Pharmacy: SUNY Buffalo, Rutgers, or St.John's

sk8rmom
Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:33:48 +0000

Cost in my opinion won’t be too much of an issue because of financial aid (parents earn less than 50k),



Do you know your estimated EFC yet? I think you should do a bit more research on financial aid before coming to this conclusion! At public schools, financial aid is mainly Pell grants ($5550/year max), NYS TAP ($5,000/yr max), loans (Stafford max is $5500 for freshmen, Perkins may or may not be available depending on the school but is usually in the $1-3K range/year) and work study.

I think you should apply to all three schools but I believe that you’ll find SUNY to be your most affordable option and you’ll likely receive a decent merit scholarship there as well. St John’s will also give merit but the COA is very high…make sure you understand all of your financial aid options before you make a final decision!

Very few school will accept math/science AP’s…for good reason. The courses taught in college have more depth than you would see on an AP exam and are important foundations for the coursework that follows. However having AP Bio and Chem will help you do well in your first year, so don’t think of it as wasted effort! I wouldn’t worry about the interview requirement at UB…if you can maintain your gpa and have some reasonable speaking skills you’ll be fine. They do offer “practice” interview sessions too!