UF Pharmacy Jacksonville

[pandaghost]

Hi everyone! I just got accepted to UF COP Jacksonville campus. Like many others, I had my heart set on Gainesville. I know nothing about Jacksonville, so I'm a little bit nervous. I was wondering if any current or former Jacksonville students could weigh in about the campus. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Do you feel like you have many opportunities and resources for professional development? Pretty much just looking for thoughts on the campus.

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[770link770]

First off... Congrats on the acceptance. I'm a 1 PD on the Orlando Campus and have yet to get to visit the Jacksonville Campus. I've heard great things about it and have met some of the students from there. It offers a unique experience being as it is actually part of Shands Hospital in downtown Jacksonville. It provides many opportunities like the Gainesville Campus and even offers PGY-1 and PGY-2 residencies after graduation. The new curriculum looks quite amazing too. I'm sure it will be a little tough being that your class is going to be the first year of the transition, but believe me when I say that I am jealous of the way it is going to be laid out in the years to come. Best of luck to you next year!

 

[yellowstarburst]

Hi everyone! I just got accepted to UF COP Jacksonville campus. Like many others, I had my heart set on Gainesville. I know nothing about Jacksonville, so I'm a little bit nervous. I was wondering if any current or former Jacksonville students could weigh in about the campus. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Do you feel like you have many opportunities and resources for professional development? Pretty much just looking for thoughts on the campus.

You were just accepted? When did you interview?

 

[pandaghost]

You were just accepted? When did you interview?

I interviewed Feb. 6

 

[yellowstarburst]

I interviewed Feb. 6

Awesome! Congratulations. I interviewed recently too. Can you tell me what day they got back to you after your interview? Like what date? I am very anxious to hear back.

 

[pandaghost]

Awesome! Congratulations. I interviewed recently too. Can you tell me what day they got back to you after your interview? Like what date? I am very anxious to hear back.

They actually got back to me Monday/Tuesday of this week. I say Monday/Tuesday because it was just after midnight. However, I turned my supplemental in the day of the interview, so that might be why they took a little longer for me. I saw on the UF thread that people from my interview date knew a week later. Good luck! How did you rank the campuses?

 

[pandaghost]

First off... Congrats on the acceptance. I'm a 1 PD on the Orlando Campus and have yet to get to visit the Jacksonville Campus. I've heard great things about it and have met some of the students from there. It offers a unique experience being as it is actually part of Shands Hospital in downtown Jacksonville. It provides many opportunities like the Gainesville Campus and even offers PGY-1 and PGY-2 residencies after graduation. The new curriculum looks quite amazing too. I'm sure it will be a little tough being that your class is going to be the first year of the transition, but believe me when I say that I am jealous of the way it is going to be laid out in the years to come. Best of luck to you next year!

Thank you so much! How do you like your campus? I guess I'm also wondering how different it is to be on a satellite campus vs Gainesville.

 

[yellowstarburst]

They actually got back to me Monday/Tuesday of this week. I say Monday/Tuesday because it was just after midnight. However, I turned my supplemental in the day of the interview, so that might be why they took a little longer for me. I saw on the UF thread that people from my interview date knew a week later. Good luck! How did you rank the campuses?

Thank you !!! I ranked Gainesville first and orlando second.

 

[770link770]

Thank you so much! How do you like your campus? I guess I'm also wondering how different it is to be on a satellite campus vs Gainesville.

I absolutely love the Orlando Campus. It's by far the newest of the four (soon to be three campuses). It sits in Lake Nona which is known as medical city so it's surrounded by UCF College of Medicine, a VA hospital that is supposed to open this year, Nemour's Children's Hospital, Sanford Burnham Research, and soon to be much more. It's still a growing area so most of the housing is 10-15 minutes away but parking is never a problem and it's highway the whole way so it's a nice commute. Orlando has more than I could ever ask for as far as things to do goes.

As far as classes go I suppose I can't fully comment on how different they are being as I've never attended a live lecture in Gainesville yet. I will comment that many students in Gainesville opt to just watch the recorded lectures rather than attend the live lectures due to many reasons. It took a little while to get adjusted to watching recorded lectures but now it would be so hard to go back. First off the convenience to be able to watch the lectures whenever you please is amazing. Second off you control everything and can pause or rewind as you please to reinforce a topic or if you just need a quick break... The best thing however is double speed (you'll soon to grow to love this to the point that normal conversations sound like they're being played in slo-mo)! Double speed is a must because they do dump a lot of lectures on you on top of the classes that you're already having live on the distance campuses.

