Jen, congrats on choosing a great profession. Pharmacy is a female dominated profession. The advantaged of becoming a pharmacist are:

1) Great pay, most starting salary are 75-150k depending on location and need

2) Most jobs are 9-5 meaning that you will have time to start a family of your own

3) You will ALWAYS have a job. I have worked with many pharmacist who are 65 years old and up!

4) It takes less time to finish up and get your license compared to being a medical doctor

I would definately recommmend that you try to get a job in pharmacy AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Also if you want a leg up on the competition, I recommend http://www.pre-pharm.info

Pre-Pharmacy as a major is not necessary. You will still get in with a great PCAT and GPA from any major as long as you complete requirements for pharmacy school. Get in touch with a counselor at the pharmacy school to get more info.

Working in a pharmacy as a technician would be WONDERFUL experience. I was a pharmacy technician for 6 years. And I must tell you, all the new graduate pharmacists who were actually technicians during their schooling were very good pharmacists. It teaches you the ins and outs of the pharmacy and you get to truely run the pharmacy. Technicians do the majority of the work. It pays kind of low, but decent. Average is around $9 an hour once you are nationally certified. Independant pharmacies sometimes pay a little higher.

Also working at a pharmacy while in school, and maintaining great grades and some extra-curriculars will really help you get in to pharmacy school, since it is very hard because of the limited space and high demand.

Good Luck!

Hey, I’m also a Pharmacy student who started as a Biology major. If I were you, I’d change, because as a Biology major, you have to take extra classes that aren’t necessary for Pharmacy, like Ecology. If you get into a Pharmacy program, it’d be best to get into a 6yr PharmD program and at the end you will receive a Doctor of Pharmacy which is required as a Pharmacist. You can however get a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, and then do the 2-3 years of Pharmacy school, but you have to take the PCATS (like the MCATS) and do the whole applying process…I’d get into the Pharmacy program now because then you have all the classes you need and not the extra ones.

Switch to pre-pharm asap. My brother is going to school to be a pharmacist and entered directly into the pharm program. It was the best thing he could have done as he has saved time and money by not being a bio or chem major but jumping directly into the 6-yr program.

human beings like me circulate to uni .. and no lol .. how am i able to even dare to try this guy … *calls all human beings to tell concerning the party :P* oh i become in basic terms checking if my telephone nevertheless working 😉