Questions about UOP

[TheChemist]

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I was just recently accepted to UOP and I had a few questions. I have read some threads here on SDN say some things about UOP and I wanted to see if anyone could substantiate those claims? The first thing I read is one out of six students that go to UOP end up graduating in 4 years rather then 3 years. I also read that UOP has high percentage of students who drop out of the program or fail out of the program. Does anyone know if these comments are true? I didn't really seem that way when I interviewed there, but sometimes people paint a prettier picture of a school when you are interviewing there. I’d also like to get people’s opinions on UOP. Thanks

 

[starrfishes]

I was just recently accepted to UOP and I had a few questions. I have read some threads here on SDN say some things about UOP and I wanted to see if anyone could substantiate those claims? The first thing I read is one out of six students that go to UOP end up graduating in 4 years rather then 3 years. I also read that UOP has high percentage of students who drop out of the program or fail out of the program. Does anyone know if these comments are true? I didn't really seem that way when I interviewed there, but sometimes people paint a prettier picture of a school when you are interviewing there. I’d also like to get people’s opinions on UOP. Thanks

I'm not sure if those claims are true; however, I think the best way is to check out the stats for yourself. Someone from the school should be able to answer this, like, say, the dean. And the thing about graduating in 4 yrs instead of UOP's 3 yrs, this isn't the case for everyone and isn't necessarily the institution's fault...this could be based on many factors, such as the student's ablity with the compacted curriculum (it is a program for 3 yrs after all), individual study habits...confounding variables such as these.

I'm from Cali and I know two pharmacists who graduated from there. From what I heard, UOP does seem to be more retail-oriented, but I'm not sure where the majority students go for pharmacy jobs; I don't know their job stats. UOP's private tuition is also expensive and seems to be not worth it if you want a more solid clinical focus for your pharmacy studies. I would go to say, something like USC, another school in California instead, who's 100 yrs of solid standing may provide you a stronger clinical background. I personally think clinical skills is what makes a good pharmacist.

If you get accepted to other schools, see what's best for you. This is just what I personally think. Hope this helps! Good luck wherever you choose to go!

 

[pharm120]

Well I'm probably the one that posted it. Also another person who goes there (Risk) who hasn't posted in a while confirmed the number of failures. Something along the lines of 40-45 out of the class of 200 failed at some point in the first 6 semesters before rotations and got kicked out for a year. Around 20-30 were failed the very last semester before rotations when people have all their sites picked out, and are all excited about moving home.

And I guess you could say its the students fault in some cases, but one class we had an average of 50% (confirmed through a student's grievance process), so something else was the problem in that class. It accounted for about 10 of the 45 fails.

Anyway I would echo what the person above me said. If you get accepted to USC, it would be a far better choice. By the way you can't always trust what they say in interviews or what the Dean says. During our white coat ceremony, our Dean had the nerve to say that UoP was the school that had the most graduate on time out of all pharmacy schools. Having gone through the curriculum, I have to say that's a bold faced lie and I'm insulted that he even stated this.

 

[GravyRPH]

I'm not sure if this is a trend or just a bad year. When I went to UOP, the only people I remember leaving were those that chose to for personal reasons. I can't think of a single failure. The year before mine had one, who then joined our class to graduate.

As far as USC being the more "clinical" choice. That is just ridiculous. UOP will prepare you quite well for a clinical position, if you prepare yourself. The school does not make your post-university career for you, it's what you do with your education. I had no problem finding a clinical position, as I'm sure many other UOP'ers and USC'ers did as well.

 

[ilovepharmacy]

Ummm.. Like starrfishes said, I really think you should check with other schools too to see how many people failed out of their class each year. I think you will be surprised by the stats.

Its only been my first semester at USC, and about nine people (unless the number decreased) failed out of one course (out of five courses). So, for UOP 40 people in six semesters doesn't surprise me at all. People do fail their classes at USC too. Don't come here thinking its going to be any nicer or easier!

 

[starrfishes]

I'm not sure if this is a trend or just a bad year. When I went to UOP, the only people I remember leaving were those that chose to for personal reasons. I can't think of a single failure. The year before mine had one, who then joined our class to graduate.

As far as USC being the more "clinical" choice. That is just ridiculous. UOP will prepare you quite well for a clinical position, if you prepare yourself. The school does not make your post-university career for you, it's what you do with your education. I had no problem finding a clinical position, as I'm sure many other UOP'ers and USC'ers did as well.

I'm glad you pointed that out: a pharmacy student's choice to go clinical or not is mostly up to him or her, so a school's program of instruction shouldn't dictate that, and I definately agree! However, I also think a good institution should also guide you well enough, too, so that it doesn't end up to be something like, "be prepared to learn this stuff yourself the whole way through!" 😀

 

[pharm120]

I don't have a problem with schools failing people that deserve to fail, I have a problem with class averages of 50% and schools kicking students out for a full year because of this. Were your class averages at USC anywhere near 50% or were the classes taught well and tested on fairly? Also USC doesn't kick people out for a year do they? Don't you get to make up the class during summer so you still graduate on time with all your friends even if you do fail a class.

