<p>I was told that it's very stressfull getting in, but once your in it's easy, is this true?</p>
<p>Well, it depends what method you want to use. For instance, the 2+4 programs are more competitive than a 0+6 pharmacy program a person would go to pharmacy school right after high school graduation. Thus, a student would be guranteed admissions to the graduate program with the 0+6 plan. Read this post and check out the pharmacy schools and their academic programs. The courseload doesn't seem to be that hard. </p>
<p>university of the pacific has a 5,6,7 year plan. </p>
<p>I was told getting into UOP's pre pharm program directly from HS is very competitve, and plus UOP doesn't weight GPA's. I am thinking about getting a BA degree first and then applying for pharm school.</p>
<p>And it's highly recomended that you obtain a BA first and then apply for pharm school if you do not go directly from HS to pre pharm. I was told by a freind of mine that UCSD's pharmacy school accepted 1/30 people last year, and no one got in without a BA degree. So that kidna rules out the 2+6 year plan</p>
<p>I mean 2+4</p>
<p>However, I beleive that most schools have a 4 year pharm program, while UOP has 3 years, making UOP the better school because it saves one year.</p>
<p>It's definitely easier than getting into medical school. I think average GPAs tend to be in the 3.3-3.5 range, while med school is like 3.6.</p>
<p>Fusionice662 - Getting in and from there on, it's easy?</p>
<p>'Denial' is a river in Egypt. I'm sorry if my response will come off as biting, but after my freshman year, I've formed a whole new perspective concerning Pacific's program. I'm a 3+3 at Pacific and let me tell you, it's hard. Then again, there is no such thing as an "easy major" except, perhaps, for underwater basketweaving. There are many factors into the difficulty of being a pre-pharm: it's one thing to compete in the pool of other excellent students wanting to get into the program, and it's entirely a different thing to complete the program by meeting its requirements and seeing it through.</p>
<p>And it's also an entirely different thing to compete against those I call "the Sharkies," but we won't go there.</p>
<p>Reality check: 7 students out of the 100+ pre-pharm students in my class dropped out. It doesn't seem like much, but more will drop out. TJL, the pharmacy school, controls the number of students that comes in from its pre-pharm program and right now, my professor in my Pharmacy Orientation class (who also happens to be my advisor and oversees the entire pre-pharmacy program) maintains that they will maintain the amount of pre-pharms that make it into the school - no more than 100 students. It works out because students drop out of the program anyway. </p>
<p>And to clear off many misconceptions, yes, there have been cases where pre-pharm students have been denied acceptance into TJL. Again, to clarify, these are students who were accepted into Pacific's pre-pharmacy program and decided to bear with Stockton's "lovely" environment and weather. Because O.chem is hard and they failed the class, it affected their math/sci GPA and they've had to stay an extra year. Because their interview flopped. Because their pharm school essay was lacking. I've just rattled off some of the minimum requirements that pre-pharms need to meet in order to make it into TJL and out of all of these, the GPA is the toughest to maintain.</p>
<p>After making it into pharm school, things can also go downhill from there. But that's a different discussion.</p>
<p>In essence, I'm saying that yeah. It's hard. In a sense, by making it into the program, you'll be able to breathe easier and you'll be the envy of all aspiring pharmacy students from other schools because you're in the accelerated program. By being in the accelerated program, if and only if you meet those minimum requirements, you're pretty much guaranteed a spot in the pharm school. We're very familiar with that... "hatred," per se. Transfers have to maintain a higher math/sci GPA and a higher overall GPA. Incoming freshman will probably hate my class, too, as we're the last class required to maintain a 2.7 math/sci GPA. The freshies will have to maintain a 3.0 math/sci GPA and there are reasons for this really big change. I won't go into detail about that, either.</p>
