<p>Posting for a friend. Friend’s D is a senior this year. A B/B+ student (do not know exact GPA) with SAT scores in the 1900-2000 range. She’s looking for a school with a good reputation for pharmacy in the New England area. Will qualify for financial aid - so pointers to schools with good pharmacy programs that offer to meet need would be appreciated.</p>
<p>UCONN, but as it is a public school, it will not meet 100% of need.</p>
<p>What about Northeastern? I think that’s a B plus school and has a great pharmacy program…although the program may be more competitive than the actual school.</p>
<p>UConn may be very competitive for Pharmacy as well.</p>
<p>The GC at D’s school stated that Pharmacy was probably the most competitive program. D is interested in nursing and was told that the acceptance rate in to the nursing program at UConn was only 10%…:(</p>
<p>URI has a Pharmacy program.</p>
<p>URI is well known and VERY competitive for the pharmacy program.</p>
<p>The University of New England has just built a brand-new pharmacy facility on its Portland campus.</p>
<p>Just attended the Northeastern University info session with my son. If memory serves, they accept about 25% of the applicants into the six year pharmacy program. Here is the freshman class profile for Fall 2008 for all majors, [Northeastern</a> University Undergraduate Admissions > Apply > Academic Profile](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/apply/academicprofile.html]Northeastern”>http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/apply/academicprofile.html) </p>
<p>Your friend’s daughter should call the NU admissions office and speak to someone. They were very friendly and helpful.</p>
<p>Saint Joseph’s College (a women’s college, I believe) in West Hartford is starting up a brand-new Pharmacy program, I think the first entering class begins next fall…</p>
<p><a href=“http://ww2.sjc.edu/PDF/PressReleases/PharmacyDean_020209.pdf[/url]”>http://ww2.sjc.edu/PDF/PressReleases/PharmacyDean_020209.pdf</a></p>
<p>I agree…UConn Pharmacy is EXTREMELY competitive.</p>
<p>I know nothing of their reputation or their competitiveness just that they have done some expansions recently.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.mcphs.edu/]MCPHS[/url”>http://www.mcphs.edu/]MCPHS[/url</a>]</p>
<p>MCPHS is considered to be not that good of a pharmacy school. It has a bad reputation and a high flunk out rate. The flunk out rank is high even for those who transfer into the professional program. Only a handful of programs accept students direct from high school. Almost all of the better schools do not accept directly from high school.
Here’s a list of all the programs [Home</a> Page for ACPE - Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education](<a href=“http://www.acpe-accredit.org/shared_info/programsSecure.asp]Home”>Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education – Setting the standard in pharmacy education)
Just be careful if you choose this profession. Current projects state there will be a modest surplus in the coming future.</p>
<p>Is she looking for a 0-6 or a 2+4 program? The 0-6 schools are few and very competitive and numbers driven. Her SAT may be good enough (if 1300+ for M/CR), but her class rank and gpa will also be a factor. Afaik, none of the 0-6 schools offer to meet full need. Of the ones that my D applied to, MCPHS came the closest to meeting full need but still gapped us by around $10K (after Stafford loans and merit awards). MCPHS does have a lower NAPLEX pass rate than some of the other schools but many students there seem happy and they are a well-established school. Northeastern may be a good option too, but financial aid is unlikely to cover anywhere near the full cost.</p>
<p>For 2+4 schools, she is not required to do her pre-reqs at a college with a pharmacy school so she could choose to do her first two years at any school that offers the courses she’ll need and then take the PCAT and apply to PharmD programs. I believe the only school with a COP that guarantees to meet need is UNC but there’s no guarantee she would be accepted into the PharmD program after two years as they accept mostly NC residents. There are 2+4 schools with early assurance guarantees listed on the AACP website.</p>
<p>Btw, regarding new pharmacy programs, I would be cautious about any programs with only pre-candidate status. Pharmacy schools are not fully accredited until they graduate their first class and, if all does not go as planned, these students would not be eligible to sit for the NAPLEX or practice pharmacy. It’s unusual but not unheard of and with so many new schools popping up it’s probably bound to happen again somewhere! Definitely look very carefully at the strength of the school in other health majors such as DPT, etc., as well as where their faculty and funding are coming from.</p>
<p>There has never been a case of a school receive pre-candidate status and not obtaining full accreditation status. If the school has candidate status, that means you can take the NAPLEX. That rule is not true for a school with pre-candidate status. Candidate status is achieved after the first class finishes a year of classes.</p>
<p>Unrelated to pharmacy schools, it should be noted that B+ students will be reaching for most any school that meets full need. You’re better off looking for schools with a generous FA track record, not a guarantee.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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!!!</p>
<p>UVM’s Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program
[Post-Baccalaureate</a> Premedical Program at UVM](<a href=“http://learn.uvm.edu/premed/pharmacist.php]Post-Baccalaureate”>http://learn.uvm.edu/premed/pharmacist.php)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Link to the new Maine school (Bangor) is [HUSSON:</a> Schools & Degrees, School of Pharmacy](<a href=“Husson University”>Husson University). </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>