Upfront financial aid

[CaptainKev]

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Hi all,

I have a question regarding financial aid for pharmacy schools (both public and private) in light of academic achievement. More specifically, is it at all possible for schools to offer upfront scholarships in the recruitment process for "exceptional" candidates?

I ask specifically because I (like all of you) wish to reduce my student loan debt as much as possible after graduating from pharmacy school, and I believe my application is quite strong (correct me if I'm wrong):

Undergraduate: BA
Univerisity of Colorado at Boulder
Major 1: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Major GPA: 3.89
Class Rank: 9/127
Major 2: Neuroscience
Major GPA: 3.89
Class Rank: 15/661 (as of graduation, it was still lumped in with the far-easier psychology major)
Overall GPA: 3.885
Science GPA: 3.8-3.9 (haven't calculated it exactly)

All pharmacy prerequisites are included in the overall GPA

Preliminary PCAT (taken 9/5/14, first time taking the test):
VA: 451 / 98
Bio: 447 / 97
RC: 512 / 99
QA: 426 / 88
Chem: 472 / 99
COMP: 462 / 99

(Again, these scores are preliminary and do not include the writing section)

Experience:
Undergraduate laboratory technician
Bachtell laboratory, January 2011 - September 2013
Researched the neurophysiological effects of methamphetamine self-administration on the expression of various dopaminergic and related proteins throughout various brain regions
Pending publication as first author in the journal Neuropharmacology
Certified pharmacy technician
Safeway (I know, no judge-y) pharmacy, October 2013-Present

I have at least 4 pharmacists, my former PI, and 2 professors willing to write great letters of rec.

So the ultimate question is: if I were to apply to mid- to upper-range schools (not talking top-tier here), could I possibly receive upfront financial aid in the form of reduced tuition costs/other, or am I a dreaming fool? Please advise.

-Kevin

 

[oldstock]

Hi all,

I have a question regarding financial aid for pharmacy schools (both public and private) in light of academic achievement. More specifically, is it at all possible for schools to offer upfront scholarships in the recruitment process for "exceptional" candidates?

I ask specifically because I (like all of you) wish to reduce my student loan debt as much as possible after graduating from pharmacy school, and I believe my application is quite strong (correct me if I'm wrong):

Undergraduate: BA
Univerisity of Colorado at Boulder
Major 1: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Major GPA: 3.89
Class Rank: 9/127
Major 2: Neuroscience
Major GPA: 3.89
Class Rank: 15/661 (as of graduation, it was still lumped in with the far-easier psychology major)
Overall GPA: 3.885
Science GPA: 3.8-3.9 (haven't calculated it exactly)

All pharmacy prerequisites are included in the overall GPA

Preliminary PCAT (taken 9/5/14, first time taking the test):
VA: 451 / 98
Bio: 447 / 97
RC: 512 / 99
QA: 426 / 88
Chem: 472 / 99
COMP: 462 / 99

(Again, these scores are preliminary and do not include the writing section)

Experience:
Undergraduate laboratory technician
Bachtell laboratory, January 2011 - September 2013
Researched the neurophysiological effects of methamphetamine self-administration on the expression of various dopaminergic and related proteins throughout various brain regions
Pending publication as first author in the journal Neuropharmacology
Certified pharmacy technician
Safeway (I know, no judge-y) pharmacy, October 2013-Present

I have at least 4 pharmacists, my former PI, and 2 professors willing to write great letters of rec.

So the ultimate question is: if I were to apply to mid- to upper-range schools (not talking top-tier here), could I possibly receive upfront financial aid in the form of reduced tuition costs/other, or am I a dreaming fool? Please advise.

-Kevin

Not so sure what you meant by "up front" scholarship. If you got awarded a scholarship, it would be included in your financial aid award letter. Just the same like in undegrad. No difference. No school will offer you a "reduced" tuition. Your tuition will be the same like everyone else.

You might receive some form of academic scholarship if you are accepted. That is a possibility. (Everything is possible if you ask me 🙂 lol) However, all depends on what schools you are applying to (that they have or have not the money for scholarship awards and how much) and how competitive other applicants are for the same school. Also, schools and their scholarship committees might look at other things like community service/volunteering and/or leadership experience and how exceptional you are in those regards to consider you for scholarships (which you might be lacking).

To my knowledge, I have rarely heard about anyone who gets a full scholarship for pharmacy school. Mostly the scholarships are worth a couple of thousands dollars a year, which is only a drop in the bucket in light of the expensive tuition. If you want full scholarship or free tuition, you would have better luck for a free ride applying to a PhD program than a PharmD program.

But I think nobody here or even the schools could tell you now for sure if you are going to get a scholarship or how much. IMHO you have to apply, go through the whole application process, get interviewed, get accepted, and then find out for yourself if you get awarded a scholarship. It is not impossible but only a possibility at this point. You could call the school you are interested in though, and find out the answer now right from the source. GL 🙂

 

[tehshield]

I think if you had a GPA beyond a certain threshold you could get several thousand dollars scholarship depending on availability from the University of Iowa. I know when I got an acceptance letter from Howard University I was offered a 10k scholarship but I did not choose to go there. But mostly pharmacy school scholarships usually are not that much usually.