Pharmacy School Admissions

Finding the Right School

  1. Is Pharmacy School Right For You?
  2. Prerequisites
  3. The PSAR

Is Pharmacy School Right For You?

The decision to become a pharmacist is not one to be taken lightly. You'll have to commit to a minimum of six years of university, you'll have a heavy courseload, and once you graduate, you'll literally be responsible for people's lives. And you'll most likely be taking on a considerable financial burden until you graduate.

On the other hand, pharmacy can be incredibly rewarding. If you go into clinical pharmacy, you'll get to interact with a tremendous variety of people. You'll be dealing with patients, colleagues, and other health professionals. You'll be responsible for making sure your patients are getting the optimal drug treatment possible. And if you decide to go into research, you'll be interacting with highly intelligent colleagues from a wide range of scientific fields. In either case, pharmacists tend to be both well-paid and well-respected—a rare combination.

What you need

To be effective and successful, pharmacists must have certain traits that help them with their position. First, and most crucial, they definitely need have the ability to pay attention to detail. Prescriptions can be mistaken, calculations might have crucial mistakes, and Mrs. Smith might be coming in for prescription refills just a little too often... these are just some of the details that you need to notice.

Judgment and dependability are essential for this job as well. Since you'll have access to potentially dangerous substances, you must have high ethical standards and maintain reliable records. Finally, you'll have to be knowledgeable about and keep up with the constant stream of new products and medications on the market.

So is it right for you? Ultimately, that's a decision you have to make. Pharmacy school is a serious time and financial commitment. But if you have specific career goals and apply yourself, the payoff can be extraordinary.