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White Coat Ceremony

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While in my absence, I have recieved this email from a student at the University of the Pacific.

TAP,
First off, I love your site. Since you hate things that are retarded, I figured that you would like to hear about this “White Coat Ceremony” that we had at the University of the Pacific ( http://www.uop.edu). It took place a few Monday’s ago during lunch (so those who actually work for a living couldnt attend)
I started pharmacy school in the fall, we haven’t even had our first round of midterms yet and we are expected to go to this utterly retarded ceremony.
So we are expected to dress formally, shirt and ties for guys, dresses for the not-guys. They have this outdoor thing all setup like graduation or something. We stand in single file line and are lead in. The professors stand there and talk about how special we all are, and how wonderful the alumni are for donating money so they could put this on. If it wasn’t for them we could not do this, blah blah blah. The Dean comes and says the line “You are no longer studying for yourself, but studying for your patients”. Then we get our name announced as we walk up there in front of everyone and get this nice white labcoat placed upon us by the faculity. They then give us an Rx pin that stands for “Loyality, Dedication, Honor, Commitment, Trust and the American Way”. You know, stuff like Captain Planet or Captain America would say. Then we get lead down to the dean whom we have to shake hands with while holding a copy of the “Pharmacists Oath”. The ceremony finishes off with more talk about how wonderful the Alumni are for donating money to put this on, etc.
I feel dirty wearing this white coat.

Ah, private schools. The only place where the staff preach about how to work in retail despite them not actually working in retail for 10 years. Where the students sit there and masturbate to their reflection in the mirror of how great they are compared to students who go to a public school. Hate to tell you, but all of our licenses are the same color, and we all get treated the same after you’re done. We all have to pass the same test be it your school cost 50 or 5000 dollars.
I do find it funny that it took place on a Monday. The historic busiest day for pharmacies across the country during one of the busiest times of the day. Maybe they didn’t want the alumni to come (because it sounds like they are /so/ important) to see what a utter fucking waste of their hard-earned donated money this is.
I hate “feel good” ceremonies. My “White Coat Ceremony” was a fucking banquet table out in front of the classroom building with a sign that said “Lab Coats: $15”. It was even wrapped in fucking plastic. What does UOP hope to accomplish with bullshit like this? To get some poor kids hopes up to have them fail the first round of midterms and fail out of school? “Thanks for the memories, heres your white coat to symbolize what a fucking failure you are. Please donate so we can do this next year”.
However lets look deeper at how completely stupid this whole auto-masturbation ceremony that UOP did. If I were a fucking alumni, I wouldn’t give a fucking dime to UOP because I know they are just going to piss it away on fucking stupid shit like this instead of doing something that will actually /help/ the students (classroom supplies, new white lines in the parking lot, blowjobs during finals, etc). I dont even see the purpose of this ceremony, why waste the money on it? To make the students feel better about themselves? I’m sorry, but if you dont feel good about yourself going into pharmacy school, then get the fuck out and make room for someone who doesn’t need a fucking hug and their asshole wiped by the faculty to make them feel “at home”.
Plus whats this “No longer studying for yourself but for your patients” bullshit. I am studying for myself because I /want/ to be a good pharmacist and I /want/ to succeed and I /want/ to be the best that I can be. Making yourself a good pharmacist will directly benefit your patients. You will be more inclined to do it for yourself vs waking up one morning and realizing that you put up with years of college for some unwashed asshole to sit there and yell at you because the doctor hasn’t auth’d an early refill on his soma.
The pin itself is what kills me. It stands for Truth, Justice and the American Way. The submitter was right, it was like fucking Captain America is going to go bash all the crackheads in the face with his Shield of Justice as all the poor folk get their antibiotics. This whole email was so over the top I cant even put it into words how disgusted I am that a school would be doing this. Its a fucking school, you go there to learn. I bet that UOP would even gladly hand you a big fucking F in a class and watch how feel-good you are when you shove that up your white-coat ceremony.
Just more examples as how this website should be on every pharmacy school’s website to let them know what the profession is really like. I thought I had the wool pulled over my eyes, UOP takes the fucking cake. If you are a student at UOP, please comment and tell me that this email was just an over exaggeration and shit like this didnt really happen. Then tell your classmates to join my Facebook Group because only one fucking student at UOP is with the program at this point.
I should fly out and teach a class there.

