Did you work as a RPh while in med school?
How did you pay for it? Did student loans cover tuition, etc for undergrad, pharmacy, and med school?
Worked as a per diem pharmacist in a hospital. Would basically arrange schedule around tests - was not overly burdensome. I think I averaged four 8hr shifts a month. More when I was on lighter blocks in school.
Essentially took out loans to pay for tuition but paid my living expenses with my job.
Why not goto to medical school initially?
I basically decided very early in life to go to pharmacy school. Had some exposure to pharmacy while in high school and decided to pursue a 6 year program. Had some people drop out of my pharm class to go to med school, but they all ended up taking a gap year to build up their applications. So I figured it would make more sense to stay in the program and get the PharmD, rather than drop out halfway through and have nothing to show for it.
holy ****. Where you loans above $1 million?
Thankfully its not that bad at all. Got very lucky and went to a public school for both pharmacy and medicine. Also had a good combination of generous parents + scholarship + solid job as a pharmacy tech that I maintained throughout pharm school. Ended up with 40k after pharmacy school. Med school was much more loan heavy (parents were basically like - 'this is crazy and its on you', which is fair) and I ended up with a total of 200k. Could certainly be better, but I know that it can definitely be much much worse. My current plan is to attempt to pay off my loans in 2-3 years after starting my first attending job - will see how that works.
We had one guy who did that. Finished pharmacy school and went straight to med school.
I have often wondered about one thing. Schools that require BS/ BA degree, would they waive the requirement if you have PharmD but don’t have baccalaureate from undergrad?
Most of the schools I applied to actually list PharmD as an acceptable prerequisite degree on their websites. Was only an issue at Jefferson, where I was told that I should 'go to my pharm school and ask if they can give me a bachelor degree'. I proceeded to laugh my head off and took them off my application.
Out of the ears, nose, and throat which is your favorite, and why?
Nose! Sinus surgery is very very fun. Its essentially a video game where you control your view with one hand and instrument with the other. For an even better video game comparison you can even add the fact that it has inverted controls - I have to pull the camera down to look up. But on a more serious note sinus anatomy is complex and the relationship of the sinuses to the orbits and anterior skull base is absolutely amazing. I will be doing a one year fellowship after graduation where I will be learning how to do complex sinus and anterior skull base procedures. The simplest and most common example of this is pituitary surgery where ENT creates a surgical conduit through the nose that then allows the neurosurgeon to remove the tumor. The ENT then does the reconstruction of the surgical site, which often involves sealing up a CSF leak.
I applaud the discipline it takes to do that and delaying life gratification even further.
Curious what your student loan total is?
If you had a do-over - would you still pursue medical school?
I honestly didnt see it as delayed life gratification. I just got to the point where I realized I would forever regret it if I didnt at least try to apply to medical school. And once I was there the decision was easy. Plus I honestly dont feel like ive sacrificed THAT much. School and residency is busy, but there is enough time to enjoy life. Despite the long hours I do feel like I spend a good amount of time with my wife, my family, and my friends. Its not as much as others, but its way more than I expected and it doesnt feel like Im always missing everything.
I think I would probably still do medicine. When I was still a pharmacy student almost every doctor I asked told me not to go to medical school (except an ENT ironically enough). I was told that everything becomes a job after a while. And you dont believe it because you have this naive passion - but its honestly true. The thrill of things fade and the administrative BS creeps up and it is most definitely a job a lot of the time. But I honestly love the patient interactions: I love having a patient in clinic tell me that they want me there for their surgery because they trust me; I love telling a worried family member that everything went ok in the OR; I love having frank discussions of risks/benefits/alternatives and truly explaining to the patient what their diagnosis is and what the next steps are. Its immensely satisfying and (almost) always makes the job worth it. I recognize that going to medical school is not necessary to obtain a similar kind of satisfaction - I am certain that there plenty of other healthcare careers out there that give you the same kind of satisfaction. But I think medicine and particularly a surgical subspecialty such as ENT is a good fit for me.
