need help deciding schools

[mrblackcoffee]

I am currently a resident of Michigan my problem is I have 3 schools that want me but all 3 seem like good options so I was hoping you guys could give me some input, I'm interested in clinical pharmacy working in a hospital, also with all these schools i am sure i can get some sort of scholarship to help pay it.

1. Notre dame Maryland university school of pharmacy - location is baltimore MD, tuition is $37604, its a private institution, I think the campus is beautiful and the location is very nice as well. What i really like about this school is its affiliation with John Hopkins Hospital which a lot of the faculty work or use to work at also the dean of the pharmacy school is on the advisory board at john hopkins also and pharmacy-schools.startclass.com rank them at #117

2. Ferris State University - location is Big rapids Mi, tuition is $19k, its a public institution so super cheap however it is located in the middle of no where so idk about how they will do rotations. also http://pharmacy-schools.startclass.com rank them at #59

3. Northeastern university - location boston MA tuition is $44236, also a private institution, campus is amazing its smack dab in Boston. they have a co-op program which means debt may not be as bad as it seems , also i heard their job placement is very high.

anyways what would you guys pick and why?

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[WVUPharm2007]

Ferris. I don't think your brain has wrapped around how much money you are going to save and how important that is long term.

 

[fiorio]

reputation: northeaster>ferris state>notre dame
i would go for ferris state unless you want to spend extra money

 

[WVUPharm2007]

NE=Ferris>ND

 

[radio frequency]

You don't even need a brain to answer this question. Rank by cost and go to the cheapest place. None have much reputation one way or the other, but I'd hire a Ferris State grad over the others based on the fact that they know the value of a dollar.

 

[zelman]

Ferris.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

You don't even need a brain to answer this question. Rank by cost and go to the cheapest place. None have much reputation one way or the other, but I'd hire a Ferris State grad over the others based on the fact that they know the value of a dollar.

NDM is a new school with zero reputation. The other two have been educating pharmacists longer than any of us have been born. Reputation is pretty clear to me.

 

[mrblackcoffee]

So rotation sites aren't that important? as well as a co-op?

 

[bacillus1]

NDM is a new school with zero reputation. The other two have been educating pharmacists longer than any of us have been born. Reputation is pretty clear to me.

Agreed. Lots of NDM students rotate through our hospital, and I am one of their rotation preceptors, and I don't think that many, if any, have mentioned Hopkins as a rotation site. Affiliation with Hopkins should not be your reason for picking this newer program, especially since plenty of other schools rotate through Hopkins as well.

If cost were equal, I'd pick Northeastern, just because Boston is a fun city to live in. However, that's a huge price difference, so Ferris may be the best choice since I don't think the co-op would make up for most of the difference.

 

[PharmDBro2017]

Ferris

 

[zelman]

So rotation sites aren't that important? as well as a co-op?

Co-op is just forcing you to get a job. Do that on your own.

 

[BC_89]

Cheapest accredited school. Why pay more for same degree and why compete for one particular residency in a saturated pool? Why not compete as an applicant in a unique setting that they'd look at? Easy short answer go to CHEAPEST school!!! I'm just glad a new rule past that as a veteran-to-be ANY public school HAS to give me RESIDENCY rate with my GI bill....until you financially been on your own it's hard to follow common sense over "beauty" of location. You'll thank yourself later. Save your wallet.

 

[Dred Pirate]

this is not even a debate - ferris - school of graduation doesn't mean that much provided it is not a diploma mill - save the $$ - when you are 35 do you want debt free or a slave to the student loan companies? Debt free = nicer house, more vacations, etc.....

 

[Sine Cura]

Ferris State - you should ask about how they handle rotations. Michigan is a big state.

I was actually surprised that NEU is actually a "tier 1" university now. Their rise in academic "prestige" from a lowly commuter school to a respected, regionally known university (no one has heard of Northeastern on the west coast) seems superficially similar to that of USC.

My favorite things about the Boston area however (Isabella Gardner Museum, MFA, Arnold Arboretum, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, various overpriced lobster rolls) you could easily experience as a tourist... don't need a car either unless your rotations take you to western MA for some reason. As for daily living, the housing stock around Roxbury and Mission Hill is pretty garbage as can be expected, but I was used to living in a room during undergrad so eventually I found a decent small room for ~$550/mo with utilities.

