Pharmacy Student! Looking For Advice On Pre-Med.

[Hellmon]

Hi, I'm currently a second year pharmacy student at the University of Toronto, currently completed 5 years of undergrad studies so I'm 22.
My cGPA is ~3.80 (OMSAS) excluding summer courses.

During my studies, I've realized that pharmacists are quite limited in their role as a healthcare provider, and I would like to have more autonomy. Additionally, there are too many pharmacists in Canada at this moment,  and pharmacy school is not challenging enough (it is mostly memorization of drug use guidelines and everything can be studied by cramming), and also diagnosis seems more interesting and matches my analytical skills. 

 

So here is what I'm looking for advice on:

 

MCAT - Minimum time to study and what resources are best for the new MCAT test that came out?
Extra-curriculars : Currently, I have absolutely no extra-curriculars. What type of extra-curricular activites should I be doing and how many hours? How would I go about approaching hospitals to get clinical volunteer hours?
US or Canadian schools: Assuming a good MCAT score, how likely would I be able to get into a US or Canadian school?

Thank you.

 

 

[robclem21]

Hey,

 

Congrats on getting into Pharmacy. I know that can be quite a challenge on its own. Here are my thoughts on your post but others may have a different opinion.

 

MCAT - Took me about 3 months to study (approx. 30 hours per week), but everyone is different on this. It depends on your comfort level with the material. Since its likely been some time since you've seen first year physics and biology, it may take a bit longer, but you should have no problem with them chemistry section. Seeing as how the new MCAT is longer and covers more material, I would leave at least this much time, or more if you are studying while in school. I used Examkrackers for the old MCAT, but I have seen the material for the new one and it looks comparable. I found it to be simple, and right to the point if you already have a background in science. The complete set runs around $400 from the UofT bookstore.

Extra-curriculars - This may be your biggest obstacle depending on the school you want to go to. Having some pharmacy experience may be useful, but this is something that people spend many years working on. Not just for medicine, but taking up genuine interests outside of school. I am not sure a few last-minute months of hospital volunteering is quite going to cut it. In fact, many hospital volunteering positions give you minimal patient contact and especially in the first few months might have little to offer you, unless you get a rarer position that puts you right in the action. Personally, I focused on things I was interested in (volunteering with sports, and community advocacy and outreach for students) and I found that beneficial. But again, think back about what you have done and what interests you before you jump into it so you can actually justify to adcoms why you did it.

 

US or Canadian schools - I can't speak to US schools because I never applied to the US, but your GPA looks competitive. I don't know the policy for most schools off the top of my head but I think pharmacy is another undergraduate degree so those grades are likely important for schools with later year weighting policies (Ottawa, Queens). I think UWO would require you to be in the last year of pharmacy before applying since you need to be almost complete your current degree so that may not be preferable. UofT and Mac are likely your best two chances in Ontario (maybe NOSM depending where you are from), but would need more information on your GPA breakdown for those schools and of course, dependent on your MCAT.

[oshaku]

I know someone majoring in biochem minoring in physics who spent only a week studying for MCAT (her degree covered everything MCAT would test). She turned down med school in favor of something else. Personally I spent about 6 weeks in the middle of the school semester (1-2 hours Mon - Fri, 8 hours sat/sun). The recommended time is 3 months.

[_ _]

Honestly I dont see it taking more than a couple months for you to study for the MCAT, maybe start by searching prep company websites and do one of their free practice tests (I think Kapla, princeton,etc have them). I did 2.5 months with a full time job and found that good, but its different for everyone!

[Hellmon]

Thanks for the advice everyone .

OMSAS GPA Breakdown w/o summer courses:
1st year - 10 courses: 3.84
2nd year - 9 courses: 3.766
3rd year - 10 courses: 3.81
4th year (Pharmacy) - 12 courses: 3.783
5th year (Pharmacy) - 10 courses, 2 Passes: 3.809

U of T GPA: 3.8, as I took 9 courses in 2nd year and cannot use the weighting formula.
Western gpa : 3.809
Queen's gpa : ~3.8
McMaster GPA (including summer courses):3.81




So after some research, I will be using ExamKrackers 9th ed. and Kaplan's full series of books for MCAT 2015, and will be writing it in September.
I think this is a good plan as I may have to retake the MCAT and the scores will last 5 years in Canada, and 2-3 years in the US.

I realize ECs are my biggest problem, and to tackle that I will be working part-time jobs during the school year at a pharmacy as well as volunteering for positions (hospital, tutoring) until I graduate from pharmacy (in 2017).
Would that be enough for the ECs (2 years)? Any additional advice on ECs would be appreciated!

 

[Epona]

Hi, I'm currently a second year pharmacy student at the University of Toronto, currently completed 5 years of undergrad studies so I'm 22.

My cGPA is ~3.80 (OMSAS) excluding summer courses.

 

During my studies, I've realized that pharmacists are quite limited in their role as a healthcare provider, and I would like to have more autonomy. Additionally, there are too many pharmacists in Canada at this moment,  and pharmacy school is not challenging enough (it is mostly memorization of drug use guidelines and everything can be studied by cramming), and also diagnosis seems more interesting and matches my analytical skills. 

 

So here is what I'm looking for advice on:

 

MCAT - Minimum time to study and what resources are best for the new MCAT test that came out?

Extra-curriculars : Currently, I have absolutely no extra-curriculars. What type of extra-curricular activites should I be doing and how many hours? How would I go about approaching hospitals to get clinical volunteer hours?

US or Canadian schools: Assuming a good MCAT score, how likely would I be able to get into a US or Canadian school?

 

Thank you.

 

Pharmacy experience would definitely be useful in your application as an "extracurricular" (more likely it is work or volunteer). I would say actual pharmacy experience would be more useful than simply volunteering in a hospital if you can find something, especially in a position where you will be interacting with patients (e.g. MedRec). By no extracurriculars, do you just mean no extracurriculars, or also no work, volunteering, hobbies, etc? 

 

I don't think pharmacy school is anything like actual pharmacy practice, and there definitely are a lot of analytical skills involved (I have mostly observed hospital pharmacists I don't know much about what community practice is like) so just make sure you are doing it for the right reason. And I think there are too many pharmacists in Toronto, but that's not the case for other parts of Ontario. 

 

I got into medicine after one year of pharmacy school, so feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. 

[CharmingHedgehog]

I got into pharmacy after one year of undergrad when that was still possible, and then decided to apply for med during the second year summer in pharmacy. I worked in several different aspects of pharmacy throughout my four years, and found that I drew on my pharmacy experiences a lot during my interview for med school AND residency! So, definitely continue to work in the pharmacy =]

In terms of ECs, it was a little bit difficult getting involved in stuff, since pharmacy tend to be a separate group for clubs. However, I found that because I could talk a lot about my work, and have them be relevant experiences, I didn't need to draw in examples from my ECs.

In terms of MCAT, I did Kaplan and Princeton review, and took about 3 months to study seriously. I wrote in April, which was not a good idea mainly because it was the day before the toxicology exam -- which I failed.....

Overall, I thought the pharmacy degree I had was quite useful in medicine, not only the knowledge basis, but also the face that I could have a relatively well paid job to fund my schooling.

Feel free to PM me for advice as well =]