Anyone applied to RGU or Strathclyde for Pharmacy?

Yeah i got an unconditional from RGU for pharmacy today

haha thanks yeah i think so, but im going to wait until i hear from the other universities! 5B's in maths, english, biology, chemistry and physics. so where else have you applied?

Congratulations. If you firm RGU then I think you might be the first cohort to graduate from the new school of pharmacy if construction stays roughly on target. They've just cleared the land at Garthdee to begin laying foundations.

Hey, carponester

How is your application for medicine going? So far, I have had a rejection from dundee. Was surprised, but I don't even know what they are exactly looking for. I know that you also got a rejection from dundee. Have you heard from anywhere else.

If I do not get into medicine this year, I will probably do pharmacy. Are you in your last year of a pharmacy degree? What is the final year project like in rgu for pharmacy?

haha thanks yeah i think so, but im going to wait until i hear from the other universities! 5B's in maths, english, biology, chemistry and physics. so where else have you applied?

Hey, I have applied to Glasgow uni: Medicinal Chem (gt a unconditional yesterday
Strathclyde: biomed (imuno nd pharmacology), pharm and chem with drug discovery
RGU: pharm

When did you send off your application? I sent mines around nov/dec can't really remember :/

Congratulations. If you firm RGU then I think you might be the first cohort to graduate from the new school of pharmacy if construction stays roughly on target. They've just cleared the land at Garthdee to begin laying foundations.

Thanks when do you think the new school will be ready to be used?

Taking the usual delays etc into account I'd say pharmacy will make the move to the new building in 2014/15 - basically your final year all going well. Here is a link to the plans for the new school if you're interested.

All the best.

Taking the usual delays etc into account I'd say pharmacy will make the move to the new building in 2014/15 - basically your final year all going well. Here is a link to the plans for the new school if you're interested.

All the best.

Wow that's really interesting.

I was wondering what the Clinical Pharmacy is like? Is it quite fun? Do you get to use the Clinical Skills room??

Hello.

Heard nothing from my other three choices. I expect a rejection from Glasgow due to my UKCAT (looks like 650 hasn't cut the mustard this year for an interview!) and I suspect Aberdeen and Cardiff are beginning to wind down their admissions cycle. Every day that passes makes an interview less and less likely for myself. Worst comes to the worst I'll reapply. Applying for deferred entry was a long shot anyway, so at least I'll get feedback from four universities and now know the importance of the UKCAT! What about your other medicine choices?

Yeah, final semester of MPharm now. Can't quite believe how quickly it has passed to be honest! I did a medicinal chemistry/microbiology project. Spent about 3.5 weeks in the chemistry labs synthesising a number of pharmacophoric derivatives intended as novel antimicrobial agents (containing a five membered thiazole ring) and then after confirming their structure by standard techniques (e.g., FTIR, H-NMR, LCMS etc) I did a bit of in vitro testing against some common pathogenic bacteria for the remaining week and a half.

I enjoyed it mate, thesis write up was made easier by the fact it was interesting. I know a lot of people who did lab based projects and quite a few who chose to do a social/educational project consisting of questionnaires and focus groups. I think the overwhelming feeling is that lab projects are the way to go. Only downside is in labs you are worked like a trojan for five weeks while some of your peers get five weeks off!

If you want more info then PM me. I'd be happy to explain the different research areas within the school in a bit more detail.

Hey,

I only applied to three medicine choices, as my ukcat was quite low. Dundee rejected me, but I have still to hear back from Aberdeen and southampton uni. I hope that I get at least one offer, as I really want to study medicine.If not, then pharmacy it is for me.

Was the lab work in your final year quite difficult? Also, what is your supervisor like? Was he really helpful and involved in your project?

Also, I wanted to ask if doing a lab based project makes a difference when applying to community pharmacy jobs or hospital pharmacy jobs, or is any type of project sufficient?

Thanks.

