Change from engineering to another field

Adamisconfused

I ‘m sorry for the intrusion but since everyone around here seems to have brains to spare, I was wondering if someone could answer a question.
I should probably ask various institutions for specifics but had hoped there was someone around here who could tell me if it was possible to return to college and do a course of my choice from scratch.
My background is engineering, in which I have an honours degree but after several years my interest in it has diminished and almost faded away completely. I was hoping to study pharmacy.:o
I could possibly reapply as a mature student or submit my leaving cert but the thing is, I have no practical experience in the field and my points were a bit on the low side and nowhere near the 530+ needed. The truth is I only managed to scrape together enough points to get my second choice at UCD. I was pleased at the time and it is a great career (EE) but I was foolish enough not to research anything except for points (it was my hobby and I thought I knew it all at 17).
I’m prepared to accept my faith if I have to but I really hope someone can shed some light on my options or at least tell me if it is possible to move to a higher points course if I have less than perfect LC results but a degree in a different area.

Money isn’t a concern (to a point)!
Any advice is welcome but I understand if this isn’t the correct place for enquiries.

angeldelight

Not sure if this will help much but anyway...

I'm currently studying Pharmacy at RCSI. In my class there's 16/17 graduate students, some of whom admittedly have science degrees, but not all of them. One person in particular has an Arts degree, and is in her thirties now in third year. I know the other colleges take in graduate students, but RCSI takes in the biggest proportion of them. It might be better if you show some recent interest/experience with Pharmacy, e.g a plc in something science-related. You would have to pass an interview, so do you have clear-cut reasons for wanting to do pharmacy? Did you do chemistry before? There is quite a lot of it, although there was one graduate student in my class who had never done chem before.

Adamisconfused

Thanks for responding.
I have no formal education in the field, at all, so I thought that might scupper any hopes I had. The only things I know about the subject come from my own personal study of it and also from information acquired from friends. Not much to go on! I was all over the board in terms of choosing a career at the leaving.
A degree in science would have been quite useful and it may have given me a route into Pharmacy but I didn’t inform myself on my options, to a satisfactory level.
The only saving grace may be the fact that I did chemistry for my leaving but that probably wouldn’t count for much.

I was really only posting here to see whether I had any chance of getting into a course since college websites don’t offer much information that would relate to my situation. It seems like I have some sliver of a chance so I’ll go away and make up my mind, once and for all, so as to make sure that this is what I want and not some pipe dream. I’m pretty sure it is what I would like so I’ll send a few emails to some institutions and see what I need to do.
I sound like some spoiled brat.
Thanks!

Darren1o1

I think the best idea would be contact the programme head of one of the universities that do pharmacy. They will be aware of all the in and outs.

In the RCSI site they just mention courses in previous institutions(no mention of specific courses) as the requirement for graduate entry

http://www.rcsi.ie/admissions/entry_requirements/pharmacy/eu.asp?id=229&pid=228&jid=24&jpid=214

Have a look
Darren

Adamisconfused

Cheers!
I sent a couple of emails to two universities this morning but haven't received any replies yet. I suppose they're busy at this time of year.
I did a bit of investigating elsewhere on some other subjects, out of interest, just to see if it was possible to enter a course without any relevant experience and I was left with responses that contradicted each other.

I'll send an email to RCSI and try to contact the programme head as soon as possible via email or phone.