Any PharmD students here?

tofu

This past June I graduated with a BS in Chemistry but have yet to find any kind of interesting employment opportunities. Now I'm starting to look at grad school because so many jobs want advanced degrees these days but I really have no desire to work in academia, which led me to examine a PharmD degree.

If there are any students or recent grads here I'd like to hear about your opinions and experiences, both about pharmacy school and the pharmaceutical job market after graduation

Raif Severance

I'm a second year pharmacy student and I got my BS in chemistry as well. There's a lot up in the air right now about what job prospects are going to be since the health care bill. What I can tell you is that job prospects aren't as great as they used to be in the early 2000's when the mantra was "C" = PharmD and as long as you graduated you were assured a job and a 6 figure salary. At present you really have to set yourself apart from your colleagues in order to get a job you want in the hospital arena but as far as I know in the community setting (walgreens, rite aid, etc) it's getting difficult as well. This is not to say that finding a job isn't impossible, it's just that you aren't offered sign-on bonuses and cars any more and you have to be willing to move.

As far as pharmacy school goes, I'm liking it a lot. I'm a slightly older student (29) and I feel really old next to the 22 year olds but experience has its perks. The curriculum differs between schools along with the prereqs so make sure you research that. A PharmD is expensive... I'm talking over $100k and even over $200k if you go private. My advice is to get into your state school or don't go at all. You do not want to be stuck with $200k in student loans and have a poor job outlook.

Anyway, that's a bit of rambling for you. Let me know if you have any other questions.

VisionOfClarity

A classmate of mine from high school went into undergrad specifically to get her PharmD. She loves it, it can be a pain sometimes but she's happy. She got a job at CVS fairly quickly after graduating but she also went back to our relatively small home town where there wasn't as much competition. She also did very well in school, makes good connections and interview very well.

tofu

Yeah, I'd most likely try to get into UCSF since I live in central CA. Probably about 30k a year, not sure if you get discounts on tuition if you work for the university.

I'm not really interested in working retail at all, I would definitely prefer hospital work...maybe even clinical pharmacy or drug development to retail. Finding work at the end is what I'm most concerned about, it seems like the market might be saturated by the time I would graduate because of all the new pharmacy schools

Marmoset

I'm a first-year pharmacy student. I too considered pharmacy after I realized that any non-medical prospects with a B.S. in biology were nigh-awful. What Raif said is true though; everybody jumped on the pharmacy train about a decade ago, so it's not as lucrative as it used to be. However, it is still an excellent profession with lots of flexibility after you graduate, or so we are told! A lot of people act like the sky is falling, but it's really not that bad. You're going to have a job, you'll just have to try a bit harder and be willing to make some sacrifices.

School itself is an assload of hard work, and it's only going to get harder. What's nice about it for me is, I have the security of knowing that I'll have a reliable career waiting for me in a few years, and the peace of mind totally compensates for the hours and hours of studying. I spent my undergrad terribly conflicted about what I wanted to do, and pharmacy school completely alleviated those worries. I love what we're learning, and I feel like my knowledge is going to make a difference. It's really not for everyone though... I know you said you don't intend on working retail, but I would consider getting your technician license and working for a bit (think you can work as a hospital tech, too). You don't want to go into this cold.

Just be prepared for all of your friends and family to ask you, at every social function, why you didn't go to medical school instead.

tofu

Yeah, my local hospital has an opening for a pharmacy tech, I was thinking about applying