What you need to Become a Pharmacist
Exploring Pharm. D. programs at the AACP website
USC’s TAP Program
If you have a strong penchant for biology or chemistry, and are even contemplating majoring in one of them in college, yet aren’t stirred by the Siren song of medical, dental, or veterinary school, you might want to try pharmacy school. What does a pharmacist do? The best way is to actually job shadow one as she performs her daily duties of organizing and coordinating medications with doctors and patients. Or you could just take your next prescription into a CVS, or Rite Aid and look across the counter: you’ll see what about 2/3rds of those that become licensed pharmacists do.
If you want to conduct a more formal search, then go to the AACP (American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy) by clicking on the following link: http://www.aacp.org/RESOURCES/STUDENT/PHARMACYFORYOU/Pages/default.aspx. You’ll find over a dozen articles from “Top 10 Reasons for Becoming a Pharmacist” to “Job Outlook for Pharmacists.” By the year 2020, because of the aging population and the growing number of pharmaceuticals reaching the market, the US expects a shortfall of 157,000 pharmacists. Currently the median income is $115,000. Pharmacist’s compensation is clearly heading higher between now and 2020.
Convinced that this warrants a bit more consideration? To become a pharmacist, you must get a Pharm. D. degree—which you can without a bachelors—right out of high school, in six years. Two of those years will be spent as an undergraduate, gaining the scientific foundation, and four in a combination of graduate classes and clinical rotation. With your Pharm. D. in hand, you then need to pass the state certification exam and you’re ready to become a purveyor of pharmaceuticals.
One of the questions that might cross your mind is what it is a pharmacist must master over six years? A PDF on the AACP website entitled, “Doctor of Pharmacy Degree” breaks down the studies into 6 areas: 1. Pharmaceutical chemistry: learning how chemicals are used in medicine and how to detect their purity and efficacy; 2. Pharmacognosy: dealing with ‘natural drugs’ found in nature-such as quinine, derived from the bark of a cinchona tree and used for treating malaria; 3. Pharmacology: how drugs act in the body, and the effects of doses; 4. Business management: many pharmacists run their own businesses; 5. Pharmacy practice: how to professionally dispense and track usage of drugs; 6. Clinical practice—which varies from school to school. Massachusetts School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, has Pharm. D. students spending well over 1500 hours on clinical rotation across a range of facilities.
If this article has stimulated a voracious desire to become one of 54,000 students in the 115 colleges and universities offering first time professional degrees in Pharm. D. then it might not be a bad idea to do your search for institutions at the AACP website, which contains a college locator: http://www.aacp.org/RESOURCES/STUDENT/Pages/SchoolLocator.aspx. If you wish to enroll into a Pharm. D. program directly from high school, the program is alluded to as a ‘0-6’ program. Some of the schools that have such programs are University of Pacific in Stockton, California, Northeastern in Boston, and St. Johns in New York. The AACP website contains a search engine to compare the various Pharm. D. programs by length and PCAT scores. (Note, though Pearson education offers this SAT type test, a lot of pharmacy schools don’t require it.)
There are alternatives to the 0-6 program. One worth mentioning is USC’s Trojan Admission Pre-Pharmacy program (TAP), which allows entering freshmen to finish their bachelors in 2 years and then enter USC’s Pharm. D. program, one of the largest in the country. Get on the PharmCAS, which is the Common Application for pharmacy schools, and start pounding out your applications. And remember: don’t mix niacin and Lipitor, and drink plenty of water with that.
