Recently I got accepted into the University of Pittsburgh as well as UVA (EA). At Pitt I got conditional acceptance for pharmacy which would mean 2 years of undergrad and then straight into 4 years at pharmacy school (as long as I maintain a 3.25 GPA and take the PCAT). However, Pitt would be out of state and I don’t qualify for any merit scholarships and it would be around $40,000 total a year for the 2 years of undergrad (tuition, room and board, books, etc) and then pharmacy school is around $30,000 a year for tuition alone. At UVA I qualify for instate tuition and have a 529 so it would be around $10,000 a year. I’m wondering if it’s worth it to go to UVA for pre-pharmacy even though nothing would be guaranteed. Pitt is a pretty hard offer to give up because I am guaranteed a seat into the pharmacy school as long as I maintain my GPA and what not but at UVA I would have to do all of that, more, and on top of that I still might not get in. Any thoughts?
Hi! So I’m not an expert or anything, so I’ll give my honest opinion (btw, I also want to be a pharmacist :))
This summer when I knew for sure that I wanted to be a pharmacist, I was really really interested in looking at schools just like Pitt with the guaranteed seating at their pharm school as long as the GPA requirement was in par. However, after talking to people who had college experience and a person who is a current pharmacist (he has just become one last year so still “fresh” with the process) and they advised me to try not to do the guaranteed thing b/c I will never know if I become interested in something else. But of course, I thought whyyy? I know for sure I want to become one so why not save time since it takes a long time to become a pharmacist, but they still advised me to do 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of grad so I ended up this year just applying for schools that interested me for undergrad. So overall, I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Pitt is a great school and it’s amazing that you will be guaranteed a spot at their pharm school, but it’s super expensive while not so much with UVA. Idk your personality, but UVA is a wonderful, beautiful school and I’m sure that as long you work your hardest, you will be able to fulfill your dreams! 
Sorry if this didn’t really help, but I hope you can think about some of the points! Good luck to you whatever you choose
If I’m understanding @peaches333’s post, it sounds like you’d be spending 6 years total at Pitt vs. 8 years total if you do the UVA route. That brings total cost of Pitt (assuming Pharmacy schools costs 45k total a year) to $260,000; whereas at UVA it’s $80,000. Is being guaranteed a spot in the pharmacy program worth $180,000 even if is means you save two years of your life? That seems like an overwhelmingly large sum of money if you ask me.
I think you need to run the numbers for a few different pharmacy programs where you might attend.