So you are going to pharmacy school

Not a word about transfers? You might want to make an addendum regarding these characters for those not in the know. Transfers are to be loathed above all - they are the most uppity, arrogant know-it-alls. They also usually fall under Point 4 and 5. For them, I’ll ignore Point 11.

I have little experience in this area, but I’d have to disagree with Point 15. And finally, for Points 13 and 14, it is so true. The commuters do band together though and there still exist people, who go home virtually every weekend and they live halfway across Missouri1

Bah - I knew 15 was going to be controversial…I stand by my recommendation.

I thought about transfer students throughout - they are kind of referenced (at least their behavior) in Point 5.

This was my pet peeve about my pharmacy classmates, so I would advise you not to fall into this group:

Do not sit around and bitch about how the professors give unfair exams. I graduated from a supposedly top tier pharmacy school, and I never thought that one exam in my 4 years of being in the pharmacy program was even remotely unfair.

A lot of your professors will give you study guides for your exam. Many others will make exams that precisely follow the class notes. If you have a study guide, use the fucking thing. If you’re professor gives you extensive notes, know them! If you don’t use the study guides or you choose to ignore large sections of your classnotes, you deserve to do poorly on the exam.

Take some personal responsibility for your grades. In 99.9% of cases, you get exactly the grade you deserve. It’s not the professor’s fault you misread the question. It’s not the professor’s fault you clam up and forget everything when the test is in front of you. Stop blaming everyone else for your poor grades.

Along the same lines… Don’t just memorize everything. UNDERSTAND the material. If you understand the mechanism of action of a drug, you can predict what kind of side effects it will cause. UNDERSTANDING the material allows you to apply it rather than just regurgitating random info.

I promise you, the material isn’t that complicated. Moreover, as long as you put in some effort, your professors will probably go out of their way to help you get through the program.

Oh… one more thing…. Don’t buy into the residency bullshit your professors will shove down your throat. If you want to do a residency, then do so for your own reasons. Don’t listen to that professor who continually bashes retail pharmacy and the pharmacists that work in it. Furthermore, if you develop an attitude where you stick your nose up at us retail folk, you deserve to be punched right in that nose you hold so high in the air.

I was luckily a victim of Point 15, but that eventually led me to Point 18, as I met my wife in pharm school.

I found that it is more important to LISTEN in class, then to worry about tape recording lectures and typing on your laptop and writing notes with 10 different color pens!!!

Working in a pharmacy during school is just as valuable as any lecture or lab you could ever attend! DON’T WAIT TIL ROTATIONS!!!!!

If you do join a fraternity, don’t bother with any except Phi Delta Chi… :)

Those people who take a multiple choice in 15 min’s. Yeah, right here buddy.

I was the first one done with the state boards, and walked out with the look of horror from everyone and the snickering from my classmates. :)

what fraternity were you in?

You first.

Two things I’d like to add…

1) Don’t be tempted by the keg parties every weekend…Yeah it sometimes sucks on a nice cool summer night listening to Springsteen or whoever is “hot at the time-blasting out over someones speakers…just sigh to yourself…and remember, once you get that piece of paper from the state…those keggers will be the ones serving you drinks at your local bar.

2) This one for the guys…God blessed us men with two heads, but did not provide us with enough blood to use them both at the same time…always use the head above your shoulders…there are pharmacy “groupies” out there that will take your money and spoil your academics…be careful.

Went to community college for pre-pharmacy. High school and early college grades were what got me into pharmacy school. Was older student–went to school with lots of ‘older’ students; big thing–join study groups, IF it helps firm up the concepts (especially pharmacology, law, and therapeutics)…probably along the lines as the pharmacy fraternity scene; more focused. (Some of us were in a real hurry to get out and start earning pharmacy pay.)

pi lambda phi

Make friends with people who aren’t in pharmacy school. Pharmacy people are fine but hard drinking friends with BS majors are worth thier weight in gold when you want to go out drinking on a Monday.

Also disregard gravelpit’s first point. Drink every weekend if you can and on easy weeks go out multiple week nights. Have the time of your life. College is awesome if you let it be. You can get good enough grades and have a blast, you just have to be good at budgeting your time. The best way to do this is to avoid TV. It is a complete waste of time. Always remember studying and being social are your priorities. Don’t be one of those guys who looks back at college and wishes he studied less and had fun more. If you GPA is 3.0 or 4.0 you get the same damn degree and it won’t make one bit of difference to Walgreens what your grades were.

Pi Lambda Phi? Never heard of it…

@Chad:

Your comment is dead on.

Here’s a joke for ya: What do you call someone who graduates bottom of their class in Pharmacy? A Pharmacist.

As far as I’m concerned, the bar is set pretty high. If you graduate with an advanced degree (Pharm, Law, etc) and get board certified…. I don’t care how close you were to the bottom, because I trust the certifying bodies more than your professors.

