Help! Assured admission to UNC pharmacy school or Duke?

[Helpneeded22]

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I was accepted into Duke with a full ride and also UNC for about $8000 per year. What complicates my decision is my assured admission into the UNC pharmacy school. Obviously I am interested in pharmacy, but I could change my mind. I could easily do the prerequisites in two years and graduate UNC pharmacy school at 24. Is this a great opportunity, or will I be better off at Duke? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[capri1722]

I would take Duke solely because of the full ride. Student loans are a real terror.

Sounds like you're a high school senior? (Correct me if I'm wrong.) You say you "could change your mind" about going into pharmacy. So I'd pick Duke for that. When I graduated high school I was 120% certain I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. Well...you can guess how that ended up. If I changed my mind about what I wanted to do, you could too, so probably best not to lock yourself into something you're not totally sure about, especially right out of high school.

Have you visited the campuses? Virtual tours or whatever don't count. Scouring their websites doesn't count. Driving by their campuses one time on a road trip when you were 12 doesn't count. If you interviewed on their campuses, that might count. If you haven't seen their campuses, contact each school's admissions department and ask how to set up a campus tour. The feel of the campus is a make-or-break for a lot of students, myself included.

But I'm also a stranger on the internet. I don't know your history or why you're considering these two schools in the first place or any number of minute details that may or may not have an effect on your decision. So take my (and most of the other SDNer's) advice with a grain of salt.

 

[Helpneeded22]

I am a high school senior near Charlotte, and I have visited both campuses multiple times. I am definitely leaning towards Duke. Of course I can apply to UNC pharmacy school after Duke, if that's still what I want to pursue. To be accepted I would almost certainly need my bachelor's degree and a stellar application. If I go to UNC now, they will give me more credit for HS courses, and I can start after two undergrad years. Is it crazy to bypass the assured admission?

 

[BC_89]

I am a high school senior near Charlotte, and I have visited both campuses multiple times. I am definitely leaning towards Duke. Of course I can apply to UNC pharmacy school after Duke, if that's still what I want to pursue. To be accepted I would almost certainly need my bachelor's degree and a stellar application. If I go to UNC now, they will give me more credit for HS courses, and I can start after two undergrad years. Is it crazy to bypass the assured admission?

Take the full ride to Duke. If you haven’t actually worked or shadowed in pharmacy then you don’t know what you wanna do. No life experience so take this scholarship opportunity to know what will be your career passion. Forget about age and how fast you think you’ll graduate with a career. Life is a marathon not a sprint.. Treat your future career options the same way.

 

[Dr. Pill]

If you are bright enough to secure a full ride to Duke out of high school, chances are you are selling yourself short with pharmacy. Go to Duke and continue on to med school after.

 

[redfish955]

There's nothing wrong with pharmacy school. 40 hour weeks and if you saved 25k a year until fifty eight you will be worth like five million. That's why engineering is so popular. If you go to Duke pick a good field like bio medical engineering. It will expose you to everything. Rock it and get into med school, shadow a pharmacist in the summer and hate it you still have a fantastic career when you graduate.

 

[MQQ]

GO TO DUKE... currently a student at UNC... you can apply during your sophomore yr at duke... Here is the thing with UNC admission system ... They like duke students... they will be very lenient with Duke students when applying for graduate programs/ professional programs.

 

[Amicable Angora]

I was accepted into Duke with a full ride and also UNC for about $8000 per year. What complicates my decision is my assured admission into the UNC pharmacy school. Obviously I am interested in pharmacy, but I could change my mind. I could easily do the prerequisites in two years and graduate UNC pharmacy school at 24. Is this a great opportunity, or will I be better off at Duke? Any thoughts are appreciated.

If you reasonably like pharmacy and would be okay with working retail, I suggest you take the UNC program (would that be $8,000 per year for 6 years so around $48,000 not counting interest?) as the fees are already low in your situation, and you would save 2 years of your life. If you delayed your choice by going to Duke first, you run the risk of having to take the PCAT or taking more electives. You also will likely incur substantially higher tuition for your future pharmacy program.

Note if the fees balloon upward at UNC once you're in the pharmacy program, then you might want to go to Duke instead and consider non pharmacy options.

 

[redfish955]

If you did engineering at duke you could work your way up to 110k a year at a company like boeing and be completely debt free. If your a U.S. citizen with a clean record you can land the prestigious jobs that require a secret clearance or top secret clearance. The only drawback to engineering is that you have to be willing to work at the massive company headquarters even if it's 30 miles away from a city out in the middle of no where. An engineering job with zero debt would allow you to max out a roth ira and 401k through your 20s instead of paying off debt until your 35. If you max a 401k and roth ira from 22 to 58 you will be worth like 5 million at 58. Since you have the opportunity to go to a good school and pick a good degree for free I would lean towards doing that over pharmacy and all of the debt that will be associated with it.