<p>I am currently a sophmore in high school I have a 3.6 gpa and i cant decide if i want to be a pharmacist or a nurse. i have not taken an act or sat yet. i have taken a psat which i got a 1345 on. i am taking biomedial right now that counts as a college credit in anatomy and psyiology and by the time i graduate i plan on taking more ap classes and some dual enrollment. if i choose pharmacy i either want to go to famu or usf if i choose nursing i want to go to fsu. i have no idea what to do i really could see myself doing either. any suggestions or tips anyone?</p>
<p>I’m not sure this is posted in the right forum, please elaborate more about what you want help, suggestions and tips for: career choice?</p>
<p>I was asking for opinions on each career choice and which one would i be most happy with. pharmacy sounds good to me right now. do you know if famu is a good school?</p>
<p>Pharmacy 6 yr to entry if accepted as freshman to six yr program. Good pay and job prospects, variety of work settings: retail, hospital, nursing home, IV/Chemo, research, administrative, academic, full or part time. Aim for a schools with 6 programs</p>
<p>Nursing similar variety hospitals,Nursing homes, schools, home care, Dr’s offices, teaching, shorter time to entry level(BS moving towards req entry degree), lower pay, job prospects vary regionally would consider Nurse Practitioner or PA for better pay</p>
<p>Aim for the hardest classes and in the summer try to shadow some professionals or volunteer in the areas you are interested in.</p>
<p>*psat which i got a 1345 on. *</p>
<p>Better look again. that score is impossible…doesn’t exist on the PSAT.</p>
<p>Since you’re only a sophomore, at this point your biggest priority is doing the best you can in high school. It’s too early to be deciding a career.</p>
<p>OP may be looking at the projection for the SAT based on the PSAT score</p>
<p>This is where your HS guidance office comes in. Visit it and get information on various careers. Attend any events open to you- career fairs are common for HS juniors. Try to job shadow. Be prepared for not getting into the college of your choice. Be patient with yourself. A lot will happen in the next two years. You will learn a lot about different careers, your strengths and likes and about options you may not know about yet.</p>
<p>Just a few years ago, pharmacists were in great demand, sign on bonuses were common… Too many new pharmacy schools now and new grads are lucky to get steady part time work. I’m in S. CA, new RN’s are having difficulty finding jobs, experienced RN’s are not. Explore careers and ask lot of questions. Good Luck.</p>
<p>Personally, I would prefer nursing.</p>
<p>The 2 careers are so different. You will work a lot with people in nursing, and have the chance to work in a wide variety of settings. Pharmacy does not have much variety, and takes way longer to get the degree. If you end up a pharmacist, you often have to work retail and retail shifts. But there are other pharmaceutical type jobs.</p>
<p>And with nursing, if you get bored with nursing, you can move in to nurse practitioner. There is just so much you can do with nursing.</p>
<p>In addition to the suggestions here about learning more about the 2 careers, you could also ask your HS guidance counselor if there are any tests available to you for the purposes of identifying your strengths, interests, and likely careers.</p>
<p>These two careers require some pretty different skills, and knowing your personal inclinations in advance could be quite helpful.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t focus too much on a specific major right now. Since you seem to want to work in the sciences/healthcare take as many math/science classes that you can along with AP Psychology and your other required courses. If you can study Spanish, that would be a great asset to have as well. 90% of college students change their major at least once. Now, that can be a change from biology to chemistry but it’s still a change. You are a sophomore in high school and still have a lot of discovery to do. I agree, shadow some people in various healthcare fields–some of the less obvious ones as well-medical technology, medical imaging, etc., start volunteering at a hospital (sign up for summer volunteers is probably happening soon so look into it now).</p>
<p>Start figuring out which college you want to attend, preferably one with several options for various health care tracks. Recent news shows that by the time you graduate from college there won’t be enough people to fill jobs so prospects are very good. I would NOT get a 2 year nursing degree however. That really limits your salary and job prospects in many areas of the country.</p>
<p>I’m with SteveMA. You don’t have to have this all wrapped up as a sophmore in high school. Many, many students change their majors after arriving in college. My own kid did it, and she was really, really certain of the major she thought she wanted.</p>
<p>I see lots of nurisng interest students decide not to pursue the BSN because they take a look at the upperclassmen and realize they don’t want all that stress. People here at CC sometimes talk about the long science labs; well a nursing major will have 2-3 clinicals a week, and they can be up to 8 hours at a stretch. It’s also not a career you start thinkig “maybe” you would like to be a nurse. Nursing majors have few to no electives in their programs. You step on campus, you start with a full schedule of nursing pre-reqs. Now, the people who stay in love it. My d switched to nursing and thinks it’s the best thing ever (but she had to take summer school to get caught up on the pre-reqs). Go shadow some nurses. And talk to some ex-nurses, too. </p>
<p>People say it’s faster career track than Pharmacy. Yes, for an RN. If you want to go on, you need to get a BSN, practice as a nurse, and then go to grad school. Some programs take students right out of undergrad, most don’t. So, time to completion of that advanced practice degree may end up being longer than the PharmD. If you really want to be a pharmacist, don’t let the “time” factor dissuade you. Don’t let the “no jobs” warnings stop you either. You are a sophomore. You have a few years before you head into the job market and things could look completely different. Pick the path you think you’d like best. </p>
<p>For now, take the classes that interest you without concern about what you can get college credit for or what you think might be useful in the two majors you’re considering right now. There may be something out there you like even better.</p>
<p>Luckily you don’t have to decide yet. Take as much math and science as you can and keep your doors open. In the meantime look for opportunities to learn more about the two professions. See if you can volunteer at a local hospital so you can see what nurses do up close.</p>