How hard is it to become a pharmicist?

[Medellon]

I want to change careers so I can make more money. How difficult is it to obtain a pharmacy degree?

 

[cressida]

pretty darn hard.

depends on the school as well.

 

[BigSmooth]

A friend of mine just became a full fledged pharmacist.
I don't know all the details, but she had a bachelor's degree, and then I think she had to go to another school for 2-3 years, then she had to do some interning (for little to no pay) for a year or so, then she had to get some sort of certification as well. It's not easy, but I think she is making excellent money now.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

6 year doctorate with emphasis on chemistry, pharmacology, etc. Not a romp for most, but doable for those with the time and inclination.

 

[BatmanNate]

Even a high school dropout can be a street pharmacist, and I hear the pay is pretty good too.

 

[Beattie]

It's very hard. The pharmacy program here at Rutgers takes 6 years but when you are done, you will be very well versed in everything that you need. And they help place you. The pharmacy school here is good at that I hear.

 

[MrBond]

We have a good pharmacy school here. I'm a chemical engineering undergrad, so basicly we have it really hard. There's only two other majors that I think have it worse than us. Bioengineering (basicly premed + the math of engineering) and Pharmacy. When you join the pharmacy school here, you're not immedialty accepted. You take classes your freshman year and in the spring semester of your sophmore year, you apply for pharmacy school. If your grades aren't great, or you interview poorly or write poor essays, you're not going to get in. Then basicly you re-take your sophmore year classes to get your grades higher and re-apply.

It's a TON of stress. Like I said, there's only two other majors I don't think I could cut it in (well, three if you count EECS, but that's just because I couldn't take the uber-nerds) and Pharmacy is one of them.

 

[jaeger66]

Hard. The new standard, Doctor of Pharmacy(PharmD), is 6 years and extremely difficult. You might as well go to med school AFAIC.

 

[m2kewl]

very hard, my friend is a pharmicist. but even base pay is very good and he's making over $75k now.

 

[MichaelD]

So you wanna be a drug dealer, huh?

Nothing useful to contribute to your fine thread. Bump for you.

 

[floccus]

To become a licensed pharmacist you need a bachelors degree in usually chemisty, biochem, or a pre-prof. biology. Then you need to go to a grad. school with a pharmacy program. In all it will take at least 6 years. The whole reason for this is that as a pharmacist you don't just get the pills for the person, you have to know what pretty much all those drugs will do, what other medicines they shouldn't be mixed with, and provide advice. One of the big things is making sure that when people get a prescription, they don't also buy an over the counter drug that will kill them. A good example of this is Coumadine and aspirin, which thin the blood. The pharmacist needs to explain then to the person the dangers of taking both drugs at the same time. Basically, pharmacy isn't something you just go, "Hey, that sounds fun... I think I'll try it."

 

[vi edit]

Are you good at chemistry? If not, don't even think about it.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: floccus
To become a licensed pharmacist you need a bachelors degree in usually chemisty, biochem, or a pre-prof. biology. Then you need to go to a grad. school with a pharmacy program. In all it will take at least 6 years.

That's not true. The PharmD program is 4 years. Before that, you need 2 years of undergrad prerequisites mostly covering biology and chemistry. You don't need a Bachelor's in anything.

 

[vi edit]

That's not true. The PharmD program is 4 years. Before that, you need 2 years of undergrad prerequisites mostly covering biology and chemistry. You don't need a Bachelor's in anything.

Pretty much. That's the route my wife is taking. Except she did a third year to help qualify for residency so she could get in state tuition.

 

[aircooled]

So you want to work at Eckerd Drug from 10 to 9 every day but Sunday?

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: vi_edit


Pretty much. That's the route my wife is taking. Except she did a third year to help qualify for residency so she could get in state tuition.

Well I should say that it's 2 years worth of prereqs but unless you can leap right into General Chemistry you'll need to take some more basic stuff first. If you took chem in high school that's enough for General though.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: aircooled
So you want to work at Eckerd Drug from 10 to 9 every day but Sunday?

Or in a hospital, or specialized clinic, or a drug company, or a school...lots more to pharmacy than retail.

 

[Looney]

Pretty much those who can't get into med school go into pharmacy or dentistry.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Moralpanic
Pretty much those who can't get into med school go into pharmacy or dentistry.

Ha! How about for people that COULD have gone premed but actually wanted a family life. Generally a 9-5 job, no weekends, and most importantly NO ON CALL(generally speaking).

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: vi_edit


Ha! How about for people that COULD have gone premed but actually wanted a family life. Generally a 9-5 job, no weekends, and most importantly NO ON CALL(generally speaking).

That's the good thing, you make good $ right out of school and you don't have to take work home with you.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: Moralpanic
Pretty much those who can't get into med school go into pharmacy or dentistry.

Ha! How about for people that COULD have gone premed but actually wanted a family life. Generally a 9-5 job, no weekends, and most importantly NO ON CALL(generally speaking).

Not all physicians work in the ER.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: vi_edit


Ha! How about for people that COULD have gone premed but actually wanted a family life. Generally a 9-5 job, no weekends, and most importantly NO ON CALL(generally speaking).

That's the good thing, you make good $ right out of school and you don't have to take work home with you.

Yeah, but it's a braindead job. I've heard it's one of the most boring jobs out there. You stand all day counting pills, and telling the elderly on how to take their medications.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Moralpanic


Yeah, but it's a braindead job. I've heard it's one of the most boring jobs out there. You stand all day counting pills, and telling the elderly on how to take their medications.

You have no idea what you're talking about, but you apparently love displaying your ignorance so please continue.

 

[vi edit]

First, physicians need to do 3-5 years of residencies depending on their specialty.
Then, when they get done with that, they may spend 1 or more years doing a specialized fellowship. During all this time they are working about 80 hours a week under the new guidelines.

When they finish that, they start or join a practice for the most part. They build up a patient clientele. When those patients get sick in the middle of the night and need to go to the hospital, they want their doctor, so you get paged. If you go on vacation, you need to make arrangements to have one or more other physicians take care of your patients and handle any issues that may arise with them. It's a lot of work no matter which kind of doctor you are, not just ER docs.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: Moralpanic


Yeah, but it's a braindead job. I've heard it's one of the most boring jobs out there. You stand all day counting pills, and telling the elderly on how to take their medications.

You have no idea what you're talking about, but you apparently love displaying your ignorance so please continue.

You don't have to be so defensive... i do know what i'm talking about, because i have known people that have gone into the field. How exciting of a job do you really think it is? You're standing there all day, taking orders for medications and filling them out... and telling people how to take their medication. Where exactly am i wrong here?