is taking the fast track pharmacy program in college doing to further me in my field or put me behind?

Hi Destiny,

With the changing landscape of pharmacy and the greater competition for jobs due to the increase in the number of pharmacy schools, you definitely want to finish pharmacy school with a Pharm D degree. From my knowledge, that is the only pharmacy degree you can get now. When I started pharmacy school about 10 years ago you didn't need an undergraduate degree to apply for pharmacy school. You just had to complete the undergraduate prerequisites and take the PCAT to apply.

You also may want to consider completing a residency following graduation. Most hospitals are now requiring one for you to be hired without any prior work experience. A residency can open more doors for you and afford you more opportunities aside from working retail pharmacy.

Hope this helps you in making your decision. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any other questions about pharmacy or pharmacy school.

Thank you,

Annie Sommerman, Pharm D.
Clinical Pharmacist at BCBS of Michigan

I don't think the lack of an undergraduate degree will limit you. you might want to evaluate the employment situation in the summer of 2018 and after as that is when the greatest number of graduates in the new pharmacy school seats begin to graduate.

Hi,

I don't have a PharmD which is required currently to graduate from pharmacy school. However, I did graduate with a pharmacy degree back when it was legal in 1991.

I don't think a bachelor degree is necessary to get a pharmacist job. If I had to do it again, I'd have gotten a minor in business. It only requires a couple of more classes but is well worth the effort in case you ever decide to work independently or want to work in administration. Also, I wouldn't enter the retail side of pharmacy first. A retail pharmacist usually pays better initially, but the clinical side, IV and hospital experience is a better set of skills long term.

Why do I say that? After 20+ years of retail work, no hospital would hire me, because I had little hospital experience even though almost all students intern at hospitals. I wanted to study pharmacy informatics but without working at a hospital, it's impossible to apply for the program without a hospital sponsorship.

Although I won't say a retail side job is easy, it is easier for a retail pharmacy to hire a hospital rph vs a hospital hiring a retail rph.

Hope this helps!

Hi Destiny,

I don't think not having a bachelors will necessarily limit you. I do not have a bachelors (only a PharmD) and I have been okay. I started as a staff pharmacist for CVS and then decided to leave retail for a closed door setting. Now I work as a staff pharmacist (hopefully soon to be manager) in a closed door LTC pharmacy. The only pharmacist jobs you may want a bachelors for would maybe be sales? Or possible some research. I know it's hard to know at this stage exactly what type of pharmacist you want to be, but if anything, I would recommend doing a residency AFTER your pharmacy program and that opens more clinical type jobs. Finally, some of my classmates earned their MPH or MBA while in pharmacy school so that they could pursue more administrative and business type pharmacy jobs. I hope that helps a little!