Extra-Curricular Activity: Owning a Pharmacy

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
1

<p>The need to have a "hook" that makes you stand out is being emphasized alot by everyone. </p>

<p>How far will owning my own business: in this case a pharmacy help me in terms of admissions to BS/BA/MD programs and pharmd programs? </p>

<p>Owning a pharmacy for the most part is an extension of running a "professional business" in that certain skills/knowledge is required. At the same time there is a large business aspect that conflicts with the true purpose of most of these programs. </p>

<p>I've come to understand that these programs look for kids who are passionate about becoming a doctor/pharmacist.</p>

<p>Can I display "true passion" while earning money?</p>

<p>WILL OWNING MY OWN BUSINESS BECOME A "HOOK" or "LIABILITY" in terms of BS/BA/MD programs/ pharmd programs? </p>

<p>WILL IT HELP AT ALL?</p>

2

<p>Um, you might be getting a little too ambitious there because many owners of pharmacies are pharmacists themselves. Running a pharmacy is a full-time job, and though there are many high school students that have started up and run their own businesses they are almost never as complicated as owning a standalone pharmacy. I don’t recommend trying to own a pharmacy just for the desire for a hook to get into a BS/MD or PharmD program.</p>

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<p>Yeah i thought I was becoming ambitious. Like you said the key word is “many.”</p>

<p>What If this is a start-up, and I’m an owner in the sense that i invested money, and work there every now and then.</p>

<p>My main question is will owning a pharmacy become a “hook” or a “liabilty.”</p>

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<p>It could hardly become a “liability,” it will be unlikely to become a hook unless successful.</p>

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<p>It’s not going to help you much on admissions. Running a pharmacy as owner and manager, yes but that’s not going to happen at your age. Your family owning a pharmacy isn’t going to help you much. If you have the capital around to build, stock, staff, and get a brand new pharmacy off the ground as a high schooler I’d suggest finding something better to do with it like pay for your education.</p>

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<p>Agreed, starting up your own pharmacy is likely to cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it takes a couple years of successfully running it to start turning a profit. There are way cheaper ways to get a hook for these programs.</p>

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<p>You invested and work there every now and then?</p>

<p>This is probably translated by admissions people as meaning your parents gave you loads of money and let you play pretend employee. </p>

<p>Not good to be perceived as the spoiled child doted on by parents with more than enough money to burn to ensure their darling baby gets what they want.</p>

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<p>^ At first I wanted to ignore your post. But at this point, it has hurt me too much. You have very little knowledge about how the independent pharmacy business works, and you have nothing significant to say that answers my question.</p>

<p>I attend public school. I drive a 1999 Toyota Corrola. I hold a job at Dunkin Donuts.
Although I have a very small investment, it truly is mine. </p>

<p>I don’t want to waste me time arguing with someone as useless as your self.</p>

<p>Please do take your stupidity elsewhere. If I truly wanted to brag i could have. I simply asked a question focused on college admissions.</p>

<p>Your comment is unwarranted.</p>

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<p>^^ How about you relax, future doctors? I’m really worried about some of the fights that go on in this forum. It shows me that my future doctors cannot control their anger in certain situations.
And themeaningoflife, your topic does not make any sense. You are a high school student who wants to own his own pharmacy? I honestly don’t blame starbright for that response.</p>

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<p>meaning: So you have a small pharmacy that you have started and are owner of? I’d be interested to know the process you went to do that, how you got the legal ability to dispense drugs (or is this a herbal pharmacy?), and all that jazz. Feel free to enlighten us, which will do much more to shut up your detractors than “you don’t know me” reactions…</p>

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<p>I had also assumed like other posters in this thread that you were just entertaining an idea in your head. I don’t think starbright’s comment was unwarranted, they were being honest. If you have started up an independent pharmacy that you own it is not a “small investment” so I share mmmcdowe’s curiosity in how you went about doing that.</p>

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<p>I think what starbright means is that no matter what really happened, because you invested in it and work in it part time, the admissions committee is going to assume your parents gave you the money and gave u the opportunity to work there. I would definitely advise finding another way to spend your time and money. Timewise, volunteering at a hospital or doing research would look much better, and money wise, it would probably be much wiser to save it for your education.</p>

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<p>Anything the adcoms may assume can be easily cleared up or prevented in a personal essay.</p>

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<p>In the coming days I will take the time to repond to each and every post here, to extend this disscussion further. It is exiting to see your reactions, and how they influence my thoughts, and what I can come up with to counter. In the simplest terms, this disccussion is very beneficial to me. </p>

