<p>I've been accepted into the pharmacy program at NEU, but I'm still undecided. I know for sure that I'm going to be studying in the health professions, but I'm torn between going for a pharmacist or a doctor. As a pharmacist, I'm basically guaranteed (as long as I maintain a certain GPA), but I heard the co-ops really help the resume for premed students. And since NEU has a early assurance program with Tufts, I was wondering how many people get accepted through that program.</p>
<p>Also, I know that NEU is located near many great hospitals, and I was wondering how easy/hard it is to get a co-op at Massachussetts General Hospital, per say. And does it really help for aspiring pharmacists? Because from what I've heard, the demand for pharmacists is high and they can find a job anywhere, so a co-op wouldn't be as helpful? Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated</p>
<p>“Because from what I’ve heard, the demand for pharmacists is high and they can find a job anywhere, so a co-op wouldn’t be as helpful?”</p>
<p>I will address this first. You can find a job in retail almost anywhere. There are some states where there is a bit of saturation and kids cant find full time jobs. NJ is one of those states. A lot of students leave Rutgers pharm and join as floaters at one of the big chain pharmacies. Floaters are just part time pharmacists that go from store to store irregularly. Getting a job will take time when you graduate for sure, but most end up with jobs fairly quickly compared to other majors.
And from all the people I talked who worked in the pharma industry, the conclusion is that experience is everything. Either you must have connections to get you a job in a pharma company (like Pfizer) or you need good experience. This is where co-op plays a big role. You will finish pharmacy with 3 different jobs working at places like Novartis or Mass General or the other well known hospitals in Boston, while other pharm kids graduate with nothing special. You already have a huge advantage when you go to apply for a job. Your resume is full compared to another kids who will put his summer job at a local pharmacy for 3 months, where you are putting down a giant pharma company or a famous hospital. </p>
<p>Medicine is completely different from pharmacy and will require a lot more hard work. You have to maintain a high GPA all 4 years of premed and do well on your MCATs. Its a completely different thing to get into academically and its a complete dedication of your life. Its more than just 8 total years of college (assuming you get into med school). Most kids take the MCATs and cant even get into a med school. Its 4 years down the drain for a lot of kids. Its a very competitive field. I thought about doing premed before in high school but doctors i talked to recommended I stick with pharmacy unless being a doctor is a dream and I am willing to live and breath medicine 24/7. I am personally laid back academically and I am not the hardest worker so I know I am not suited to go for 8 years of med school, MCATs and then residency and fellowship. </p>
<p>I was lucky that I was able to talk to my dads friends who are all pharmacists married to doctors and they all told me the same thing. Do medicine if you are willing to work your nuts off, other wise stick to pharmacy because its actually a really nice career if you set yourself up right. </p>
<p>thats my advice and what i went through when I went was stuck between premed and pharm. Im doing pharm now.</p>
<p>Just two things- one is that the above post makes it out like Pharmacy is easy compared to premed. That’s not exactly true. A premed student at northeastern (since we do NOT have a premed major) could be a biology major who does co-ops in medicine and research. And while there are a few bio classes that are very hard, and you have to keep a very good gpa as said above, there are several pharmacy courses (like med chem) that keep pharm students up all night on a regular basis. I love our pharmacy program, but it’s not for people who kind of like medicine but want an easy well-paid way to study it. I know a lot of pharm students who hate their major now because they picked it for very bad reasons.</p>
<p>Second, yes premed is hard. Yes, a lot of people do well in school and do well on the MCAT and still don’t get in. Yes, med school and residency are more effort than you’ve probably put into anything in your whole life so far combined. But if you want to be a doctor, it’s worth it. So don’t just pick pharm over doctor because its two years less work or something. When you’re 40, you’re not going to care that it took you two more years of schooling if you picked the right career and you enjoy what you do.</p>
<p>That being said, you have no idea (or maybe you do) how many people start college thinking they will definitely try to become doctors. EVERY SINGLE person I knew freshman year who were on the premed advising track has decided against it (obviously there are people who are still on it I didn’t know though, duh). And I was a chemistry major, so it was a lot of people. People now want to do hardcore research (aka phd not md) or go into teaching (masters in education) or like the business side of it (co-ops help a lot) or change majors completely (such as myself)… Pharmacy is a specialized program that doesn’t really leave any room to go into other fields (although you can go into plenty of areas of pharmacy like research or lab work or retail, etc). </p>
<p>Try not to start college already thinking about what salary you want in 10 years. It’ll drive you nuts, trust me. If you want pharmacy, then go for it. But if you are just doing it because you think it’ll be easier than something else and it has a decent pay, you’ll likely just become one of those countless people who hate their job and hate their career.</p>