharmacists work at shoppers. In actuality, chain pharmacy is just one area that graduates are able to work at. Other examples include: clinical, hospital, independent, nuclear, academic, industry, etc. To the OP, I think that if you are interested in pharmacy and are willing to work your ass off to receive the grades you need, then its really not such a bad idea. additionally, if accepted to meds as a pharmacist, then you will have a much easier time with the pharmacology portion of the med curriculum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharmingHedgehog Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 I am super protect of the public perception of the pharmacy profession. Probably because it was my first profession! pharmacy is not just "spending the rest of your life at shoppers drugmart". IMO, this perception of pharmacists is worse than not knowing what we do. Yes, a great majority of pharmacists work in the community. This includes shoppers, loblaws/rcss, what ever chain store and independent shops you see. Even the pharmacist there no longer only provides you with pills and tell you to take them twice a day or whatever. They are doing more to help manage chronic conditions and educate patients. It's not hard to find a pharmacist who have additional certifications and a diabetes educator, asthma educator, or nutrition specialist. Other pharmacies provide compounding, which is a service to make up medicines that are not on the market, or for marketed medication does not meet the patients needs (allergy, religious reasons, etc). Pharmacists in the hospital aid doctors in managing patients. There, you play a part in medicine safety initiatives, medical directives, and in pharmaceutical research. Hospital is also where you can specialize in a particular area of interest. Doctors say they can't live without pharmacist, it's not really an exaggeration. I was on my program-end rotation, and we caught tons of errors everyday! Other places pharmacists can work includes the drug industry, government health agencies, the ministry of health... Some pharmacists will become vp of hospitals because of their problem solving skills. So no, you will not just spend your whole life in shoppers drugmart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.