Financing Pharmacy School

[florange]

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I will pressing submit and officially applying to pharmacy school in 2 weeks. I'm confident I will get accepted. My Cum GPA is 3.43, my math & science GPA is 4.0. I have not taken the PCAT yet, but I will in September. I've been a CPhT for 14 years and I excited to be the first in my family to attend grad school. I'm worried however, if I will be able to afford it. I'm a mother of 3, ages 9, 4, and 2. Attending pharmacy school means I will have to put my kids in daycare, because unlike community college, pharmacy schools don't offer night classes, and I will not be working.The cost for daycare will be about $300 weekly. My husband is able to pay all the bills, but I will depend on student loans for books, supplies and yes daycare. My question is, are loans that generous? During my undergraduate studies, I was a stay at home mom during the day, took night classes in the evening and then week to work on the graveyard shift so we never had to pay for daycare. Thank in advance for any input you can provide.

 

[owlegrad]

Yeah, if your husband can really cover all that you will not find financing pharmacy school difficult. In truth the amount available to students is excessive. Don't worry about access to loans slowing you down. 🙂

Oh and books are for suckers 9 times out of 10, ask just about any upperclassman if you doubt me. 😉

 

[Notecard]

Yes books are a bad idea. Are you giving up your tech job completely? It might be worth it to hang on to it even if you only work a shift a week or every other week. That type of seniority with a company will be pretty useful after graduation and the extra money isn't much but every bit helps👍

 

[florange]

Yes books are a bad idea. Are you giving up your tech job completely? It might be worth it to hang on to it even if you only work a shift a week or every other week. That type of seniority with a company will be pretty useful after graduation and the extra money isn't much but every bit helps👍

Pharmacy school is much too important to spread myself too thin. I will focus solely on being a good wife, mother and student. Also, I'm saying goodbye to Florida. I'm 30 years old and have never left this wonderful state. Nor have I ever seen snow or a mountain. I'm using this opportunity to peruse my passion and explore states I've only seen on maps. Thanks for the tip about books, but what do you use? YouTube? Notes only or do you rent books?

 

[florange]

*sigh of relief* thank you 🙂

 

[owlegrad]

Pharmacy school is much too important to spread myself too thin. I will focus solely on being a good wife, mother and student. Also, I'm saying goodbye to Florida. I'm 30 years old and have never left this wonderful state. Nor have I ever seen snow or a mountain. I'm using this opportunity to peruse my passion and explore states I've only seen on maps. Thanks for the tip about books, but what do you use? YouTube? Notes only or do you rent books?

I have never seen snow either!! I am pretty sure it is just Hollywood magic.

I never used YouTube personally, I just used powerpoint mostly, plus class notes or handouts and what not. Old tests of course too lol. I am a terrible student though so...yeah, take that for what it's worth.

 

[crazybob]

I guess I'm a sucker because I learned a lot from my books.

 

[owlegrad]

SUCKER!! lol

I guess I'm a sucker because I learned a lot from my books.

 

[Digsbe]

For the vast majority of people student loans are available to cover the full cost of tuition and living expenses. It all depends on how much you want to borrow and how you would want to adjust your lifestyle. I am starting pharmacy school next month and I've been approved to borrow an extremely excessive amount of loans and will most likely not ever borrow the maximum made available to me.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Student budgets vary by school. I wasn't impressed with the generosity of the budget at either school I attended, and I definitely wouldn't call the loan amounts excessive. You'll just need to check and see how much the schools you are considering allocate for living expenses. It was about $1000/month at the first school I attended, but that number is meaningless to you unless you are attending that particular school. But the financial aid office at your prospective schools should be able to tell you.

 

[florange]

I stopped working this year to lower my EIC and increase my eligibility for more grants. This was recommended by my current Financial aid advisor, but I really won't know everything until I know which school I'm going to. I'm interested in Belmont, Chicago State, and Campbell.

 

[Rx MPLS]

I stopped working this year to lower my EIC and increase my eligibility for more grants. This was recommended by my current Financial aid advisor, but I really won't know everything until I know which school I'm going to. I'm interested in Belmont, Chicago State, and Campbell.

I hope you have more luck than I, but I've found grants for pharmacy school to be very rare indeed.

 

[474671]

I hope you have more luck than I, but I've found grants for pharmacy school to be very rare indeed.

They might be eligible for school grants but once you are classified as a graduate student you are no longer eligible for Pell grants.

 

[Rx MPLS]

They might be eligible for school grants but once you are classified as a graduate student you are no longer eligible for Pell grants.

That is true. I have found school grants elusive as well, though. Some schools might have more, but they can be tough to obtain at my school, it seems, unless you came in with a 4.0 BS from a fancy school and scored a 99 percent on the PCAT (or some other requirements I don't know about...).

 

[chrispharm]

I think as long as the school codes the courses as grad school it opens up alot more for loans, i am stuck with a school that considers you undergrand for the first two years and it's making it more difficult to finance living expenses although the tuition is much cheaper.