need Mercer info...

[neopentane]

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for those of u attending mercer, can u guys just tell me some info about mercer like curriculum, class size, how r the faculty, campus....anything in particular that makes it stand out from other pharm schools? thanks!

 

[LaoSaint]

CHeck out their website, Lots of info on there!

 

[neopentane]

i know i've done that.....i wanted to hear some stuff from actual students that go there

 

[futureRXdealer]

The question is how will attending Mercer will help YOU achieve YOUR goals....not how attending there is helping other people. Just explain why you applied to the school. It's only one page.

 

[Gilmore2B]

The curriculum is on the website. There's a little intro stuff to drugs so far, I’m in my first semester, but your 2nd and 3rd yr are intensive courses in certain body systems that focus on disease states and treatment. The 4th yr offers a lot of unique practice experiences which you can find more about on the website.

My class size is 147. We have students from 14 states such as Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, etc. There are also a few from various countries in Africa. Students range from roughly 20-50yrs old. It’s a great experience so far with all the variety because every student brings strengths to the class. The class size seems a little big to me, but I think this is about the average for most schools and I love that I’m still meeting new people 3 months later.

The faculty has been great so far. They are all willing to help you on an individual basis as if the class size was 10. Grades are available in a very timely manner. You can always review the exams in the office. One of my professors even responded to his email ALL weekend because we had our exam on monday morning.

I personally love the campus. Students from large public universities may not like it though because it is small. To me the campus is like my hometown. I can smell the pine trees as I walk around. The library has big tables in front of large windows that look into the forest. Maintenance of the campus is immaculate. It’s close to the expressway but set back enough to give it a private, quiet setting.

For me what stood out most was the look and feel of the campus and the fact that everyone is so friendly. Plus Mercer has a great reputation for educating pharmacist's that focus on the patient. Also, Mercer has a great history so I have every confidence they know what they are doing and are constantly searching to make it better.

Feel free to ask any more questions you may have!

 

[neopentane]

thanks gilmore2b for giving exc info...the pics are great too.

is it true that they do block sch.? like how does it work?

 

[PharmDKD]

The curriculum is on the website. There's a little intro stuff to drugs so far, I’m in my first semester, but your 2nd and 3rd yr are intensive courses in certain body systems that focus on disease states and treatment. The 4th yr offers a lot of unique practice experiences which you can find more about on the website.

My class size is 147. We have students from 14 states such as Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, etc. There are also a few from various countries in Africa. Students range from roughly 20-50yrs old. It’s a great experience so far with all the variety because every student brings strengths to the class. The class size seems a little big to me, but I think this is about the average for most schools and I love that I’m still meeting new people 3 months later.

The faculty has been great so far. They are all willing to help you on an individual basis as if the class size was 10. Grades are available in a very timely manner. You can always review the exams in the office. One of my professors even responded to his email ALL weekend because we had our exam on monday morning.

I personally love the campus. Students from large public universities may not like it though because it is small. To me the campus is like my hometown. I can smell the pine trees as I walk around. The library has big tables in front of large windows that look into the forest. Maintenance of the campus is immaculate. It’s close to the expressway but set back enough to give it a private, quiet setting.

For me what stood out most was the look and feel of the campus and the fact that everyone is so friendly. Plus Mercer has a great reputation for educating pharmacist's that focus on the patient. Also, Mercer has a great history so I have every confidence they know what they are doing and are constantly searching to make it better.

Feel free to ask any more questions you may have!

Thanks Gilmore for the info!!! I am happy to hear all of the great things about Mercer...since it is my first choice school!!!

 

[rxlynn]

thanks gilmore2b for giving exc info...the pics are great too.

is it true that they do block sch.? like how does it work?

Yes - we do a modified block. For the P1 class this year, we had two classes that meet only once a week, but go all semester. Then we had three blocks - Block 1 was communications class, 5 days per week for 3 weeks or so. Block 2 was biochemistry (3 days per week) and pharmaceutical sciences (2 days per week). Block 3 just started today - biostatistics 5 days per week. There is also a scheduled time outside of classes for exams - for the p1 class, it's 8 AM on Mondays👎

 

[Gilmore2B]

You're welcome for the info. I love talking about Mercer. It's one of the best decisions I ever made. I only wish I could move the school closer to home, which would be over 700 miles! If you have any more questions let me know.

 

[Mentis]

Hey gilmore, I love those pictures of the campus. I think the look and feel of a campus is really important, considering you'll be living there for years. I applied to Mercer this cycle and I'm still waiting on a response, so I'm actually pretty curious about it.

