I've been accepted to both and was wondering which school has a better program. I know USNews gives Northeastern a slightly better rating, but what are some personal opinions of anyone who's been through the program?
St Johns or Northeastern 0-6
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When I got accepted to Northeastern a few years ago, they were pretty skimpy with financial aid. They offered me a $5000 scholarship which didn't put a dent in the tuition. How does their tuition compare to St Johns's? I opted not to go to Northeastern because (at the time) they required internships every summer after the 2nd year. I wasn't ready to devote the entire year to school (but you would get exceelent experience). Lots to consider. Good luck!
I get $48,000 over the 6 years, pro-rated from Northeastern, and full tuition for 4 years at St. John's. About a $70,000 difference overall, but that isn't what concerns me. If it was based purely off of tuition, I'd definitely choose St. Johns.
I'd like to know about the quality of both schools concerning their classes, the type of people at each school, internships, their reputations as viewed by other pharmacists, connections, etc.
Or whatever random information you folks choose to bestow upon me
I'd like to know about the quality of both schools concerning their classes, the type of people at each school, internships, their reputations as viewed by other pharmacists, connections, etc.
Or whatever random information you folks choose to bestow upon me
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I'm also trying to decide amongst several schools....
St John's:
1) Seemed to be a "secure" campus.. need to go thru security, has fences/walls around the entire campus
2) older Pharm building/class rooms
3) Being in Queens, need to travel by bus then train to get to NYC
4) My sense is that there are a lot of cliques... students not as willing to help each other
5) Really like the Library.. quiet, can study
6) Liked the dorms
7) Very, very quiet on the weekends... still too much of a commuter college... mostly all go home on the weekends
8) well noted for PharmD/Law... and basketball.... all the other schools are marginal (if I changed majors, which I'm not planning on, I would not go to St Johns)
Northeastern:
1) "Open" campus... anyone off the street can walk thru campus... if staying at International Dorms, need to walk thru Ruggles train station (ok, I'm a female and walking thru there at midnight is not desirable)
2) Just built Bouve ~7 years ago; modern
3) You're in downtown Boston... subway stop is on campus... you're literally minutes from any activity
4) Seems like the students help each other with homework etc.
5) Library aok...
6) Dorms aok
7) college atmosphere on the weekends
8) well noted for several schools (If I changed majors, I can see myself staying at northeastern)
____________________________________________________________
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (0-6) - Accepted
Northeastern Bouve (0-6) - Accepted
University of Rhode Island (0-6) - Accepted
University of Buffalo (SUNY) - Accepted
Rutgers (0-6) - Accepted
St John's:
1) Seemed to be a "secure" campus.. need to go thru security, has fences/walls around the entire campus
2) older Pharm building/class rooms
3) Being in Queens, need to travel by bus then train to get to NYC
4) My sense is that there are a lot of cliques... students not as willing to help each other
5) Really like the Library.. quiet, can study
6) Liked the dorms
7) Very, very quiet on the weekends... still too much of a commuter college... mostly all go home on the weekends
8) well noted for PharmD/Law... and basketball.... all the other schools are marginal (if I changed majors, which I'm not planning on, I would not go to St Johns)
Northeastern:
1) "Open" campus... anyone off the street can walk thru campus... if staying at International Dorms, need to walk thru Ruggles train station (ok, I'm a female and walking thru there at midnight is not desirable)
2) Just built Bouve ~7 years ago; modern
3) You're in downtown Boston... subway stop is on campus... you're literally minutes from any activity
4) Seems like the students help each other with homework etc.
5) Library aok...
6) Dorms aok
7) college atmosphere on the weekends
8) well noted for several schools (If I changed majors, I can see myself staying at northeastern)
____________________________________________________________
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (0-6) - Accepted
Northeastern Bouve (0-6) - Accepted
University of Rhode Island (0-6) - Accepted
University of Buffalo (SUNY) - Accepted
Rutgers (0-6) - Accepted
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Never been to St. Johns and liked NEU back when I visited, but 70k is a lot of money! Right now I kind of wish I went to other schools I applied to that would be about 40k cheaper than the one I go to, 70k is even more. Both are well-respected schools, so it's not even an issue of a good school vs. a diploma mill. I say go to St. Johns, your wallet will thank you.
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I go to Northeastern! But honestly, it was the only school I applied to. I early actioned it and then if I got rejected, I would've applied to other places, so that I would've have to waste money on applications to schools I wasn't really interested in.
