Some Alternative Graduate School or Health Care Fields that Sometimes Work for Students Whose Qualifications aren't Quite Good Enough for Pharmacy School, with Links to Websites With Additional Information:
| Occupational Outlook Handbook |
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US Bureau of Labor Site with Info. Not the most focused. |
| Jobs in Chemistry |
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Lots of links to jobs in chemistry |
| Graduate School in Chemistry |
Links to lists of grad schools in:
*Chemistry
*Biochemistry
*Medicinal Chemistry
*Molecular Biology |
*GPA requirements are much lower for chemistry than for pharmacy. (Chemistry majors are few, and big universities like UM or NDSU need grad students to teach undergraduate labs. Thus the demand for chemistry grad students is much higher than the supply.)
* Anybody with a 3.0 GPA can get into a good program.
* While the full chemistry B.S. degreeis preferred, a BA degree is definitely sufficient, and not even that is required. Grad schools very much want our chemistry majors.
*You get paid in chemistry grad school (normally >$20K plus tuition waived), unlike in health professional schools you are paying tuition.
*Typical Ph.D. takes 5 years, a masters 3. |
| Optometry |
OAT: Optometry Admissions Test
Optometry Schools
Optometry Schools 2
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*Depending on the school, average GPA's for 2007 entering classes ranged from 3.20 to 3.67.
*The same classes that prepare for pre-pharmacy work for pre-optometry. Three years is normally enough to cover the classes.
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| Chiropractic |
Chiropractice Colleges
Chiropractice Schools 2
Northwestern College of Chiropractic
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*Average GPA for students admitted to Northwestern is 3.2, much lower than for pharmacy. .
*The same classes that prepare for pre-pharmacy are much more than acceptable for chiropractic school. Three years of college is required. |
| Medical Technology |
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*Professor Kathryn Wise in biosciences is the Med Technology advisor.
*I don't have GPA data, but I know that pre-pharmacy track more than qualifies a student for entrance into med tech programs, and that the GPA requirements for med tech are much lower than for pharmacy. Med tech programs are also shorter.
*There is a nice med tech internship/training program at the local hospitals.
*Medical technology encompasses a host of specialty areas.
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| Nursing |
MSUM Pre-Nursing Program |
MSUM has a strong nursing program. Unfortunately few of the classes that are used towards pre-pharmacy are the same as required by the nursing program. But some can be applied toward other nursing programs. |
AMA Listing of 60 Health Professions,
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*Includes job descriptions, educational requirements, and contact information.
*This list is excellent, although still not comprehensive. (For example, pharmacist is not included...) |
| Listing of 66 Health Care Careers and Income Ranges |
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This provides another nice list of possible careers to pursue. I'm not sure how good the salary data is. Dates vary a lot, and many of the salaries may be misleading (low) because the earnings of part-time workers are included. But the list does provide a nice listing of specialty areas, and of the kind of salaries that are avaiilable. |
