UIC? A commutter university? Help with my dilema!

[dszeliga]

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Hi guys,

have you heard of people commutung in their professional program ... we have a home 20 minutes away and was wondering if it would even be reasonable for me to commute to UIC every day if I somehow get accepted to their Pharm School.

By the way do you guys think I would qualify for there school with this as my background:
I am planning on doing my prereqs here
1 year at Purdue University
1 Year at St Xavier
Say I get a 3.8GPA
I am Webmaster of Red Cross Club
I am on publicity committe at Purdue Pharm Ambassadors
I am in Gun club
I will work in a pharmacy during the summer of 08
And will hopefully volunteer and explore at hospital setting
And finally I do well on the PCAT (90 percentile)
I also have job shadowing experience
I currently have about 13 credits from AP classes and plan on taking Microbiology at a CC to meet the prereqs from both Purdue and UIC

Do you guys think I should have a good chance to get into UIC.

My Dilema is that if I transfer out of Purdue I will no longer be considered a student here and ruin my chances of getting in here. But if I dont transfer I will be further away from my home and will spend about 60 thousands dollars more here.

Please help me out here. I really do not know what to do anymore. My biggest fear is not getting accepted by UIC. -Derek

 

[confettiflyer]

a 20 minute commute is not bad at all. It takes me 20 minutes to cross town on a good day sometimes, and my friend commutes from Burbank to Los Angeles/USC and that's a good 30 minutes in traffic.

 

[evilolive]

I have friends that drive 20-30 minutes every day to class. It sucks. I usually walk between 10-12 minutes and that already seems like an eternity. If you live near campus, trust me, your social life will butterfly.

 

[KARM12]

A 20mn commute in Chicago is nothing. That is actaully pretty close.

 

[dszeliga]

Now as far as getting accepted to the pharmacy program at either UIC or Midwestern with the background that I listed above. Do you guys think I have a good chance of getting in? My biggest worry now is that I do transfer, I lose my chance of getting into Purdue although I would much rather go to UIC or Midwestern. Please help me make this big step. -Derek

 

[PharmDstudent]

Try an hour and half over bridges and through swamps. Accidents would add an addition hour on top of that.

 

[genesis09]

UIC has traditionally been a commuter school. Only about 25% of students live on or near campus, the highest it has ever been. It's not unusual to hear of people's commute taking more than one hour. Next year, I'm planning on staying with my parents, and when I do head down to UIC, it'll take close to 90 minutes.
For this year's P-1s, 70% have bachelors. The average PCAT is about 90%. There's no magic spell I can give you which will guarantee acceptance to the school. If interested, you should talk to people in the admissions office, and they can give you a better idea on how you stand. UIC uses a point system for admission. Some things are straight forward, for x GPA you get y points. For others, like community service, the point distribution has more of an opinion basis to it.