You said the class size is a bit big, what'd you mean? Like, about how many people are in a typical class? I'm sure it can't be that big, I go to a public university right now, and the lecture size is in the hundreds. Although there are benefits to the large size, I do think smaller sizes are important when you actually care about the subjects you're learning.

 

[Gilmore2B]

As I said before, my class size is 147. For me this is large. I went to a public university with a total of ~17,000 students, but my classes were never larger than 50 students. Although Mercer's class size is larger than my previous university, they still provide the one-on-one attention necessary to succeed as I mentioned in my first post. I don’t feel that the size of the class has any effect on the education I am receiving. The only effect I have noticed so far is that showing up to class early gets you the better seat!

 

[Mentis]

Oh ok. I thought you meant the 147 was the size of the entire pharmacy class for your year.

 

[rxlynn]

Oh ok. I thought you meant the 147 was the size of the entire pharmacy class for your year.

Just to clarify - the size of the entering class and the size of your actual classes you attend are one and the same in the first year. Everybody takes all the same classes at the same time for the P1 year. Now, we do have some classes where we break into smaller groups to do projects or exercises, but mainly you are in a room with about 150 students. I agree with Gilmore2B - I went to a larger university for undergrad, but the vast majority of my classes, particularly in my major, were MUCH smaller than 150. So, that is taking some getting used to for me. I do also agree with her regarding the attention from professors - I have pretty much been able to get one-on-one help from any of my professors so far when I had questions or just wanted to talk. As compared to my undergrad experience, the faculty at Mercer really seems to be interested in us as whole people, and not just as a number. Besides the professors I've had so far, I've met three or four others in various meetings or other places, and all of them have been very open and made a point of mentioning that they are available if we have any concerns or just need to talk to somebody about school, our future career plans or questions, or just anything at all.

 

[Wahoogrl]

could someone please provide us with some information on housing around mercer. I was wondering i.e. where are some nice places to live in atlanta, preferably close to the school, what are the close counties in mercer's proximity, approxmate estimation of housing in the area. thanks so much!

 

[rxlynn]

could someone please provide us with some information on housing around mercer. I was wondering i.e. where are some nice places to live in atlanta, preferably close to the school, what are the close counties in mercer's proximity, approxmate estimation of housing in the area. thanks so much!

Hi - there are on-campus apartments available that are fairly new. There are several apartment complexes less than 1/2 mile from campus - lots of Mercer students live in Park Pointe North. Mercer is in DeKalb County - if you go northeast-east from campus you come to Gwinnett County, south-northwest you come into Fulton County. I don't really know what prices are like because I lived in Atlanta before I went to pharmacy school and I own a house, so didn't need housing. Do not underestimate the effect of Atlanta traffic - my advice is to either live on campus or as close as possible.

 

[helster]

I had an interview earlier this year for Mercer, and the reply I got was that they have not yest made a decision on my application, and thus put it on hold. Does anyone know if they take the people they put on hold? Or how long it takes for them to re-eval my app. I really want to go there, but now i do not know if i even have a chance of getting in? 🙁

 

[rxlynn]

I had an interview earlier this year for Mercer, and the reply I got was that they have not yest made a decision on my application, and thus put it on hold. Does anyone know if they take the people they put on hold? Or how long it takes for them to re-eval my app. I really want to go there, but now i do not know if i even have a chance of getting in? 🙁

Look around on the Mercer website - there is a page that exactly describes what they mean by each type of letter they send out. Yes, they do accept people who were put on hold, but I wouldn't expect that to happen immediately. They will finalize the class in the May time frame, and my understanding from the website is that they will fill all seats at that time, and they will also at that point make an unranked wait list. Then, if it turns out that some people give up their seats (for whatever reason) they will seat someone from the alternate list. That could happen at any point up until school starts. I corresponded with someone on SDN last year who got a call off the wait list in the first week of August (he ended up not coming - had problems with getting financial aid set, and he had an offer from another school already).

 

[Gilmore2B]

I currently live in on-campus housing. I would highly recommend considering it for your first year, especially if you're moving to GA from another state. My rate is $600/month. Although you may be able to find a similar apartment near Mercer for a lesser amount, there is so much more to worry about. My rent is all inclusive, where as off campus you have to worry about all the extras. I found that once those extras were split with a roommate, I would only have saved about $50/month in living off-campus. Plus, with on-campus you don’t have to worry about your apartment being next to a family with a crying baby or barking dog. And the greatest point to me was that I would never have to worry about the headache of a bad landlord. Whenever anything, and I mean anything, is wrong with something in the apartment, I email housing and it is usually fixed within a few hours. The apartments are in great condition. Another benefit for me as on out-of-stater was the fact that the apartment was already furnished. That saved me some money too!