Imagine that crowded and bustling organization fair at the beginning of each semester. There is likely a wide range of different pre-health professional organizations or even specifically a pre-pharmacy club table vying for your time and membership. There’s really a lot out there so how do you choose?

Or perhaps…

You may have strolled through that fair and thought something along the lines of…

“Hey I know all about applying for pharmacy school and I got a pretty good handle on the PCAT so I don’t need those meetings and membership fees, right?!”

…but let’s take a closer look, shall we?

 

 

Gaining Relevant Experience

Simply putting down on your resume that you were a part of some pre-pharmacy society isn’t much help but there are plenty of ways to get involved in events and programs put on by the organization. Pre-pharm clubs offer a wide range of opportunities to be proactive in bettering yourself through things such as mentoring programs or gaining experience volunteering in the pharmacy world.

Make the most of your time and membership fees frankly and get involved!

 

Leadership Opportunities

Within the ranks of the organization you can lead peers and drive the organization to success.

Taking on a leadership role can be challenging but you gain the very valuable skills for a future in pharmacy like communication, negotiating, and problem solving just name a few. Besides leadership positions always look great on a resume. Taking the lead and the subsequent skills gained are extremely beneficial for a future pharm professional.

 

Access to Resources

These organizations have resources you may not even be aware exist and in order to take advantage of them you have to be in the know!

One of the perks of a pre-pharmacy organization is that school representatives from the different pharmacy programs will schedule more visits should they anticipate an audience of pre-pharm students. That means clubs will host these representatives to come and talk to the group and answer any specific questions or even host a whole panel of representatives to speak!

 

Figure Out Exactly What You’re Doing

Clinical Pharmacy, Pharmacoepidemiology, and Pharmacoeconomics, OH MY!

So what exactly are all the specializations and what is it exactly you want to do? Student orgs may bring in a wide range of people in the pharmacy profession to talk on what they do and offer advice and help you discover exactly what you’d like to do someday!

 

Misery Loves Company

You’ll meet other pre-pharm hopefuls to share the woes of preparing for pharmacy school. With everything from the PharmCAS, the PCAT, letters of recommendation, etc. making connections with fellow students that know exactly what you’re going through can be both comforting and helpful! You can even share your wisdom about how great PCAT Cracker is! 🙂

 

In review, pre-pharmacy clubs can offer many benefits helping members stay on the track with things like career panels and mentoring programs just to name a few!

So why would you want to join? The better question is why not?