So the Northeastern campus is beautiful. I may be biased, but I mean you can come visit or look at pictures (although I guess every school would want to put up the best pictures of itself), but you'd say the same thing. It's a very nice campus. The Bouve building is gorgeous, tall, glass windows, modern labs, etc etc.
As previously mentioned you're in the middle of the city. There's always something to do around here, and the T (subway) and buses are really easy to use, so you really don't need a car, especially since parking is a b****. Also, Northeastern is super close to a lot of major hospitals. I'm currently in a Medical Career Exploration Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital which is a 5 minute T/bus ride or a 15 minute walk from campus. In the same location is the Boston Children's Hospital. There's also Boston Medical, Mass General, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical, Tufts Medical, and others.
The dorms are only for your first year. All upperclassmen live in suite style or apartment style dorms. Some first years also end up in suite style dorms, like previously mentioned International Village is a suite style dorm. BUT I suggest if you go here DO NOT apply to go live in International Village. Apparently the rooms are smaller that the other dorms, and it looks like a hospital since all the walls are pure white. I HIGHLY suggest to live in the Bouve LLC (living learning community). It is the residence hall where only Bouve majors live, so it'll be a quick easy way to make friends with other pharmacy majors, form study groups, get help with homework, etc. I don't live in the Bouve LLC, so you don't HAVE to, but I wish I had chosen it in the beginning.
Northeastern is also noted for their co-op program, so if you have looked at the Pharmacy curriculum you'll see that after your 2nd year is a summer co-op, during your 3rd year is a spring co-op, and then the beginning of your 4th year is a fall co-op. Basically during co-op you don't attend school (meaning you don't have to pay tuition) and you find a retail, hospital, compounding, whatever position to intern in. So basically co-op is your IPPEs, but the pharmacy co-op advisors help you every step of the way with your resume, mock interviews, interview attire, everything. Of course, you have to find the job yourself, but they help open opportunities by holding RxExpos where dozens of companies come looking for future interns and pharmacists. During the RxExpo they also have interview day, where you can sign up to be interviewed by these companies for open positions that they have. Northeastern requires a retail and hospital co-op with the third co-op being optional and could be anything you want (pharmacy related or not).
Also, in the beginning of this year one of the pharmacy advisors said that they were working on students graduating with a PharmD AND a bachelors. I have no idea what the bachelor would be in or when exactly they would be implementing this, but I did ask whether it would be put in place by the time my class graduated (2015) and she said it would. So we'll see on that.
So uh yeah. This reply is super long. Sorry! If you had any other questions, just ask and I'll try to find the answers out for you.
So the Northeastern campus is beautiful. I may be biased, but I mean you can come visit or look at pictures (although I guess every school would want to put up the best pictures of itself), but you'd say the same thing. It's a very nice campus. The Bouve building is gorgeous, tall, glass windows, modern labs, etc etc.
As previously mentioned you're in the middle of the city. There's always something to do around here, and the T (subway) and buses are really easy to use, so you really don't need a car, especially since parking is a b****. Also, Northeastern is super close to a lot of major hospitals. I'm currently in a Medical Career Exploration Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital which is a 5 minute T/bus ride or a 15 minute walk from campus. In the same location is the Boston Children's Hospital. There's also Boston Medical, Mass General, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical, Tufts Medical, and others.
The dorms are only for your first year. All upperclassmen live in suite style or apartment style dorms. Some first years also end up in suite style dorms, like previously mentioned International Village is a suite style dorm. BUT I suggest if you go here DO NOT apply to go live in International Village. Apparently the rooms are smaller that the other dorms, and it looks like a hospital since all the walls are pure white. I HIGHLY suggest to live in the Bouve LLC (living learning community). It is the residence hall where only Bouve majors live, so it'll be a quick easy way to make friends with other pharmacy majors, form study groups, get help with homework, etc. I don't live in the Bouve LLC, so you don't HAVE to, but I wish I had chosen it in the beginning.
Northeastern is also noted for their co-op program, so if you have looked at the Pharmacy curriculum you'll see that after your 2nd year is a summer co-op, during your 3rd year is a spring co-op, and then the beginning of your 4th year is a fall co-op. Basically during co-op you don't attend school (meaning you don't have to pay tuition) and you find a retail, hospital, compounding, whatever position to intern in. So basically co-op is your IPPEs, but the pharmacy co-op advisors help you every step of the way with your resume, mock interviews, interview attire, everything. Of course, you have to find the job yourself, but they help open opportunities by holding RxExpos where dozens of companies come looking for future interns and pharmacists. During the RxExpo they also have interview day, where you can sign up to be interviewed by these companies for open positions that they have. Northeastern requires a retail and hospital co-op with the third co-op being optional and could be anything you want (pharmacy related or not).
