St Johns University VS University at Buffalo

sk8rmom
Wed, 26 May 2010 22:19:54 +0000

There is a huge difference between St John’s and UB, despite the fact that you could end up with a respected PharmD from either school. St John’s is a 0-6 school, very competitive for admissions to pharmacy, but easier to stay in since you have a guaranteed spot for 6 years with a relatively low gpa requirement (as pharm schools go). It may be more expensive on an annual basis, depending on your FA package, but you’re very likely to have only 6 years of expenses.

UB is a 2+4 school (or a 3+4 starting next year), accepts several hundred pre-pharms a year and weeds them down to 35-40 pharmacy admits. There is a “guarantee” of sorts but they will openly admit that it’s very difficult to stay in the program and many pre-pharms transfer schools or majors in the first year or two. UB is a good school at a great price, no question about that, but if your goal is to become a pharmacist in 6 years you should definitely plan to take the PCAT and apply to other schools unless you can manage to keep your math/science gpa over 3.5, which is not an easy task at UB! The pre-reqs are demanding, the time frame is short, and there is a possibility that you will not be able to take all of them at Buffalo due to demand (unless you’re an honors student). On the other hand, if there’s a chance that you’ll want to switch majors, UB is probably more likely to have many other programs that will be both challenging and interesting:) (I’m sure susgeek can speak more about St John’s in that respect)

Btw, the demand for pharmacists has been cooling the past few years in the metro areas. Don’t count on $100K and signing bonuses when you graduate, so make sure you can afford whatever school you choose! If possible, try to keep your debt to a minimum until you’re actually in the professional phase and don’t get caught up in the “I’ll be able to pay it all back when I’m a doctor/lawyer/engineer/pharmacist mentality”!