<p>Since the path to becoming a doctor is intense, and not always guaranteed... Im looking at another career, specifically pharmacy. I was wondering how one would go about studying pharmacy in a college with biology as their major and then pursuing medical school. Is that unheard of? Is it a safe route to take? Sure itll take me probably 2 extra years, but in case i wasnt meant to become a doctor, i got a solid job waiting for me.</p>
<p>If by Pharmacy, you mean going to actual pharmacy school and getting a PharmD, that'd be more than 2 extra years...</p>
<p>A PharmD degree (doctor of pharmacy), is a professional degree just like an MD. While a number of straight from HS pharmacy programs exist, there are plenty of others that are much closer to other professional schools (not saying the 0-6 programs aren't professional schools b/c they are, they just don't operate admissions like the others do). Yes, they do let you enter after your sophomore year of college, but many people don't follow that path (my old roommate/pledge brother for example got his BS in exercise science before going to pharm school. </p>
<p>As for it being a safe route...I'd say no at least not without you spending some time as a working pharmacist and being able to demonstrate a compelling reason as to why you then want to continue to medical school. While I do currently know two people (one in my class, one in the class below me) who have their pharmD's, they both spent more than 4 years as working pharmacists before deciding to pursue medical school. </p>
<p>The other consideration is cost. As I said, getting a PharmD is a professional degree, and you have to pay for it like a professional degree. The few schools I looked at had tuitions raising from $5,000-12,000 dollars per semester. That does not include loans you'd likely take out for living expenses. </p>
<p>Throw that on top of the debt you incur to go to medical school (I take out about 39k per year in loans, and that's at a state school where I'm paying instate tuition), and you'll be in debt for a long long time.</p>
<p>Medical school admissions committees are unlikely to look favorably upon a student who:</p>
<p>1.) Would require them to pull a student out of a health professions field
2.) Does not have a B.S. Many pharmacists do, but not those who take a six-year track.</p>
<p>this is interesting because I was thinking of doing the same thing. Money wouldn't be a problem since i got a full ride to a 6 year pharmacy prg. The problem that BDM mentioned is that I wouldn't get a BS. The only difference between this zeroniner and myself would be that I wouldn't finish the Pharm-D, in other words, if I got into a med school, I would leave after the first 4 years. How much of a disadvantage would I be at applying to med schools if I didn't have a BS and was coming from a pharmacy program?</p>
<p>Massive. Medical schools will not admit candidates without a BS barring something like a Rhodes Scholarship.</p>
<p>There are few schools that still will admit extremely well qualified students after only 3 years of college. Presumably they would admit students without a BS. Other schools might also be willing to admit students after 4 years of undergraduate work, but I'm willing to bet big money that most require the Bachelors. </p>
<p>Someone with a more current MSAR can post stats. But from the 2005-2006 MSAR I have with info on the 2003 entering class, the following schools had less than 100% of students entering with a baccalaureate degree:</p>
<p>Arkansas
Loma Linda (CA)
Colorado
Howard
Miami (FL)
Hawaii
LSU-Shreveport
Boston U
Mississippi
Albany Medical College
Yeshiva
Oklahoma
Drexel
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas A&M
UT-Galveston
UT-San Antonio
UT-Dallas
Marshall (WV)
West Virginia
Medical College of Wisconsin</p>
<p>Actually ended up more than I expected and at least one school I know of that accepts after 3 years did not do so during that application cycle and so is not on the list. I looked only at the entering class data (b/c that was easier to find as I flipped through) and NOT at the actually printed requirements, so it's likely that there are at least some other schools I missed.</p>
<p>I see nothing wrong with the idea, but I believe it would be best to finish your PharmD. This would be looked on more favorably by med school. Also, if you do not like med school, it would give you something to fall back on. if you get a M.D. with a Pharm.D, it would be great qualifications to work for a pharmaceutical company.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Medical school admissions committees are unlikely to look favorably upon a student who:</p>
<p>1.) Would require them to pull a student out of a health professions field.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>BDM, I've seen this "fact" posted widely, but never seen any documentation. Counterexamples abound, as virtually every physician had a former nurse in his or her medical school class.</p>
<p>I know that the American Board of Anesthesiologists loves to quote former nurse anesthetists who went on to medical school and became anesthesiologists.</p>
<p>Truth be told, I've never seen it documented either except for the hint that specialized health professionals do poorly on the MCAT. It might just be a politically correct rumor meant to encourage students to actually pick the career they're interested rather than use one as a stepping stone to another.</p>
<p>1.) It does seem to make sense to me, though.
