I feel that I must respond to this thread.
I faced a similar situation and I will just state my experience without any opinions.
I was high school valedictorian from a top 20 PUBLIC high school, and my SAT was very good but not great (for Harvard's standards) (I think 1410/1600 back in 1998, if I remember correctly). At that time, I was passionate on music school, and actually my top choice was probably Juilliard and Harvard second.
Well guess what. You would not believe what happened next. I had family in New York so I took a few lessons under one of the faculty at Juilliard who had accepted me as her student, but then she kicked me out very harshly for strange reasons I could not understand, right before I was about to send the Juilliard applciation in for an audition. She just told me that I could not play the piano. I cried for almost a week. Then I got an audition for a top teacher at another conservatory and was accepted there on full scholarship.
Meanwhile, I was accepted to UPENN with not much money, and waitlisted at Harvard, and rejected at Columbia. I had also gotten accepted in Northwestern, Johns Hopkins/Peabody dual program, Oberlin, Tufts, Indiana, and UF. On July 1 (the last day for waitlisters to get final notification), I get a call from the Harvard undergrad admissions office: You are given acceptance to the NEXT fall's class 2000-2001 (I graduated high school in 1999). This was in fact a DEFERRED guaranted acceptance for the following year and it was in writing with a financial offer that was about half of Harvard's tuition at the time (I think the school cost $34,000 to go and they gave me a a package totalling $18000 ($2,000 was in loan the other $16000 scholarship).
But at that time, I only saw myself doing classical music, so I accepted the full scholarship at the music conservatory. However, after two years, I then decided I did not want music as my career even after winning the school competition. It was a personal decision. I then went back to my state school (which was just average), finished my bachelors with a 3.98 GPA, and then I am now getting my PhD in biostat, from a much better school than where my undergrad was from, and hoping to do pharmaceutical research, or perhaps in another area of research, if I get an unexpected opportunity.
My point, you might be sure that you want something in high school, but you are usually too young to even know. And this applies even if nothing can change your mind at that particular time. In high school, I was bent on classical music, but I did not like the "business" of the classical music industry later down the road. So, if Harvard gives you good scholarship, I would say go there. You will get a more well-rounded experience. You might regret it if you don't want to be a pharmacist 10 years down the road. However, If Harvard gives you very little money, then I would say go to USP. USP /Philadelhpia Colelge of pharmacy is the best 0-6 program since they have MANY connections to the pharm industry, and it is the nation's oldest college of pharmacy. So I think if that is the case go to USP.
But here is one thing to think about. Unlike music, pharmacy will GUARANTEE a stable, well-paying career. So even if you do not like pharmacy as a job later, you will still have a means to make a living and support a family which is very important. But that being said, PLEASE do something you like.
Think about this very hard, and decide.
