Choosing a Pharmacy School - Public vs Private & Safety Schools

[Cassiopious]

Just a bit of background information, I live in Maryland, and work with/know/am related to people who have gone to University of Maryland (some for undergrad, some for Pharmacy school), and I'm worried that my state doesn't have nearly as many state or even private pharmacy schools. Getting into UMB would be ideal, since education, location, and tuition wise it's everything I need. I'm pretty early into my prereqs, but UMB being the 'best' option worries me, because if I base all of my work around that and I don't get in, I'd prefer to have backup plans.

So my questions are:

Is University of Maryland as competitive as I'm hearing?

Is going to an out of state public school worth it if I'm shelling out twice the cost?

Is a private school worth it at all?

And finally, should I focus more on 'safety schools' or 'dream schools'. For example, my current focuses are UMB, Northeastern, Temple, Virginia Commonwealth, UPitt, and Mercer. If any of you could give me advice or notes on those schools, I would greatly appreciate it.

Basically, should I stop worrying and focus on getting into UMB, or should I expect that I'm going to end up in my more expensive second choice.

Thanks in advance for any help!

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[PharmDCandidate2014]

Stay in MD.

Some of their interview invites come as late as March/April. It's a great school (interviewed early March but declined their offer last year), and by far the most reputable in the DC area. You will want this on your side when setting up rotations throughout your P1 to P4 years. Plus, you qualify for in state tuition! You won't get that at Temple, UPITT or Northeastern. Their school accepts ~265 students per year, and with Notre Dame and Howard around the corner, safe stats that will get you in the door is 3.2 GPA and 70%ile+ PCAT.

Northeastern is nearly impossible to get into if you're not a 2 + 4 student, UPitt and Temple are pretty similar to UMB when you look at the average stats of a first year student.

With that all said and done, stay in UMB! You have all the connections there, which is what you need to be successful after pharmacy school.

 

[Sugoi Travis]

Compare the tuition and cost of living for each school. Honestly, don't even bother dropping more money than you need to unless if a particular school is known for having very strong residency matching rates or has very good connections that will guarantee you a job in the future. Outside of that, go with the cheapest option.

 

[Sabrina 80]

Just a bit of background information, I live in Maryland, and work with/know/am related to people who have gone to University of Maryland (some for undergrad, some for Pharmacy school), and I'm worried that my state doesn't have nearly as many state or even private pharmacy schools. Getting into UMB would be ideal, since education, location, and tuition wise it's everything I need. I'm pretty early into my prereqs, but UMB being the 'best' option worries me, because if I base all of my work around that and I don't get in, I'd prefer to have backup plans.

So my questions are:

Is University of Maryland as competitive as I'm hearing?

Is going to an out of state public school worth it if I'm shelling out twice the cost?

Is a private school worth it at all?

And finally, should I focus more on 'safety schools' or 'dream schools'. For example, my current focuses are UMB, Northeastern, Temple, Virginia Commonwealth, UPitt, and Mercer. If any of you could give me advice or notes on those schools, I would greatly appreciate it.

Basically, should I stop worrying and focus on getting into UMB, or should I expect that I'm going to end up in my more expensive second choice.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Actually, I would advise not going into pharmacy school. I'm sure you are a bright young man. It is a waste of time and money. Get out while you still have a chance. Remember at the end of the day it doesn't matter if you graduate with a PharmD. and become a registered pharmacist if you cannot find a job. These schools will lie to get the tuition dollars that you provide for them. It's not their priority to make sure that you make a sound decision regarding your future career.

 

[Cassiopious]

With that all said and done, stay in UMB! You have all the connections there, which is what you need to be successful after pharmacy school.

Thanks for the advice! It's especially good knowing that if I can keep my GPA high, and get some steady PCAT advice from the pharmacists I work with, I could be okay. I definitely want that in-state tuition, so I'm gonna focus on UMB, and keep all (attainable) schools as safeties.

Compare the tuition and cost of living for each school. Honestly, don't even bother dropping more money than you need to unless if a particular school is known for having very strong residency matching rates or has very good connections that will guarantee you a job in the future. Outside of that, go with the cheapest option.

If all goes well, I'm hoping to hold onto my job throughout school, which coupled with the connections will help me out. And I guess it's in my favor that the cheapest option happens to be a great school!

Actually, I would advise not going into pharmacy school.

I, of course, respect your opinion and take to heart all accounts on the job market and the saturation. I think it's the main quote all pre-pharm students hear the minute they step in the field. But this is something I've been interested in for a while, and the only thing I can do is remain positive and keep an open mind.

Thanks for all the awesome responses!