Also, in the beginning of this year one of the pharmacy advisors said that they were working on students graduating with a PharmD AND a bachelors. I have no idea what the bachelor would be in or when exactly they would be implementing this, but I did ask whether it would be put in place by the time my class graduated (2015) and she said it would. So we'll see on that.
So uh yeah. This reply is super long. Sorry! If you had any other questions, just ask and I'll try to find the answers out for you.
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Boston FTW! Just don't bring your Yankees stuff unless you want a beatin'. Oh yea, and being a jerk while in Massachusetts is mandatory, so brush up on your MA-hole skills.
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Boston FTW! Just don't bring your Yankees stuff unless you want a beatin'. Oh yea, and being a jerk while in Massachusetts is mandatory, so brush up on your MA-hole skills.
Hasn't STOPPED ME!! hehe
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i went to SJU years ago. I posted my story asking for advise a few min ago and added a little sidnote about things i hated about the school. I think a lot has changed about the campus since i left. I think theyve done a lot of new constructon, It seemed like they were always doing new construction, and basically taking parking away for more buildings. I was a commuter who lives still in queens. Parking stunk then, and the campus always looked busy, Its generally safe. I do vaguely remember there was an incident of a girl being attacked in the library. But the school responded apropriately with lots of warnings and more security for a while, and you need to be smart. Its a huge library with a lot of dead spots. You're right, NYC will bacically be you're home. Its real easy to get around by bus train or cab and there always someone with a car. but dont count on too much partying. do not underestimate how much work this will ne. theres a lot of greek organizations though. theres a pharmacy one. I know even though the campus hasnt got greek housing a lot of ppl joind just for stuff to do. Pharamcy school was a little clique-y there. it was like highschool. everyone had their group, but I dont recall anyone being malicious or mean. Just like HS the groups always overlap a bit. And like i said its been a few years, but after year 2 they essentially gave you a choice of schedule 1-4, and the same people wanted or needed what were the same overall time schedules each semester, so you were with the exact same ppl all the time. there where some people you would only see once a semester at test time. Pharmacy school in general and probally med schools and such too lend themselves to a really unique dynamic. Sure there a bit of competitiveness, there has to be or you couldnt have been there in the first place, but everyone helps each other. its cause youre all going through it. theres the kids struggling to get the C's but there's lso the kids killing themselves to keeps their scholarships just as hard. And its all the same teachers, so you basically all walk out of the midterm/final whitefaced together. and then will all be there bright and early the next morning outside the teachers office door to see if you passed together. and for the whole week every nite previous you were all in the lounge studing, together but not. youd be doing your own thing, but youd run back and fourth to different the cliques every few minutes to check on some answer or clarify your notes.
I guess to be specific, I hated that the University itself was a poorly run business and untill you got the hang of how to get things done in college (i.e. financial aid, advisement...), youre left at the mercy of a lot of departments full of lazy peoplle who usually tell you the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing for you and you suffer for it sometime very badly, for example you end up showing up at the first day of classes and your mysteriously in none of them, all because someone didnt file the form you handed in a week ago. and you get stuck missing all your classes to fix it in the hopes thsat you can still get back into them even though it wasnt your fault. cause if something like tat happens and the class is closed youre just screwed. SJU is just perfect for stuff like that.
I like a lot of the teachers though. Some were really hard or even wors, awesome teacher, but couldnt write a test to save their lives.
I rambled a bit, I dont think i ended up telling you anything important actually but you mady me reminisce lol
I guess to be specific, I hated that the University itself was a poorly run business and untill you got the hang of how to get things done in college (i.e. financial aid, advisement...), youre left at the mercy of a lot of departments full of lazy peoplle who usually tell you the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing for you and you suffer for it sometime very badly, for example you end up showing up at the first day of classes and your mysteriously in none of them, all because someone didnt file the form you handed in a week ago. and you get stuck missing all your classes to fix it in the hopes thsat you can still get back into them even though it wasnt your fault. cause if something like tat happens and the class is closed youre just screwed. SJU is just perfect for stuff like that.
I like a lot of the teachers though. Some were really hard or even wors, awesome teacher, but couldnt write a test to save their lives.
I rambled a bit, I dont think i ended up telling you anything important actually but you mady me reminisce lol
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