Hello! So I have pretty much received all of my college decisions and here is what I have to work with. I got into UCD, UCSC, and UCSD as a Chemistry major. I was also accepted at UOP for their 2+3 pre pharm program, where the first two years are undergrad and the last 3 are for pharmD. My question is, my ultimate goal is to become a pharmacist, so which college would be the best choice? In terms of money, after financial aid and grants, I would be spending (out of pocket) 40k a year for UOP, and 30k for any of the UCs I listed above. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Well if your total cost for 5 years UOP is $200,000 and at the UCs would you have to do a bachelor’s degree and then 4 yr PharmD?
That would be $120,000 for the BS and then 4x the cost of tuition/fees/housing and food at whatever pharmacy school you get accepted at. So I assume that would be another $30,000 or more a year?
I would do the shorter, direct program if possible.
Now is that affordable for your family?
The first three years at UOP you can only borrow $5,500, $6,500 and $7,500 on your own.
For UOP, we would need to take out loans to pay for the tuition, but I am waiting on news on some scholarships. Also, I discovered that it is 30k for the 2 years as an undergraduate, as I don’t believe that my merit scholarships can be used once I go into the pharmD program. There, I would be looking at 80k for 2 years and 60k for the third year at UOP. That’s why I am unsure about which pathway to take.
Do you have any schools you don’t have to borrow for?
Does UOP have agreements with some CA schools where they will accept students conditionally, if they maintain a certain GPA?
Do you have high stats? Did you apply to any pharmacy schools that give merit?
Here is some info about pharmacy prerequisites and articulation agreements UOP has with over 200 schools.
I would recommend you go to an affordable school, borrowing for undergrad and pharmacy school is not a good idea.
For any of the Uc’s, I could probably pay for at least half of the tuition every year but for UOP I definitely need to borrow. UOP guarantees admittance into their pharmacy program as long as I maintain a 3.0. My stats are OK, but I didn’t apply to any other school for that purpose. All of my aid at UOP is based off merit though, because as I described in one of my posts, gambling losses makes me unable to get financial aid for at least 2 years, since next year’s taxes are still affected. As far as going to an affordable school what do you recommend?
I don’t know much about California, but in the above list of schools with articulation agreements, there are community colleges listed, maybe you can start out there and then transfer to a UC that you could commute to from home to save money.
@“aunt bea” do you have any advice for this student in CA looking to becoming a pharmacist?
There are some advantages to both, if you have the funding.
My dd decided not to do UOP because of the costs and the location of the school.
Here’s another issue: Jobs may be difficult to locate because of current trends whereby every school is opening a pharmacy school, and there are too many grads. If you have loans, that will really affect your piece of mind to repay.
So would you say that going to UCSD and getting a bachelor’s in Chem has a higher job security than going to UOP and only having a pharmD?
I don’t know anything about job security for either. How am I supposed to predict that???
The 3-year pharmD at UOP is the full 3 years. No summers off.
It gets very hot in Stockton.
If you have a PharmD and want to work as a pharmacist, your undergraduate major means diddly-squat. If you want to get a Master’s or Doctorate in Pharmacy or some other major, your undergrad degree will be of significance. In other words, having a BS in Chem from UCSD and a PharmD versus only a PharmD from UOP will NOT provide higher job security when working as a pharmacist.
So where I get my PharmD doesn’t matter? What I meant by that is in the event that I cannot find a job as a pharmacist, isn’t having a BS in Chemistry as a fall back better than having a PharmD from UOP if I’m looking at other science related jobs?
Our daughter wants to do pharmacy as well. She’s a chemistry major accepted to UCSB UCSD UCD and SLO. Slo being a lot less due to merit full costa for UCs anyone have any suggestions? She was admitted to usc with some sort of guarantee for their pharmacy school but it’s way too much money