<p>I might major in pharmacy, and Buffalo is the only NY state school that has a Pharmacy program (not pre-pharm, I'm talking about the next 4 years of pharmacy) and it doesn't look like a bad school.</p>
<p>Only problem is, I can't seem to find a lot of student reviews of it unlike many of the other suny schools. How is the surrounding area/atmosphere? Does it have nice education? Just give me what you think I should know =)</p>
<p>And Random Question: What do you know about their marching band o.o? I heard it sucks due to poor membership, which is sad since I'd like to join a nice decent sized marching band in college after having such a nice experience in HS in Florida before I moved (back) to NY.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman in UB’s prepharmacy program. She was a high achiever in high school and reports that the curriculum in challenging but doable with good time management (but she’s glad she decided not to work this semester!). I see that they’ve changed the prepharm requirements for next year’s freshman so you’ll have the option of doing your prereqs in 3 years, which is good. Fitting in all the prereqs plus the geneds in two years does not allow alot of room for scheduling changes/snafus! The actual advising is done by a very nice, approachable woman from the SOPPS. She schedules all the first semester classes for prepharms and keeps them posted on clubs/opportunities that may be of interest through a listserv. After first semester, students register for classes online.</p>
<p>She chose UB over other 0-6 and 2+4 programs for both cost and reputation. UB has a very good, well respected pharmacy school and she felt that she would be well prepared if she did her prereqs there and decided to apply elsewhere for pharmacy school.Her classes (other than UBE101) are taught by PhD’s and are large lectures, mainly mandatory attendance. Most classes also have a smaller recitation once a week, with TA’s, and weekly labs for Bio and Chem. There are lots of opportunities to get help with any subject from profs/TAs, academic assistants (who live in the dorms), study/tutoring centers, etc.</p>
<p>FYI-
Per my freshman son, many Long Islanders at UB.<br>
Easy to fly home to Islip on Southwest, or to JKF and LGA depending on where you live.
I highly recommend to the school to all.</p>
<p>A lot of LI students here and they absolutely love it. Pharmacy is an excellent program (11th in the nation). Highly reccommended as well- visit as soon as possible!</p>
<p>Our freshman is in honors with plenty of friends in pharmacy program. They are working very hard and are challenged. Also in the marching band which is very large, very spirited, and imho spectacular. We live downstate and have gone up to watch 2 football games and the Thunder of the East is a highlight. It is under terrific directorship, they work hard and it shows. As I write this (Tues 7:30) I am watching them on espn2 football game. I can’t imagine anyone passing a remark about them as you wrote.</p>
<p>Here is video of UB Marching Band “Thunder of the East” at last week’s exhibition in Syracuse. It should put to rest any questions about their skills and hard work. There’s another past on Youtube</p>
<p>My kid is in the pharmacy program, and loves it (although the pharmacy program is turning out to be more challenging than he expected - he’s always found school to be pretty easy, but he’s working his butt off now to get Bs).</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the 4th year of school is the first year of “post grad” work, and the tuition jumps up signficantly. During his white coat ceremony, it was announced that there were over 1,000 applications for the 126 spots in the school of pharmacy. It was interesting to see so many students from other states and countries. The advisor can probably tell you how many of the 126 spots were filled by UB’s own prepharm students. My kid took the PCAT as a sophomore at UB, and did well enough that he received interview invitations at other schools too. When he got accepted to UB though, he immediately accepted – staying there was his first choice!</p>
<p>My kid likes UB a lot and has found that there are a lot of things to do. I still don’t think it’s a very attractive campus, but my kid is happy there. It’s been a very good value, even being OOS. Parking and laundry are free, which are nice perks. </p>
<p>There are a lot of kids from Long Island at UB, for some reason.</p>
<p>whldch, that’s so neat that your S is a member of The Thunder of The East! I heard them briefly on move in day and they sounded great, but we were near the bookstore and my D was too stressed to go watch! Wish I’d know they were at the Dome, was that a band competition? Thanks for posting that link.</p>
<p>D’s roomie is from LI and had several friends at UB from HS. The biggest drawback so far is that Buffalo is far from home - I think she said about 8 hours drive. So, she hasn’t been able to go home yet this semester and D, who is only 3 hours away, has been home three times. (That may/may not be a good thing!) UB does offer a non-stop coach bus to NYC about once a month but I’m sure it’s still a long trip. Her roomie didn’t think to bring her winter coat, etc. in August, guess she figured Thanksgiving would be soon enough, and her dad had to ship stuff up to her. So, LI’rs beware, it can snow in October in Buffalo!</p>
<p>Thanks sk8rmom, we are naturally very proud. They put an enormous amount of time into their work and it shows. Yes it was some type of competition, I’m not sure what other schools were there. </p>
<p>Their spirit shows, they got a pretty large crowd outside the football arena as they were warming up just before one of the football games, and they got enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. And when the game was over and they walked off the field, the drummers just kept drumming and beating their own beats and the other students were marching along commenting about how cool they were to be doing that. </p>
<p>We like the student drum majors and how well they take charge as well. </p>
<p>Getting back to academics - we are very impressed with the academics and the honors program. UB was a very good choice. We’ll see what winter holds!</p>