<p>So I'm having a hard time deciding whether I want to do engineering or pharmacy. Right now, I'm a ffreshmen in a pre-pharmacy program at a state university and I've heard really bad things about the future in pharmacy, like how there's going to be an extreme surplus of pharmacists due to too many pharmacy schools opening up. I've mostly been hearing them on Student</a> Doctor Network Forums | An educational community for students and doctors spanning all the health professions., but when I look on CC, there is nothing mentioned about the surplus. One other thing that interests me other than pharmacy is engineering, perhaps chemical or biomedical, so I'm having a hard time deciding between engineering and pharmacy.
So I'm wondering, will there really be a surplus of pharmacists, to the extent that jobs will be very difficult to find after graduation? What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>According to to what I’ve read, yes, pharmacy is somewhat saturated at the moment, and it’s supposed to get worse over the next couple years. Reasons for this include various freezes in chain pharmacy expansion, but as you mentioned, the primary cause lies within too many new pharmacy schools (especially private/for-profit ones) opening. There are simply too many people with PharmDs (many of whom were only tempted into the field by the prospect of an easy, well-paid job) in the country, and pharmacy is no longer the lucrative, in-demand career it once was. </p>
<p>However, that being said! If you are genuinely interested in a career as a health care professional who specializes in drug recommendations and administration, go for pharmacy all the way. Your passion and dedication to the field will show as you look to begin your career as a pharmacist, and the jobs will come easily. I once had a TA who was getting her graduate degree in speech/hearing - doesn’t sound like a lucrative career, does it? But she absolutely LOVED it, and she had multiple job offerings upon graduation. If you decide that you like engineering better, go ahead and change your major, but don’t do it for the job/money - do it for you. :)</p>
<p>If you think you might do pharmacy, just do chemistry or chemical engineering since they’re good fallbacks. biomedical is not a good fallback, it’s a degree for people who want to be the NBA stars of science (not good unless you are the top and best at it).</p>
<p>surplus?
There is surplus for a lot of thing.
It also depends on where you live.
I think there is a surplus of doctors but people disagree with me - come on, so many hospitals are closing down already! Fewer people have insurance.</p>
<p>There are surplus of engineers too, in some sense.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to a suggested surplus of pharmacists in the future, though the idea doesn’t sound terribly plausible to me. I would like to address medwell’s comments about speech language pathology- this is an area that the bureau of labor statistics predicts will grow faster than the average economy for the forseeable future <a href=“http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos099.htm[/url]”>http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos099.htm</a>. Furthermore, the salaries are nearly double the household median in the country. SLP’s often get reimbursed for the educational expenses. BLS says the same of holders of a doctor of audiology degree. I guess my point is, that it is easy to be naive about career paths when you are a college student and you shouldn’t assume that a career track is narrow simply because you haven’t yet interacted with somebody in that area.</p>
<p>There really are too many pharmacy schools opening up, and the market is already saturated in many areas. 5 years ago, a grad would get a corporate signing bonus, guaranteed job. The graduates this year came away with little or no bonuses, jobs as floaters (no set stores) and a more than a few walked away with no jobs at all. Meanwhile, more schools are opening over the next few years. The profession will still be lucrative, but the halcyon days appear to be over for now. </p>
<p>That said, it can be a great job. I recommend that you spend some serious time shadowing a pharmacist, especially in a retail environment. The appeal of pharmacy fades away when you realize that 10 hours without a bathroom break is the norm, not the exception and that your customers will treat you with the same respect that they give a cashier at Wal-Mart. If you can stand the hours, the insecurity of not having a set workplace for a while, then continue on with your plan.</p>