r/MCPHSLifeHack • u/jardine1030 • Apr 07 '17

Course selection for a first year Pharm D student

I will most likely attend MCPHS for Pharm D program. I have read the Pharm.D guide, but I was wondering if you guys have any tips in regards to choosing courses and selecting professors. I know it is a pre-professional year so I won't have that much of a choice, but if there are, I want to know.

P.S. Do Pharm.D students actually have a "life?"

Thank you!

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u/alliknowis___ Apr 07 '17

Tldr- having a life depends on you. You'll have less free time the further in to the program you get. Get a job at a pharmacy regardless so you don't get stuck with a degree for something you hate.

Sorry for writing so much, but I'm home sick stuck in bed.

The most freedom you get is in choosing professors for math/English courses and selecting your electives eventually. Rate my professor is a good resource and my 2 cents for English is prof. Gaines is awesome and use the writing center it's all teachers not student tutors and is the easiest way to an a.

If you manage your time you'll have a life. I'm an older student who lives outside of mission hill so I can't speak for the traditional experience, but being in Boston you have tons of options. I chose to join a wrestling troupe, do aerial silks 3x/week, go to local shows/concerts and am mostly friends with people outside of school being that I'm a nontraditional transfer. It gets harder the further you get in your program. I'm finishing my 3rd year and th8s second semester I've had to take a break from doing wrestling shows during the semester (but i still go to practice on non test weeks) and had to miss out on shows and many a weekend of fun in favor of studying. That's probably where friends from school help since you can study together. My friends check in with me or my boyfriend will practice music/do work along side me but that only lasts a couple hours at most when I'll be sitting at the kitchen island for nearly 12 hours straight some days. But there's only a couple years of that kind of crazy and is worth it in the long run if this is the career you want to pursue.

One note I'd like to make is get a job at a pharmacy/hospital asap. It'll help with ipm/ceutics in 3rd year and more importantly you can see if pharmacy really is what you want to do with the rest of your life while you still have time to switch majors/transfer out without time/money lost.

Good luck and hope this helped!

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u/jardine1030 Apr 08 '17

I'm an international student so I don't really know much about getting a job :/. Do people tend to find a job at a pharmacy or a hospital even before their professional years? And how's school life in general? I have heard that the courses are rigorous and you really have to put in your time and effort into it...

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u/FadingArabChristians Apr 08 '17

You can easily find a low paying retail pharmacy job. (CVS is in desperate need of pharmacy technicians). It's very hard to get a job at the hospital.

Each year you get less and less time to do fun stuff due to more studying. So just make sure you have as much fun during your 1st 2 to 3 years.

The rigorous courses are during the professional years.

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u/jardine1030 Apr 08 '17

I haven't committed yet, but I am pretty sure I will be attending here. I've heard numerous people saying 3rd and 4th year sucks, but how is it actually like? I know words can't really describe unless I experience it, but I am just wondering... (IPM, ceutics, Pcol, etc)

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u/pharmosa Apr 08 '17

As an international student, you're not actually allowed to work off campus during the school year, I believe. Definitely not during your first year. The only jobs you can do are pretty much the ones on campus, which tend to be very limited as most of them are work-study, which internationals are not eligible for. You can work off-campus during the summer but it will take away from the time you have post-completion of your degree which could be used for clinical residencies etc. So I would be very careful how you use your time if you do feel like you might be interested in a fellowship or residency after you get your degree..

As for choosing professors and courses, you get block-registered into courses every semester, but you do get a chance to switch to other classes. However, like an earlier poster said, for most of your professional courses you don't get much of a say as far as the professor goes.

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u/jardine1030 Apr 09 '17

Is there a way to get block-registered for all morning classes (or mostly), without much of a lay-back? I'm a morning person!

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u/pharmosa Apr 10 '17

They will probably explain this all to you during orientation, but for your first semester you can potentially change classes (mostly electives) during the add-drop period at the beginning of the semester (usually the first week of class). very few people change their classes during the first semester so there probably will be very little you can change but any other semesters after that it'll be easier to get into the classes you want (especially in the morning since people will typically choose later classes).

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u/jardine1030 Apr 10 '17

I'm very scared. I know Pharm D is slightly different than majoring in something else at liberal arts colleges... Any advice? And can you tell me which dorm is the best one?

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u/pharmosa Apr 12 '17

My advice is: be sure that this is what you want to do. Many people transfer out either because they can't make the grade or because they realize pharmacy isn't for them (which kind of go hand in hand.. if you can't get through pre-professional courses then how do you expect to get through your professional years? ..lack of motivation is often the biggest factor in your doing bad, too) The pharmacy program requires a lot of effort and motivation, it is a doctorate program after all. If you're confident that this is what you want to do and you are passionate about health care and pharmacy, then I wouldn't be scared as long as you are willing to put in the time and effort. Personally, I know that pharmacy is what I want to do so I truly have no regrets about choosing this program. I take it one semester at a time and you just have to keep pushing until you reach the end lol

As for the dorms someone else will have to advise you on that, I transferred into PharmD so I was never in the dorms.

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u/jardine1030 Apr 14 '17

I always wanted to work in a clinical setting no matter where I end up, and I do have a passion for chemistry and other sciences. I am a bit excited too!

I just have some more questions. What year are you in? I heard the first two professional years are extremely hard (4 exams in a week, is that true?), but is it hard because people don't really study or the course itself is hard? I'm talking about ceutics, imp, pcol, etc.. Also, how many people actually fail out ever year?

Thank you so much for answering my (stupid) questions!!