Share your experience_ By Saloni Daftardar

In response to our ‘Share your experience’ initiative, Saloni Daftardar kindly agreed to write a post for us. She is an MS Candidate at College of Pharmacy of the Toledo University, Ohio.

The Grad School: Journey So Far…
Today, research is an international pursuit which has opened myriad of opportunities for us, students, to explore and invent new ideas which will provide an impetus to opening the boundaries in drug development and drive the needed breakthroughs. Once we choose to study abroad, we get our own share of experiences and challenges that make this “journey”, exciting, difficult but highly rewarding. Here are some of the lessons I learnt as I march forward in my journey as a pharmacy student in US.

The curriculum
The first year of school primarily focuses on laying a foundation for Industrial Pharmacy with courses such as advanced drug delivery systems, physical pharmacy, toxicokinetics, dosage form design and advanced analytical techniques. I have realised that more than just gaining knowledge, this foundational understanding of concepts enables seamless communication related to the subject. The curriculum also has biostatistics as a mandatory subject. Being a pharmacy student (it is implied that we are not maths lovers!), it was quite dreadful to accept the fact that I had to take this subject; but now, I cannot be happier that I learnt such an interesting and important course! Research is incomplete without statistically analysing the observed data. That’s how the term “statistically significant” makes a whole lot of difference.

The Lab
Our lab deals with solid state chemistry, pre-formulation, dosage form design pertaining to novel drug delivery systems. Application of theory-to-practice is strongly enforced here. I had to select my research topic (some advisors give you one). This can be daunting but can help you inculcate the ability of processing the work done by others in some relevant direction. This involves processing the available information, critical analysis of the hypothesis and methods and effectively implementing this data to support your new ideas. One such area that intrigued me was taste masking. Taste masking of bitter drugs has been a crucial area of research. Newer techniques and novel excipients to mask the bitter taste of an API are being explored. I have realised that focussing only on the pharmaceutical aspects for dosage form innovation isn’t enough; using the appropriate technology in order to achieve the desired results is the need of the hour. Like how amazed I was to know that an intensely bitter drug could be taste masked using nanospun mats by appropriately engineered electrospinning device!

Advisor – He is the Boss!
One of the most crucial factors of a successful grad study is the mentoring and guidance that we receive from the graduate advisor. Knowing what the advisor expects from you well in advance is more important than assessing the skills that you will learn in the grad school or the career prospects later. It’s important to know the advisor’s research area, expected work habits (current graduate students provide these details), background skills and experience. Effective communication with the advisor plays a decisive role of how our graduate journey and life thereafter would be. So, one must do his homework well! It requires a great deal of planning. As such, if you want to pursue a career in pharmaceutical industry after your graduate school, it is perfectly fine to talk (Ask, and you shall receive!) about this with your advisor before starting the research so that your project can be groomed in that direction, may be, using some techniques or software which may be a prerequisite skillset for getting a job in the industry.  Thus, a productive student-advisor relationship is a vital aspect of smooth and successful grad life.

Money matters!
There are numerous scholarships, fellowships, travel grants and so on, available for students. I have made myself habituated to browsing for such offers on a timely basis. Sometimes in order to be eligible for such financial aid, you are expected to write grants or present your work in form of abstracts or posters. Here, it is important to maintain a GPA of 3.0 out of 4. So, it is better to be on your toes to be in the race.

Networking
Our focus while doing research should be on publishing the data in form of journals or posters at various conferences. Be it academics or industry, you need to market your skills. This is one thing that I got to learn from my fellow mates. Proper documentation, presentation and effective interpersonal skills are the three fundamentals to excel in the system of innovation. These days, networking has become much more important than just building your resume. Attending conferences is the best opportunity to reach out to concerned people in academia and industry. So, make sure you take your CV and business cards along!

Degree is essential but Internship makes a difference
To make the process of fetching a job in pharmaceutical industry little easier, working as an intern to gain practical experience can prove to be helpful. Sometimes, your choice of school or university and its location are decisive factors in getting such internships as pharmaceutical industries are mostly located in regions or pockets, (mainly East Coast in North America) which prefer students from nearby schools. During the internships, one can actually understand the work culture which is something much more essential to comprehend than gaining hands-on experience. We, students, should use this platform to the best of our capabilities to establish relations with the mentors in industry and network thereby making our chances of getting our dream job or a PhD in a reputed school.

Think out-of-the-box
Today’s industry has become stagnant and saturated. Having said this, there still are opportunities if you know the right direction to look for them. There is a need of people who can think out-of-the-box. There is a need to do something apart from normal coursework and curriculum. It doesn’t have to focus only on research but other activities such as developing leadership qualities in academics, knowledge of intellectual property and developing managerial skills. It is time we develop interest in such value-adding activities which can help in overall development of intellectual minds.

Explore new domains of pharmaceutical industry
As Mark Twain quotes: “Sail away from the safe harbor. Explore Dream. Discover.”
Apart from the backbone of pharmacy, that is, pharmaceutical sciences, there are several other pharmaceutical arenas that are gaining importance in industry. Now-a-days, field of pharmacosocioeconomics and health outcomes has received immense limelight in the West. It applies the methodologies to develop, implement, and evaluate programs that lower healthcare costs and improve outcomes. The definitions are changing, and we need to change in order to be in the race. Be well read and be smart! 



Kudos to Saloni for writing such a wonderful blog post. It not only showcases the important aspects of MS in the USA, but also gives you essential tips about survival. As students, we often tend to ignore small things which can prove to be crucial later. Hence, Saloni’s post can prove to be very helpful for all the students who are pursuing their MS or about to start their MS programs.
We invite more and more such students to write about their experiences in pursuing their Masters program. 

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