Oh well done! which is your first choice? i sent off my application on the 7th December, and i applied for pharmacy at Strathclyde and RGU, pharmacology at Aberdeen ( got a conditional of 2b's in my advanced highers yesterday ) and Dundee, and biochemistry at St Andrews.. id say you will get a reply pretty soon from RGU! What did you get in your highers?

Yeah its good - much better than formulation science anyway. If you're interested in industrial pharmacy I'd advise you apply to/accept Strathclyde University.

Not sure what you mean by fun to be honest mate... I'm not exactly sitting having a joke and a giggle when reading through a patients notes or anything like that but yeah - it is interesting and relevant, which makes it worthwhile doing. Clinical modules begin in earnest from 2nd your onwards where you'll undertake a combination of systems and specialty based approach. When I went through uni we did,

2nd Year
Autonomic nervous system
Central nervous system
Mental disorders
Cardiovascular
Renal

3rd Year
Infection (all systems covered)
Endocrinology
Musculoskeletal
Oncology (with specific reference to solid tumours and lymphoma)
Haematology (pretty basic - covered the different anaemias)
Immunology
Respiratory
Gastrointestinal
Central nervous system

Of course, topics frequently overlap and we had a very healthy dosing of pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring tossed in throughout. I think the order you do topics is being tweaked a little so not sure how they'll be ordered now. Suffice to say, we do a lot of the bread and butter topics such as cardio, renal and endocrine etc. Fourth year is when you consolidate your clinical learning with a combination of placements in primary and secondary care, case presentations, tutorials, prescribing modules and lots of PBL in the background. We get six PBL cases a semester that run in the background to normal lectures and learning etc...

As for the care centre, you use it throughout the course for various activities. All the dispensing and prescribing practicals run in there plus you use it for case studies, talking to simulated patients (basically actors) and various other stuff. I guess it's pretty cool... There is a fully stocked Rowlands pharmacy in there, so it is a good chance to get used to some of the OTC products on offer from community.

Hope this post is satisfactory.

Cool. Yeah, the wait is horrendous. I've all but resigned myself to having to reapply next year, which will be a pain seeing as i'll be a pre-registration pharmacist down in Cambridge! . Getting time off will not be easy.

Nah, mine was bucket chemistry. Quite easy to pick up. You must remember that you are in labs throughout the course so what you do in your fourth year project and the techniques you employ will not be completely alien. My supervisor is really decent yeah, got pretty lucky. He took more of a backseat in mine and let me get on with it. I preferred this.

It makes absolutely no difference man. It would only make a difference if you had aspirations to undertake a PHD, in which case your project title would probably need to be at least a little relevant. I'm aware some schools of pharmacy offer social pharmacy PHD's, in which case It'd be desirable to do one of the other types of project.

Do you get to interact with patients? Do you not meet up with other healthcare-related courses and do scenarios with each other and teamwork things?

Yes. You meet a mixture of actors and real patients throughout the MPharm course. I was in a residential home not long ago talking about arthritis with an old lady. You get the idea.

Yeah, we had interprofessional education (IPE) days in 1st and 2nd year but didn't have any during 3rd year because the medics changed their curriculum or something to that effect. I'm pretty sure I'm going down to Edinburgh for a day next month to do some IPE down there also.

To be honest though, there isn't all that much of it and it's not as useful as you might think. In fact, during first year we just used it as an excuse to get to know each other before a night out in Pearl Lounge.

Thanks. Yeah, I guess it would be difficult for you if you applied next year, seeing as you will be starting your pre-registration. Good luck in getting in this year.

Cool. I actually thought that it was necessary to take a lab based project in pharmacy, but I guess that is not the case from what you say. In RGU, are you actually allowed to have a look at other people's projects to get an idea of what they have done? I know that in a lot of universities, they have a database of previous projects carried out by pharmacy students.

Also, I wanted to ask you an important question regarding actually getting to RGU. Is it possible to travel from Glasgow directly to the university or would that just be crazy, as I think that it would take roughly 2-3 hours getting there and the same returning back. Or would it just be better to get accommodation close to the university?