<p>Thanks for the advice everybody i really appreciate it a bunch
I just wanted to know a little about a Physician Assistant and what they do?
What type of education do I need?</p>
<p>[What</a> a Physician Assistant Does:Professional Medical Practitioners who diagnosis, perform medical procedures, and prescribe treatment as partners with physicians in all medical and surgical specialties, uniting medical expertise with compassion for e](<a href=“http://www.paworld.net/whatpadoes.htm]What”>http://www.paworld.net/whatpadoes.htm)</p>
<p>Which is more resounding career?
To become a Physician Assistant i need to go to medical school correct?
Which is harder to get into Pharmacy or Medical School?</p>
<p>Stevems93:</p>
<p>You are asking some very good questions. It sounds like you are interested in some sort of medical career. Are you admitted into the CNAS?</p>
<p>Since you are at UCR, check out the Medical Scholars Program. It is a great program and the directors are very knowledgeable. (I personally know them, so can say this with confidence.)</p>
<p>Go to [Medical</a> Scholars Program: Home](<a href=“http://msp.ucr.edu/]Medical”>http://msp.ucr.edu/) and contact them to learn more about different career options and how you can get situated correctly.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the responses
If i major at Pre-Med at UCR- could i still apply to Pharmacy School and as well as Medical School?</p>
<p>Im lost on what to do with my life
Either Medical or Pharmacy School</p>
<p>Adding my thoughts- D1 is in pharmacy school, D2 and D3 are undergrads working toward PT school. I’m extremely concerned about D1’s job prospects after 6 years of school- the RPh outlook is pretty grim right now and the huge pay increases I’ve seen over the years are never going to come back. In fact, I did not encourage D3 to enroll in pharmacy school because of what I see happening in the industry. On the other hand, I feel much better about the prospects for D2 and D3, even though starting salaries may be lower- at least there should be jobs for them. Don’t let salary levels determine your career- because a supposedly high salary will do you no good if you can’t find a job.</p>
<p>I do not understand what you are trying to say
What is D1?
D2?
D3?
I did not comprehend by what you meant by that?</p>
<p>I am a pharmacist in Southern California. I can not speak for the job market since I have been at my current job (which is for the State of California) for almost 20 years. At one time there was a huge shortage of pharmacists, but since then they have changed to exam (California used to have their own exam so it was hard for out-of-state pharmacists to come and work in California) and they have added pharmacy schools. Most healthcare jobs require you to work evenings, weekends and nights. It is my feeling, that if you have good communication skills, you can get a job. My suggestion would be to look up the requirements for admission for all the different disciplines (physician, physician assistant, physical therapist, optometrist, dentist, etc…) and go from there. For the most part the requirements are the same (Bio, Chem, Organic chem, physics, calculus, etc…). Where I work, all the physicians are encouraging their children to go to pharmacy school. THey say the pharmacists they know are happier than the physicians they know. My daughter is studying to be a math teacher.</p>
<p>D1 is an abbreviation for Daughter #1. (D2 mean daughter #2, etc)</p>
<p>To become an Physicians’ Assistant (abbreviated as PA), you will apply a Physicians’ Assistant program. These programs are offered at some (but not all) medical schools. You will NOT apply to medical school. </p>
<p>PAs are well paid positions and are in increasing demand as doctors’ time becomes increasingly more valuable and expensive. PAs handle many of the more routine tasks of medical care. They practice under supervision of a doctor, but have a wide latitude in choosing what medical fields they will work in. They might see patients in hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices or in emergency care situations. They can specialize in a medical specialty–like pediatrics, surgery, gynecology, family medicine–like doctors do.</p>
<p>PA programs have entrance requirements very similar to medical schools, but PA students do not have to take the MCAT exam.</p>
<p>@tx5athome
In a private message could you tell me the steps in which you took to become a Pharmaicst?
Like what you majored in for a Bachelors?
Which University?
