(Disclaimer) The following advice in sections "Getting into a Pharm.D. program" and "Getting through the PGY-1 residency & 
Applying for a Post-Doc fellowship" is my personal guidance and does not represent any particular school, institution, or entity
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- Preparing your application for a Pharm.D. program in the U.S. requires careful planning at least 1 year before applying.  

- You'll need to consider who you choose to be your Letter of Recommendation authors (e.g., previous professor),  where you would consider living during the 3-4 year pharmacy school experience, and your academic record, just to name a few.

- Your academic record (e.g., GPA) is very important. Consider (1) who will be the other applicants for pharmacy school and also (2) what the school's admission board needs in their student body. In other words, pharmacy school will be an academically heavy program for 3-4 years and someone's study habits (and how they have balanced their "personal life" and "academic life") are partially reflected in their grades. This gives others an impression of how well the applicant will perform in the pharmacy school program.

- One important factor to consider is "What is the Return on Investment (ROI) in pursuing a Pharm.D." This can be partially answered in this article published in March 2026, mentioning a 68% cost-adjusted return, placing the degree below an M.D. degree (173%) and above a J.D. law degree (41%). Article link: Do Graduate Degrees Pay Off? — PEER Center

Getting through the PGY-1 residency & Applying for a Post-Doc fellowship 

- The residency experience is challenging but fulfilling. For me, it was a year of intense learning from my preceptors, communicating and working with patients and the hospital staff, preparing my research project, performing staff duty as an inpatient pharmacist, and tons of reading. Managing your time, between the residency activities and everything else in life, is not easy but the lessons learned carry forward throughout your career. I learned to be more efficient. 

- A typical day for me in the ICU was to obtain and understand the patient histories, diagnoses, meds/labs and the reason they were admitted into the ward, before morning rounds began with the team. The latter consisted of the attending physician, medical residents & students, nurses and a social worker (in some cases). I'd monitor the patients throughout the day and continue to review their charts. Oftentimes, the physicians would ask me for evidence-based recommendations to help treat a condition with medication, which at times would involve digging into treatment guidelines and peer-reviewed journal articles. This is an optimal time to get to know the team, establish good rapport, and earn their trust. 

- Sometimes, the optimal solution to treat a patient is not plain in sight and that is ok. This is why we worked as a team to solve the problem. It's important to take a step back, every few days, and reflect on the current experience and understand that a resident has many responsibilities, yet is still in a pivotal learning mode. This is why we have preceptors who have a great deal of experience and knowledge to learn from.