Help with school decision

[NitramNala]

After attending 5 interviews I've decided upon 2 schools FDU and Bing. Need your opinion between the two anything will help.

FDU: closer to home, (30 min drive) has a dual degree program decent facilities. Naplex pass rate for 2018: 83% tuition 40k a year

Binghamton: beautiful gorgeous new facilities with new labs and such, going to have to move 3 hours away from home. I would be the 3rd class coming in ( no graduating class yet) They have different programs to help new students establish themselves in the program. Tuition :30k a year but will have to pay for housing.

If anybody knows or has any experience with these schools. A comment would be nice thank you!!!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[KidPharmD]

An 83% pass rate in a class size of only 77 isn't great, and looking at the numbers it looks like some of their students never passed the test at all in 2018. It is even worse for 40K per year. It looks like you are in-state for New York, is that right?

I am determined to never recommend new schools. They aren't a good risk/benefit ratio the four schools that first graduated students in 2018 all had pass rates less than 80% with 2 less than 70%.

Why not Buffalo/SUNY?

Who were your other interviews with?

 

[NitramNala]

Long Island University

Temple University

Binghamton University (new school)

FDU (new school)

Touro college

 

[Timbo]

Assuming you're lucky to get a job that pays at least $50/hr and guarantees at least 32 hrs/wk when you graduate 4 years from now, then your salary will be $83k a year.

• FDU: Assuming your living expenses is only $500/month since you live at home. Add that x4 years + tuition then you will graduate $184k in debt. On a standard ten year repayment plan at 7% interest that's, ~$26k worth of loan payments per year. So your $83k salary now drops to $57k
• Bing: Assuming your living expenses including rent is now $1500/month, you will graduate with $192k of debt. On a 10 year repayment plan, that's going to be $27k per year going to loans. Your salary in this case now drops to ~$56k.

According to Payscale the median salary for a bachelor's degree holder 5 years in is $61k. So the question is: As a doctorate degree holder, do you want to earn $5000 a year less or $4000 a year a year less than you would have with just a bachelor's? Of course I just estimated your living expenses, please use your own numbers then use a calculator such as this one to calculate your monthly loan payments.

 

[KidPharmD]

Long Island University

Temple University

Binghamton University (new school)

FDU (new school)

Touro college

Is this visited at or applied to and interviewed?

 

[BC_89]

Assuming you're lucky to get a job that pays at least $50/hr and guarantees at least 32 hrs/wk when you graduate 4 years from now, then your salary will be $83k a year.

• FDU: Assuming your living expenses is only $500/month since you live at home. Add that x4 years + tuition then you will graduate $184k in debt. On a standard ten year repayment plan at 7% interest that's, ~$26k worth of loan payments per year. So your $83k salary now drops to $57k
• Bing: Assuming your living expenses including rent is now $1500/month, you will graduate with $192k of debt. On a 10 year repayment plan, that's going to be $27k per year going to loans. Your salary in this case now drops to ~$56k.

According to Payscale the median salary for a bachelor's degree holder 5 years in is $61k. So the question is: As a doctorate degree holder, do you want to earn $5000 a year less or $4000 a year a year less than you would have with just a bachelor's? Of course I just estimated your living expenses, please use your own numbers then use a calculator such as this one to calculate your monthly loan payments.

The hyperlink to calculate overall debt is important when choosing institute of choice (very useful link).

As far as the rest of the statements about the market, caveat emptor. OP can see his/her risks in the other ongoing threads.

@NitramNala I would consider 3 things:

1) Regional Accreditation (no pre-candidate or candidate status)

2) NAPLEX pass rate (> 80% preferably 90%+)

3) Tuition and Cost of living

Binghamton is not regionally accredited, I would avoid it and walk away.

Accreditation Status - School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences | Binghamton University

FDU was fully accredited not even 3 years ago. Not any history really to validate the Accreditation vs NAPLEX pass rate under that status.

FDU School of Pharmacy receives full accreditation from the ACPE - Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU)

Between the two, FDU (will help offset living costs if you plan on staying with family). Also consider options to alleviate debt upon graduation (IHS, military service, etc).

 

[NitramNala]

Is this visited at or applied to and interviewed?

All schools I got into

 

[Amicable Angora]

Long Island University

Temple University

Binghamton University (new school)

FDU (new school)

Touro college

All schools I got into

Please explain why you decided against LIU, Temple, and Touro?

There's a good case that Bing is the weakest of the bunch since, going by what you said, they don't even have a graduating class yet.

 

[puahate]

Cheapest school

 

[nafcillin]

None of them

 

[greenteapanacea]

I don't have the best experience with FDU students on rotation, but I did meet a few in the "real world" who were really bright. I didn't even know Binghamton had a pharmacy school....