<p>My daughter is a junior in HS and wants to go into Pharmacy. I don't know how we will be able to afford that unless she gets merit scholarships. </p>
<p>Our EFC based on estimated income this year will be $5000 and I feel that is the most we can come up with out of pocket. </p>
<p>She would prefer to go to a school where she can do her prerequisites and then Pharmacy school in one place.</p>
<p>She'd really like to go to Pitt (instate), but unless she gets a substantial scholarship I don't see how this would work.</p>
<p>She has a 4.0 UW GPA, the last two years she was ranked 1/275 students, she just took her SAT the second time and it was 800 R, 750 M, 730 W.
She has always taken the hardest courses available, Honors and AP, next year she will also take a dual enrollment class for English.</p>
<p>As for EC, she volunteers at our church, is in NHS and plays tennis. She participates in drama club and ITS.</p>
<p>I want to come up with a strategic list of schools that will fit her career goals, aren't too far away and have a good chance of significant merit aid so we can afford to send her there.</p>
<p>You should also look into Northeastern in Boston. They offer an integrated pharmacy degree, and great scholarships to a limited number of students. We know someone who got full tuition for all six years…but still had to pay room/board. However, this student also was able to secure great employment during her coop terms, and continued one all the way until she left Boston for her job. </p>
<p>You can contribute $5000, and your daughter can get a $5500 direct loan for freshman year…which brings her close to attending NEU IF she gets a full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>How was her PSAT score? Any chance she will be a NMSF?</p>
<p>Another schools she should look at is University of Rhode Island. She is OOS, but maybe they would offer her a substantial enough scholarship to attend. </p>
<p>Here are several threads elsewhere on College Confidential that give information about merit scholarships and low-cost out-of-state colleges and universities:</p>
<p>I can’t help much with information about pharmacy programs, but hopefully the above links will provide some useful information on merit scholarships and/or cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Thank you for your suggestions. I’ll look into NEU and URI, but they seem pretty far away.
Her PSAT score was 195.
Yes, I already told her we should apply very early to Pitt. </p>
<p>If interested, you might also want to check out the Miami of Ohio forum; the posters there also seem to think that there is a pretty decent placement rate for medical schools, also.</p>
<p>Do apply to the in state flagship, she would have a great chance to get merit aid and also with need met.
Consider also some private schools that has good need based aid to meet the need. Then look at some low match schools where her scores/GPA are above 75% of the admission stat. Also consider those schools with automatic scholarships at her scores/GPA.
EFC has no meaning if the school does not meet your need. Even when the need is met, sometimes it is partially by loan. You should apply to at least several of these schools EA (if available, otherwise RD) so you can compare the financial aid packages. Do not consider ED.</p>
<p>Our EFC based on estimated income this year will be $5000 and I feel that is the most we can come up with out of pocket.</p>
<p>She would prefer to go to a school where she can do her prerequisites and then Pharmacy school in one place.</p>
<p>She’d really like to go to Pitt (instate), but unless she gets a substantial scholarship I don’t see how this would work.</p>
<p>She has a 4.0 UW GPA, the last two years she was ranked 1/275 students, she just took her SAT the second time and it was 800 R, 750 M, 730 W.
She has always taken the hardest courses available, Honors and AP, next year she will also take a dual enrollment class for English.</p>
<p>As for EC, she volunteers at our church, is in NHS and plays tennis. She participates in drama club and ITS.</p>
<p>I want to come up with a strategic list of schools that will fit her career goals, aren’t too far away and have a good chance of significant merit aid so we can afford to send her there.</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p><<<<<</p>
<p>she needs to identify 2-3 schools that you know FOR SURE she will get HUGE merit…those may or may not have a pharm school on campus…but that isnt necessary anyway. it is very important that y’all nail down 2-3 schools that you are certain costs will be covered. those will be her safeties.</p>
<p>Ivies and some LACS meet need fully. Why not add some to the mix. Our experience was the schools which promise to meet need gave better packages than the schools that gave merit aid (17-22K) but our EFC was higher than yours.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your insights. You have given me much to research and think about. Miami University sounds really nice. And I have looked at the links with the automatic scholarships. Alot of the places are really far away though. I will look into some private and LACs also.</p>
<p>I know that she would prefer to do her PharmD at the same place she does the prerequisites - but that also may not be financially feasible for her.</p>
<p>However, with her high stats, she could be competitive at 100% need schools. Most of them do not have PharmD programs, but she could either choose to transfer after she completes the requirements or just complete her BA there.</p>
<p>Also, you should note that most parents don’t pay for their children’s graduate school. Maybe your deal is that you assist with college but she’s on her own for the PharmD. (She may change her mind anyway - my best friend through middle and high school wanted to be a pharmacist since we were in seventh grade, but in college she changed her mind and now she works in higher education.)</p>
