In my opinion, guidance counselors commonly come in late when there is a shortage and stay too long when the supply is filled. Ask any nurse about this. On the point of pharmacy, has anyone looked at the pharmacy pipeline? When the current crop of students graduate will there be jobs for them.
How much longer should we push large numbers of students into pharmacy? When the pharmacy career door shuts, in what I suspect is the not to distant future, the guidance counselors will discourage students from the career and the numbers of chemistry and biochemistry majors will nosedive. We will do what we always do and panic.
This is a normal market cycle, but we should be preparing for it, since in the current funding climate declining enrollment could also mean that shrinking C&B programs get closed.
T.S. Hall
When I was in high school and asked my chemistry instructor what I could do with a chemistry degree, he said pharmacy school. He also said and I'm not kidding, "I've been kicking myself in the butt ever since I didn't go." I went as a pre-pharmacy student to college but then decided I really didn't like the thought of being a pharmacist. Now I'm trying to get a PhD and dealing with the incredibly crammed pipeline of PhD students. I think pharmacy has a ways to go before getting remotely as bad as the PhD route. With Pfizer's dealings I'm looking at a very bleak job outlook through 2012 (patent expirations). So to anyone considering pharmacy, it may actually be a more secure choice still.
ReplyDeleteIn light of Derek's and Science's posting on this Rutgers study, I think a follow up on this post is needed. Since Science is facing a current surplus of doctoral candidates, what should pharmacy do to avoid this fate?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.heldrich.rutgers.edu/uploadedFiles/Publications/STEM_Paper_Final.pdf