Comments #

Comment by Pharmacy Dick on 2007-10-20 14:54:04 -0700 #

TAP,
Yeah, Butler University has the same bullshit White Coat thingy. They started doing it a year or so after I graduated, and I laughed at the donation letter they sent to me. WTF is up with these schools having bullshit ceremonies like these. As far as where you graduate from, TAP, you are so right. It’s all the same state license, folks. No employer is going to look to see what university you went to, or even what grades you got in school. It’s usually whether you have a license, and a good personality. Nuff said.

Comment by FirstYear on 2007-10-20 15:01:48 -0700 #

I go to a pharmacy school in Canada, and we had a big ol White Coat ceremony too. Ours was at night though and we had to RSVP and everything. Order our coat sizes ahead of time etc. Big fancy room, about 12 speakers from the College, pharmacies, etc. We also had to file up and stand in a line while one of the speakers put our coats ON us. Then we all said the Pharmacist Oath or something together as a big happy family. Afterwards at the reception, many people proceeded to get drunk on the free wine. Everything but the last part felt like a huge waste of time. At least ours was the day AFTER our first midterm… not that that made it any more useful!

Comment by pharmacykate on 2007-10-20 15:10:40 -0700 #

ATP,
you forgot to mention another nice thing that school could pay for- lube for when exams rape you in the ass.
While I do think that the White Coat ceremony can be neat if done well,I always enjoy reading your angry rants.

Comment by Stlcop_Andrew on 2007-10-20 15:38:14 -0700 #

Our white coat ceremony is at the beginning of the third year. Third year is the year that transfers are allowed so they get their white coat before they ever even attend a class. Pretty much the same scenerio except we had to recite the oath aloud then walk across the stage and then sign our names on this big piece of cardboard that had the oath on it. I feel like my soul was signed away. Also ours was not paid for by alumni but instead by a major retail pharmacy chain, aka Walgreens.

Comment by Rebecca on 2007-10-20 16:19:53 -0700 #

i hate to admit this – but i went to a public university and we had a white coat ceremony, also. it was rushed and i felt like they were “selling” the professionalism of the occupation to me. too bad the rest of society doesn’t feel that way.

Comment by Shera on 2007-10-20 16:34:24 -0700 #

oh amen…white coat ceremonies are completely useless…total waste of #1 Time and #2 money

Comment by Brandon on 2007-10-20 17:00:11 -0700 #

STLCOP is the exact same way – we had the same bogus ceremony that was REQUIRED. We got our white coats, recited the ‘pledge of professionalism’ and even had to sign a 4 foot by 5 foot poster that hangs outside of the Dean’s office along with each other year’s poster.
I signed mine with a huge heart over my name because I care…

Comment by kgard on 2007-10-20 17:33:22 -0700 #

MCP – Boston does this too…WASTE!

Comment by C. Diane on 2007-10-20 19:20:16 -0700 #

Hey, TAP, I went to a public pharmacy school (U of North Carolina), and we had a bullshit white coat ceremony, too. It wasn’t till our 3rd year, though, so we got these identical coats with the school logo blazoned on the chest (so anyone who ran into us on our rotations would know to run the other direction, perhaps?)
On the topic of “not getting paid enough to do this,” I had a girl throw her damn Zithromax at me because she didn’t want to do DOT like a good girl. Seriously.

Comment by liz on 2007-10-20 20:01:02 -0700 #

I did go to a private pharm school but this is the norm at ALL pharm schools now. Everyone that I know whether private or public gets to have the ceremony. At least we got food at our. Med students all have a white coat ceremony as well.

Comment by RJS on 2007-10-20 20:07:34 -0700 #

Mass College of Pharmacy is exactly the same way, only our pins didn’t say anything about truth, justice or any crap like that. We got the plaque and the pin but we had to buy the white coats. (LOL)
I thought it was stupid then, and I think it’s stupid now. CVS paid for the refreshments served, not our alumni.
FWIW, the PAs all decided they wanted a white coat ceremony after the PharmD kids got theirs. They made theirs more exclusive and private, though. Maybe they need more validation than pharmacy students or something.
Anyway, I think the white coat ceremony is becoming more common everywhere. And you’re right, it’s a fucking waste of time and money. I wanted to go play counterstrike but they made that shit mandatory.
LAME.

