Hi.
I go to USP, and I believe that both USP and Rutgers have the "security" of a 6-year program (don't know how long this will hold true for, with both schools).
Just to give you an idea, USP has a lot of Jersey people that didn't get into Rutgers. Those people in my year account for a little less than half of my class.
I have heard from people that go to USP who have friends at Rutgers that Rutgers is more stressful (can't imagine, since USP is stressful enough). I have also heard on this board that they have no labs at all at RU. A bit strange.
A bunch of USP professors left this year to teach at Jeff, and I haven't experienced the new ones yet. Starting my year, the program has improved in the fact that P&T is over 2 years, not 1, just like in most other pharm. schools. Philly is a good city with a lot of things to do as long as you're not afraid to go explore, but a lot of these people at USP have some kind of an anti-fun mentality.
Yeah it's a small school, but it's also a big program, with classes of 300. So far, however, I have not seen anything wrong with these classes, since on any given day half the class doesn't show up anyway, so there is still time for some questions. As in any school, there are professors that are pretty good and professors that you have no idea why they chose to teach (that are very good researchers, just horrible teachers).
Here you can also pick up a minor along with your PharmD in whatever you're interested in. I'm a stat minor and know a few people that are business, math or even psych minors. Starting this year there is also an honors program, which apparently has big grants allotted for it to do activities for the honors students (I heard trips to Florida and places like that are in planning for them) and they get book money.
The school has done some shady things. For example it keeps changing our curriculum so we don't exactly know what our grad. requirements are (though, of course, it doesn't change it retroactively, that is illegal). The meal plan here is crap and you have to get it if you dorm. my 2nd year I lived above the cafeteria and we had a huge mouse problem and I only saw it fixed after I told ResLife that I would call the health inspector.
Finally for anyone else who has this question (I've reiterated this many times to separate people), USP is not a good school to apply to if you're not trying to enroll as a freshman. They will most likely not take you. There is a transfer policy, but that is just to take money from unsuspecting applicants.