Great advice! Especially about going Greek! I did not and I regretted it. Everyone in a Frat had access to all the old exams…and they wouldn’t share if you were not in a frat…so, I definately was at a disadvantage…of course, that meant I had to study my ass off…There was never any curve at my school because 80% or more of the test questions came from old exams!!…So, I busted my ass and just did average…but, I suspect I actually learned more then most..

oh yeah….maybe try not having a boyfriend or girlfriend the first couple of years of college…you really need to find time to study and my boyfriend (who wasn’t in pharmacy school) was always pressuring me to do things with him…so, I ended up not studying as much as I should have.

Oh yeah…definately WORK IN A PHARMACY BEFORE YOU GET TO ROTATIONS!!!!…It will help you on exams and NAPLEX. In fact, if you have applied to pharmacy school, you should already be working part-time!!!

Disregard Gravelpit’s second point, too. Pharmacist ‘groupies’? Someone thinks highly of themself. I wish it were true, but frankly, if you go to a University that has a Medical campus you’ll be second fiddle. Go to Purdue (or some similar university) - no medical students to compete with for the ladies.

OK, on to a serious subject: Loans. You’ll graduate making >$100k a year, but unless mommy and daddy foot the bill you’ll be on the hook for some serious $$$ to your friendly neighborhood loan shark (err, I mean Financial Aid Partner). Do WHATEVER you can to live frugally. Live well, well beneath your means. Keep loans to a bare minimum. Live the spartan life now, and allow yourself to ’splurge’ a little only after you get those loans under control.

Good luck!

Pharmacy chick did number 18 and yes, its NICE. A little bigger house, a few nicer vacations, s’ok!

I definitely agree with Chad. There are many people in my classes who study every weekend, have had a 4.0 throughout college, and constantly gripe about unfair professors and tests. You can easily go out every weekend, study when you need to and still pull off a 3.0. Nobody will care what your GPA was once you graduate. Work in a pharmacy but don’t work so much that you don’t have time to enjoy college, you have the rest of your life to work. Take out that extra bit of loan money if you need to and go on a couple spring break trips or vacations. In the end it will only be a few months of extra loan payments and you’ll be glad you did it because those will be some of the best times of your life.

On the topic of pharmacy school, why do so many schools seem to have a strong liking for foreign-born students with a poor command of the English language?

Regarding point 7: Get a job in a pharmacy before you take organic! Heck, I got a pharmacy job even before I went back to community college at age 23 because I wanted to be sure it was what I wanted to do.

I really see where you’re coming from by stating that staying on campus is key and I need to try that if i get in.

By the way, your website it awesome, tell it like it is……no bsing around.

Being a commuter isn’t htat bad the first few years… espically with point 15… u cheat on ur HS gf first 2 years so u don’t look like a slut…. But the best of all u get one girl to be ur best friend and tell u when ever paper/lab/test is aka a manager. Then once ur HS gf goes wrong u start dating her for 250k income.

Randy, there are pharmacist groupies. I happen to be one of them. (Not that I do it for the money. I earn the same as my pharmacist boyfriend, thanks.) There’s just…something irresistibly attractive and sexy about a man who knows his benzodiazepines.

Point #5. I’m in the distance PharmD program. I rarely interact face to with the other students, but I’d sell my soul for a way to strangle someone via streaming video.

I’ll be starting rotations in June and I’ve never been on the other side of a pharmacy counter. I’m gonna be a world of hurt. Mom of four kids under 12, full-time pharmacy student, or working in a pharmacy part-tme… I only could manage to do two of the three at the same time.

Closing my P2 year and learned quite a bit working both hospital and retail. Tailor your tastes. The first year is the best time to hook up with people by going to the right greek (KY, Phi Delta Chi, KE, etc) or the pharm org(ie)s (APhA, AMCP, ASHP, etc.). Second year straps you down to your seat and you’ll be dreaming pharmacology (this is where you get your drinking buddies from the first year to break the insanity). Third year is the last mad dash before rotations and deciding where the hell you go from there.

Point 7 is not an option for me, it’s a requirement (need 300 hours outside rotations).

Job experience in retail had most of the sh1t thrown my way (from ‘customers’, bad techs, and Corpo-Pharm). Most retailers don’t flat out fire an intern (till they broke a law…or heaven forbid… ’store policy’), they just cut the hours they have each week. Luckily, you can report this crap to corporate headquarters (look for the number, they have it) and file a formal complaint (can’t fire you yet can they) or you can spread it around about the crap that goes on to your peers and most will not work for them (in turn screwing them over and getting you more hours). Doesn’t work all the time, but a little payback feels great!

Very interesting point of view about pharmacy schools. I really would like to hope that there are other kind of pharmacy school, which have moral look.