TBH the Northeastern pharmacy program looks good just compared to the retail mill that is MCPHS (I cannot comment on their program itself since I actually didn't know anyone personally who went to Northeastern; NEU and MCPHS basically live in parallel universes when it comes to rotation sites it seems...) but is it worth it, even with the intangibles of living in an urban setting, especially in a godwful job market for new grads that is eastern MA? Hell no. At MCPHS a lot of students had their parents pay full freight, so I imagine it's the same or even more pervasive at Northeastern since it's more expensive and less "blue-collar" than MCP, so if your parents foot the full cost of attendance I would go NEU > Ferris then NDMD.

 

[radio frequency]

NDM is a new school with zero reputation. The other two have been educating pharmacists longer than any of us have been born. Reputation is pretty clear to me.

In my neck of the woods, I haven't really heard of any of them, besides Ferris State (which all I know about is that it's public and cheap. Because it's public, I generally assume it has some baseline quality standards). They all have zero reputation where I live beyond this. But if I knew when each school was established, I would favor the public and older schools and also the cheaper options.

 

[rph3664]

Worry about the rotations later. If you REEEEEEEEEALLY want to be a pharmacist, go to Ferris.

I've worked with several people who graduated from there, and they were all excellent.

 

[lord999]

Ferris, agree with rph3664 and on personal experience from hiring them (I actually prefer them to Michigan for less drama). They aren't sexy, but they do good work. Ranking does not matter for undergraduate pharmacy. I view Ohio Northern/Toledo, Southwest Oklahoma, Wayne State/Ferris State, and Texas Tech/Houston to be respectable schools even though they are not considered even the "best" pharmacy school in their state (arguably Ohio State, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas). I do have a prejudice in favor of state school over private schools in terms that a state school does have the overall educational mission to ensure that there are good graduates (states get mad at underperforming public schools) where private schools are worried about tuition.

 

[Amicable Angora]

Either Ferris or NE, preferably Ferris.

 

[quickpic007]

FERRIS

 

[pharmasaurusRex17]

This is a late post; but I will say Northeastern. I went to MCPHS Boston, and I will be completing a PGY-1, but the amount of people that I know who graduated from Northeastern received jobs right out of school. Northeastern does this co-op program where instead of summers, you have 4 months worth of working. As a result, a lot of their student end up with jobs as pharmacy interns in the nation's most prestigious hospital and majority Harvard affiliated (Mass General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconness, Dana-Farber Cancer, Boston Children's, etc) and they continue those jobs well into their rotation year. Coming rotations, APPE rotations at NEU come with a LOT of benefits because they carry BIG named academic hospitals. If you know you want to go the residency and clinical route, Northeastern's stats are absolutely amazing. Of course, with MCPHS Boston, we have the same types of rotations and all big names also. Because of my rotations, I was able to compete with students fighting for the same residency positions and I was stronger than many students going to UCSF, UOP, and the western coast in CA as well as UWashington. There's a reason why many students from all over the country especially from California choose to go to schools like Northeastern.

The reason why you pay so much for tuition at Northeastern is because of their special co-op program. You get money while on co-op back, and thus that money is to compensate for a part of the tuition you pay. Also, it's in Boston, aka high prices in general but the city itself is amazing and I fell in love with it coming here for school.

 

[Apples2Oranges]

I was in the same position as you were b/w UNC, UMich, and UMD Baltimore. Surprisingly, UMD was still cheaper for me as an OOS student and they all had reputation. But I didn't go there cause it was far.
Once I think about it, you have to pick a school that has decent connections and cheap tuition. Loans will kill you. It bothers me all the time to think I have to pay back a six figure loan...even though it's not nearly as big as some people here had to pay. Choose Ferris. If NE was cheaper, I'd choose that but $44k and probably $46-47k by the time you graduate? Heck. No.

 

[MrBonita]

Go to UCSF. After you graduate they hire you as inpatient and do not ask for residency in the northern california area.

 

[pharmasaurusRex17]

The school pays you during your Co op or you get paid by the hospital? Seems like a great plan for real life learning - I wish I had done something like that during school. I was totally not prepared to be a pharmacist upon graduation (due to slacking during rotations)

The hospitals pay you during your co-op ! Hence why a lot of Northeastern students do succeed. However, tuition is definitely very expensive and the city of Boston has a high cost of living too.