The only downside I see to being at a distance campus is all the big events like orientation, SOAR, and white coat ceremony (coming up in a couple weeks for us) are all performed in Gainesville so we all have to commute up for those. There are however many Pharmacy related events held here in Orlando being that it is such a large hub city. Many of the other campuses drive down for some of the Board of Pharmacy meetings here, PDS (which is the National Independent Pharmacy Growth Conference), and many others! In the end they're all great campuses (I'm often jealous of the St. Pete kids always posting pictures studying by the beach... but you guys don't get the option to go to that campus) so no matter which one you end up at I'm sure you'll be happy. I'm also not completely positive but I've heard that once you're in, that if you do decide to change campuses, that they make it very easy after your first year... However the friendships that you make your first year will never make you want to transfer campuses.

 

[yellowstarburst]

I absolutely love the Orlando Campus. It's by far the newest of the four (soon to be three campuses). It sits in Lake Nona which is known as medical city so it's surrounded by UCF College of Medicine, a VA hospital that is supposed to open this year, Nemour's Children's Hospital, Sanford Burnham Research, and soon to be much more. It's still a growing area so most of the housing is 10-15 minutes away but parking is never a problem and it's highway the whole way so it's a nice commute. Orlando has more than I could ever ask for as far as things to do goes.

As far as classes go I suppose I can't fully comment on how different they are being as I've never attended a live lecture in Gainesville yet. I will comment that many students in Gainesville opt to just watch the recorded lectures rather than attend the live lectures due to many reasons. It took a little while to get adjusted to watching recorded lectures but now it would be so hard to go back. First off the convenience to be able to watch the lectures whenever you please is amazing. Second off you control everything and can pause or rewind as you please to reinforce a topic or if you just need a quick break... The best thing however is double speed (you'll soon to grow to love this to the point that normal conversations sound like they're being played in slo-mo)! Double speed is a must because they do dump a lot of lectures on you on top of the classes that you're already having live on the distance campuses.

The only downside I see to being at a distance campus is all the big events like orientation, SOAR, and white coat ceremony (coming up in a couple weeks for us) are all performed in Gainesville so we all have to commute up for those. There are however many Pharmacy related events held here in Orlando being that it is such a large hub city. Many of the other campuses drive down for some of the Board of Pharmacy meetings here, PDS (which is the National Independent Pharmacy Growth Conference), and many others! In the end they're all great campuses (I'm often jealous of the St. Pete kids always posting pictures studying by the beach... but you guys don't get the option to go to that campus) so no matter which one you end up at I'm sure you'll be happy. I'm also not completely positive but I've heard that once you're in, that if you do decide to change campuses, that they make it very easy after your first year... However the friendships that you make your first year will never make you want to transfer campuses.

That was so helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to write that out for all of us that are interested and preparing for this transition.

I have a somewhat dumb question to ask... I realize that Gainesville has live lectures, and that they can go to the lecture hall to attend (or watch the video later) ... But how EXACTLY do distance campuses learn? Are the videos up whenever for you to watch whenever you want? Or do you have to go to your (orlando) campus/lecture hall and then watch the recorded lecture on a screen while it happens live in Gainesville?

I apologize for the silly question. I wasn't informed as to the technicalities of the satellite campus. !

 

[pandaghost]

I absolutely love the Orlando Campus. It's by far the newest of the four (soon to be three campuses). It sits in Lake Nona which is known as medical city so it's surrounded by UCF College of Medicine, a VA hospital that is supposed to open this year, Nemour's Children's Hospital, Sanford Burnham Research, and soon to be much more. It's still a growing area so most of the housing is 10-15 minutes away but parking is never a problem and it's highway the whole way so it's a nice commute. Orlando has more than I could ever ask for as far as things to do goes.

As far as classes go I suppose I can't fully comment on how different they are being as I've never attended a live lecture in Gainesville yet. I will comment that many students in Gainesville opt to just watch the recorded lectures rather than attend the live lectures due to many reasons. It took a little while to get adjusted to watching recorded lectures but now it would be so hard to go back. First off the convenience to be able to watch the lectures whenever you please is amazing. Second off you control everything and can pause or rewind as you please to reinforce a topic or if you just need a quick break... The best thing however is double speed (you'll soon to grow to love this to the point that normal conversations sound like they're being played in slo-mo)! Double speed is a must because they do dump a lot of lectures on you on top of the classes that you're already having live on the distance campuses.

