I had a hard time deciding on which school to go to and I ultimately chose SIUe for a couple of reasons. So hopefully this helps!
1) Tuition.
Although you will be making a lot of money as a Pharmacist and it may not seem like a huge deal, why waste an extra $15,000 a year for the first two years? When I applied for both colleges, STLCOP was around $30,000 and SIUe was around $10,000 (for pre-Pharm) and was just a little under $30,000 for the Professional Pharmacy Program. In the end, at STLCOP I would spend around $210,000 while at SIUe I would only spend around $140,000.
I did, however, receive a really good scholarship from STLCOP but still ended up declining it. If you end up getting accepted at STLCOP, that will most likely mean that you will get accepted into SIUe and get a scholarship there as well. I chose SIUe in this case because I pay less than $1,000 a semester for all my pre-Pharm classes which is amazing.
2) Textbooks
SIUe also has a textbook rental program so you never have to pay for a textbook but you do pay a rental fee which is approx. $200 but it does depend on how many classes you take.
3) Years of completion
At SIUe the pre-Pharm courses are typically completed in 2 years and then you apply to their Pharmacy school which is only 4 years. So, in total, you will only be spending 6 years in school while at STLCOP you will be spending an extra year for a total of 7 years of school. This in turn also means an extra year of paying $30,000
4) Location
STLCOP is in a beautiful location! It may be frustrating at some times though because the streets are really busy. SIUe's location is a huge difference since it is not located in the city. I was raised in the city so I don't like it as much but that did not affect my decision.
My biggest factor in making my decision was the overall price of tuition because I would much rather save that extra $70,000 and put it towards something else.
