Now I realize there was a pretty severe shortage several years ago. I also realize that as the Baby Boomer generation ages, there will be an increasing demand for medical professionals and that it is best to be prepared for this situation.
Yet one must also remember that it is not always wise to admit just anyone to a program and there there must be some level of high standards maintained.
Often you hear x number of students applied for y number of spots and how terrible there is such a discrepancy in the numbers. Those two numbers don't tell the whole story however. I'll use an example one of the AdCom members of a school I applied to explained to me when I asked how viable applicants usually are.
In 2008 this school had about 1,300 applicants for 145 spots. That looks like one helluva gap, no?
There is more to it than that. Of those 1,300, only about 850 actually fully completed the application. Of those 850, only about 500 actually met the requirements for the school. And of those 500, only 350 had grades and PCAT scores which really made them competitive. Thus, you only had 350 individuals fighting for 145 spots.
Boy, that sure makes a helluva difference doesn't it?
A few weeks back I was informed that the University of South Florida will be starting a pharmacy school for the 2011 school year. Nothing to out of the ordinary, except within six years they plan to have 400 students... per class.
One of the ways this is being justified is with 'facts' like this:
UF receives some 2,000 applications a year for a program that accepts only 300. Florida A&M receives 1,200 applications and accepts only 150 annually. Source: TBO.comWhat they neglect to mention is how many of those applications are actually worthy of being admitted to the program. Sure, a school may have 10,000 applicants, but 9,500 of them couldn't tell the difference between a Diels-Alder reaction and a potato chip.
The odd thing is when you take a stats class you are taught repeatedly that numbers mean nothing unless you know the full story behind them. Often numbers are routinely thrown out but with no indication of where they were derived and what they truly mean. This is a prime example of this.
In today's media, and to certain extent our government, no one considers this. Right now it's More! More! MORE! It's not that USF opening a school is bad in itself, but it is that the whole idea behind it is poorly thought out.
I do not wish to see this profession watered down for the sake of having more bodies for jobs. This isn't like pumping out a cashier to run more registers, there has to be high standards involved to ensure that there are quality pharmacists out there.
Then again I'm using logic... and we all know most people don't use logic. Where's Spock when you need him...
4 comments:
Amen. To the whole post. My class started out with 80 students. By the time I graduated, the entering student class was 120. The instructors were beyond pissed. Faculty had been cut, yet student numbers were increasing (due to demand - yada, yada, yada). They had no desire to grade more papers, of course. Can't blame them. The funny part is that the school itself wasn't pushing for more numbers. It was some dumbass legislator. I'd grown close to some faculty members, and I felt horrible that their workload was increasing while the legislators/dean took the glory. Oh - and last year a 2nd pharmacy school opened in the state. Only 1 hour away from my alma mater. So much for job security, huh?
I'm glad I was reading your post tonight. I'm planning on going to pharm school and everything in my state is too far away from me UNTIL I read your statement about USF opening one up. Holy crap, what a God send! Thank you so much! (I do understand your complaint though lol)
Did you not write some high and mighty blog entry when you were struggeling to be accepted into pharmacy school, how they should let some of those lesser students in? That faculty members and pharmacists were begging for average students to be let in? Would this not allow for some students like yourself with so-so grades to get into a program and then you would have the pharmacists that the profession needs? I guess now that you have been accepted, you don't want to water down the high marks that you were so ferverently whining about having to meet and really didn't but did some how get in. This is the most obnoxious argument I have ever heard. For you to dog on the members of the profession you so wanted to be a part of and now that you are in you want to do the same thing back. I for one do not want to see my profession watered down anymore than it is, but the Pharm School I attented still gets it right, they keep their admissions criteria nice and tight, you need at least a 3.5 GPA from a good school with a science backround to get in. And my class had very few problems in working with patients, communicating complex information in patient specific language, working closely with the medical teams in our area hospitals. I have a suggestion, you still have a long way to go, working in a retail pharmacy is nothing like getting through your last 2-3 years of pharm school so get off your high horse.
Disconcerted - You're missing the point. I'm not talking about people in my situation. I'm talking about schools admitting people who have vastly inferior resumes than myself.
For instance I know of one new school where they accepted a student who failed Orgo four times. Four times.
Or another that accepted a student with a PCAT in the 30s and a GPA at 2.4.
Sure your pharm school gets it right, as does mine, but many of the newer ones do not. There are several diploma mills in the country just churning out students for the sake of doing so.
That is the point I was trying to make.
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