UCLA vs. UOP vs. PURDUE...urgent help please

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi!
I am an incoming freshman and I am choosing between UCLA, UOP, and Purdue.
UOP and Purdue I got in for their 6 years Pharmacy Program, which includes about 3 years of undergraduate Pre-pharmacy studies and automatically 3 years of Pharmacy studies as a graduate student at the school. So, I am basically guaranteed graduate school and a degree if I maintain my gpa. UCLA I got in as an UNDECIDED-PHYSICAL SCIENCE, later planning to major in chemistry.
This is a very difficult decision because each school has its positives and negatives and I just wish they were all mashed together.
To me, UOP is a very small school and because I attended a very small high school, I wanted to attend a big school to get the full college experience and meet more people. Purdue is in Indiana. I honestly do not want to go to Indiana, it is cold, Purdue is a public school and I will have to pay more because I am not an Indiana resident. However, the school is very big. UCLA has such a great environment and very close to home which makes me feel secure. However, I am not guaranteed graduate school and a degree, which also contributes to not reaching my goal of becoming a pharmacist. At the same time, I am not positively sure if I really want to become a pharmacist, so there may be chance I might change majors. However, if I go into the pharmacy programs then I won't really have a choice to change because I only went there to do the pharmacy programs.
So, I was planning to go to UCLA and transfer to USC's pharmacy program, which guarantees me a graduate school. However, everyone is saying that if I go to UCLA, then it is going to be really hard and my gpa will be low to transfer.
I am the type of person to study if I need to study, but I am not naturallly intelligent, maybe up to some degree. So, I am a bit scared to go to UCLA because if i make one mistake then my plan to transfer to USC is destroyed. Also, to get a teachers recommendation from UCLA is very hard because of the great amount of students</p>

<p>I AM IN A BIG DILEMMA AND I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO
PLEASE HELP. THANK YOU!</p>

2

<p>UCLA is not big?</p>

3

<p>go to UCLA.</p>

4

<p>I recently met a UCLA recent graduate in Chemistry who is trying to get into pharmacy school at USC. She is in limbo at the moment. She made comment about how difficult it was to get As in UCLA chemistry classes alongside all the insane asian premeds (she is asian).</p>

<p>It is true that getting high grades at UCLA in the sciences is tough. UOP is big into sports, so you will at least get a lot of school spirit there. UOP is not highly rated undergrad, but their professional schools are well regarded, espcially dentistry. I’m not sure about pharmacy. At UOP you will not struggle to get mostly As if you are accepted to UCLA.</p>

<p>Your question really goes to whether you are risk averse, or risk tolerant. UCLA is the high risk/high reward option. Can you live with that uncertainty? That’s a personal decision.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t give Purdue another second’s thought given your circumstances and what you wrote.</p>

5

<p>I’m assuming you’re about 17 years old. You have no idea how much you’re going to change your mind once you’re attending college. I strongly advise you to not choose a school specifically because of a 6 year program. There are very very high chances of you changing your interests/major.</p>

6

<p>As liek says, I can’t imagine any 17-year-old who’d be prepared to make a fully informed life commitment to a career in Pharmacy (unless they had a parent in the field). I’m sure you’ve considered the pros and cons of such a career, but there’s a whole big world out there that you’ve only begun to discover. The benefits of UOP and Purdue would seem to be a degree of security, but you have to keep certain grades to access that security. If you can earn them there, I’m sure you can do so as well at UCLA. And if after fully applying yourself at UCLA you find there’s no Pharmacy program to which you can be admitted (highly unlikely), it’ll be a sign that your true calling lies elsewhere - which statistically speaking is more likely the case than not, given that the average college student changes their major three to four times. Just on the stature, cachet, name appeal, reputation, etc. of the schools, UCLA would appear to be a no-brainer.</p>

7

<p>Okay, first let me preface my comments by pointing out that I went to graduate school at UCLA and my son attends undergraduate school right now in Indiana.</p>

<p>Now that we have that out of the way, let me suggest that you go to UOP (University of the Pacific)–if you are really sure that you want to go into pharmacy as a career, that is.</p>

<p>As you pointed out, doing so will allow you guaranteed admission to the pharmacy graduate program (very difficult to get in at lots of schools, including UOP), and it will also keep your costs relatively cheap since you will be staying in-state.</p>

<p>Purdue is a great engineering school, but to pay over $40,000 per year to be there in the cold (and in West Lafayette, where the most exciting thing off campus is the local Hooters or Wal-Mart) is not for you. For someone who wants to be an expert in aeronautical or civil engineering or operations research, then Purdue is the place. That’s doesn’t sound like you.</p>

<p>UCLA is a really good school–and a fun place, but the competition in class is fierce, and it tends to be a bit of a commuter school for half the people that go there–and it is quite expensive if you live on-campus to hang out and still do the fun stuff.</p>

<p>UOP is a great school–but no, you won’t get that “big school” experience. However, you know what? You don’t have to spend all your time in Stockton at UOP–you are allowed to drive the one hour back over to the SF Bay Area whenever you want. So do that, and go attend the baseball games in Oakland or SF, and attend the college football games and college basketball games at Stanford or UC Berkeley when the local UOP teams aren’t up your “standards”–and take a couple of your friends with you and make it an “road trip”. Also, UOP isn’t entirely microscopic–it has 6,000 students when you add up both the undergrads and grad students. Yes, it is smaller than Purdue or UCLA, but that is probably a good thing for someone who wants to meet some new people while not feeling like just a bug on a windshield. If you go to UCLA or Purdue, you will find that lots of the people going there are doing so with friends of theirs from local high schools–and they will form their own cliques and you will feel left out. This is less likely to happen at UOP–and you are also likely to find others who share your interest in a pharmacy career.</p>

<p>So, go and enjoy yourself. And don’t worry that you are missing out on tons of stuff–you aren’t.</p>

<p>P.S. If you aren’t positive you want to stay in the pharmacy program, only then would I suggest UCLA for you.</p>