<p>That being said:
@EnginnerHead
I never thought of that, but at the same time when writing essays for bs/md programs its usually in my best interest to explain medical related ec’s right? I thought being an owner/worker of a pharmacy would hold up its own “prestige” on a resume. Thanks for the idea though.</p>

<p>@supersweet543
I am volunteering right now. Over the summer I do plan to accomplish a significant amount of research. But the problem is, there are far more people who have not only done both of those activities, but they also exhbit a passion that I just cannot. I’ve always felt the need to stand out, I needed to do somehting uncommon. Something controversial. How can I dispaly passion by doing common activities that all applicants do? </p>

<p>@mmmcdowe
Like I said I invested. I saved up money, and when starting up a pharmacy I contributed my share. Essentially I am one of the “buyers.” There is a Lisensed pharmacist who works (that dispenses drugs). He gets his salary, and also gets a portion of the profits of which he contributed money to. I am more of a “downgraded” pharmacy tech. While I own 10% of the pharmacy, and this have the right to 10% of the profits, I spend my time there deleivering medicines. Counting pills for prescriptions. Working the cash register etc. </p>

<p>So I am a “worker” and “owner” as well.
Before you jump to conclusions that my parents have the money to invest, here is the rundown.</p>

<p>$300,000 to open the pharmacy, buy intial inventory, hire architect, pay rent etc. I contributed 10% of $300,000. The $30,000 was obtained by working @ Dunkin Donuts 30-40 hours a week since 9th grade. </p>

<p>IN ANY CASE. WILL THE PURSUIT OF MONEY, OVERSHADOW ANY PASSION TOWARDS ACTUALthe actual practice MEDICINE/PHARMACY… How will it specifically affect me when it comes to admissions?</p>

<p><em>Side Note</em> Please ignore grammar/spelling mistkaes in this post
Thank You</p>

15

<p>I will say that you should go for it. In the end, owning a pharmacy will teach you much more than impressing an adcom. Just make sure that once you get it up and running to let the media know about it, so you get some articles written about you. That way, you can list that on your resume too which will allow the adcoms to confirm that you are not BSing them or living on daddy’s money. </p>

<p>To be honest, bs/md programs are great, but you don’t want to limit yourself to them. Try to accomplish your goals and seriously don’t let outside influences alter you; that is, unless you really don’t know what you are doing, which I am probably guessing you don’t because usually you can’t just start up a pharmacy because of legal issues etc. Usually teenage businesses center around the internet etc. in which there are less legal issues and need less experience in the field because trust me, dealing with medicare etc is a pain. Do it for the right reasons, that’s all im saying.</p>

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<p>""Like I said I invested. I saved up money, and when starting up a pharmacy I contributed my share. Essentially I am one of the “buyers.” There is a Lisensed pharmacist who works (that dispenses drugs). He gets his salary, and also gets a portion of the profits of which he contributed money to. I am more of a “downgraded” pharmacy tech. While I own 10% of the pharmacy, and this have the right to 10% of the profits, I spend my time there deleivering medicines. Counting pills for prescriptions. Working the cash register etc. “”</p>

<p>You should just say you work as a pharm tech and was one of the investors originally, making you 10% owner, instead of fibbing and saying you own and run the pharmacy.</p>

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<p>Agreed, “running” the pharmacy is too big of a stretch. Working there is definitely a good EC. Being a mniority owner of it, I could see you mentioning it if you had a lot of time put into starting it. If you were just a contributor of money and signed some forms you probably shouldn’t list it. You also need to be exquisitely honest about your status, your contribution, and the limits of your authority as a minority owner (which really makes you more of an investor than an owner).</p>

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<p>I think it’s worth mentioning that you worked and saved up ~$30k to invest in starting up the business. It’s not a stretch of truth and it shows you have dedication and commitment to saving hard-earned money to put towards a long-term goal.</p>

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<p>Its a bit risky. No one here knows for sure how much of an impact it will give. Try to find other ways to show passion, in case if some of the posters here are right.</p>

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<p>I’m a professor and have had many years serving on admissions boards. I was merely stating how you would be perceived, which is the information I thought you were seeking. I was making no personal judgment about you, and was going entirely on the very limited information you provided.</p>

<p>I assumed you wanted an honest answer so I provided one. Your defensive and nasty response speaks volumes, however, about your maturity and/or character (I will give you the benefit of the doubt that its the former, in which case you have time to grow up before applying to programs, which will be very necessary).</p>