virginia: I live in Virginia, and I will be a senior this fall at my school. Anyway it is around that time to start considering what you are going to do for the rest of your life. I want to be a pharmacist. However, I am not exactly sure how to go about doing that. I have already planned to go to my community college. They have a Pharmacy program, but one is a certificate, and the other is a Associates. I guess I would go for the Associates. But after that I do not know what to do. Could someone please shed some light on my confusion, and help me out?|||You will need to take two years of pre-pharmacy, which you will probably be able to do at a community college, then you will need to apply to pharmacy programs at the colleges in your area. Pharmacy school takes an additional four years and you will graduate with a doctorate. You then have to take the licensing exam for your state. You will need to make sure that whichever pharmacy schools you plan on applying to will accept community college credits. Most do but some don't. I don't live in Virginia, but I'm pretty sure that the education process is the same for all states. I would talk to a counselor at the school you plan on attending. The shorter pharmacy course that the community college is offering is probably just Pharmacy Tech. I think you only need a certificate to be a tech. Good luck!|||Which one gives or gets you on the path for your license. I doubt if the associate program is right. I am not from Virginia though, so maybe you should ask the pharmacologists. They likely have a professional association of some sort. http://www.dhp.state.va.us/pharmacy/phar鈥?/a>|||Pharmacy is a doctorate program, not an associates or certificate. It takes a minimum of 6 years to become a pharmacist. On average, it takes 2-4 years of prepharmacy and 4 years of pharmacy school.