Safety or Match and Chances for Merit based Scholarship for PharmD? Possibly? :)?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
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<p>First off I'm dead set on applying for their PharmD program. I want to go here so badly because I would prefer to stay in Boston (I'm a Massachusetts citizen) and my other Boston PharmD program alternative is Mass College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences... I've heard from two different people, one a personal family friend and the other is the head of a Pharmacy department in a hospital whom I job shadowed, who said that their college experience there @ MCP is "Ehhh.. only OK" and they don't really LOVE the school. I want a college experience I'll actually look back on and be like, "oh I loved my college years" instead of saying "oh.. ehhh.. it wasn't the best"..</p>

<p>Oh and the reason why I'm OCDing about my chances here is because out of 222 senior '08 applicants, 62 were accepted from my school... Most were rejected when they applied regular decision. I plan to do EA. Some of the applicants had 4+ W GPA w/ solid ECs and still got rejected.</p>

<p>Race: Asian/Chinese
Gender: F
Location: Massachusetts (sigh)
High School: Public
High School Type: 1 of the more competitive public high schools in the state
Major - PharmD </p>

<p>Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.7-3.8 (roughly)
Weighted: 4.19
Class Size: 515~
Ranking - no ranks but top 25% at least, maybe top 20%</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning - 1980/2400, 1310/1600
750M, 670W, 560CR (I'm retaking in October, I don't really know what happened here because I did awesome in all my English classes throughout high school but my nerves got the best of me I suppose)</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
700 -MathIIlevel2C (yeah I realize this is low but...)
710 - Bio E
720 - Chem</p>

<p>APs:
Both 5s on Psych & Chem during Junior year
- taking Calc AB & Bio senior year</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
...Here's where I lack. Unfortunately.
- 100+ Volunteer hours for two summers at a local hopsital, received Volunteer Awards
- 1 season of track (hated it, it took too much of my time so I stopped after sophomore year)
- Part time job throughout junior year and hopefully in senior year as well
- 5 years piano (no awards or anything)
- I have a mediocre art portfolio from Freshman & Sophomore years but had to discontinue art during junior + senior years because my schedule became too full, I've been drawing & painting ever since I was five years old though
- School newspaper layout editor Junior year, plan to continue Senior year
- Plan to join Yearbook as a layout editor for Senior year</p>

<p>Side notes: I've taken 2-3 honors classes every year, Freshman and sophomore year I took 5 academic classes & in Junior year took 6 academic classes. (I'm only taking 4 academic classes + Electives in Senior year because of science lab schedule restrictions)</p>

<p>With senior year included I will have taken 5 Science classes w/ Lab throughout highschool
- Have always taken honors/AP science, (not taking Honors/AP Physics in senior year because of my poor stress handling but taking AP Bio to make up for it) but always received B's in these honors science courses
- Math grades are generally pretty solid, Geometry was a B+ but Alg II = A, and Trig A- - not honors level Math courses though but the courses rank higher than CP level courses, just lower than Honors</p>

<p>Oh and I'm kind of leaning on my essays & my letter recc's, both full letter teachers have written trustworthy recc's for 10-20 years+</p>

<p>Do I have any chance at getting a merit-based scholarship/getting into their PharmD program? My parents can't afford to go here otherwise and I REALLY desperately want to go here... (I'm probably not eligible for need-based scholarship)</p>

<p>Thank you so much if you bothered to read all of that :)</p>

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<p>Not a safety for you. The Pharm school is very competitive, as you know. Particularly since you need merit based aid, you absolutely need to expand your college list. The merit based scholarships for Northeastern have been all over the place in recent years.<br>
Obviously being from MA and from a school where lots of kids apply to NEU hurts your chances.<br>
Your class rank and SAT scores make Northeastern a reach for you. You should definitely apply but there must be other schools that would meet your list. You need to add a bunch more schools to your list.</p>

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<p>I had the same SAT scores as you. From NJ. Ranked 43/300. Accepted EA with 10k/year. My volunteering stuff was rele good but no sports. You just have to make admissions know you are rele rele interested. They want to see someone who loves neu before they attend.</p>

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<p>ebeeee - Yeah I definitely have a HUGE list of other pharmacy program schools in the New England/New York/NJ area such as UConn and URI and Rutgers, I'd just prefer to stay in Boston is what I meant in my previous post. :)</p>

<p>Shoot.. I can definitely improve my SAT scores by a lot (I hope, I desperately need to, especially critical reading). I belivee my class ranking is top 20%. Is there anything else I should do to show the school that I'm really interested besides write a good essay?</p>

<p>cipro30- Thank you for the advice, I'll definitely take those facts into account.</p>

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<p>i think you just need to dress really hot for your interview ;)</p>

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<p>I'm not saying it is a safety but come on, your not applying to harvard. I'm 100% sure Northeastern is a match. I know people with 3.0 GPA and average SAT's (no more then 1200 on CR+M) that have gotten in and with alot of fin aid (around 15k a year). They were minorities, so that could have helped. And oh yeah they are from Boston!!! Your SATS are good enough. My college advisor said if your CR is high enough, most schools would ignore the writing part, since most still don't know how to scale it. Also your SAT 2's are great. Your EC's are good but not special, but it shouldn't hurt you. </p>

<p>The fact that you need fin aid will hurt, but not that much. Aslo applying EA boosts up your chances. Look, I'm no college admission officer or do I have a crystal ball, but NEU is defentely a match.</p>