Do you guys know anything about this school that isn't listed on the website? I am not from the midwest at all and no one I know knows anything about this school... Any interesting tidbits would be appreciated or things you learned in the interviews???
Sure! I just had my interview. It's an absolutely amazing school, and I really hope that I get accepted
There are quite a few research opportunities available to PharmD students with
all of the schools. That means that even though you're a pharmacy student, you could even be working in a lab with the medical school since they're all on one campus. You also work side by side with medical students, PA students, nurses, dentists, etc. starting second semester P1 year doing case studies. They're really into integrating everybody together since that's how healthcare is actually run, and, personally, I think that it's a fabulous set-up.
The student ID card you'll receive your P1 year allows you access to all of the pharmacy-related classrooms/buildings, and you can use it to get free rides on the Denver train and bus system (although that's somewhat practically nonexistent at the moment). They also offer merit based scholarships to students too. Parking on campus is $36/month. Not sure where you are specifically, but that's insanely cheap coming from where I live.
The campus is in Aurora, which isn't the nicest of neighborhoods. It's up and coming especially now with the Anschutz campus being there, but the big changes will take time. I didn't feel unsafe on campus when I was alone at all. Even driving in the surrounding neighborhood I didn't feel too unsafe. They gave us some information on apartments nearby, but I think that if I get accepted I'll live elsewhere. The places they listed were really expensive and luxurious. I'm a student, so luxury isn't a priority. Rent in Denver/Aurora has been going up astronomically lately, but you can still find 1 bedroom apartments for less than the prices that the school was showing.
The interview felt really laid back, as did the whole day. Everybody is really friendly and happy to answer your questions. The interview goes
really quick too. I think it was only around 25-35 minutes. I felt like I wasn't able to talk about all of the things I would have liked to talk about, but my interviewer and I had a good conversation going so I wasn't going to disrupt that by quickly changing topics.
One of us in the interviewing group asked the current P1 and P3 students (leading our tour) what a typical day for them is. They start classes anywhere from 8:30-9. Most days they end by 2:30, but Tuesdays and some Wednesdays can go as late as 4:30. Their Fridays are only one class in the morning, ending before noon. The free time allows students to work part time. Majority of the students are able to work 8-12 hours/week in a pharmacy. One student told me that it's pretty easy to pick up more hours though during breaks and summer if you want since the pharmacies are desperate for help.
Overall I think it's a great program with great students and great faculty. Can you tell I really like it yet? Ha. Sorry for not being so organized with my thoughts. Figured I'd just get it all out there. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them. They give you so much information when you're at the interview that it starts to become hard to remember all of the finer details until later, so some of your questions could probably prompt me to remember more things that everybody told me.
