<p>A friend of mine applied to CSULB(pending) and CSUF(accepted) but not the UCs. She has two years of FA left and is prepharm.</p>
<p>After factoring in repeated grades she has around a 3.0 and a 3.3 without.
She still has 1 year of oChem and Physics left.
She has 70+Semester(105+ quarter) units.
She has relevant work experience as a pharm tech and leadership experience in a premed club.</p>
<p>How would admission to UCI or another UC impact her Pharm school application vs. going to either CSUF or CSULB?
How long would she expect to spend at a CSU? Would it be possible to graduate from a biology program within 2 years without oChem and Physics currently complete(assume some summer courses taken)? Could a bio or Pharm Sci degree be completed at UCI over the course of two summers and a year?</p>
<p>Any insights or comments? The ultimate goal is to get into a pharm school without much/any debt.</p>
<p>I’m no expert on pharm school but I’ll take a stab at this.</p>
<p>UC’s are seen as research institutions meant for grad school hopefuls and have educations firmly grounded in theory. CSU’s are meant more for people ready to go to work right after undergrad, so I imagine UC’s offer a better chance of grad school acceptance. (Also make note that UC’s tend to have more academic clout than CSU’s and this can be a confounding factor in more UC alumni entering grad schools)</p>
<p>I don’t know how long she would spend at a CSU, that’s entirely contingent on class offerings, your friends ability to take heavy course loads, and a bit of luck with scheduling.</p>
<p>Yes it’s possible to do a Bio degree in two years. My room mate is a Bio major and will be graduating a year early.</p>
<p>I don’t know if a bio or pharm sci degree can be completed at UCI in two summers and a year. Same reasoning as 3rd paragraph.</p>
<p>I hope this helps. As always, see a counselor, scour the internet for multiple opinions, and do well in classes to maximize chances of grad school regardless of where your friend ends up going.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if you go to UC or CSU, what matters are your pre-requisites for Pharmacy school.</p>
<p>However, mind that due to budget cuts, CSU are affected more than UC.
-CSU’s catered towards the working students, UC’s are catered towards full-time students.
-CSU doesn’t have a mandatory graduation requirement within certain amount of years–which is a problem because that means more students are not graduating on time which then takes up classes the newer students need. While UC’s require a mandatory graduation within 4-years (5-years for harder majors)–which allows new students to enroll in all the class they need (Since older students have graduated and freed up space)
-UC’s are way more expensive than CSU’s
-UC’s use quarter system (except for Berkeley and Merced), which crams the study into 10-weeks (compare to 16-weeks of a semester).</p>
<p>Has she considered going straight to pharm school? Most pharmacy schools in the US do not require a bachelors degree although tbh your friends GPA isn’t very competitive. It also seems foolish to attend a 4 year university and take a year of lower division courses if debt and money are a big concern. If I were her I would stay an extra year and complete all the prerequisites, and to be brutally honest how does she expect to get into pharm school with that GPA? Going to a 4 year university and taking upper division classes probably wont help in that regard. If shes serious about pharm school she needs to stay a5 CC and complete the rest of her prerequisites with all A’s and rock the PCAT.</p>
<p>Also, UCs do not necessarily have hard 4-year limits. However, there is usually some type of limit, such as Berkeley L&S limiting students 130 units if they take longer than 8 semesters (4 for junior transfers), or Berkeley Engineering requiring students to ask permission to enroll beyond 8 semesters (4 for junior transfers)</p>