2.) The question is one of proportions, too: for every nurse in a medical school class (mine certainly doesn't have any), how many applied and were denied?
3.) In any case, this particular applicant would certainly need a Bachelor's of some kind.</p>
<p>OP, go to a normal school with a normal program. get your bachelor's degree. apply to med school if you are competitive. if you aren't then your options are: do post-bach and raise your gpa (or whatever needs to be fixed) and reapply, or apply to another field like pharmacy.</p>
<p>if you are really set on being a doctor, then don't do pharmacy (because they aren't very similar in terms of the actual work).</p>
<p>
[quote]
Truth be told, I've never seen it documented either except for the hint that specialized health professionals do poorly on the MCAT. It might just be a politically correct rumor meant to encourage students to actually pick the career they're interested rather than use one as a stepping stone to another.</p>
<p>1.)It does seem to make sense to me, though.
2.) The question is one of proportions, too: for every nurse in a medical school class (mine certainly doesn't have any), how many applied and were denied?
3.) In any case, this particular applicant would certainly need a Bachelor's of some kind.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Specialized health professionals do poorly on the MCAT. A fact -- nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Making sense, you'll admit, is a test of unclear value. (It made sense to give DES to pregnant women to make up for estrogen deficiency....)</p></li>
<li><p>The relevant metric would compare the admissions rate of qualified applicants who happen to be nurses with that of qualified applicants in general.</p></li>
<li><p>Agree. A bachelor's of some kind is a good first step.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1.) 100% conceded.
2.) Unless becoming a nurse is somehow "endogenous" (i.e. mixes up cause and effect) with other qualifications. For example, you might want to control for SAT score rather than MCAT score.</p>
<p>if you have a Pharm. D, why would you need a bachelor's?</p>
<p>I'm not so worried about the bachelor's. </p>
<p>What does matter, at least as I see it, is that this isn't just going to be an extra 2 years. I think many medical schools would have a lot of questions for someone who immediately finished pharmacy school, only to jump to medical school. Even 2 years post PharmD to maybe ensure all the necessary requirements are fulfilled (ie study for the MCAT), would probably raise eyebrows, as to what is so horrible about pharmacy that they want to change. Are they going to feel the same way when they finish medical school? Will they even finish med school if they know they can go out the very next day and find a six figure salary? You'd really have to prove that there were significant reasons as to why you were changing careers. I say this knowing two PharmD's who are at my school as medical students. One I know very well and know that her decision was based on having been in pharmacy practice and having contact with doctors, she realized that there was a specific patient population she really had a strong desire to work with that couldn't be achieved by remaining in pharmacy. She then went and shadowed extensively physicians in that field to make sure that's what she wanted and that it really was worth all the difficulties. But it had only been after she worked as a full pharmacist that she realized her calling was in this particular field, prior to that, she had really wanted/enjoyed being a pharmacist.</p>
<p>My point here is, I don't think it's a good idea, to simply do it out of fear. If you have real, genuine interests in both medicine and pharmacy and you don't know which to do, that's one thing. But to only do pharm because you're trying to hedge your bets...I'm just not comfortable with it.</p>
<p>when you could easily make a six-figure salary as a pharmacist, why would a person go to med school if they didn't really want to become a doctor? For me, its all about choices. If I want to still to become a doctor, I can declare a major after two years in the pharmacy program and get a bs. If I wanted to become a pharmacist, then I would finish the program. Most likely, I wouldn't do both unless I was in love with both professions. I was just wondering if I could.</p>
<p>since i started this thread and considered what everyone said... ive decided to go for becoming a doctor cause well... i dont think id be happy doing anything else... i really want to help people. I guess it just comes down to the question "How bad do I want it?"
Thanks for the insight.</p>
<p>So after two years of undergrad, you can apply to a pharmacy school in your at the end of your sophomore year? Do alot to candidates become accepted this way? Thanks.</p>
<p>Probably varies from school to school. If you're qualified, sure. I personally know more people who graduated with their bachelor's, but that's by no means a representative sample since most pharm students I know, I went to undergrad with.</p>