The only downside I see to being at a distance campus is all the big events like orientation, SOAR, and white coat ceremony (coming up in a couple weeks for us) are all performed in Gainesville so we all have to commute up for those. There are however many Pharmacy related events held here in Orlando being that it is such a large hub city. Many of the other campuses drive down for some of the Board of Pharmacy meetings here, PDS (which is the National Independent Pharmacy Growth Conference), and many others! In the end they're all great campuses (I'm often jealous of the St. Pete kids always posting pictures studying by the beach... but you guys don't get the option to go to that campus) so no matter which one you end up at I'm sure you'll be happy. I'm also not completely positive but I've heard that once you're in, that if you do decide to change campuses, that they make it very easy after your first year... However the friendships that you make your first year will never make you want to transfer campuses.

Thank you so much! That was really helpful. I'm feeling a lot better about Jacksonville.

 

[770link770]

That was so helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to write that out for all of us that are interested and preparing for this transition.

I have a somewhat dumb question to ask... I realize that Gainesville has live lectures, and that they can go to the lecture hall to attend (or watch the video later) ... But how EXACTLY do distance campuses learn? Are the videos up whenever for you to watch whenever you want? Or do you have to go to your (orlando) campus/lecture hall and then watch the recorded lecture on a screen while it happens live in Gainesville?

I apologize for the silly question. I wasn't informed as to the technicalities of the satellite campus. !

Nope it's a great question as I had the same one when I was getting ready for the start of the semester. The lectures are recorded when they take place in Gainesville and are posted usually a 2-3 hours after they take place. Due to this it's usually preferred to stay a day behind on lectures so you're able to watch them whenever you want without having to wait for them to post. Many days you will be too busy to watch any of the lectures for that day so it's nice that they are there waiting for you whenever you have the time. The lectures stay posted all semester too so it's really easy to go back and rewatch the ones you may need a review for right before finals.

 

[yellowstarburst]

Nope it's a great question as I had the same one when I was getting ready for the start of the semester. The lectures are recorded when they take place in Gainesville and are posted usually a 2-3 hours after they take place. Due to this it's usually preferred to stay a day behind on lectures so you're able to watch them whenever you want without having to wait for them to post. Many days you will be too busy to watch any of the lectures for that day so it's nice that they are there waiting for you whenever you have the time. The lectures stay posted all semester too so it's really easy to go back and rewatch the ones you may need a review for right before finals.

Aw thank you so much! Is it hard to make friends if you rarely go to campus for class?

 

[770link770]

Aw thank you so much! Is it hard to make friends if you rarely go to campus for class?

Far from it! Even on the distance campuses you're going to spend at least 3-4 days on campus anyways and 2PD year you're on campus pretty much 5 days a week anyways. I find it hard to not make friends actually and in just the semester and a half we've had so far I've made some of the best friends I've ever had in my life. Studying in groups is a must in my opinion as everyone seems to be better at different things. Not to mention the stress of PTX (pharmacotherapy) in the spring really makes your class bond closer together!

 

[yellowstarburst]

Far from it! Even on the distance campuses you're going to spend at least 3-4 days on campus anyways and 2PD year you're on campus pretty much 5 days a week anyways. I find it hard to not make friends actually and in just the semester and a half we've had so far I've made some of the best friends I've ever had in my life. Studying in groups is a must in my opinion as everyone seems to be better at different things. Not to mention the stress of PTX (pharmacotherapy) in the spring really makes your class bond closer together!

That's really nice and makes me feel better about distance campuses. I applied for Gainesville to be my top choice but I highly doubt that I will get it. If you're not going to campus for lectures, are you just going to campus for clubs and such?

 

[770link770]

That's really nice and makes me feel better about distance campuses. I applied for Gainesville to be my top choice but I highly doubt that I will get it. If you're not going to campus for lectures, are you just going to campus for clubs and such?

Many classes still require you to meet in class. Each campus still has their own faculty. We meet for classes like Integrated Case Studies where you give presentations on certain cases and topics to classmates, Pharmacotherapy in which you are assigned case work each week that you research and during the in class session they randomly call on people to answer questions, defend medication therapy plans, perform scenarios with mock patients/doctors, etc. Most of the elective classes are all held in person too. Then of course all of the other things such as clubs, organizations, IPPE panels, and lots of other things. Also test days most people end up spending pretty much all day on campus as our tests are not until 4:30 pm this year, and get bumped back to 7:00 pm next year.

