ONU or UNE?

[Thatkidpharm]

I have narrowed my choice of pharmacy schools to these two, Ohio Northern in Ada, OH, and University of New England in Biddeford, ME. I have been trying to decide between the schools, I ultimately want my PharmD degree but I have two pretty different options here.

Pro's and Con's at each school are listed here to help.

ONU
Pro's
-0-6 guaranteed seat if gpa req maintained
-Solid, resourceful pharmacy program reputation
-Smaller class size

Con's
-Relatively expensive (170ish thousand for 6 yrs)
-12 hrs from home

UNE
Pro's
- Good distance (2 hrs from home)
-Nice campus, feels right on visit

Con's
-2+4 no guaranteed grad seat, just early assurance
-Not ACPE accredited yet (likely to be by 2014)
-New program, not a solid rep yet


As far as UNE, I would either stay if they offered me some money for graduate studies (this might be unlikely though), or switch to another graduate school for the 4 grad years. The pre-pharm at UNE would leave me with about 44k debt, and then I'd have 4 yrs left at UNE at 35k a year (w/o Room and Board) or 4 years at a different school.

Overall, distance is not that important to me. Which school would you recommend in this case for practicability?

I'd appreciate any advice or help making this decision!
Thanks!

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[bacillus1]

Do you think you might want to pursue a residency in the future? It seems to me (just from personal experience) that residency selection is somewhat regionally based, with local applicants getting interview invites more often than applicants from far away. Ohio has many residencies, while Maine I think only has 4. ONU is also a more reputable school. From what you posted, it really doesn't seem like UNE is much cheaper for you.

 

[Thatkidpharm]

I will definately be interested in doing a residency, and this is one area where the reputation and resources of ohio make it a safer investment. However, another question I should ask related to the size of the investment, is 170k or thereabouts anywhere near the average cost of six years of pharmD schools? It just seems like such an intimidating number and I'm not sure how reasonable it is to go into that much debt

Thanks for the input, I appreciate the good info!