Argh.. what should I do? (1 Viewer)

[Tim035]

It took 2 years but I've finally made up my mind that I want to be a pharmacist. I could've done so from the start (96.5 UAI), which is probably the most frustrating thing in this ordeal but never mind..
My position right now is- Final year Bachelor of Medical Science, with a WAM of 82.75 / GPA of 6.1, I didn't sit the GAMSAT this year and doubt I could gather together the finances to go do a Master of Pharmacy at The University of Newcastle. Unfortuantely the government won't support me as apparently my Dad earning $60k a year is above their parental wage limit and he is expected to support me (and my 4 other sibblings) until the age of 25.

The only options I can really see are:
- Do honors next year, sit the GAMSAT, 'hopefully' get into Masters of Pharmacy at Usyd and add an extra year on to how long I'm at uni
- Try to get a years internship with a pharmaceutical or biotech company, which would actually be fantastic but I think the reality of my chances of this occuring are <0.1%
- Work full time in an unrelated job next year, sit GAMSAT and 'hopefully' get into masters of pharmacy at Usyd, or failing this, hopefully now have enough money saved to go live in Newcastle for 2 years whilst I do a Master of Pharmacy there.
- Apply for undergraduate pharm and hope I can get exemption from a decent amount of subjects as I'm majoring in pharmacology atm (highly, highly unlikely I would think).

 

[xxstef]

since youre in your final yr of medsci, why dont you just finish your degree first?

 

[lilly1988]

Hi Tim,

Sorry, I can only offer information on part of your dilemma...I have a couple of friends who did two years of pharmacology before transferring to pharmacy at USYD, and they get credit for 3-4 subjects in first year, and a few in second year, but it still takes the full four years for them to get a degree, as there are pharmacy subjects that have to be done in order.

If you took next year off and worked for a year, you could earn enough money to be considered independent by Centrelink (you have to earn about $18,000 in 18 months), so they would give you ~$120 a week if you lived at home and a little over $200 a week if you need to live away from home to study (for instance, if you go to Newcastle). I guess you'd have to consider the difficulties of getting a job in the current economic climate, though.

University of Canberra also offers a M. Pharm that doesn't consider GAMSAT for entry, although the cost of living in Canberra is quite high.

 

[Hakz]

It took 2 years but I've finally made up my mind that I want to be a pharmacist. I could've done so from the start (96.5 UAI), which is probably the most frustrating thing in this ordeal but never mind..
My position right now is- Final year Bachelor of Medical Science, with a WAM of 82.75 / GPA of 6.1, I didn't sit the GAMSAT this year and doubt I could gather together the finances to go do a Master of Pharmacy at The University of Newcastle. Unfortuantely the government won't support me as apparently my Dad earning $60k a year is above their parental wage limit and he is expected to support me (and my 4 other sibblings) until the age of 25.

The only options I can really see are:
- Do honors next year, sit the GAMSAT, 'hopefully' get into Masters of Pharmacy at Usyd and add an extra year on to how long I'm at uni
- Try to get a years internship with a pharmaceutical or biotech company, which would actually be fantastic but I think the reality of my chances of this occuring are <0.1%
- Work full time in an unrelated job next year, sit GAMSAT and 'hopefully' get into masters of pharmacy at Usyd, or failing this, hopefully now have enough money saved to go live in Newcastle for 2 years whilst I do a Master of Pharmacy there.
- Apply for undergraduate pharm and hope I can get exemption from a decent amount of subjects as I'm majoring in pharmacology atm (highly, highly unlikely I would think).

I reckon you should get married and you can gain extra benfits ($$) and that will help you finance uni.

Im not making this up either it was on the news "uni students getting married to cut uni costs"

 

[funkapunka]

Hard to know what you want when you get out of high school..you think you took a while to decide? I originally got accepted into BPharm, but in another state, so chose to do science in Melb, went on to do honours, followed by a PhD (8 years in total). Ended up working for the best part of a year and a half, and have now decided I want to do Pharmacy. So now heading off to do Masters in Pharm in Canberra in July....if you decide that's what you want to do, then do it - I also can't get any centrelink help, so just gonna have to tough it out for a couple of years.....

 

[Tim035]

Hard to know what you want when you get out of high school..you think you took a while to decide? I originally got accepted into BPharm, but in another state, so chose to do science in Melb, went on to do honours, followed by a PhD (8 years in total). Ended up working for the best part of a year and a half, and have now decided I want to do Pharmacy. So now heading off to do Masters in Pharm in Canberra in July....if you decide that's what you want to do, then do it - I also can't get any centrelink help, so just gonna have to tough it out for a couple of years.....

What was the issue after your PhD, just really over research? Crappy pay? Long hours?
I'm contemplating doing honors now just to 'fill the gap' next year, as the careers advisor basically told me I was fuct for getting a job as I havn't done any extra curricular activities lol!

Canberra uni has mid year entry for their master of pharm? That's interesting...

 

[funkapunka]

Research is great...but it's a tiring process... There's a constant need to prove yourself. I thought it was over after the PhD, but then you have to once again get results, publish and prove yourself to get grants. Don't get me wrong, academia is great cos it offers great flexibility, the pay's pretty good, but hours can be long, and you tend to no be able to switch off when you go home - which I don't want when I start a family, hence the career change.

Honours is useful as a backup, cos without honours, it's hard to even get an Research Assistant job, because honours shows you have some semblence of hands on lab experience.

Lol..canberra uni is ONLY mid year entry....I think one of the uni's in WA is mid year too, the rest are semester 1 entry.

 

[lala2]

Apart from applying for undergrad pharm, all the other options mean you're going to have to waste a year anyway before entering pharm. I'd say do Honours, that makes you more competitive should you fail to get into pharm. In fact, why don't you combine all three? i.e. apply for Honours and fulltime work with pharmaceutical companies. Should you fail to get into either (though I don't know how you'd fail to get into Honours with that WAM), you've got the backup plan of the other.

If it ends up you're working fulltime next year, I don't know how strongly you feel about pharm that you'd want to get as much pharm experience as possible before starting, but I'd recommend doing something completely unrelated to pharm. You're still young, and you've got the rest of your life to work in pharmacy. Work a fun job (that ideally pays well too) and make the most of your year off.