Why I chose Pharmacy and tips for university students

My name is Wahab Akbar and I am a second-year Pharmacy student at UCL.

At first, ‘I wanted to become a Medical Doctor.’ My parents really wanted me to become a doctor. From a very young age they would urge me to work really hard in my exams so I could get into Medical School. Over time, as people asked me what I wanted to pursue in the future, I had an automatic response of ‘I want to become a Doctor.’ Then I started pursuing work experience in healthcare roles and taking part in medical events - this gave me the opportunity to realise if I actually wanted to become a Doctor. I worked in a care home, volunteered at a hospital and read a few medical books. During this time, I realised that I liked helping people, helping people in general does give a great feeling, but does it have to be done through becoming a Medical Doctor? Of course not, there are many other ways of helping others. After lots of thought, I realised that Medicine wasn’t the career I wanted to pursue, simply due to the workload and time period and knowing that I can find a different career where I can help others and also have a good work-life balance.

At college, I studied A-Level Chemistry, Biology and Economics. Chemistry was my favourite; I liked revising for it. I always looked forward to Chemistry lessons and it’s also the subject in which I got the highest grade in. Economics was very interesting, but wasn’t something I wanted to pursue as a degree. Biology was a subject where I’d memorise the content and then answer questions on it. It was interesting, but I wasn’t excited for it as much as Chemistry. Therefore, Chemistry was what I wanted to learn more of and its application of knowledge is what fascinated me - how simple yet complex substances have substantial impact on people’s lives. So I chose a degree that combined my interest for Chemistry and helping people - Pharmacy. I’m not sure as to what I want to do after Pharmacy but the beauty behind Pharmacy is that it gives many options which include: community, hospital, industry, academia and working with regulatory bodies. I plan on getting experience in different fields to see what I’m attracted to the most. In my first-year of pharmacy, I was surprised with the amount of Biology that we had to learn, I understand we need to learn about the human body to understand the effect of chemicals but sometimes I feel like we learn more than necessary - that’s just my opinion though.

When I told my parents about the change, they were very supportive and happy with my decision. I do believe that there are many students who go through the same experience as me and I encourage you to pursue what interests you, whether that be health-care related or not. So far, first year of Pharmacy has been interesting yet difficult, it was a very big jump from A-Level but apparently every year gets more difficult. I wasn’t prepared for the workload and so I wasn’t organised for first year, but I’ll take this as a lesson for second year. I am very excited with second-year unfolding, I just need to make sure I stay on top of all the work. I think that this is a great tip for incoming students in general, to be organised. I would also recommend that you become, what I call, ‘more than a student’ - take part in societies, extra-curricular activities and other opportunities. Get out of your comfort zone to improve your skills, develop your character and network with people, this cannot be done by just attending lectures. I’ve been trying to grab opportunities that come my way and I ask myself, ‘if I don’t do this, will I regret it?’ - I’ve applied the same principle to writing this post after a friend suggested it to me. Now, I’m a research associate at the PharmaFeed, part of PharmAlliance, a Student Ambassador, part of the MMA club and Basketball team. I try to meet as many people as possible and I encourage you to also to make the most out of University.