<p>Wish I could hug you (very sad username, little one). I’m sure the people around you are telling you that you’re not the only kid who runs into a tough time at this age, and that’s it’s not the end of the world. I can tell you that you of my kids went through rough patches at the same time, and managed to pull out of it and go on to happy careers. The one who is now a lawyer did it the hard way, from screwing up in high school, getting bad grades as a freshman in college, transferring into a lower-prestige school, then transferring as a Junior to a stronger school once he had shown he could earn higher grades in the lower-prestige college (but having a limited social life as a transfer student), only getting into a 4th tier school due to his low GPA from those bad freshman grade, but then getting off a wait list into a third tier school 2-weeks before school started, doing well in law school and transferring into a higher ranked school as a 2L, ETC. It was one crisis and struggle after another, but he’s finally happy and successful. Sure, it’s better to have an easy path, but the hard path can get you to the same destination. My kid is finally doing what he wants, and has the same diplomas on his wall as the kids who did it the easy way.</p>
<p>So hang on, and figure out what you want to do and how you might achieve your goals. Your best strategy might be to think about a 4+3 pharmacy program, which could give you the full four-years to get a good GPA. This might actually have a silver lining and be a good strategy, if you take the pharm pre-reqs and add a major in business or pharmaceutical science to strengthen your application and resume. This would also give you time to get some pharmaceutical experience as a tech or volunteering in a hospital pharmacy, which would strengthen your application even more to off-set that first semester. You’d have 4 years to show that you’ve overcome that freshman year. </p>
<p>To be perfectly honest here, you might also decide that you aren’t even that interested in pharmacy if you give yourself a little more time. The majority of prepharmacy kids do end up changing their major to something else. There was a lady on this board who talked about her kid being prepharm for years (same as my prepharm kid) who switched to physical therapy. A friend of my kid’s switched to the nursing school, and other kids switched to pharmaceutical science, physician’s assistant program, health care administration, business (minor in pharmaceutical science)…lots of options that become increasingly interesting as you get to take classes outside the pharmacy track. </p>
<p>You can also look at the prereqs at other pharmacy schools, including schools with lower requirements. There is no shame in making things a little less stressful for yourself or going to a lower ranked school, if earning a PharmD is your ultimate goal. You can earn good grades and have great experiences which are going to make you just as marketable.</p>
<p>If you were my kid, I’d probably suggest talking to a prepharm advisor about that C. It’s not going to help your GPA or show that you can do the prereqs, so you have to balance it with something else (either by re-taking and getting an A, or taking the next level class and getting a great grade to show that the C was due to your health issues instead of your ability to do the work). </p>
<p>So hang in there, and don’t let everything overwhelm you. Your options are still open, but you might have to get there on a little different track than you had originally planned.</p>