GravyRPH, I think it must be the trend now. Because I heard the following class of '07 has already had 15-20 students fail though the first 3 semesters. I can't confirm this though so I can't say anything about it. It sounds like you went to the school during the good days. The thing is, every single older professor there who has been there more than 15 years has been very fair and are very excellent professors. I'm sure you remember some of them like Dr. Blankenship, Dr. Wagner, Dr. Norton. They are all simply amazing. The professors who have been failing the most people are all fairly new within the last 5 years according to the faculty page at UOP. One can barely speak english and the very first day she said that the school made her take english speaking classes so she can teach better because the previous year students were complaining... If you can't teach the class in english you have no right to be failing people. And if you can't write mult. choice tests where the class avg is higher than 50%, you don't deserve to be failing people either in my opinion.

 

[starrfishes]

Well I'm probably the one that posted it. Also another person who goes there (Risk) who hasn't posted in a while confirmed the number of failures. Something along the lines of 40-45 out of the class of 200 failed at some point in the first 6 semesters before rotations and got kicked out for a year. Around 20-30 were failed the very last semester before rotations when people have all their sites picked out, and are all excited about moving home.

And I guess you could say its the students fault in some cases, but one class we had an average of 50% (confirmed through a student's grievance process), so something else was the problem in that class. It accounted for about 10 of the 45 fails.

Anyway I would echo what the person above me said. If you get accepted to USC, it would be a far better choice. By the way you can't always trust what they say in interviews or what the Dean says. During our white coat ceremony, our Dean had the nerve to say that UoP was the school that had the most graduate on time out of all pharmacy schools. Having gone through the curriculum, I have to say that's a bold faced lie and I'm insulted that he even stated this.

Thanks for sharing! That is true; sometimes it IS just about marketing the schools off to make them look pretty.

 

[Requiem]

We had a class this semester where our midterm (worth 30% of our final grade) had a class average of 58%, but he scaled it to 65%

as well, our final had an average of (reportedly) around 50%, which he scaled up to a 70%. As above, our prof was surprisingly an O.K. prof, however he was a terrible person- he literally HATED us, not even exaggerating. At one point throughout the semester he said "I swear to God i'm going to make your final brutally hard", and he came through on his promise! He did it for no reason other than a power-trip, as he immediately scaled up the results.

Get used to terrible profs, and ******ed marking schemes. Just get what you think is the most important out of it, and whatever you do learn retain it. There is no point in trying to 'out perform others' in a professional school, it's not a competition - it's training. I know people who could memorize 1000 terms for a test tommorow, but know none of them a month later and some people who would only know 300 for tommorow, but would retain them. So don't get to hard on yourself with regards to a numeric grade. It's hardly any indication of how you're going to perform as a pharmacist in 4 years. Finally, since I know you're in a B.Sc. program (as am I...) almost everything you learn first year is near irrelevant in terms of day-to-day practice.

 

[ilovepharmacy]

I don't have a problem with schools failing people that deserve to fail, I have a problem with class averages of 50% and schools kicking students out for a full year because of this. Were your class averages at USC anywhere near 50% or were the classes taught well and tested on fairly? Also USC doesn't kick people out for a year do they? Don't you get to make up the class during summer so you still graduate on time with all your friends even if you do fail a class.

Yeah, a 50% average should mean something. The lowest class average I remember from my first semester was around a 60% I think. But for the other semesters to come... 🙄 who knows.. Is there some way to express your grievances to the school? I'm sure if an entire class creates an uprising (for the sake of future classes) this guy can stop teaching this class or giving obscene grades.

Oh, and I wish we got to make up classes we fail! USC did away with that policy a few years ago. Now, its just like the rest of you guys. Don't pass a class, welcome to the next class below you! We even have to maintain certain GPA's every year (3.0 to graduate). So, that's two things to worry about 🙁

 

[dgroulx]

Oh, and I wish we got to make up classes we fail! USC did away with that policy a few years ago. Now, its just like the rest of you guys. Don't pass a class, welcome to the next class below you! We even have to maintain certain GPA's every year (3.0 to graduate). So, that's two things to worry about 🙁

I don't think any school lets you make up classes over the summer. You always end up in the class behind you or just out of the program. They get to charge full tuition all over again.

That 3.0 is rough. How many do you lose to GPA requirements as opposed to just making a D in a class and having to repeat it?

 

[ilovepharmacy]

That 3.0 is rough. How many do you lose to GPA requirements as opposed to just making a D in a class and having to repeat it?

I would not know - I just finished my first semester. I guess we'll see as the years go by..

 

[pharm120]

Wow that's insane. Yeah back when I was going to apply to USC, I read that you could make up classes in summer. That really sucks that you can't anymore.

I guess because pharmacy school is in such high demand, they can pretty much do whatever they want to screw people over and get more tuition since they know they'll never have problems getting applicants. So what exactly can someone do? They're free to do whatever they want. Kind of like gas companies. What are you gonna do, stop buying gas and not drive anywhere when they raise it to 3-4 bucks a gallon? Funny how it took congressional hearings about their "record profits" for them to finally start lowering prices.