Recently, I’ve been having trouble with my 11th grade son selecting his senior classes. He intends to major in pre-pharmacy, and has a few school choices in mind, which include Ohio State, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Kentucky.
The whole mess of the situation comes down to the classes he needs to be prepared for college. He has already taken AP Chemistry, Honors Anatomy, Honors Chemistry, and Honors Biology. He plans on taking his senior year AP Biology, Organic Chemistry, and/or Honors Physics. The problem is, he can only take two out of those three, since they are the only ones that fit into his schedule. I need help in determining which two classes are the most important for him to take to prepare himself for the pre pharmacy program.
I’d go for the physics. He already has AP Chem. AP Bio would help his weighted GPA a bit. Colleges want to see the three sciences on a transcript. He’s missing physics.
My D is in pre-pharmacy at Pitt. She got AP credit for AP Calc, AP lit, AP Econ, AP US history. So she was able to lower her credit load each semester and take some elective classes for fun.
I would take AP Bio or Honors Physics, depending on if he had any physics yet.
Check into UKY. I think their merit scholarships are only good for pre-pharmacy. And they limit the amount of OOS students they accept to pharmacy school I believe. They also require a lot of prerequisites, over 70, compared to like 62 at Pitt.
Ohio State requires a bachelor’s degree before pharmacy school.
Where are you instate? Look for schools that offer scholarships or plan to go to pharmacy school instate because tuition is usually lower instate versus OOS.
If your son qualifies for Pitt’s conditional admission to pharmacy school, then he should apply early in August.
They have about 50 spots, once they are given out, they are gone.
Look at Duquesne also. Online application was free before Dec 15, and they gave maximum scholarships of $20k this year and a $4,000 room and board scholarship. Their scholarships are good for all 6 years.
@mommdc Thank you (an other responders) for the advice. We are actually from Pittsburgh and have attended an Open house at Pitt School of Pharmacy. My son also plans to attend a pharmacy camp at U of Toledo this summer. I may be asking for more input in the future if you don’t mind.
Assuming the costs work out, i can’t overemphasize the opportunities that Pitt Pharm has to offer. D1, a 2014 graduate, had a world (literally) of opportunities and experiences in her academic career.
She was able to conduct research projects that were published in peer-reviewed professional journals, work as a pharmacy intern in a world-class hospital, apply for and receive grants for community service projects, become a named Fellow in two national programs, participate in professional rotations literally around the world (she had APPE rotations in Australia, Honduras, was offered a rotation in Italy, as well as programs in several states in the USA), attend multiple professional conferences with subsidies and stipends from Pitt and ultimately receive eleven interview requests out of twelve applications for post-graduate residency programs.
Pitt Pharmacy has an outstanding reputation and world-wide renown. (Her preceptor in Australia was a Pitt grad!)
@mommdc@QuietType follow-up from last spring - my son (applying to Pharmacy) finished his Junior HS year with an ACT 32, 4.2 wt and is 85% leaning toward Pitt (we visited and will apply to U of Ky, Duquesne, Ohio St, NC, Mich, U. of Toledo). The truth is that we live in Pittsburgh and the healthcare community surrounding the school doesn’t compare. He has spent a great deal of time shadowing both retail and lab. Everyone is stressing “Get that application in as early as you can” - Thank you for your previous input. Any last minute advice for my son appreciative. He has already written all three of the essay prompts with a focus on science and pharmacy.
Yes, he does sound like a very strong applicant. And applying early is the best advice I can give you. He should have everything complete and filed before the end of September. It really, really, really is an advantage to apply early in the rolling admission cycle for Pitt’s selective programs.
By the way, Pennsylvania-resident D1 was also accepted at Michigan and I was shocked at the out-of-state cost for attendance at UM. I even called the Dean of the Michigan School of Pharmacy to ask about that and her advice to me was to be “a good steward of our money.” At least she was honest and, of course, D1 wound up as a Pitt PharmD student and graduate.
Incidentally, she’s now a professor of pharmacy at a graduate school of health sciences in California with a board certification. She was awarded the school’s educator of the year award after her first year. If your son takes advantage of the opportunities that Pitt Pharmacy offers, he will have a wide range of options when he graduates. Not a small thing in light of today’s competitive market for PharmD grads.
@mommdc@QuietType - Follow-up from last spring and July - my son was admitted to Pitt last week and today received his PharmD GAP! That High School rigor pays off. Thanks for your input and advice.
All Right! It’s so nice to know and have that acceptance in hand early in the application process. I’m sure he has more applications out there, but IMHO, he’s got the most important one already. Make sure you let him know that he’s done good!
Feel free to PM me if you have any additional questions or are looking for some more specific information on the Pitt Pharm process.