Pharmacy

[nacho]

Hey guys,
my parents are urging/annoying me to change my preferences(pay the late fee) now to something with pharmacy, so then i can go on to pursue medicine and if i don't make it i can just fall back on pharmacy.
To be honest i have no interest at all in pharmacy, and at the moment not really all that inclined to do med/anything, so my plan was to do bcom/bsci next year and see what appeals to me and transfer accordingly.

Isn't pharmacy a dead field? Same with research? So technically there would be nothing to fall back on, right?
Could i get some opinions on this.

Also, what was the umat cutoff for pharmacy at like monash or w/e they offer it.

[dc302]

By dead do you mean in regards to pay? Then probably yes, but I would never call research a 'dead' or useless field. We may have too many pharmacists, but never too many scientists. Also, pharmacy doesn't exactly cover the prereqs of the MD at least, a bsc would be better for that.

You would probably earn more money in commerce unless you had are very business-minded in pharmacy.

[mystikal]

pharmacy is pretty good fall back from medicine, but u still have to do anatomy externally if u want to MD at uni of melb.

pharmacy is pretty crappy job prospects for retail however, still good for research, academia and hospital but hard to get into.

[nacho]

so which would be easier for me to find a job in?
I still like my plan of bsci/bcomm and transfer afterwards better than pharmacy
im not even sure if my umat will cover pharmacy too

[mystikal]

dpeneds what u want to do in commerce as in major, same deal with science. in terms of finding a job pharmacy vs science, pharmacy = better chance of scoring a job in general. commerce/science vs pharmacy depends what field u wanting to go into. why not do pharmacy/bcomm and if u get into med after u finish the pharm part u can drop the commerce part and go straight to med.

[paulsterio]

Nacho, I'd suggest BSc/BComm and make sure you take the right subjects that can land you into Melbourne's MD (otherwise you might find yourself down at Gippsland Monash ) - but anyway, if you don't have an interest in Pharmacy, don't go into it, although we may have too many pharmacists, I don't think that it's dead, I know someone who's a pharmacist and sure the pay isn't great, but it's high enough for comfortable living, so that's sufficient I guess

But the thing is, go with what interests you, the money will come, it's not something to worry about, employment prospects and how enthusiastic you are about a field may be more correct indicators as to whether you should pursue something.

[slothpomba]

If you have no interest in pharmacy, don't do it. It's a no brainer. It's your life and you'll have to deal with the consequences and put up with the horrible years in a course you might not like.

There is a massive oversupply of students and the market for pharmacists is drowing in surplus labour and workers. There's simply more jobs than pharmacists. People get a little desperate and you'll find people who would work for offers or pay they previously would of not considered under the circumstances. This is compounded by the several large pharmacy chains out there who are really in it for maximal profit (recent news stories will show you this). There is no use staying on a burning ship when you're surrounded by water. RMIT is also opening up another pharmacy school, so even more students, near the same amount of jobs.

It's not much of a fall back if you don't want it, don't like it and the job prospects are kinda shady.

Bcom/Bsci (for a year, please do a full year, it'll be worth it) will allow you to see if you're really into academic science or academic type commerce and move around accordingly. A year is nothing. Lots of people i know switched to part time, took a semester off, failed a couple subjects, decided to transfer, ect. A whole shitload of people take longer than their stated duration of their degree, a year is really nothing to find something you like.

Nacho, I'd suggest BSc/BComm and make sure you take the right subjects that can land you into Melbourne's MD (otherwise you might find yourself down at Gippsland Monash )

Or deakin geelong.