<p>So most of you know me. You guys always give me good advice so I figure try it again.</p>
<p>when I go back to my home school in January, I have a goal to become a pharmacy technician for a local hospital or somewhere. I am already taking a P-Tech certification course at my CC and when its done, im going to take the National certification test that would strengthen my application to any hospital/retail pharmacy.</p>
<p>so enough about that, Im sure this question has been asked a dozen times but I cant seem to get a straight answer. Is going through Chem E worth it to get in to a Pharm school? And does the Pharm school process work exactly like the Med school process where you need a super high gpa and "XYZ" courses and to take a test (I know you have to take the PCAT obviously) or do I have to get into a Pre-Pharmacy undergrad?</p>
<p>Also (no trolls on this one), be real, is a 2.9 at my home school and having to take a year off and coming back good for anything (grad school or jobs not necessarily related to chem e) if I some how get higher grades my next semester?</p>
<p>I think getting a ChemE for pharmacy is too much.
I don’t know the rest since I don’t have any primary resource on pharmacy school at all (except med)</p>
<p>I am not quite sure I understand the question. Doing ChemE and then trying to go to pharm school? Not a bad idea, as if you do not get into to pharm school you can fall back on a degree that is worth something (unlike biochem/chem/bio). Though, you do not even need an undergraduate degree to get into pharm school, just need the pre-reqs. </p>
<p>Also, if you have a 2.9 GPA, you have almost zero chance of getting into pharm school. You need a 3.5+ on the core classes which are calI/II, Physics I/II, chem I/II, Orgo I/II, bio I/II, a&p I/II, biochem I/II.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses and keep 'em coming.</p>
<p>@jwxie
I dont mean getting into Chem E for the sole purpose of pharmacy. I mean more as an avenue for it. But how is it too much?</p>
<p>@entropy2009
well yeah I assumed that. Im asking would it look bad if I had a 2.9 to begin with, took a semester break like a doing now, went back and raised my gpa by a few points. I understand that a 2.9 is not really good (not the worst) and its DEFINITELY not what I want to graduate with.</p>
<p>@siobhandem
Is major not taken into account?</p>
<p>As someone who was once considering pharmacy myself, most schools require you to have a bachelor’s degree. You need an extremely high GPA to get in. Let’s say a 3.7 is the minimum.</p>
<p>Pharmacy school is harder to get into than medical school. I’ve seen acceptance rates of 5% - 9% for pharmacy schools (in CA at least). To compare to medical, the acceptance rate into UCLA medical school is 10% (high compared to pharmacy).</p>
<p>Engineering majors generally get lower GPA’s than science majors because the classes are harder.</p>
<p>If you major and ChemE and don’t get in, you still have a great major! Med/pharmacy school rejects who major in bio are basically screwed for life especially if they don’t even like bio.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to scare you off of pharmacy school, I’m just saying that it’s hard to get in. Pharmacists start out making 100K while chem engineering start out making arount 65-70K. Experienced chem engineers make over 100K. So if you want to go into pharmacy school because of salary, you’re going to be in debt after pharmacy school.</p>
<p>Basically, if you really want to be a pharmacist, you’re going to have to work your butt off in school to raise your GPA. Your pharmacy technician experience will help get you in too.</p>
<p>There are some 0-6 yr pharmD programs that might let you transfer in. Why don’t you just go and make an appt. and ask what you might need to do?</p>
<p>Well certinaly the fall back is great, but then your current GPA is low. I believe you are a CC student, right? I don’t mean that you are not qualify to be an engineering student just because the current GPA is low. You know I didn’t mean that :)</p>
<p>It’s just a feeling that if your goal is pharmacy, consider the best way to enjoy the study. if engineering will load bad GPA, I would rather to give up that fall back.</p>
<p>Major alone is not taken into account to get into Pharm School. Otherwise, a lot of Chem Engineers with low GPA’s would have went to Pharm School.</p>
<p>I always thought pharmacy was a choice made during undergraduate, not after? (I suppose I was incorrect! I really only know Rutgers’ Pharm program, to be honest.)</p>
<p>I agree with sax, why not go for the six-year programs? Then you can get into pharmacy right off the bat and be finished sooner.</p>
<p>People are really exaggerating the difficulty of getting into Pharmacy school. A ton of new schools are opening up around the country that will basically accept anybody with a pulse who has passed O-Chem. (This has also caused a nation-wide surplus of pharmacists, but that’s a whole other topic). I found this guy especially hilarious:
LOL!!!</p>
<p>Anyways, I don’t see the point of majoring in Chemical Engineering if you’re planning on going to Pharmacy school all along. Considering a lot of people get accepted with just two years of pre-reqs, getting that B.S. (note: ALL of your upper-division classes will be harder than the pre-reqs) is a lot of unnecessary work that won’t really help you in your career. Also, no matter what your GPA is in Engineering, you could have gotten a higher GPA somewhere else. Even if you get a 4.0, you could have spent only half that time studying and gotten a 4.0 in something else. </p>
<p>Finally, and this may not matter to you, but it doesn’t make financial sense to go to pharmacy school after an engineering degree. With a B.S. in ChemE you’ll have a wide range of well-paid jobs open to you, and the debt incurred and time spent studying for the PharmD won’t really change that. It would be one thing if you were in your 4th year and you decided you wanted to be a pharmacist, but if you haven’t started yet, why bother?</p>
<p>Even though you think ChemE degree might be your backup if you don’t get into pharm. I believe 2.9 gpa is too low to get a decent ChemEngineer job. Most jobs I’ve applied to so far request minimum of 3.0 or above except you have tons of work experience/connection/good references. Upper level courses are usually harder</p>
<p>^ This is quite a vague statement. UCSF is probably the most competitive pharmacy school in the country. The average GPA of UCSF admits is 3.55 with a 3.47 prepharmacy requirements. For an “average” medical school (by the way, prestige in medical schools is not that important since virtually everybody is placed into a residency), the average GPA is ~3.6-3.7. For Harvard, JHU, UCSF and schools of that caliber, the average GPA is 3.8+ not to mention that most admits have great research experience and MCAT scores.</p>
<p>And medical school applications are much harder. Over 50% of those who apply (and most apply to 20 or 30 schools) get into no medical school. And a majority of pre-meds who apply get discouraged and never even apply in the first place. 5-10% acceptance rates are common among public medical schools and higher tier private schools.</p>
<p>I am not arguing that pharm school admissions is easy but there is little comparison to medical school admissions.</p>