Month: August 2022

Looking back at my younger self, I had a very narrow mindset while pursuing pharmacy school. While I don’t regret going to pharmacy school, these are things I wished I spent more time thinking about before starting. 

The Why

“Why pharmacy?” is a question that presents itself over and over again, whether from friends and family, or school interviews. It can’t just be for the money. Is your “why” strong enough to carry you through this big commitment? Not everyone who goes to pharmacy school ends up in a career as a pharmacist. What are your life/career goals, and will a PharmD help you get there?

Cost

It’s easy to overlook the cost of tuition and other additional expenses once you get accepted into a program. Don’t be so easily convinced that it’ll be worth it based on the average pharmacist’s salary. (See my 5th point down below.) If you’re not applying straight out of undergrad, another thing to think about is giving up a full-time job to become a full-time student. Ask yourself whether this is a good return on investment for you. I went into pharmacy school intending to take out loans for all 3 years. It was hard to face these numbers upon graduation and while job searching.

Learning

There is so much to learn in a doctorate program. As someone who had terrible study habits in college, I definitely had to turn that around prior to starting pharmacy school. I never really thought about how hard it would be to keep up with everything in pharmacy school, let alone a 3-year program. I dealt with a lot of stress and struggled in a few topics, but my strong work ethic, interest, and supportive classmates helped keep me going.

Time

Time is going to be one of your biggest sacrifices. Time away from your family, friends, and yourself. Sure, you can just focus on your education, but a lot of people put in time for a pharmacy intern job, school organizations, and/or research. It gets so easy to get caught up with things happening in pharmacy school that you start to neglect your own needs and self-care sometimes. How will you prioritize your time as a pharmacy student?

Outcome

Your future career can be very different than what you imagine it to be. Most pharmacists don’t have regular 9-to-5 weekday schedules. You might only be offered part-time or per diem hours. You have to start as a floater pharmacist for a few years before getting that staff job. You get stuck working weekend and graveyard shifts as a clinical pharmacist. You have to take a pay cut for an entry-level job in the pharmaceutical industry. Are you flexible enough to deal with these very likely scenarios? While I knew the pharmacy job market in my area was very saturated, I didn’t think about how difficult it would be to land a job until I started applying.

For those of you on the pre-pharm path, I encourage you to really think about what you value and whether this is worth it for you.