Becoming A Pharmacist Tips

Using pharmacy school rankings to choose a school is, at best, a waste of your time.  At worst, they could cause you to make a very expensive mistake with your education and waste years of your life at a school that is the wrong fit for you.

And, for the most part, I’ve found most of rankings guides biased and – in general – a big popularity contest.

Choosing the Best School for You

If my sons came to me 15 years down the road and said they wanted to go become pharmacists and the subject of which pharmacy school to attend came up I would give them very straightforward advice: base your decision on whatever school is likely to give you the best return on your investment.

In short, where to spend the next 6 years of your life and $50,000+ should not be based on a popularity contest.

National Institutes of Health

Apparently the NIH puts out a rankings report where they base their judgments on how much grant money each school receives.  So, if they have a large and heavily funded research program that apparently makes them a better pharmacy school.

I’ve got news for you.  Most pharmacy students spend very little time doing formal lab research of any kind unless they are pursuing their PhD’s.  How many students in my class of 60 went on to pursue a PhD?  To my knowledge…zero.  Same with the class the year before and the year after me.

The point is: basing your ratings scale on a small sliver of most pharmacy students experiences is misleading.

NAPLEX

The NAPLEX (North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination) is the national exam pharmacists must take to become licensed.  You then must go on to take the law exam for whatever particular state you wish to practice in.

Some rankings guides list their main determinant of school quality based on the pass rate for each school on the NAPLEX.  At least that has some applicability to what every pharmacy student must eventually do.  However, it’s still not perfect.

For example, I’ve known students from all sorts of different schools of pharmacy who failed the exam.  Frankly, this is a more a reflection of either poor students or test anxiety.  By the time you have finished four years of intense training in pharmacy school you should have all the tools you need to pass the exam.  But, some students simply won’t pass the exam.

To be sure, they are the exception rather than the rule.  I think you’ll find that most pharmacy schools do a very good job of preparing their students to pass.  Most probably have a 98% to 99% pass rate.

Is the 99% pass rate school better than the 98% pass rate school?  Arguably.  At least for one year.  But, likely the next year they’ll either flip flop or be equal.  There just really isn’t that much variation in the pass rates of most schools.

For example, my alma mater – The University of Montana – is routinely missing from any of the Top 10 or Top 25 pharmacy school rankings but often has a 100% pass rate for the NAPLEX.  Why?  Probably because there are a lot of other pharmacy schools that prepare their students just as well and have a 100% pass rate.

The point is, by the time you get accepted into a pharmacy school anywhere you will have proven yourself to be a cut above the rest.  If you make it all the way through 4 years of pharmacy school you’ll definitely be a cut above the rest.  Almost all pharmacy schools have extremely high quality students.  There’s not going to be much difference in pass rates or other bogus rating standards by that time.

In short, the difference in quality between the #1 school and the #50 will likely be negligible.

Perhaps a better indicator of quality is to determine which schools put out the most students who get hired right away and look at their job placement rates?

Too late, they’ve already tried that.  It doesn’t work well either.  Why?  Because as long as you get that piece of paper – you are in demand.  Frankly, bluntly, employers don’t care where you got your degree.  Only that you have one.

In fact I have never been asked where I got my degree unless it was small talk.  It simply doesn’t matter.

Of course, I’m sure it would matter if it was some offshore school in a third world country.  But, ridiculous examples aside, if you have a degree from an accredited American pharmacy school – even if it ranks in the bottom of any of the more popular pharmacy school rankings you’ll still be able to get a job as soon as you start looking.

As I said above, you should base your decision on where to attend pharmacy school based on criteria that are  important to you.

Twelve years after being accepted to pharmacy school I can look back and say that I made a good decision.  I chose a quality school that fit my criteria.  Not the artificial criteria of some biased publication.

Should Rankings Ever Matter?

Yes.  But I think only if you plan on getting an advanced degree.  For example, want a PhD in a certain niche area?  Choose your schools based more heavily on their research reputation.

Specialization and PhD’s aside…your criteria may be different, but – in general – here were the things that were important to me:

1. Cost
2. Geographic location
3. Feedback from former students

My Main Mistake

While I feel that I made a good decision in my choice of pharmacy schools I also made a huge mistake in the process of applying to pharmacy schools that you should not emulate.  That is, I only applied to one school.

Granted, I had above average grades even for pharmacy school.  But what if my only choice had not worked out?  I would have had nothing to fall back on and I would have had to sit and twiddle my thumbs for a year of my life.

In college, that is dangerous because I’ve seen too many students who ‘take a slow year’ or ‘take a year off’ and never return.  They get a real job or get married and start having kids and then it simply becomes too hard and too uncomfortable to go back.

The point is: set your own criteria for yourself on what is important in a pharmacy school.  Depending on your circumstances you may have anywhere from five to ten schools that might fit the bill.  Your goal should be to limit that list to your absolute top 3 schools.  Once you do – apply to each one.

Yes, it will be expensive and more time consuming.  But it will be worth it.  And, depending on what kind of student you are, you might just get accepted to all 3 and then have the pick of the litter.

Again, I lucked out by being accepted to my only choice.  That was dumb on my part.  Don’t repeat my mistake.