And also where you got your P.HD from?</p>
<p>Thanks </p>
<p>Yea i got the clarifications about the Physicians’ Assistant but, Im still confused on what to major in
Im lost on what kind of career I want to pursue
But my choices are
1.Medical School
2. Pharmacy School
3. Accountant</p>
<p>There is a good deal of overlap between the requirements for pre med and pre-pharm. You can take the required courses for both freshman & sophomore years (they’re the same) before deciding which you prefer. </p>
<p>An accounting/business track will be very different from the science based coursework required for pre med or pre pharm.</p>
<p>If you are truly undecided, what about taking some intro level courses that cover all of your potential careers: general chemistry (pre med, pre pharm), intro to business (for accounting), pre-calc or calc (all 3 programs), freshman writing (all 3 programs), intro psych (general ed). See if you any aptitude for any of these fields.</p>
<p>You don’t have to decide on career or a major right now. You usually have until the end of your sophomore year to declare a major.</p>
<p>Stevems93: I will answer this publicly because maybe it will help someone else. I went to college at UCSB. I picked UCSB not for it’s programs or reputation, but simply because it was on the beach. It was a great school and I had a great time there. I majored in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology because I liked it. Most of my friends were pre-med. I never had an interest in going to medical school and didn’t want to do research and frankly didn’t think about what I wanted to do until my senior year at UCSB. I went to the career center and researched a bunch of careers and ended up applying to pharmacy school. My thinking at the time was that it would be great to be a pharmacist because I could live wherever I wanted. My plan was to live at the beach in the summer and in the mountains (and ski) in the winter. I attended USC Pharmacy School. At the time USC was the only pharmacy school in Southern California and my boyfriend at the time (who is now my husband) was in Southern California. USC was ranked #2 in the country (second to UCSF) so it wasn’t a bad choice. When I was in school 50% had their bachelors prior to pharmacy school). Four years later, when I graduated, I was married and no longer wanted to travel the world surfing and skiing, but instead wanted to buy a house and have children. For me, pharmacy has been great because you can have a good quality of life and there is a lot of flexibility. Women have the ability to work part time and still make a decent living.</p>
<p>Yes i know that i do not need to declare a major until my junior year
But, if i major in a science major and do not make it to either medical or pharmacy school with that degree I will not be able to work a job that i love or want to
TO ME the degree becomes useless.</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom
Thanks for the response i greatly appreciated it
I also do not understand what they mean ( Pharmacy schools & Medical Schools)- you need a specific number of hours
Meaning quarter and semester hours</p>
<p>You do not need a college degree to get into medical school, but you do need a certain number of credits (remember 3 quarters equal 2 semesters). A few students will go to medical school after 3 years in college and often get a BS in medical sciences from their undergrad school when they complete their first year of medical school. Stating a required number of credits when so many can include AP et al credits from HS is more realistic than requiring 3 years of college as was done eons ago.</p>
<p>From all of your questions it sounds like you should make an appointment with your school to learn about how things work. You will learn a lot about college and yourself once you are there. People evolve- so much will become clear later. You need to start and see where your interests take you once you are in college. Right now you seem to be looking too far ahead- putting the cart before the horse. Relax about the final goal. First you need to take the basic course work as outlined above. Then, once you see how you like it and do in it you can take the path most suited to you.</p>
<p>Pre med is NOT a major. Neither is pre-pharm. Both are a series of courses that fulfill the entrance requirements for medical or pharmacy school. For med and pharm school, you can major in anything so long as you complete all the entry requirements.</p>
<p>And usually by hours, schools mean semester hours. You will need to convert them into their quarter hour equivalents. 8 semester hours = 12 quarter hours. </p>
<p>In general med school require</p>
<p>8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of introductory biology with lab
8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of general chemistry with lab
8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of organic chemistry with lab
8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of general physics with lab
4 semester hours OR 4 quarter hours of freshman writing
4 semester hours OR 4 quarter hours of an writing intensive upper level course
8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of college level mathematics (calculus 1 and statistics is the usual recommendation)</p>
<p>In general pharmacy schools require:</p>
<p>8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of introductory biology with lab
8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of general chemistry with lab
8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of organic chemistry with lab
8 semester hours OR 12 quarter hours of general physics with lab
4 semester hours OR 4 quarter hours of freshman writing
4 semester hours OR 4 quarter hours of calculus</p>
<p>^^^See? Virtually identical. </p>
