Am I making a mistake? College decision...

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I committed to University of the Sciences in Philadelphia for their 6 year pharmacy program. I chose the school mainly because it was the most affordable pharmacy program after financial aid. I am on a monthly payment planner, so I have already been making payments. My mother is single, unemployed, and is unable to financially support my education. She is on welfare and barely has any money. I have been making 300$ payments a month myself to cover the 3000$ gap between the cost of tuition for the year and my financial aid. I have already taken out all the federal loans I can and do not have a cosigner to sign any loans for me. I am starting to regret my decision, because of how difficult it is for me to make these payments, while still have money left over for simply living. I am going to have to work in school just to make sure my tuition is paid for. </p>

<p>If I went to a top LA college, which I got accepted to few, I would not have this problem right now and my tuition would be covered 100% by my financial aid package. However, I would not be in a pharmacy program and it would be EXTREMELY difficult to transfer into a pharmacy program after my 4 years there, because pharmacy schools are all 6 years around here. I love USciences and everything about it. It is the perfect school for me, but I feel so nervous and scared I won't be able to come up with 300$ every month. Should I take a semester off and apply to schools that offer more financial aid, or just try my hardest to pay for USciences for the next 6 years? Help, please. I have no one to help me.</p>

2

<p>To only have a $3000 a year gap with no parent support is actually manageable. The only situation that I would recommend taking a gap year is if you had the opportunity to work full-time, save the money for college, and the U of Sciences would save your pharmacy spot. Many students handle working part-time and going to college quite well. My DD is premed and she works about 10 hours a week with work study plus she’s an athlete.</p>

3

<p>I would talk to the financial aid office at your school and see if they can help find you a private scholarship and/or some workstudy to help cover that gap. You are correct, if you want to get into pharmacy, you really can’t go anywhere else, and considering what the starting pay for pharmacists is, even if you had to taker a private loan to cover the $3k per year, it would be worth it. You could easily repay that loan in a year if you went to work for a retail chain.</p>