<p>I have done some research on college majors. The one that really stands out that has high starting salary, nation wide shortage and only requires a BS degree is a Pharmacist. Check this major out.</p>
<p>Room for advancement for a pharmacist? Not much.</p>
<p>No thanks.</p>
<p>Interest > Money</p>
<p>It requires 6 years to get the degree, consists of very hard science courses--e.g. biochem, physical pharmacy, pathophysiology, and is one of the most competitive programs to get in, some say even harder than med school.
You have two years pre-pharmacy, in which you have to take and score very high on the PCAT and nearly have straight As in all the general science courses required like general chem, organic chem, and anatomy/physiology, all with required labs, to get into the 4 years of the professional program. My suitemate is in the first year of the professional program here at NDSU, and her class of 75 first year pharmacy students had an average GPA of 3.91 for their first two years of school</p>
<p>so yes lots of money...but also lots of studying...and you have to have a pretty strong interest in the health sciences to stay excited about classes.</p>
<p>Pharmacy used to require only a bachelor's degree, but now the first professional degree is the Pharm.D, which, as the above poster notes, takes 4 years in addition to at least a couple years of undergrad coursework. Many pharm schools prefer applicants to have finished a 4 year degree.</p>
<p>(By the way, the current practicing pharmacists who have bachelor's degrees get grandfathered in; they don't have to go back to school to earn Pharm.D.s, though some do go back to school because they want to.)</p>
<p>ndcountrygirl... that post is extremely inaccurate.</p>
<p>Pharmacy isn't even CLOSE to being as competitive as med. I frequent a pre-pharmacy forum, where almost everyone with a 3.3 or above GPA has gotten into a PharmD. program. People with less than 3.0 GPA's have been accepted. I was once an aspiring Pharmacist, and Pharmacy requirements are much below Medical, Dental, or other doctoral programs.</p>
<p>Pharmacy in Canada is a bit tougher, you will need about a 3.7 to get in. But compared to the 3.9 you'd need to get into Med. in Canada, and all of the other requirements you'd need, Pharmacy is cake.</p>
<p>However, upon working in a Pharmacy, I realised that it wasn't for me. It is very monotonous working in retail, and there isn't much room for advancement past your starting wage. If these two drawbacks don't bother you, it is an excellent profession.</p>
<p>I don't know about other schools, but I know at NDSU's program, all the pre-pharmacy students are told by their advisors that if they have more than 2 Bs in any of the pre-professional classes, they stand a good chance of not getting in unless they have a great PCAT score. The minimun acceptance GPA is a 3.25, but very few get in with below a 3.5.</p>
<p>Its not inaccurate, at least for my school, so don't say that. I know because I considered pre-pharmacy for a short time until I browsed through the information packets and talked to many of my friends who are all pre-pharmacy and have 4.0s and are stressing out over taking the PCAT for the third time because its so competitive. I'll stick with trying to get into vet school, which still has a nationwide average of 3.5 but allows for me to get a few more Bs :)</p>
<p>What exactly do pharmacists do? About all I know about them is that they dispense medicine and pills, but it takes a lot of schooling to become one and the job must be more technical than that. Do they only work in pharmacies, for example, such as the local Walgreens and CVS?</p>
<p>There are lots of people who want to become pharmacists only because of the money, but I say it's not for me because I want a occupation that I would actually enjoy.</p>
<p>thats why you go to the schools that have 6 yr programs and auto entry into pharm school. (the ones that dont need the pcat)</p>
<p>interest>money for me as well.</p>
<p>JehJar, here's</a> what a pharmacist does.</p>