Should a Type B person go to pharmacy school?

[calicoadams]

TLDR: What's the workload like in pharmacy school, and what does it consist of? Essays, multiple choice tests, oral presentations, etc? And will I fail out of school if I don't study 24/7?

I'm seeing lots of posts on these forums asking about whether or not someone with fifteen extracurricular activities, ten leadership positions, four summers of undergrad research, and a habit of turning in work early should go to pharmacy school, and the majority are met with the same answer: uh, yeah, you'll probably do fine. Unfortunately, I'm definitely not one of those people.

I really am interested in pharmacy and I love working with people. But I'm just sick to death of school. I've heard horror stories about medical school (my own mother, a Type A person, went to vet school and was still stressed and overwhelmed) but I haven't heard much about the workload that pharmacy school demands. I'm okay with studying a lot, but I absolutely hate to write essays or do busywork assignments. I'm better with oral presentations, but I'm also wondering how many of those I'll be expected to do.

Basically I'm wondering if it's even possible to take it easy through pharmacy school. Obviously I don't expect that I'll be able to skip every single class or never hand in a homework assignment, but I would like to hear that I won't fail out of school if I don't study until 2 am every night and spend my weeks in a 24/7 haze of books, lectures, labs, and internships. If I can get at least four unbroken hours of downtime once a day, I'll live. I'm not looking to be a straight A student, and I'm not looking for a prestigious job or anything- I'd be perfectly fine working in retail. My current GPA is 3.0 in my highly ranked liberal arts undergrad college, but my GPA in my science classes is closer to a 3.7, with some crappy calculus grades dragging down my score.

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[Abby Atwood]

I only have experience at one pharmacy school of course, but there was not a lot of busy work. Not counting page (or less) short answer type homework, there were maybe 4 short essays (3-5 pages) required per semester. Most of those were reflections on IPPE experiences. Most classes required one ~15 minute presentation (about 5 per semester). Studying requirements are variable. Some people got away with very little studying other people studied all the time.

In my experience, studying carries diminishing returns. Studying a little bit can take you from an F to a C. A moderate amount more effort can get you to a B or B minus. You have to almost triple your study time to get consistent A’s. As long as you don’t sweat B’s or the occasional C, it’s not that hard. Entering a graduate program can be a tough change though. You go from being one of the best students in your undergrad classroom to being decidedly average among your pharmacy student peers. Perfectionists with 15 extra curricular activities seem to have a harder time with that transition.

 

[MyRealNameIs]

Depends on what pharmacy school you go to and how smart you are.

There are people at my school that will skip every class and study the day before the exam and get As and Bs. Then there are people that go to every class and study a week in advance and still only get Bs and Cs. But even the hardest working student in our entire class don't study until 2am every day. Its really not that hard.

I go to a top 30 pharmacy school and I think school is pretty easy. Medical school is obviously a lot harder and doesn't really compare based on how much my friends study that goes to medical school and they are smarter than me.

To give you a reference, I went to UCSD undergrad and had a 3.5 science GPA, 3.2 overall GPA.
Probably studied about 5-10 hours for each exam and skipped every class in undergrad. I probably study about 5-25 hours for each exam depending on how difficult the class is and skip most of the time and we typically have about 1 exam per week except midterm and finals. Currently, have all As in my class after 3 semesters.

If you gave me your school name, I could assess better. But most liberal arts undergrad college have very easy science classes. There are people that came with a 4.0 GPA and struggling because their school was a breeze. But I can't imagine anyone failing if they go to most classes and put in an average of 20 hours of studying every week even if you are dumb as brick.

As for homeworks and essays, I would say there is about 1-2 hw per week that would take you about 1 hour each. Essays are not like your English essays. They are in a loose pre-structured format and easy to write as long as you can properly assess the patient and find the right journal articles to reference. We had to write about 2 per semester but I imagine more are coming 3rd and 4th year.