Comment by PharmGal on 2007-10-20 20:34:59 -0700 #

get this everyone that APPLIS to our school has to be fitted for the ‘coveted’ white coat (around 300-400 people) and we only accept 90. haha…it’s kind of a tease, don’t you think? yeah, we had a white coat ceremony our first semester and I just think it was weird – a little early for all that.

Comment by Student on 2007-10-20 21:39:25 -0700 #

I’m a 3rd year on my rotations with UOP (it’s my last year). It’s embarassing for someone to bash our school like that, but it is pretty much true. They treat us as if pharmacy is the greatest, most important, and happiest profession in the world. They think we are all going into clinical pharmacy, industry, or academia, but in reality the vast majority of us are going to go work in the wonderful world of retail.
They don’t teach you half of what you need to know to work in retail. They don’t tell you how to deal with all of the people trying to get early fills on narcs, how to submit a claim to medicaid for someone who “needs” Viagra, or how to breathe out of your mouth because customers smell like stale cigarettes, body odor, and urine.
Yeah it is also fun to be handed that great big F in pharmacokinetics along with 25 other of your classmates (out of 200) just to waste more of your time and money. The way our program works, if you fail, you have to wait an entire year to repeat a class. A whole year wasted. As if it isn’t expensive enough to go to a private university.
I have tons of student loans that I will be paying off for the rest of my life. My family is poor and I don’t have the luxury of not working 20+ hours a week cashiering at the drugstore while trying to survive all of my classes in our “accelerated” 3 year program.
Many of my classmates have not worked in a pharmacy before going on rotations. How can you not know what you’re getting into?!
Don’t even get me started about student organizations. I’m sorry I don’t have time to do brown bags, diabetes health fairs, and pharmacy conventions every single weekend. All of these things are great to do but I have a life outside of pharmacy.
In undergrad, I did work in a pharmacy and I knew all of the craziness that I was getting into, but I was also fortunate enough to work with some great people. I would probably kill myself if I had to work with people like my professors. They are smart and a few of them are really great and down to earth, but some don’t have a damn clue. I don’t suspect that it is much different anywhere else.
I feel bad saying these things about my school, but the last 3 years have been hell. I just want to be done and start working.

Comment by Cynthia on 2007-10-20 22:08:59 -0700 #

I’m a third year pharmacy student in Canada, and in my first year our faculty implemented the whole White Coat ceremony thing.
I did not attend.
But I did collect my coat afterwards.

Comment by pharmgrrl on 2007-10-20 23:06:41 -0700 #

I hate to be the one to break it to ya, AP, but the “white coat ceremony” isn’t just something they dreamed up for the private skool kids at UOP; in fact, they are a standard ceremony for P1s at virtually every pharmacy school in the US now. Cute, eh???

Comment by Pepperpourri on 2007-10-20 23:38:51 -0700 #

Oh boy, this reminds me of my white coat ceremony. I really couldn’t see the purpose of it. We even had to sing our university song, wth 🙂 I can’t even remember a single word of it now.

Comment by Tyler on 2007-10-21 00:35:53 -0700 #

We had a really awesome white coat ceremony at my school in WI. Some student group in the school raised money to give all of us free white coats. They had it more towards the end of first year, which was kinda funny, cause by then we already knew the kids that were either failing out or gonna have to repeat a year, but they were still at the ceremony. They had the ceremony on the weekend so everyone could attend at this really nice and fancy place right on the lake. My folks came and there were pharmacists there from all over the state. It really didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but during 2nd year working my ass off in my labs and wearing that damn coat… I’m just glad it was free and have a lot better feel now for what it means to be a professional than I did then. Cause lets be honest, 1st year pharmacy school students don’t know dick about anything really. They don’t even start talking to us about drugs or therapy until 2nd year. Now that I’ve spent the summer interning, I see what it’s like in a pharmacy in real life and how far away it is from the deluded fantasy world they teach us where every question you ask is open ended and every patient gets an in depth 7 minute consult and is perfectly happy to sit there and dwell on your every word. No, real life is running your ass off and having patients yell about their insurance and shout no questions at you from across the pharmacy.

Comment by Gravelpit on 2007-10-21 07:39:54 -0700 #

Hmmm,,,White coat ceremony…taking a red hot piece of metal and poking it in my eye…Which one is more painful???

