^^ THIS so much of this.
For those of you who want to do pharmacy and know you want to do it, god bless your soul because we need good pharmacists. However, I can't comment with any certainty for what will be left for you by 2020. You may have heard of SB493 which is supposed to broaden the scope of practice for pharmacists. This will allow pharmacists who have residencies to adjust meds, start meds, and order labs. SB493 was supposed to be the second coming of pharmacy. However, if you ask any pharmacist who works in hospital settings, they were already doing this and if you have this capacity to do this at a retail setting, you're already overqualified. SB493 now holds pharmacists accountable for these things we were already doing. Sure SB493 is supposed to be the second coming for pharmacy, but you'll need provider status to take advantage of it and like the post above me, be part of the "25%." Prior to passing SB493, pharmacists wanted it so badly. There was a HUGE political movement and much push back from the medical community. You'd think that after passing it, pharmacists would be ready to put this new provider status to use right away since we wanted it so badly, right?. However, the field as a whole has, and is still asking, "What does this mean for us?" As far as I know, provider status has just let us bill insurance companies directly for cognitive services. That does not mean that they will. Drugs and money always seem to go hand-in-hand. For those of you who are on the fence, please, I am begging you to either not attend, or make sure by the time you take on these massive loans that you want to do pharmacy school for sure. There is no in between. If you wanted to get into the healthcare field to 'help' people, you're going to need to be more specific. Bagging groceries is helping people, so is being a cashier. If you wanted to help people on a healthcare level with a personable touch pharmacy isn't it. Trust... Retail companies push metrics on you, you'd be lucky to spend time with patients the way you wanted to. If it isn't the company pushing to fill faster, then its CMS dinging you for your patients not remember to take their blood pressure, cholesterol or diabetes meds. You're hired to check off medications. If you were in a hospital setting, pharmacists aren't even in on the discussion of patient care. You're likely stationed at a computer clicking and processing orders all day.
For the comment about USC versus Western, contrary to what you believe, your chance in residency is much more than where you attend. It is even more than grades. There is this baseless notion that you need to be Rho Chi, with a 4.0, from either SF, SD, UOP, or other 'name brand school' to make it to residency. This couldn't be further from the truth. You can get a residency with 3.0 grades, extracurricular activities and good rec letters. However, be aware. I have had friends who did a residency only to end up not using it because of how the market looks right now. So if you want that name brand school for more, I can't stop you. Just keep in mind that 200k+ needs to be paid back with interest. Also keep in mind, not all pharmacy schools carry the same interest rates.
Lastly, I wanted to give insight to those who are applying to pharmacy school what a pharmacist does. They interact more closely with their meds and computers than patients in most settings. Its not to say they don't know anything regarding patients, but that isn't their main focus when compared to other disciplines. Pharmacists check for DDIs, cheaper drug alternatives, deal with insurance, look for alternatives drugs during shortages, P&T committee, adjust medications (assuming you are ambulatory care), MTM, and give recommendations to physicians and patients, dose warfarin, aminoglycosides and vanco, do medication reconciliation (call a patient pharmacy and ask them for the name, the dose and directions of the medications they are on). If any of these sound interesting to you, and you're ok with seeing doctors get treated like GODs (free hospital lunches, reserved parking spots, special reserved rooms for them to eat at with food that was prepared by the staff to go the extra mile), be unable to perform SOLID physical assessments, do a PGY1 and a PGY2 and realize, 'man one more year and I could have been a PCP, then please, by all means sign up for those loans. Strap yourself in, keep your hands and feet in at all times and good luck. I'll see you out there in 2020.