Pharmacy programs in New England for a B+ student?

[Neonzeus]

As others have noted, pharmacy is extremely competitive. She should consider a strategy of doing prepharm somewhere and trying to get a science GPA of 3.5+ while preparing for the Pharmcas exam.

To identify prepharm classes, she will need to review pharmacy school prereqs at lots of schools. My kid did a spreadsheet of prereqs at particular schools and then met as many of them as possible with electives and summer school. While trying to keep a pharmacy guarantee at SUNY, he was hedging his bets by meeting as many requirements for other schools as possible. For ex., some schools require macroeconomics and others require microeconomics. Some require anatomy or microbiology, and some don't. Some want a year of calculus, and some require only a semester. Some have English or Speech requirements.

Depending on her GPA and Pharmcas score, her list of possible schools can change significantly. Some schools have a lower applicant profile and some schools are very competitive, such as UCONN.

She will find that many pharmacy schools such as UCONN have recently changed their requirements so that they now only accept pharmacy school applicants from their own undergraduates. If she wants to go to pharmacy school at UCONN, she has to go there as an undergrad and then do really well in her prepharm work in order to be a viable candidate. (Duquesne and Toledo are other schools that require candidates to come from their own students). Other schools such as U-Washington want students to have a 4-year degrees. This is a rapidly changing field, that appears to be trending towards a 7-year program as prerequisites or 4+3 programs increase.

There are also a lot of schools starting up programs - for ex., there's a new pharmacy school in Southern Maine and one in Philadelphia. A college in Buffalo just announced that it is applying for a pharmacy school.

There are some schools with a higher acceptance rate than 10-20% of candidates, but your friend's D may have to cast her net a little wider when she's ready to apply.

Kids and their parents tend to underestimate the difficulty of organic chem and college calculus, which will be prepharm prequisites. When those classes are filled with focused premed, predentistry, prepharm and engineering students, the curve tends to be brutal. Whether a 0-6, 2+4 or 4+2 program (ie, number of years before entering the PharmD program), there tends to be a very high rate of kids who end up changing majors. Schools such as MCPHS reflect this, and the possiblity of backup majors at any school should always be weighed if a kid doesn't want to consider transferring.

I do recommend that your friend's D look at SUNY Buffalo, Duquesne and Ohio Northern. While they may not meet her regional goal, SUNY has a guarantee program for incoming students that at least gives every kid a chance if they meet GPA requirements in the required classes.

It was a nerve wracking process, but I'm going to my kid's pharmacy White Coat ceremony as he enters pharmacy school next week!!!

[radannie]

UVM's Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program
Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program at UVM

[arisamp]

Wow - thanks for all the replies and the incredibly useful info. Friend's D has visited Northeastern - that's on top of her list, but COA is an issue. Not sure if she can swing it, even with a reasonable financial aid package. She didn't much care for College of Pharmacy in Boston.

I wasn't aware of the different choices available (the 0-6, 2+4 programs) - will pass on the information to my friend to see if they've considered those.

Thanks again!

[Neonzeus]

If COA is an issue, another important thing to note is that Pharmacy Schools typically have a very different rate of tuition than the undergrad institution generally. When your friend is checking the cost of colleges, also look at the upper division cost of attending the School of Pharmacy. It's not surprising to see another $20K/yr jump in tuition for the PharmD program.

[Neonzeus]

Link to the new Maine school (Bangor) is HUSSON: Schools & Degrees, School of Pharmacy.

My kid told me to correct my references to Pharmcas to refer to the PCAT test. When I add SAT, ACT, LSAT, PCAT, GRE, CC, OP, LOL, ROF, DS, DD, GC, AP, IB, etc. to all the acronyms that I have to know at work, it's amazing that I can function at all.

[sk8rmom]

Nova, I believe there was a school in Hawaii that was not accredited and had pre-candidate staus. Seem to remember their students had to transfer when they closed a few years ago.

[Nova10]

Nova, I believe there was a school in Hawaii that was not accredited and had pre-candidate staus. Seem to remember their students had to transfer when they closed a few years ago.

HICP never had pre-candidate status. They wanted to skip pre-candidate status and go straight to candidate status. They were the only school to have ever tried to attempt this move. The HICP affair was a complete mess. The administrators lied to the students and embezzled the money. It was one of the few times ACPE actually did something and did not get scared away from asserting itself.
That is why in 2005/06, ACPE strengthened the accreditation rules. Pre-candidate status is now required along with a few other new things.