Comment by drheidi on 2007-10-21 08:40:22 -0700 #

OK, it’s really you. I was a little worried aliens abducted you and left a new, much less angry pharmacist instead. Work has been an F-ing nightmare (last day at this hellhole, ready to go shovel the shit elsewhere), and I’ve really missed coming home to de-stress by reading your rants. Thanks!! You’ve saved me hundreds of dollars in therapy.

Comment by RutgersPharmGirl on 2007-10-21 08:53:08 -0700 #

Yes, this white coat thing, I think, is pretty standard among pharmacy schools.
I’m at Rutgers, where our pharmacy school is named after an alumni who donated lots, but most other events are just sponsored by some chain or pharmaceutical company.
We had our white coat ceremony right in the beginning of our 3rd year (1st professional year).
It was pretty simple. We had a meeting room in our student center and dinner (aka subs from the sandwich place in the student center). We took the oath of the pharmacist and got our coats, which we had ordered and paid for. That’s a public school for you…haha
When we ordered our coats, there really were no standard instructions regarding people that wanted their names on it. So not knowing any better, half of us ended up ordering just our first name, and half with our full name. Plus, our class officers (the students who were in charge of ordering our coats and organizing the event) were given instructions to get long coats, so we would be protected in lab. Of course, they were just as clueless as we were, so they followed that advice. But come rotation time, we needed short coats…which we ended up getting sponsered by a chain…but we had to pay $5 for a patch with our school name on it if we wanted. Ha
At the time the white coat ceremony seemed kind of cool, but in retrospect, I really don’t think it meant all that much, because I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I get the idea that they are trying to maintain traditions that other healthcare professionals have (aka doctors), but for the 6 year programs (which is what Rutgers has), I think we’re all just a little too clueless in year 3 (P1) to take anything to heart.
In general, it seems kind of ridiculous…

Comment by Debbie on 2007-10-21 12:51:51 -0700 #

Ha! These circle jerk/basket weaving events crack me up. But it gets the students ready for all the diversity training seminars and other such bulls*it they will have to sit thru when they are out in the real world.

Comment by Longhorn Daniel on 2007-10-21 13:07:52 -0700 #

UT does had a whitecoat ceremony for something like 120 students and less than 40 showed up for the thing.
My sister is in med school in Dallas and she actually attended her white coat ceremoney, but she said it was a waste of time.

Comment by The Ole’ Apothecary on 2007-10-21 14:20:51 -0700 #

I’m getting so mad here that I’m going to strangle my computer.
Why do you ladies and gentlemen think you have such a travail ahead of you in retail? BECAUSE OF YOUR DISUNITY, YOUR LACK OF:
es�prit de corps
Pronunciation: \is-ˌprē-də-ˈkȯr\
Function: noun
Etymology: French
Date: 1780
the common spirit existing in the members of a group and inspiring enthusiasm, devotion, and strong regard for the honor of the group.
What I would have given for a white coat ceremony, or any kind of pharmacists’ unique ceremony! I’m not sure when it is you say you get it, but I think it should be conferred at graduation, not at entrance into pharmacy school. If I had my way, it would be given just after you actually get your license, and your school is sending you absolutely, officially, out to practice. If it is currently crafted to be stickingly sweet, then I agree it should be rewritten to illustrate your entrance into reality. But, revel in it! Make it memorable! Make it a rallying point for all of your efforts to come.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the lack of unity in our profession is exactly what is going to kill us off. Above all, we should have that sense of professional unity—community, healthsystem, industry, sales—no matter what the practice venue. I think you should re-examine the significance of the ceremony and your attitude toward it. I do read your concern for your patients interspersed in your comments, and that is what the ceremony is about–YOUR PRACTICE. What an opportunity for really sealing your commitment to the profession! I’m sorry, but if you get this wrong, you all might as well pack in it now.
If necessary, write your own ceremony. But, go to it! Make it stick! Unite!
I ain’t kiddin’!

Comment by Drug Dealer in Training on 2007-10-21 16:01:10 -0700 #

Get this: we had our ceremony before we even started classes. The Dean put the coat on us (we can deal drugs in a few years if we make it, but can’t figure out which arm goes in first. . . ). We recited the Oath (most of my classmates had never stepped foot inside a pharmacy at this point) and went home. Wow. Oh yeah, the coats didn’t all match. Way to go above and beyond.

