<p>How many years does it take to become a pharmacist? What classes should we take in high school, like any AP's? Because I'm in honors bio right now. So should I take ap bio then physics( without taking chem) or just take chemistry and ap world? Ap bio is WAAAAAYYYY HARRDER than world.</p>
<p>To become a pharmacist</p>
<p>There are several ways to become a pharmacist. There are 0-6 programs that you enter as a freshman, 2 or 3 + 4 program (initial years to meet prereqs for applying to the upper level pharmacy program), or 4+3 programs (earn a degree and apply to pharmacy as a grad student). Sometimes you have to take a PCAT exam, which is like the LSAT or GRE, as part of an application to the higher level pharmacy programs. Some 2+4 programs take students only from their own undergraduate institution, and some programs will take all applicants. An interview is also required for the 2+4 and 4+3 programs.</p>
<p>Figure on a minium of 6 years. When you do your research, you will notice that the tuition will jump from undergraduate cost to graduate school cost when you enter the upper level classes.</p>
<p>When you do your research on programs, you will see that they all have intensive prereq requirements. They also usually do not apply AP classes to the science and math prereqs, so if you see that Chem 101 is required, you usually aren’t able to meet that requirement with AP Chem. AP credits can, however, usually, be applied to other prereqs for college. Pharmacy applications take a lot of planning, since there are differences in prereqs and programs. My kid spent his summer before Senior year of high school finding pharmacy schools, researching their programs, calculating the total cost of a degree at each school, and checking off prereqs. He went to a 2+4 program, spent time making sure that he met the requirements not only for his own school, but for some alternative schools if he didn’t get into the upper level program. (Fortunately, he got into his own school’s PharmD program so he didn’t have to apply elsewhere after all – he really didn’t want to transfer schools.) As you look at PharmD schools, you will see a wide variety of prereqs and some differences in curicullum. They will all require organic chem, calculus, macro or micro economics, etc., but there may be differences in whether you have to take a full year or only a semester of a particular subject, or whether you have to take additional classes in public speaking, religion, anatomy etc.</p>
<p>It’s important to take classes that you can do well in, since admissions are very competitive and you will want to have a good GPA. You will have to research your possible schools to see if they have specific requirements. For example, they might want applicants to have taken calculus. You would do better IMO by earning an A in regular chemistry, than a C in AP chemistry. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my kid had a lot of prepharmacy friends in college. He doesn’t know anyone whose math SAT score was below 660 or so who got through the college level math and science classes with good enough grades to get into his pharmacy program. Not saying it can’t be done, and this is only his perspective. At his school, the math and science prereqs were graded on a curve and the prepharm students were in the same classes with the engineering, math and premed students. It might be worth asking if math and science classes are graded on a curve when you apply to programs, though. </p>