<p>"However, I beleive that most schools have a 4 year pharm program, while UOP has 3 years, making UOP the better school because it saves one year." - In my opinion, it's not true. I have decided to pursue a minor because I have time to do so. A person who is only good at doing one thing is economically dispensable. I've expressed some concern about friends who are in the 2+3 program because they'll only ever be good at being a pharmacist and I think that's quite boring. Some people will argue that you might as well concentrate in fine-tuning your skills in your chosen field of profession; I acknowledge the wisdom in that, but I disagree. My advisor has been very encouraging in my pursuit of a minor in a different field.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is in the 4+3 program and in the beginning of freshman year, we talked about pursuing our interests in spite of our limitations by being in the program. She's not good at science; I'm not either. But we want to become pharmacists. I told her to explore the possibility of pursuing another major, but taking the required classes as she's expected to by being a pre-pharm student. So she switched from being a Biological Sciences major and chose to go into the business field. Again, she has the full-backing of her advisor. It is essential to gain different skills in different areas, to see different perspectives, and to experience other things in order to become a more effective pharmacist.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, if I was offered the 4+3 program, I wouldn't mind it at all. But I got into the 3+3 program and I'm not complaining. Besides, other pharmacy schools require a degree and UCSF, which happens to be one of them, has a pretty darn good program; some of the professors at TJL hails from UCSF. In the future, maybe some student decides that TJL is not the pharmacy school for him/her, and may want to apply to UCSF. A degree would be good to have, too. Some schools require a degree in the sciences, but also some schools don't really care what degree the applicant has as long as their required courses are in the applicant's transcript.</p>
<p>The realities are discouraging, but they should not deter anyone from pursuing that PharmD. It seems, Fusionice662, that you're very interested in Pacific's program. Feel free to send me a PM anytime if you have more specific questions. I'm extending that same invitation to anyone who's interested in Pacific's program and/or the pharmacy field, in general. I'll apologise in advance if I take a while in responding as I'm working at a pharmacy for the summer, so I'm pretty busy.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading.</p>
<p>I would like to add something to this statement I made in my earlier post:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Transfers have to maintain a higher math/sci GPA and a higher overall GPA. Incoming freshman will probably hate my class, too, as we're the last class required to maintain a 2.7 math/sci GPA. The freshies will have to maintain a 3.0 math/sci GPA and there are reasons for this really big change. I won't go into detail about that, either.
[/quote]
I looked at Pacific's Pre-Pharmacy Advantage website and saw that this was still up: <a href="One%20current%20requirement%20of%20advancing%20from%20any%20of%20these%20pre-pharmacy%20advantage%20programs%20into%20our%20professional%20pharmacy%20program%20is%20a%20minimum%20GPA%20of%202.70%20overall%20and%202.70%20in%20selected%20math/science%20courses.">i</a>* I don't want to misinform anyone and because it's on the site, then this should be considered as the official statement from the school.</p>
<p>However, I maintain that this issue has been discussed in my Pharmacy Orientation class: that my class is the last class that needs to maintain a 2.7 math/sci GPA and 3.0 overall GPA and that the powers that be running the program have decided to implement the 3.0/3.2 changes effective Fall 2006. Pre-pharms with seniority standing (by that, I mean those who were sophomores, juniors, or seniors when I was a freshman) have asked me whether or not "The Changes" will be implemented next year (meaning Fall 2006) as they've heard rumors about them. I told them that the changes will be made, based on what we were told in class.</p>
<p>Again, there are reasons for the changes in numbers. Whether or not the changes will happen in Fall 2006, they will happen eventually. If not this year, then the incoming pre-pharms should consider themselves really, really lucky.</p>
<p>Hi. Im a high school student planning to be a pharmacist, and with all this research ive been doing about things i need to know and goals i have to achieve in order to get into that career. Which college is best and what program must i try to be in ? Just anything would help me right now.</p>
<p>[PharmD</a> Programs](<a href=“http://www.pharmdprograms.org/is-pharmacy-school-hard/]PharmD”>http://www.pharmdprograms.org/is-pharmacy-school-hard/) has a nice brief post about the question: “Is Pharmacy School Hard?”</p>
<p>Pharmacy school is pretty easy to get into nowadays. There are tons of pharmds pumped out each year. The field is being saturated and in the future there will be less retail pharmacy jobs. The job security is not what it used to be.</p>