For those that have already got accepted and are thinking about going, what was your reasons for choosing Belmont over the other schools you were accepted to?
I was accepted at two other schools. LECOM-Erie and Midwestern-Glendale. I was totally *under*whelmed by LECOM. I thought their program was horrible. Midwestern was decent and the fact that it was 3 years over four was a huge plus. It was a tough decision.
There were a few things that made me decide on Belmont over Midwestern.
1) The students at Midwestern were excited to be in pharmacy school, and they happened to be going to school at Midwestern. However, the students at Belmont were excited to be going to Belmont, and they happened to be in pharmacy school. The fact that the student body were excited to be going to that particular school said a lot.
2) The faculty seemed to care. At Midwestern it didn't seem to matter to them if you, or someone else, got in. As long as they filled the spots and got their money. Belmont seemed to care about it's students. Talking with a current pharmacy student I was told that there are student advocates that can bring up issues with professors that actually get addressed and corrected. Most schools aren't like that.
3) Their clinical connections. I'm interested in clinical pharmacy. Midwestern is geared towards retail pharmacy. Belmont's Dean of Pharmacy has a huge tie in with Vanderbilt medical. I'm hoping that opens doors for rotations and possibly intern work.
4) The one downside was that I'm loosing aprox $80,000 going to Belmont v. Midwestern. It was something that gnawed at me until I brought it up to one of the pharmacists I work with. He's an old salty guy who's been a pharmacist for 30+ years. And he said this, "In twenty years it won't matter how much money you lost going to pharmacy school. But it will matter *where* you went to pharmacy school." It put it into perspective for me.
Before people ask how I came up with the $80,000 figure here it is. Tuition for Midwestern 3 years @ $36,500/year = $109,500. Tuition for Belmont 4 years @ $24,000/year = $96,000. The difference is $13,500. However, since Midestern is 3 years you would be graduating and making a pharmacist salary for a year before you would graduate from Belmont. So one years salary minus the $13,500 difference in tuition is approx $80,000.
In the end it was this. While I know pharmacists make a pretty good pay check, it's not why I got into this field. If the pay check was the only reason I wanted to be a pharmacist I would have went to Midwestern because it made so much more sense financially. But for me, being a pharmacist is more than just the pay check. So I decided to go where I thought I would get the best education which is why I chose Belmont.