Comment by qudz on 2007-10-21 16:56:10 -0700 #

i go to St Johns university and we had the same ol white coat thingy in the beginning of 3rd year, except it was at night so those that wanted to attend could (except alot of ppl still didnt). and even after getting their coat, some people got kicked out of the program or got left back. stupid private schools.. money makers all of them! at least we got those lab coats for free… after paying a 30 grand/yr tuition..

Comment by madge on 2007-10-21 17:58:11 -0700 #

we had one at my school, too…in the 3 years that i have been out, it has blossomed into a massive event on parent’s weekend. professionalism, school spirit, the whole nine yards. i think pharmacy schools do it b/c most med schools do. i hated it…it seemed so fake.
ps – i NEVER, EVER wear a white coat. it holds no meaning for me.

Comment by NocturnalDoc on 2007-10-21 19:09:47 -0700 #

They started that BS for the class behind mine at the med school I attended. And the pompous asses in my class were livid!
Of course I am the person who skipped college graduation and went to my med school one hung over. Who needs self congratulatory group masturbation?

Comment by MrIncognito on 2007-10-21 19:28:45 -0700 #

My public COP (University of Illinois Chicago) had an equally awful ceremony. They lined us up, passed out plastic bags with white coats, and marched us 8 at a time onto a stage. Nobody knew what they were supposed to be doing, and the dean couldn’t pronounce about a quarter of the names.
The part that was really bad was that some people had family actually come and sit in the audience for it. It was terrible.

Comment by greensunflowerRN on 2007-10-22 01:04:32 -0700 #

I had three ceremonies like this in my (private) nursing school: joining the honors’ society, getting “pinned,” and graduation itself.
I dont even remember the things. The food was probably horrible. I am gluten intolerant, so I abstain from eating at such events, no matter how much they tell me something is gluten free, and one was outdoor and it was hot in Moraga, Ca, so I passed out when I got home from heat exhaustion, the last was in some crowded church and one of my classmates, decided she needed to breast feed her SCREAMING baby during the ceremony, right behind me and then answered her cell phone.
I just liked the ceremonies because it meant I was out of nursing school, which was 5 years of pure HELL.
Now I get paid $48/hr to hold babies and comfort maury povich guest like parents. It is quite a step up.

Comment by T. O’Brien on 2007-10-22 04:45:36 -0700 #

Again, this is an example of the sad disconnect between the facility of pharmacy schools around the country and the actual practice of pharmacy today.

Comment by T. O’Brien on 2007-10-22 04:46:03 -0700 #

Again, this is an example of the sad disconnect between the facility of pharmacy schools around the country and the actual practice of pharmacy today.

Comment by rph3664 on 2007-10-22 06:06:22 -0700 #

I understand that White Coat Ceremonies have gone on for a long time in medical schools, but they’re fairly new in pharmacy schools.
Mandatory? Good grief, I, too had a life outside of pharmacy school when I was there too.

Comment by Andrew on 2007-10-22 10:33:29 -0700 #

Yeah, these white coat ceremonies are just absurdly stupid. It’s something we stole from medical school as far as I can tell. What a great way to dispel the myth that we aren’t all just med school rejects…
Doing it in year one is even stupider, at Arizona they at least waited until year three when you were about to go do your clinicals, and were actually required to WEAR a white coat. But it’s still stupid.

Comment by Katie on 2007-10-22 14:36:33 -0700 #

You know, when we had our White Coat ceremony, it was nice… I actually liked it, but I like free stuff 🙂 Our coats were donated by a company, and not alumni. It was a nice excuse for the parents to come into town and spoil me for a day.
Our White Coat was at the end of our P3 year (at a 0-6 school) Since that’s when you move from the lower level classes, to the upper level. You need the coat for your compounding lab in the fall, so it is nice to have them.
What cracks me up, is apparently some of the P6’s on rotations can’t wear their White Coats because they are too long, and we don’t have the degrees yet to wear a coat of that length. That’s the biggest laugh about anything, if you ask me.
But anyways–I liked the ceremony, it was nice. It really didn’t bother me (except it involved getting up early on a Saturday)

Comment by Walgreensdrone on 2007-10-22 19:07:40 -0700 #

TAP,
First, love the site. Keep up the good work. I went to private school (Drake), and we suffered through all the same BS. Honestly, very few of the faculty had ever worked retail and haven’t the slightest clue what the real world will be like for most of the graduates. I think pharm stole the whole idea from the medical schools. Anyway, in retrospect I feel sorry for all the poor young saps at these ceremonies. Some of them have caught a glimpse of reality already, but many are in for heavy dose of reality in a few years, when they wake up for work everyday to face another day of filling a shitload of Rxs with too little tech support with a huge retail chain that wants you to kiss every rude and nasty Medicaid ass that walks through the door and is pissed when the rx isn’t ready in 2 minutes

Comment by Suzy on 2007-10-22 19:55:47 -0700 #

Gosh, I have a total crush on you. Wish you were mine, you angry bitch!
Love,
Your somewhat-secret-admirer-because-you-know-my-IP-address, Suzy.

