Pharmaceutical Sciences--- NOT Walgreens

As you can tell by the title, in this post I'm going to go further in depth in the realms of pharmaceutical sciences. Basically, what it is and what it is not. I'll start of with the simpler explanation of what pharmaceutical sciences is not. It is not, well at least from my point of view, a pharmacist sitting in Walgreens dishing out pills to old people with diabetes and high blood pressure (This is a direct reference to both of my grandparents). Despite the fact that the head pharmacist at Walgreens makes an incredible salary, that is definitely not a career I want to pursue. I want to be in the action of medicine, a continuously growing industry that changes daily. I want to be in the lab testing different medications that treat a variety of illnesses and diseases. There are many different branches of pharmaceutical sciences, and I could go on Wikipedia and copy and paste the information listed for each one, but I feel that'll be useless for my purposes. Instead, I'll just delve in to the branch that catches my attention.

Pharmaceutical science by definition is "a group of interdisciplinary areas of study involved with the design, action, delivery, disposition, and use of drugs" (Wikipedia). Design, action, and use seem to interest me the most. The three branches of this science that I would consider studying are Pharmacodynamics, Pharmaceutical chemistry, and Pharmacognosy.

• Pharmacodynamics focuses mainly on the drugs' --affect? effect? Who really knows?-- on the human body. A big reason this branch of pharmaceutical science caught my interest is mainly due to the fact that it would be completely awesome to test drugs and see how it affects people, and perfecting a certain drug by doing a series of experiments and tests seems like an entertaining career. I'd much rather work in a type of lab all day over a cubicle. Weighing out the pros and cons of a certain drug is an important task when deciding whether or not to distribute such a drug to the public, and I want to be the one behind the scenes testing this. 
• Pharmaceutical chemistry is basically the study of drug design to create the most efficient and least harmful. This interests me as well because, well c'mon, you get to design medication! Just imagining testing different types of a certain medication to find out which one works best, and is the strongest in fighting a certain virus or disease seems like the career of a lifetime. There are different viruses and diseases that we are coming to find all the time, so this would be a forever changing career that could hold my interest for many years. I wouldn't have to sit in an office doing the same thing over and over again. I'd get to design different medication all the time, and each one would have a different objective. It's like a huge puzzle and I'm the one designing the puzzle pieces. 
• Pharmacognosy is the study of medicine deriving from nature. This branch of pharmaceutical sciences somewhat catches my attention because I feel that nature has so much to offer humans, especially in the realm of medicine. While synthetic medicine is effective, I feel that there would be less issue with medicine deriving from nature. Considering that there are so many different species of plants and animals that we have yet to encounter, it's about time that someone discover them. 

After all of the research I've done on the subject, I've narrowed down the distinct fields that I feel would suit me best. Delving in to the realm of pharmaceutical sciences have made me realize that college apps are not that far away, so I have to start looking in to colleges that offer this major. Regarding UC's, I know quite a bit about them. Those aren't the issue. Private and out of state colleges are what are troubling me. I suppose I'll make that my next project. Stay tuned, readers.