I guess I’ll start a thread on this since I don’t see one yet.
Son just got accepted for Pre-Pharm! But what was interesting is that (unless he missed something) he couldn’t tell which major until you actually clicked on the “confirm” button to start the confirmation of enrollment (which is due by 1 May and you don’t have to necessarily finish this process on the website). Anyhow, we’re super happy and excited! Now, we have to figure out how to pay for this… 
My son just got accepted too at 1/10 to Pre-pharmacy. He applied only to Pre-pharmacy. I hope they will follow with financial aid and scholarship information.
Hi. I need some help deciding which schools to go to. I am definitely set on studying pharmacy. I live in California but I am pretty open to going to wherever has the best program. I get the most money from SJU, but I don’t think that its worth to go because the school is not that highly ranked. I also want to go to a school where I can have more advancement opportunities after earning a PharmD such as a MBA (masters in business admin) because I don’t want to work in retail. Also, do you earn a BS in pharm from any of these schools? Lastly, could you give me some tips about appealing financial aid? I know I have a lot of questions, so you don’t necessarily have to answer all of them, but a little insight would be super helpful.
These are the schools I got into:
University of the Pacific (2+3 program) – ($43k) regents scholarship $22k/year [i think this only applies to undergrad years]
Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy (0-6) – no aid ($55k)
University of Rhode Island (0-6) --no FA has come out yet – centennial scholarship $9k per year
St. John’s University (0-6) – ($36k) provost scholarship $25k/year, sju grant $1,500
Deferred to Regular Decision:
Northeastern University (0-6) I really like the co-ops
Here are my STATS: (not too great which means I get less financial aid) im bad at taking standardized tests
GPA: 4.15 [AP CALC AB (5), AP CALC BC, AP STATS, AP LANG (3), AP LIT, AP CHEM (3), AP BIO] + 1 CC CLASS
ACT: 31
SAT: 1390
SAT II: (MATH 2) 760 (CHEM) 700
EXTRACURRICULARS: lots of volunteer work (hospital, community, school etc), jobs, sports
My son was accepted by UOP, St. John’s, and two other out of state schoos for Pre-pharmacy. He is waiting for Chapman and USC. He will probably go to either Chapman or USC if accepted. USC is 7 years in their TAP program and Chapman is 5 years and closer to home. He got 22K from UOP plus $3800 grants for the first 2 years and 25K plus $1500 grants from St. John’s for the first 2 or 3 years. Only MCPHS offers my son 16K for all 6 years in their 0 to 6 program. All others are just the Pre-pharm two or 3 years. For UOP, the undergrad tuition is 49K and not 43K. St. John’s is 43 K now and will increase to 48K by year 6. Also, you will loss Cal Grant if you attend an out of state school. That is about a few thousands on top of other scholarships and grants.
For the fisrt and second year of pharmacy in UOP, it is 72K and final year about 50K. It is because you will study 3 semesters in the 3rd and 4th year. That come out to 24K per semester and no financial aid and no scholarship as soon as you enter pharmacy school. You can get only loans at 6.75% interest rate. It is actually not a very good deal for the poor job market for pharmacist now. There are now 14 pharmacy schools in California now. There were only 3 pharmacy schools in 1990. A few of them had just started. That is crazy over saturated. However, my son is not interest in engineering and don’t like to be a medical doctor or dentist. He also got accepted by San Diego State and San Jose Stafe in Computer Engineering. He will go to UOP for pharmacy and hope he can get a job after his graduation by maybe perhaps 250K of loan.
I think if you want to work in New York, you go to St. John. If you want to work in east coast, go to Rutger. If you want to stay in a California, UOP is the best as you will need to get the California certification.
@slipperysloths You sound very ambitious and based on what I see in your post, I think you will do great wherever you decide to go. One piece of equation that you should consider though is that UoP Pharm, for the most part is considered a “guarantee” as long as you maintain 3.0 GPA. We have 4 extended family members that graduated from the program (and one currently an undergrad) and they all highly recommend it, if anything, for this reason alone. Not sure about the other programs but if theirs is also a guarantee, then you obviously have options. I know, for example that Purdue’s is not a guarantee and is considered “priority” program–reason my DS will be turning that school down. UoP also has great mentoring by teachers, small class sizes, and the school absolutely loves their pre-pharm students.
Your ambition for getting an MBA is spot on. But just FYI, retail is where the money is at, and hospital admin is not. One family member (mentioned above) started his own retail business and is now doing extremely well (think multi-million dollar homes and a fancy car) and now has a team of pharmacists working for him.