<p>Individual medical schools or pharmacy schools may have additional specific requirements which you will need to fulfill. It’s up to check on the requirements for specific schools or programs. (For med schools, it’s usually biochem, genetics and anatomy. For pharm schools it’s usually microbiology, anatomy and psychology.) </p>
<p>~~~~~~~</p>
<p>And you’re right to be concerned about following the pre med or pre-pharm track. Both have huge drop-out/attrition rates. Something like 70% of people who start college as ‘pre-med’ majors NEVER APPLY to medical school for one reason or another. (Decided they didn’t want to be doctor; didn’t have the aptitude for the material; low GPA; bad MCAT score; discovered other career interest, etc) I’d imagine pre-pharm is similar.</p>
<p>However, if you have jumped thru all the hoops [volunteering, shadowing doctors, doing community service and worked in research] have a 3.6 GPA and MCAT of 30, your chances of getting accepted to at least 1 med school is about 45%.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/161690/data/table17-facts2010mcatgpa99-10-web.pdf.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/161690/data/table17-facts2010mcatgpa99-10-web.pdf.pdf</a></p>
<p>Admission to pharm school have acceptances in the same range. (About 50%) But the overall GPA is slightly lower–in the 3.3-3.5 range. <a href=“http://www.aacp.org/resources/student/pharmacyforyou/admissions/Documents/Table%208.pdf[/url]”>http://www.aacp.org/resources/student/pharmacyforyou/admissions/Documents/Table%208.pdf</a></p>
<p>For more info about requirements and specific programs:</p>
<p>[AACP</a> - Admissions](<a href=“Admissions | AACP”>Admissions | AACP)</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about not doing well enough to get accepted to med/pharm school----you will have a pretty good idea of what your science & math grades look like by the end of your freshman year. If you’re a B or below student, you probably will want to consider an alternative career path.</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~</p>
<p>RE: AP credits. Most medical school will NOT accept AP credits in lieu of actual college credits. (The one AP most commonly accepted is Calc, but even that is not guaranteed to be accepted at ALL med schools.)</p>
<p>For your own peace of mind, do not count AP credits when calculating if you’ve met the required number of hours.</p>
<p>Yea i know all of this information i have all the papers printed out on what courses and classes i need to take at my University to in order for me to get recognized for Pharmacy school and as well as Medical School
But my worry is that i wont make neither graduate school and therefore i wont be able to pursue a career which I love
This is the reason why I want to transfer to a College which gives priority to those in there pre-professional programs for acceptance to graduate school.</p>
<p>OK, what you’re looking for are called early assurance or direct entry programs. </p>
<p>That’s something entirely different. Early assurance programs will, at the end of the sophomore year, if you are enrolled in the program and you have met all the conditions, guarantee your admission to their professional school at the end of undergrad. Direct entry programs (also called “0-6”) admit you to a program which guarantees your admissions to the professional school once you have completed your pre-reqs.</p>
<p>Those program are among the most competitive in the country and none that I know of will accept transfers into the program. IOW, unless you are accepted into the program as a high school senior and start your undergrad within either a direct entry or early assurance program, you cannot transfer into the program at a later date.</p>
<p>If you are already enrolled/taking classes at UCR, then your chances of being admitted into a direct entry or early assurance program are just about zero. </p>
<p>If you really want to pursue this, go here: [AACP</a> - Admissions](<a href=“Admissions | AACP”>Admissions | AACP)</p>
<p>for a list of direct entry and early assurance pharmacy programs, then check each school’s website or contact the director of admission to see if they allow transfers.</p>
<p>A very few undergrad/medical schools also offer early assurance and direct entry programs, but again, those programs are extremely competitive and do not accept transfers into the program. (To gain admission, you must have have a superb SAT/ACT, high GPA, extensive medical volunteer experience as a high school student, plus have a in-person interview at the school.) There is no comprehensive list of those at AAMC, but a google search will lead to most. You could also try asking your question at CC’s pre med forum: [Pre-Med</a> & Medical School - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-medical-school/]Pre-Med”>Pre-Med & Medical School - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>USC pharmacy 81
USC BA social sciences 77
:)</p>
<p>Quit worrying. Live your life, do your best work and enjoy the process. You may discover a different career to love as much as you think you will your current passions. No career is entirely interesting/fun/enjoyable. I think you have done a diligent search of possibilities. Now it is time to put that knowledge aside and concentrate on the current semester. Immerse yourself in your classes and learn as much as you can. That is all you can do. When the time comes apply to the professional schools and see what happens. Too much anxiety over getting in can ruin your chances if you put too much energy into worrying about your future instead of directing it to doing well now. I expect to see few or no further posts from you as you shift gears. Good luck.</p>
<p>I just read up on what you said and on the AACP website it stated that if you have courses at another instituion you could apply to the 0-6 programs and the only way they could accept you is they have room or if people drop out</p>