Comment by DownonthePharm on 2007-10-23 13:22:37 -0700 #

1st year COP student.
The white coat ceremony happens before classes even start. Yip.. you are given the nice bright white coat. Then you take your first round of tests and feel like someone ran a tractor over your ass. I agree that the money should be used for something better.. probably for teachers that can actually TEACH, not those freakin research teachers that come in and try to teach you biochem from a rats ass point of view.
Also the money could be spent on real tutors for the shitty class since the shitty reasearch teachers are allowing 30 students to fail. (i’m not asking for handouts, but its sad when this is the only class that more than 5 people aren’t passing.)

Comment by St.eve on 2007-10-23 15:08:34 -0700 #

hey angry-pharm. i do so love your posts. but i think you got this one wrong. the white coat ceremony is important — it reminds those who are still in their early 20s and boozing it up every night that it is time to get serious — at least while they have the coats on. because although many of us go into retail, we are still health care providers and should at least pretend to care…

Comment by Pissed Intern on 2007-10-23 20:49:26 -0700 #

Dude, I totally want a finals week blowjob. But what do the freaking admins spend the money on instead? Alumni coffee. Fuck that.

Comment by christine on 2007-10-24 09:21:23 -0700 #

Um..my MCP memory of “white coat ceremony” was donning the coat for the 1st time and walking into my first PPP lab, not quite a ceremony….guess they did things differently in the 80’s….

Comment by sabellaK on 2007-10-25 08:24:18 -0700 #

Trust me – these ceremonies are not the idea of most faculty. I was thankfully out of town for the last two at my school and am glad that I did not lose those 4 hours of my life (they put the event at a location 30 minutes away, and had every health care program participate).
The idea for these goes much farther up the food chain than general faculty. Administration and national organizations are the culprits. I think they started out with good intentions (make the students realize that this is a profession, not just a job), but it hasn’t really played out that way. Instead, you end up with frustrated students who could have better spent the time studying or at work, and frustrated faculty who could have been grading something or writing a paper.

Comment by maskedrx on 2007-10-28 07:56:47 -0700 #

At UF we had it near the end of the 1st year. Of course it was manditory to attend otherwise I would be doing what I should have been doing that morning…sleeping in. Of course I didn’t realize that putting on that white coat would instantly transform each and every student into a “professional” and somehow make up for the fact that a full 10% of the class would have a hard time telling you the difference between APAP and acetaminophin and Tylenol, even after the 3rd year. Yeah, I need my professionalism foisted on me by wearing a white coat.

Comment by rph3664 on 2007-10-29 12:21:57 -0700 #

Andrew, I for one went to pharmacy school because I wanted to be a pharmacist, not because I was a med school reject/wannabe.
You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to retail. I would do something else for a living, or even raid my 401(k), before doing that.

Comment by PharmGamerKid on 2007-10-29 20:24:09 -0700 #

hahaha, i was at this exact white coat ceremony the e-mail was talking about. i also did undergrad at UOP, so i can talk ’bout all the useless crap UOP make you pay for, but that’s not the point here.
i really think it was a little too early for us to be having white coat ceremony this early in our pharm school career. believe it or not, we have midterms exactly one week after the ceremony. (which i flunked btw). and with the ceremony, it was pretty much like a graduation w/ ppl saying congrats to you. and i was like “wtf?!? i’m getting a white coat, not a diploma. what if i don’t make it through pharm school?!? then this white coat is pretty useless right?” its kinda cool that i now have a white coat to wear when going to events, but that’s about it. i don’t think i really need a ceremony for it. plus, it was on a monday at like 3pm. yeah, my parents couldn’t come ’cause they have work, but that’s ok. i’ll rather have them come to my graduation.

