Becoming A Pharmacist Tips

Dear Curtis: I, like a lot of students, don’t have a lot of money.  So I’ve been looking at working during pharmacy school (if I get in) to help defray some of the costs.  Do you think this is a smart move or should I just bite the bullet and take out more loans so I can focus more on my studies?

My Answer: Pharmacy school is expensive.  If you don’t need loans to help pay for school you are in the minority.  But, for you and many other students working in school may not only be an option you’re considering, but mandatory.

No way

When I first started college I was dead set against working during school.  Instead, I worked a lot during the summer.  Two, sometimes three jobs at the same time during the summer.

My theory was I wanted to have as much time as I needed for study and be more relaxed while doing it.  Not worrying about when I needed to show up for work.

Faulty Theory

First of all, there is such thing as too much time.  Even when you are taking demanding courses like I was there was still time I had too goof off and be unproductive.

I think you need those kind of times to decompress.  But, it seemed that I had more of those times than may have been good for me.

Also, I learned how to become much more efficient during pharmacy school.  So, in one hour I learned to get a lot more done than I could have gotten out of that hour 3 years before.

In short, if you are focused you can get a lot done during a short amount of time.  Having a very part-time job during school can force you to be even more efficient with your time.

Chemistry Tutor

I tried this theory out my last year on campus at pharmacy school.  Because of my major I was approached by the University of Montana to be a chemistry tutor for freshman general chemistry students.

I worked with my students while on-campus in-between classes.  This was ideal.  Often times that hour or so between classes is just spent wandering in the campus store or reading magazines.  It was ‘dead’ time.

By being able to stay on campus I converted that dead time to paid time.

Very Part-Time Work

So, while I eventually gravitated towards working during school it’s important for you to know that my tutor position was very part-time.  I usually saw each of my three students once-a-week.  Sometimes more.  So, on average, I was working 3-5 hours a week.

Obviously, that’s not a lot of time or income.  But when I was in school I was able to make about $3,500 (net) during the summer.  I used that as my living expense money during the school year and used loans to pay for my tuition and direct school expenses.

So, while 12-20 hours a month may not seem like much it probably amounted to a 25% raise for me that last year because I was living so cheaply to start with.  A significant raise for doing nothing more than helping some struggling chemistry students.

Besides, I found that I really enjoyed teaching people about things I knew something about (there’s that experience thing again…).

Be Careful

While I did eventually change my mind about part-time work during school I would caution you to not get carried away.

I knew students who took part-time work literally.  They were working 20 hours a week off campus.  Some worked as pharmacy interns and others just worked as pharmacy technicians because that’s where the store had openings.

While almost all of them graduated (I do recall one dropping out of pharmacy school), they always seemed to be more stressed-out and running on the edge than the rest of the class.

Pharmacy school is generally stressful.  My advice is to try and minimize that stress – not add to it.  If you can, try to mimic what I did.  Find very part-time on-campus work.  Maybe you won’t be a tutor but I’m confident that if you are persistent enough you can find something.  Students in my class were working in the school gym (annex), lab assistants, school health care center and pharmacy, etc.

Another option for me would have been to find on off-campus job but close to where I lived.  If it was only 3-5 hours a week it still would have worked well as long as it was close.

If you can’t find anything that fits these criteria than all I can offer is caution.  Maybe you will be one of the students who can do it.  But do you really want to try before pharmacy school and risk seeing your GPA drop or even during pharmacy school and risk academic probation or even expulsion?  Of course, you may have no choice.  But, the cautionary advice above still applies.

Ease into it like I did if you are at all concerned.  Otherwise spend you summers working as much as you can.  When the end of the summer is up you’ll probably find, like I did, that school will be a welcome distraction from all the work.