 

[770link770]

Really the only difference between Gainesville and distance campuses is the fact that instead of sitting in on lectures in a lecture hall where you do not get much interaction with the teacher anyways because it's a timed lecture that's being recorded constantly so they try not to stray off on tangents too often, you just get to watch them from the comfort of your own home. Everything else is face to face with our campus faculty and classmates. Many of the faculty from Gainesville also come visit the distance campuses often too! I know one of the organizations that I am an officer for is having Dr. Mobley (teaches dosage forms, compounding labs, PTX, ICS, etc) come down for one of our meetings in which he's going to teach us to compound some different things since we don't get to experience too much of that until our third year. The new curriculum that you will have has a little bit of compounding distributed every semester I believe instead of having one big class on it third year before rotations.

 

[yellowstarburst]

Really the only difference between Gainesville and distance campuses is the fact that instead of sitting in on lectures in a lecture hall where you do not get much interaction with the teacher anyways because it's a timed lecture that's being recorded constantly so they try not to stray off on tangents too often, you just get to watch them from the comfort of your own home. Everything else is face to face with our campus faculty and classmates. Many of the faculty from Gainesville also come visit the distance campuses often too! I know one of the organizations that I am an officer for is having Dr. Mobley (teaches dosage forms, compounding labs, PTX, ICS, etc) come down for one of our meetings in which he's going to teach us to compound some different things since we don't get to experience too much of that until our third year. The new curriculum that you will have has a little bit of compounding distributed every semester I believe instead of having one big class on it third year before rotations.

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate all of your answers and the insight you're giving me.

 

[OldBat]

Hi everyone! I just got accepted to UF COP Jacksonville campus. Like many others, I had my heart set on Gainesville. I know nothing about Jacksonville, so I'm a little bit nervous. I was wondering if any current or former Jacksonville students could weigh in about the campus. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Do you feel like you have many opportunities and resources for professional development? Pretty much just looking for thoughts on the campus.

I live in Jacksonville but I know nothing about the Pharmacy school but can tell you about the city. Jacksonville is huge. It is the largest city laundries in the lower 48. Unless you want to live near the school and it is not a great area you will need a car.
The public transportation system while usable can take several hours to get from A to B. The Jacksonville campus is quite nice. Or do they supply a place for you to live.

 

[pandaghost]

I live in Jacksonville but I know nothing about the Pharmacy school but can tell you about the city. Jacksonville is huge. It is the largest city laundries in the lower 48. Unless you want to live near the school and it is not a great area you will need a car.
The public transportation system while usable can take several hours to get from A to B. The Jacksonville campus is quite nice. Or do they supply a place for you to live.

They don't supply a place for me to live. So I'm also sort of stressing out about finding affordable housing in a safe area.

 

[jtichinel1]

They don't supply a place for me to live. So I'm also sort of stressing out about finding affordable housing in a safe area.

I also live in Jacksonville and I am interviewing for UF on the 20th. I can tell you if you are not from Jacksonville it can be very confusing to find a good area. You do have a couple of options. If you want to stay under a thousand dollars a month and live in a house, your only good/safe options that I know of are Orange Park, Middleburg, Fleming Island, (all of which are an hour+ from Shands with morning traffic). However, if you can afford $1,000 - 1,200 and want to live in a condo closer to the school start with Gate Parkway from Belfort road to the town center. Look up Montro, Villa Medici, El Villagio, and Gardens of Bridge Hampton. There are a ton of condos in this area and it is about a 20-30 minute commute with traffic. Unfortunately UF Shands is not close to any decent housing and is located in a pretty rough area. Also the Jacksonville transport system is a complete joke, and leaves people waiting for hours. I would recommend finding a decent real-estate agent, maybe from rebate rentals or Zillow, they should be able to give you some good guidance. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

 

[OldBat]

They don't supply a place for me to live. So I'm also sort of stressing out about finding affordable housing in a safe area.

What price range would you consider affordable.? If all you want is an apartment I suggest checking Riverside or San Marco. Also you want something with easy I-95 access. A friend who works at Shands Jacksonville lived here sanmarcoforrent.com Casa de Marco. Their efficiencies but very affordable. She currently lives at The Oaks@San Jose. I think the OP is right in suggesting a real estate agent. I would also highly advise renting in an area where you would not have to cross one of the main bridges to get to school.

 

[PharmDean]

where is the absolute closest place to live by campus? is there a library on campus that pharmacy students can use to study at? what are the hours? does the area around the campus just look rough (ghetto) or are the people that live in that area rough too?