<p>Hi all.
I'm a senior in high school and I have thought a lot about college / pharmacy school. </p>
<p>I have done a lot of research and most pharmacy programs are either 2+4 or 0-6 programs. I have already applied to colleges so if I do stay on track about pharmacy school, I'm going to have to reapply again after two years. But if I do go through with the 6 years, it is a very strict schedule and I would have no time to do all the fun stuff, take electives, study abroad, and have a life. </p>
<p>Do you think it would be a better idea to go through 'regular' college to get a bachelors before entering pharmacy school or should I just go through the 2+4 pre-pharmacy and pharmacy school. Then if I do get my bachelors then pharmacy school, is it really worth wasting 2 more years of my life studying things I won't ever need in the future? I don't know what to do!! </p>
<p>Enjoy college. There is no such thing as wasting two years of your life in college if you are actively engaged in it. It would be more tragic to jump into the early Pharmacy program to realize it wasn't what you wanted, and then miss out on all the great opportunities you could have enjoyed. By no means forget your goals, but remember that college has alot to do with personal growth as well as educational.</p>
<p>Pharmacy school will be there after your bachelors degree, and it may be easier to get into as well.</p>
<p>I am glad somebody beat me to it. You can't "waste" two years of college.</p>
<p>There are a lot of things that you can do with a bachelors degree that you cannot do without one. Keep in mind that people change careers on the average 7 times during their working life. If you have a bachelors, you might be able to join the workforce directly with the skills acquired during your undergrad days. Alternatively, with a bachelors you can be eligible for graduate school, medical school, law school and any of the other professional schools. Also, if you ever have ambitions of teaching or working in government or industry, you will need a full bachelors. Only about a third of the indiviuals applying to pharmd programs in recent years have just two years of college anyway. You might find that cramming bio, gen chem, ochem, analytical chem, calc, phys and whatever other courses pharmd programs require into two years will result in burnout and poor performance. That schedule would also require not engaging in research, clinical volunteering, student organizations and all the other things that contribute to your identity. Best of luck.</p>
<p>"Also, if you ever have ambitions of teaching or working in government or industry, you will need a full bachelors. Only about a third of the indiviuals applying to pharmd programs in recent years have just two years of college anyway."</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the veracity of these statements, can you link to source of this info? Many PharmD's working in industry, government and teaching, including several of my family members. Some have combo PharmD/PhD, which I would think supercedes the BS. Some schools have a preference for BS before PharmD, and this may be an increasing trend, but I'd be very surprised to find more than half of applicants have a BS.</p>
<p>The PharmD students I know are actually pretty involved - volunteering, working, clubs, etc. - unless they're on rotations. By the time they hit professional school they seem to be good at time management! But haven't heard of semesters abroad, just a few that did summer things in developing countries.</p>
<p>It really depends on what you want your college experience to be - focused, or free to explore it all? Good luck!</p>