Comment by Pacific student on 2007-10-29 20:24:38 -0700 #

Yup. I too participated in the BS White Coat Ceremony last year. I’m now a second year at Pacific and I feel bad that first years have to waste their time and valuable resources go to this stupid event. I remember being pretty pissed that I had to spend my time at this required event. I’d rather the money go towards my tuition or books or something useful rather than some lame ceremony where smoke is blown up our asses. It’s a joke. And to think somebody from our school initiated this in schools across America. How embarassing.

Comment by Piss & Vinegar on 2007-10-31 10:21:23 -0700 #

I hate to break it to you, but the reason all the schools have a white coat ceremony is because of UOP. Someone here had the bright idea to suggest this be part of the by-laws, and presented the idea at some stupid seminar/outlook/retarded event. Of course, it took morons from other schools to agree with the idiots from UOP that a white coat ceremony was necessary for all schools.
As if spending $50K/yr wasn’t bad enough, we have to go through BS like that too? I can’t agree enough with the poster above regarding brown bag events, health fairs, etc every weekend. Who really has time for those? Don’t even get me started on all the retarded organizations and fraternities that just have to get up in front of the class and tell you all about that wonderful event they’re having this weekend to help the poor people of Stockton (the armpit of California).
I will never give UOP a dime of my money once I’m out of here. The political BS and money-wasting is rampant, but I guess that’s what you get from a private school, huh?

Comment by medicineman on 2007-11-10 20:58:39 -0800 #

Hey, just take it easy. You applied to pharmacy school for a reason. You know what you’re getting into. You make it seem like it’s the end of the world or something to attend a ceremony. You know there are jobs out there and the money is good right now in the field you’re in. Seems like your ego is even bigger than the white coat ceremony to complain over it. Just deem yourself lucky you are in pharmacy school.

Comment by guyfromaus on 2007-11-18 03:24:03 -0800 #

You guys sure this kind of thing is confined to pharmacy? Sounds like exactly the kind of crap the US university subculture is all about. I just don’t understand it. How the hell do you go to these things, let alone go along with a straight face? I think my pharmacy friends here would vote a unanimous “fuck that”.
In Australia, we have none of this ceremonial bullcrap. If some self important official had a creed or oath to say, the students would look at them as if they were mad. To be honest, everyone would be torn between laughing derisively and feeling shit embarrassed for the idiot who’s serious about it.
Our ceremony was an optional barbecue for anyone who wanted to come along and have a beer with the staff. A private school differs by having more expensive beer and a nicer garden.

Comment by kathy rothrock on 2007-11-20 23:18:02 -0800 #

I graduated waaaaaay back in 1985- and our “white coat ceremony” consisted of “What size? Small? Too bad- here’s a Medium. Next!”
Thank God we did NOT have any bull-shit “ceremony”- I would have died of embarrassment!

Comment by Nicole on 2007-12-05 18:32:43 -0800 #

I go to StLCoP and there we don’t do it until our third year, our first ‘professional’ year. I’m only a second year (effin’ Orgo final TOMORROW!) but I agree, it is retarded. My reasoning:

  1. I already had to buy a damn white coat for IPP (Intro to Pharmacy Practice) this year, which is, by the way, the stupidest course ever if you have ever worked in a pharmacy, even for a day.
  2. They make you buy a second one, with a “nicer” nametag attached… what the hell!? Tuition doesn’t pay you enough??
  3. We have to sign our “Pledge of Professionalism” which is a big fat joke considering 90% will work at WalGreens and throw all that profession shit out the window (no effense, but WalGreens sucks!)
  4. I think they have it on a Friday night, which gets in the way of my God Damn drinking!

Comment by PhilthePharmacist on 2009-12-04 17:29:49 -0800 #

where do you go to school?

Comment by PharmStudent drinking from teching… on 2011-05-26 18:19:38 -0700 #

Oh come on, don’t you want to pay for my white coat? Pretty please?

Give me a break. It’s always the same day as the last home football game…. wtf Butler? I don’t want to sit through. I want to be at the freaking game.

Comment by JT on 2014-12-24 22:28:39 -0800 #

My white ceremony was my first year just before our first IPPE rotations (retail in November/December for 2/3rds of the class), biochem, pharmacy calculations and pathophys. Honestly we needed all the fluffy kittens and fuzzy rainbows we could get to see us through that mess. As for those that fail out in their first year prior to kinetics and cardio/neuro/chemo class TS and you’re lucky. It really does get worse.