<p>To piggyback on Juliette’s post, if she does do a 6 year combined program when she becomes a junior at some schools she may be an independent student starting professional school. She may no longer have the same need based financial aid that she had as am undergrad</p>
<p>As a grad student most of her financial aid will be in the form of loans. </p>
<p>I also agree with the fact that young people grow and change their mind- a lot. If she is not 100% committed to a PharmD program, she is better served going to a school that will give her the flexibility to do other things. </p>
<p>First of all, look at al of the schools in our sticky that have guaranteed full type awards, and check if she so qualifies for them AND then check and see what they have in pharm programs. She and her GC and you should also be getting a list of pharmacy schools of the programs ideal to her. Look at what they have in terms of merit money and/or if they look like they give great financial aid. I don’t know what schools that offer such programs and guarantee to meet full need. Look up the list of schools that do guarantee to meet full need and see if they have such programs. Once you have these lists, do look at what funding is for these programs once the student hits graduate school status and when that is. </p>
<p>Because she has great test scores and grades, I think you’ll have a nice sized list to work with. </p>
<p>As others have said, most teenagers change their minds. I cringe when parents and kids commit to schools and programs that are a big stretch in the affordability category on the assumption that the kid is going to become a pharmacist, PT, accountant, Engineer, doctor when we are talking about 18 year olds who change their minds all of the time and the stats for changes in majors bears this out resoundingly. My good friend and her DD are in financial ruins because they “invested” in a program that was too pricey without her completing it and getting a great job to be able to repay all of the loans they took. She quit the program, graduated with a philosophy degree and $95K in debt, a lot of it cosigned by her mother. She can’t find a job that even pays the interest in the loans. </p>
<p>Good advice, esp about not going into financial ruin based on expecting a great job. Yes, the pay today is good, but I can tell you that this year’s grads had a hard time getting jobs where they wanted and the starting salaries are not what they’ve been. The supply has increased greatly, while retail and hospitals are cutting jobs. Just something to keep in mind as I know parents like the ones cptofthehouse mentioned who assume loan repayments will be easy based on a job that may or may not materialize.</p>
<p>I know some folks who live in an area where there are just not the job openings for a lot of fields that do pay well. that means student has to live elsewhere, where the jobs are, and that takes a toll on the first few years of pay. My one son lives quite the distance from us, in a low COL place, thank goodness, but even with a well paying job and the low COL, that first year was expensive for him. Needed to find a place and as a professional, not a student which is not as easy when you don’t know the area. Can’t mooch as much from friends, family because you are the new kid in town. Not easy or price effective to ship a lot of things one needs in terms of household goods, and if you need a car, insurance, wardrobe, want to come home, it adds up fast. He’s doing well, but he also does not have student loans in the picture and we also have helped him out, being in position to do so. Some kids don’t have families with a cent to spare, and it’s a lot of pressure if the parents are waiting with their hands out for payback, along with the loan payments that come due. It doesn’t take much to put a young person’s new budget in a tail spin. Major car repair, accident, root canal, eye care, security deposits, all of those things can add up. </p>
<p>My niece is finishing up pharmacy at our state flagship.
When she was a junior in high school she had no idea what she wanted to do outside of probably chem.
Id suggest your daughter give herself the same break.
At 16-17, she is going to be undergoing a transformation before she is ready to apply to PharmaD programs.
She should focus on schools that offer merit for her stats that she wants to attend for undergrad.</p>
<p>Thank you, as a parent I have a lot of the same concerns you have brought up. To start out with a science degree maybe and see what she might want to do then. The thing that she liked about Pitt was the conditional admission to the pharmd program as a hs student. With her stats she qualifies and it would mean she would have one of 54 spots reserved in the pharmacy class and would not have to compete with the other students for the remaining 54 spots. Of course it also depends on having a 3.5 GPA in the prerequisites and a good score on the PCAT and interview.
Other schools have similar programs. But again if she decides to do something else that becomes irrelevant.
We have two younger children also and would like to keep the loans to a minimum, at least for undergrad.
If we find a school in PA we might also get some state grant money and if she can go somewhere within driving distance it would save on travel costs.</p>
<p>My DS intends to apply at a few nearby state flagships, with a chance at a competitive full ride. For you, that would include Ohio State, SUNY Buffalo, U Del, and U Md. I’d bet that your daughter will have lots of great options at decision time! </p>