<p>Is doing a six-year pharmacy major, then going to grad school a good idea or doing the tradional 4 year undergrad+grad school?</p>
<p>What are your career goals?</p>
<p>Sorry but a question - doesn't a six year pharmacy major make you a doctor of Pharmacy? What does going to grad school further give you?</p>
<p>Essentially, there is no longer an undergraduate pharmacy degree. It used to be BSPharm or PharmD, but now it's only a PharmD. Beyond your "graduate" degree of PharmD, you can do a residency which will qualify you as a specialist in some area of pharmacy.</p>
<p>yeah, just go to a college and don't screw up the first two years. do well in your chem, bio, basic physics, and basic business courses after which go to pharm school for like 4 years to get your pharmD. </p>
<p>one of the easiest, non-stressful jobs that get you over a 100K salary. it's also really in demand right now.</p>
<p>I wonder how much the demand for pharmacy will be when you graduate because alot of people seem to be going into pharmacy?</p>
<p>Employment needs have had their ups and downs, like any job. But with people living longer than ever, increasing the need for long term care and for more acute and ambulatory care (people now live with diseases that used to kill them) I would say that the trend would be for increased job market.</p>
<p>Check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook:
<a href="http://bls.gov/oco/ocos079.htm%5B/url%5D">http://bls.gov/oco/ocos079.htm</a></p>
<p>I'm applying to pharmacy programs, and have done a ton of reserch. It's not technically grad school, but professional school. And doing 6 years (2 years pre-pharm, 4 years pharm) saves you money.</p>
<p>Should it be about just saving money?</p>
<p>well no. i was just saying there's really no difference between 4 years undergrad + 4 years pharmD and 2 years pre-pharm + 4 years pharmD :p</p>
<p>celebrian25 is correct. You don't get any brownie points or any different degree/license if you have a 4 yr undergrad degree + pharmacy degree vs a 2 yr prepharm + a 4 year pharmacy degree. In fact, you could have 2 undergrad degrees, and MBA and 5 years of work experience, and you would STILL be a 3rd year pharmacy student and get the same degree and license as everybody else. If pharmacy is your goal, why spend more time on the prerequisites than necessary?</p>
<p>Well you could have a bachelor degree if you did 4 year undergrad + 4 year pharmD. And you'll be more valuable to employers if you have a bachelor degree in something useful or a MBA.</p>
<p>Some (all?) programs will grant students a bachelor's degree following their 1st year in the Pharmacy school.</p>
<p>Some pharmacists do go back for their MBA in odrder to assume a managerial role. I think getting the MBA first would be "backwards", as your business degree would be more valuable than your pharmacy degree. I don't think employers of pharmacists will care at all about any other degrees you get. The license is all you need for a dispensing job!</p>
<p>Well I think you probably need a MBA or at least a business undergrad to become a pharmacy manager or pharmacy supervisor or a higher position at CVS or Walgreens.</p>
<p>i doubt an MBA would at all be needed to be a pharmacy manager at a drugstore like CVS. Its just a simple retail position and I'm sure pharmacutical experience would be necessary, but I doubt any advanced business degree like an MBA. An MBA would be more useful if you were actually planning on working in the corporate drug company as an executive.</p>
<p>well u r talking of getting into a six year pharm.d programme just be careful that there are only 13 colleges in us which offer that.probably 77 colleges offer proffesional pharmacy in 4 years and some 8 colleges offer professional pharmacy in 3 years.u can visit <a href="http://www.aacp.org%5B/url%5D">www.aacp.org</a></p>
<p>getting a bachelor's degree isn't going to be some huge help. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but once you're in the career, you don't necesarily have to be really well-rounded (besides communication skills). :p</p>
<p>Not all managers are pharmacists. Sometimes they are. Pharmacists are generally not well trained in business, so if you aspire to climb the pharmacy management ladder in retail or hospital work, an MBA is a good idea. An MPH (Master of Public Health) may also be helpful for certain clinical situations. I don't believe that extra bachelors degrees will be of any help, especially if it is in a discipline that does not include pharmacy school prerequisites.</p>
<p>as far as I know, a bachelor's just gives you more time to space out the pre-reqs, it's not an advantage though. ;)</p>