Hi there, I'm a starting my graduate program at a school of pharmacy this fall. I want to write about my experiences as I go through the process of getting my degree. I enjoy reading many of the blogs online about the health profession and I hope to have great stories like theirs some day, but everyone needs to start somewhere...
To begin, I graduated from a very rural high school as Salutatorian in a class of 88 people. I went to a large private university in the southeastern United States in the hopes of being chosen for their pharmacy school. The two years of pre-requisites came and passed, but I didn't feel ready (honestly, was too scared) to apply for the school. I continued on and eventually got my Bachelor of Science. During my senior year of college I applied to the pharmacy school, but due to awful karma, things just didn't work out. My PCAT wasn't sent to PharmCAS, which caused my application to be late, which caused my interview to be very late, which just wasn't good. They told me to try again the next year.
In the mean time I was accepted into the university's Master's program. I wanted to stay within the school, as well as keep my learning skills sharp. I really, really wanted to get into the pharmacy school.
I got a job as a pharmacy tech close to the school. I reapplied to the pharmacy school and got one of the first rounds of interviews!! Unfortunately, I am a horrible interviewee when I desperately want something. Once again the school told me to try again next year. They didn't put me on waiting list or anything, just a flat out "no."
I continued my Master's degree and a few months later I heard from another university about my application to their pharmacy program. It turns out that I never finished my recommendations (due to a computer glitch, no less) and they were wondering if I was still interested in applying. Of course I was! I finished it ASAP and waited, not expecting much. A couple of weeks later they called and asked why I hadn't responded to an email. They had sent me an interview invitation! Interesting how it had been sent to my spam email....
The school is in the northern part of the southeastern United States, so my mom went with me to the interview. I didn't care much about the interview, figuring since, once again, I had gotten the last round of interviews that I wouldn't be accepted. A month later I still had not heard anything from the school and my mom asked if I had checked my spam email. An acceptance email was there!!
And there began my trek into pharmacy school. It's been quite surreal, especially since I am so paranoid that something will go wrong and they will revoke my status. I had to take an online human physiology course to finish a pre-requisite and move 6 hours away from family. I transferred from my wonderful tech job to another store in a completely different state with different laws. I'm having to make new friends, and I live with roommates again. Getting into school was difficult enough, but these next four years are going to be horrible. I'm still trying to finish my Master's degree as a backup since I hear the pharmacist shortage is coming to an end. I feel like a traitor to my former/current alma mater, but my alliances have already begun to shift.
Here's to the next four years...
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