Hi guys! Just had an opportunity to be on a student panel and answer some questions from potential students interviewing today about why I chose the University of Minnesota. We ran out of time and I did not want to take over and list all of my reasons that I am happy with the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy so I decided to post the rest of my response on here.
My top reasons, in no particular order, of why I chose/love Pharmacy School at the University of Minnesota:
1. I was so amazed that I got to learn first hand from Professors that wrote our textbooks. In particularly Dr. Cipolle & Dr. Isetts in Pharmaceutical Care I. Dr. Cipolle has taught 1,000 of pharmacy students here in the U of M and wrote our Pharmaceutical Care Practice textbooks along with Dr. Strand in our Duluth campus. Dr. Isetts is now working in Washington DC for President Obama.
2. The wonderful staff in our Office of Student Services, OSS. They are such wonderful and amazingly patient group of people who will go above and beyond to help us accommodate to living and studying here in the U of M. Particularly Peter & Sarah, if we are stressed and need some advice and help just swing by their office and they can help. If they cannot, they will guide you and set you up with student mentors, tutors, ect. to help alleviate your problems. I am particularly thankful for their help with my campus transfer process 🙂
3. The Academic Health Center (AHC)! We are one of the few AHC in the nation connecting pharmacy school, dental school, nursing school, medical school, and other health professions under one big roof. We can walk across a few doors and we arrived at the classroom for dental and medical students, walk a little bit further and we can have our teeth cleaned and have a physical checkup with our doctors. We even had an opportunity to take classes with those students our first year of pharmacy school practicing to work together on the healthcare team!
4. The amazing students! We have a tough course load every semester, around 18.5-23 credits per semester, and especially for the second year (the toughest year), we would not have done it without the help from our classmates. I feel like we are in high school again! We have lockers, we have a student lounge, and we go to classes together, but the difference is that these people are so intelligent, so motivated, and passionate about the profession. Not only are they self-motivators but they motivate me to succeed as well. If I am completely stressed about an exam, I know that at least I have 100+ other people stressing out with me and that we are willing to share notes, to help tutor and guide each other so that we will do well on our exams, pass the class, and graduate together!
5. You get to be a pharmacy intern after your first year of school! For many school, you are officially an intern after your second year of pharmacy school but at the UofMN, it’s after your first year. This provides us with an opportunity to work alongside with a pharmacist preceptor, doing practically almost everything a pharmacist does except with supervision and guidance. Though we learn a lot in school, we need to know how to apply this knowledge to our day to day activities as a pharmacist. Having the opportunity to practice one year earlier than those schools definitely help us to become better future pharmacist and helps us to be more comfortable and confident in our work.
6. Research! Many of our faculty are involved in great research like HIV & oncology, cancer, transplant, etc. and they have huge laboratory with many graduate students right within our building or nearby. Having this opportunity to interact, converse with world famous researchers, and possibly be working along side the professor working to develop a cure for cancer would be phenom!
7. We are ranked #3 pharmacy school in the nation by U.S.News and World Report, and are fully accredited by the American Council On Pharmaceutical Education! Our College of Pharmacy was founded in 1892, and has a rich history of educating pharmacist leaders. We are the only pharmacy school in Minnesota and have educated an estimated two-thirds of the more than 7,500 active pharmacists in the state!
8. It’s now midnight and I need to catch some ZZZZ to get ready for school tomorrow. More to come, check back soon…
Phat
Transpharmers 