<p>I can just add to this conversation that pharmacists have NO shorage of job opportunities, and can pretty much have their choice of jobs in any city at any time. Furthermore, I recently read the following statistics on pharmacy:
- Salaries are increasing 22.3% faster than the average for other professions.
- At the current rate of licensure, there will be a shortage of 157,000 pharmacists in the US by 2020.</p>
<p>Sure, you can rack up a lot of debt in six years, but I don’t think pharmacists with student debt will have to worry too much about being able to pay it back. An additional benefit to pharmacy it the flexibility. Quite a few pharmacists I know have their regular FT jobs and then pick up a few extra hours at a second job to pay off loans, buy a house, save for kids, etc. The good thing about this is that pharmacists get paid hourly, even if they are salaried, so if you work 60 hours per week, you get paid for 60 hours per week (overtime often yields time-and-a-half if it is at the same place.) The reward is more immediate and more tangible than it is in law.</p>