<p>My daughter is a junior in a small rural high school. She is 2nd in a class of 40, with a grade point average of 4.01. We don't have many advance class options, but she is taking all that are available. She wants to be a pharmacist which means she more than likely will have to go out of state to college. We tried to prepare for college when she was younger by paying for junior college with College Illinois. Now we see that community college will probably not be her best option. I have done a rough estimate of family contribution which is going to be around 10-11,000 per year (which will be a struggle). She has fell in love with Butler University, but is considering other options. I really would like to find a 0-6 or early assurance college, but I don't how we will pay for it. I was hoping for merit aid, but after reading some of the threads feel she may not qualify. She is going to take the ACT this month for the first time, so we don't know where she will be -more than likely around a
24.</p>
<p>Question is will she be able to qualify for merit aid anywhere and does anyone have a good suggestion for a college. We don't want anything near Chicago, which leave us with only
SIUE. Really want a better program that they offer.</p>
<p>I’m very new to the board. But based on most of the posts I’ve read seems merit aid requires an ACT of atleast 27. Is it too late to cram study intensively for the ACT. I think a big push and time dedicated to it would help her with the GPA she already has. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Belmont is private and very expensive - BUT I mention this program because with her stats I could see her possibly getting merit aid from here (I work in admissions here as a student and think her stats look good), so it’s worth a shot if interested. Belmont tends to try and pull in science related majors because the art majors here are in abundance.</p>
<p>auburn in alabama has a pharmacy program… she still has time to work on her act scores auburn is a rolling admission school with automatic merit</p>
<p>Really don’t wan a program that goes 2 years then compete for the next part if she doesn’t have too. We are goin to look at it, but it is not a program we are excited about.</p>
<p>Be aware that most schools don’t “meet need” so if your EFC is around $11k, it’s very likely that most will expect you to pay more than your EFC.</p>
<p>It’s confusing because the words Expected Family Contribution can be very misleading. It wrongly gives families the idea that the number is all that they have to pay. Schools don’t have to do ANYTHING with that number except see if you qualify for any federal aid. And your EFC is too high for federal grants. </p>
<p>If Butler is the one in Indiana, that school does not meet need, so you’d likely be expected to pay much more than your EFC. The middle-quartiles are 25 - 30, so to get merit scholarships, I would guess that the ACT would have to be 30 or greater. </p>
<p>Since your D is only a junior, she has time to work on her ACT (and take the SAT). </p>
<p>Why do you think that she has to go out of state? Aren’t there options in your state? Are you in Illinois? </p>
<p>*Really don’t wan a program that goes 2 years then compete for the next part if she doesn’t have too. We are goin to look at it, but it is not a program we are excited about. *</p>
<p>Hopefully others can chime in here with firmer data, but don’t you have to have stronger scores to get into an assured program? I only know from a friend’s D who is pre-pharm and didn’t get into an assured program with an ACT 29 and a 4.6 GPA so she’d doing the regular route.</p>
<p>Butler grad, although not pharmacy. If your D is sure she wants pharm, then I really second your opinion to go for a guaranteed entrance program, which Butler has. S’s valedictorian chose Purdue instead and then did not gain entrance to the pharm program.</p>
<p>For Butler specifically, the tour guide/info session told us they do not give a great deal of merit aid for pharm major, the reason being they are going to earn very good salaries as soon as they graduate.</p>
<p>Butler requires a 26 ACT minimum, but they superscore too. At our Butler tour they told us ways to look for money outside of the merit. However, they did not tell us that PharmD did not get merit aid. We are keeping in contact with admission counselor on a regular basis, but didn’t really get in to aid yet. I felt it best to wait until applying and filling out FAFSA.</p>
<p>Many schools have gone away from the 0-6 model and are now 2+4 (or 3+4) with early assurance. As the parent of a former pre-pharm who was accepted at several 0-6 schools, I was not wild about the programs except for the fact that she wouldn’t have to stress about getting in. My concern was that the schools weren’t ones she would have chosen if they didn’t have PharmD programs. Even with extensive shadowing and exposure to pharmacy during high school, how many 17-18 y.o.'s really know what they want in a career? Luckily, my D decided to choose a large public with many solid science/health programs. She decided by the end of freshman year that she would really like OT more than pharmacy (grades were not a factor, btw) and hasn’t looked back. Moral of the story…make sure that you’re looking at the whole school, not just the pharmacy program.</p>
<p>At many small rural HSs, getting a 4.0 GPA is not all that hard. At our school, we’ve had years where 3 of ~30 kids had 4.0s. And it’s rare for anyone to score above a 26 or so on the ACT.</p>
<p>Getting a 4.0 at our school isn’t that easy considering all other activities kids are in. We have time where a large percentage are failing. Not a good thing, but it shows that A’s aren’t that easy. She is taking the AP class that is available and all the harder core classes she can. She has problems taking timed tests. We are hoping the class will help with her fears. She loves Butler, not just because to the pharmD program. She also toured University of Iowa which she feel in love with at first siite. After the tour she no longer wanted anything to do with it. We are planning on touring University of Kentucky and Drake. Will also do an unofficial tour of SIUE.</p>
<p>Ohio Northern COA os about $44K. They do offer some pretty good scholarships (that would be ~50% of the COA) for high stats. For the Pharm school you need a 27 ACT.</p>
<p>Butler and Belmont are not true 0-6 schools, they are 2+4 with early assurance provisions. These are the only 0-6 programs that are left:</p>
<p>Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences - Boston
Northeastern University
Ohio Northern University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey<br>
St. John’s University
St. Louis College of Pharmacy
The University of Findlay
University of Rhode Island
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia</p>
<p>MCPHS (Boston) is/was decent with scholarship aid but is a very small school with limited choices if the student decides pharmacy is not for them. </p>
<p>Wilkes in PA is also good with merit money and is an attractive smaller school, though they have a more involved application process than the others. They’re a 2+4 school with early assurance, not anywhere near as competitive to stay in as Purdue, Buffalo, and the other large publics that are 2+4. I would recommend looking at the early assurance schools that tend to keep most of their pharmacy students and/or give strong preference to their own pre-pharms.</p>