<p>Hey, I have some questions about the education process for a pharmacologist that I would be super appreciative for if they were answered.</p>
<p>Does the undergrad school matter really matter? Like, are there specific universities you should go to?</p>
<p>Is there a specific major you need to do? Or do you just major in chemistry/bio/whatever like you would to become a pharmacist?</p>
<p>Basically, does it work like it does for pharmacists, where you do undergrad and major in a science and then apply to grad school?</p>
<p>for pharmacy, I’d probably do a BS in biochem or chem make sure you take the prereqs like anatomy and economics. Keep in mind you are committed to professional school when you major in science. If you do not get in to pharm school you will need to get an MS in accounting or engineering as a straight bio/biochem/chem degree even a grad degree is near worthless.</p>
<p>Do you want to go into the field of pharmacology or pharmacy?</p>
<p>For pharmacy, like you said, do what you want major-wise and then apply to pharmacy school (first take the PCAT)</p>
<p>For pharmacology, you can do an undergrad major in it (I know of two schools, UCSB and Stony Brook, im sure there are more) and then go into industry with a job that will probably be low paying. Or you can go on to grad school.
However I am sure you can major in Chem, Bio, Biochem, etc. (something similar like a specialization in Bio or even ChemE) and then go on to grad school for Pharmacology. You can probably check specific grad school programs in pharmacology to see what is a good major to do undergrad.</p>
<p>^ Thanks, I was looking for the pharmacology route. That’s the answer I was looking for, I want to do science, but I want a decent job and pharmacology seems like the perfect go between between those two wants.</p>
<p>From University of Minnesota’s Pharmacology website –</p>
<p>The majority of our students received bachelor’s degrees in one of the life sciences, including Biology, Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, and Psychology. However, we have had a number of successful students who majored in sciences such as Chemistry and Physics.</p>
<p>I am not too sure about the job outlook for pharmacologists but If the condition of the pharmaceuticals industry is any indication I’d be very cautious. They have led the nation in layoffs, outsourcing, and off shoring.</p>
<p>Pharmacology job outlook is inherently tied to the health of the pharm industry…and pharma is terrible. You may have slightly more options if you go towards toxicology, but I’d be very pessimistic about trying to work in pharma. Even if you manage to find a full time permanent job, there’s an extremely high chance that you’ll be laid off within 5 years so you should really not buy a house and rather rent so that you can relocate on a whim. Also, don’t even waste time with pharmacy, it’s huge debt for a chance to get a job in a field that is rapidly deteriorating. Pharmacy has the same exact problem law has run into-- too many accredited school opening up churning out degrees like candy because it is highly profitable and complete oversaturation of the market with all of the new recent grads. Modernization , consolidation, and automation are also expected to take away a lot of pharmacist jobs as more and more insurance companies are trying to save money any way possible. Pharmacy is a ticking time bomb ready to explode just like how the law school bubble has started to explode in a lot of recent grads’ faces.</p>
<p>^
?
Are you talking about pharmacists and pharmacologists, or just pharmacists? Because every single source says pharmacology is and will continue to be one of the fastest growing job markets.</p>
<p>BLS is saying that biology will grow faster than average and I can tell you right now that is a load of crap. Biology is the art history of the sciences.</p>
<p>Anything related to pharma chemistry, biology, pharmacology is in deep trouble and will be for the foreseeable future. </p>
<p>Pharmacists dispense pills and review prescriptions to make sure the doctor isn’t killing people. That is mostly independent of the pharma industry.</p>
<p>Like sschoe said you want to stay far far away from pharma right now. It is horrible. You will be hard pressed to find any reliable work within pharma on the R and D level. EvERYTHING is being outsourced. I imagine next that you would try to move to something like clinical pharm in a hospital. Also it is harder to outsource clinical pharm work if you want to sell a drug in the US since the data generated has to abide by US standards. Just be aware that you’ll likely have to compete w/ pharmacologists that have been working in industry for 20 years that have incredible resumes that have been recently laidoff from pharma. If that doesn’t work, then I assume you’ll try to jump into something like pharmacy. The number of PharmD granting schools has increased by almost 50% in the ast 15 years because schools can hype up 6 figure salaries and pharm schools are very lucrative for universities. Be aware that there is starting to become a huge glut of PharmDs, many of which are losiing jobs because the largest employers for PharmDs like Walgreens are starting to conslidate and automate their operations via programs like POWER in order to cut down on the number of highly paid pharmacists that are needed in order to save money.</p>
<p>Look, I hope sschoe and I are completely wrong with regards to employment. No one wants to see a fellow scientist fail, we’re all here to make the world a better place. Bls job outlooks fail to gel with the happenings of the real word. It’s impossible for some statistician in an office to go to every company, look at where their strategy is headed within the next decade, and factor that in to their calculations on job outlook. Bls says that pharmacy/pharmacology is expected to grow faster than average basically because the aging population will need new medication. Who is going to make these medicines? People in China and India will. More and more companies are moving almost all of their work to CROs overseas. I bet it is impossible for the BLS to gauge just how much. The effect of the huge glut of PharmDs also won’t be seen for another 5 years or so since it takes time for all of these kids to graduate. I bet that’s also why the BLS hasn’t revised their outlooks yet on the pharmacist profession.</p>
<p>Be very careful how you pursue your future career. Anything pharma related could ruin your life or waste vast swaths of your time when you could be retraining yourself to find work in a more sustainable field.</p>
<p>Word on the street is that Merck is about to layoff 25% of its staff.</p>
<p>Novartis is expected to close its Boston site once its facilities in Shanghai open.</p>
<p>Teva also recently bought out Cephalon and will likely axe a ton of jobs.</p>
<p>New undergrads will have to compete with the thousands of scientists about to be laidoff with much ore experience than they have. It is going to get much worse in pharma over the next few years. I really have no idea how the BLS considers pharma a viable industry. We’re getting SLAUGHTERED here in the US and losing everything to Chindians. Stay away like your life depended on it. People will try to leave pharma and will move to things like clinical pharm in a hospital or even pharmacy, so expect pharma’s unemployment problem will create other problems, like ludicrous competition for the scarp of jobs available, else where.</p>