International Student: Which Pharmacy School?

[charmedgurl21]

Hey guys,

I'm a Canadian student thinking about studying pharmacy in England. Since I haven't been able to check out the campus or student life at any of the universities I applied to, I was wondering if I could get some feedback on what you guys think of each university in respective to their pharmacy program?

- London School of Pharmacy
- Nottingham
- Manchester
- LJMU

I was leaning towards the School of Pharmacy since I figured it's situated right in the heart of the city, so as a newcomer I won't have too much trouble finding stuff and getting around. But I've also heard a lot of good things about Nottingham and Manchester...which would you guys say is better in terms of their courses, courseload, student environment, and ease of adjusting)?

I would appreciate any input thanks a lot guys!

[johnep]

If cash no problem, then SOP London. I graduated from there over 50 years ago.
If funds short then Aberdeen Scotland. A lot of canadians have scots roots.

Aberdeen good for winter sports.
johnep

[Rafael]

I suggest you keep your cash and go to a uni at home, Canada.
4 years x12000 tuition fees + 3-4K/year living expenses + another 1K for your flight every year, a total of 50-55K i.e around 100 000 Canadian dollars! Would be better to buy a small shop and start a business if your dad can fund it.

Anyway not putting you off, i just want you to be informed before considering such a move. i was not! i took a huge loan to pay international fees, and will have to pay it all back in 4 years time( 3 years post-practicing). so please take my advice into consideration.


If you get your degree from a UK university, you can't practice in Canada immediately, you probably need to do 1-2 years( at uni+ work experience) 1st.

Otherwise, look for Nottingham uni board, i recommend it there so have a look around and feel free to pm me.
Best of luck

[Tesh]

I have a friend from Canada in final year at Bradford uni. He's got an offer from Walmart for when he goes back this summer. He's told me he's negotiated with Walmart to do just 600 hours of experience and then sit the exam within months of his finals and then he'll be a fully fledged pharmacist in canada. Aparantly the guys from Walmart hunt down canandian MPharm students in the UK as theyve come to our uni twice for recruitment.

He wants to move to the US down the line and is going to get his doctorate with the University of Florida (I think) whilst working in Canada. Aparantly they do a distance learning thing using online learning tools. He reckons this will let him bypass the whole NAPLEX thing.

Don't quote me on anything lol as I don't understand how pharmacy abroad works but he's done his research from what I can tell!

[paul2008]

If you get your degree from a UK university, you can't practice in Canada immediately, you probably need to do 1-2 years( at uni+ work experience) 1st.

This curiously only applies in the UK for people with non-UK degrees, with an Mpharm (or whatever it was before) registration should not require more than 12 months work experiance and in most countries considerably less than that depending on your test scores. Canada and USA seem to have a sliding scale depending on your FPGEE/equivilent score and the state you wish to practise in, while Australia, South Africa have a standard one year thing.

Due to the falling pound, it may even work out cheaper to study here, but predicting the currency markets is tricky so don't bank on it. It may be a good idea consider the Bradford sandwhich course or doing pre-reg here so that you can practoise here before returning to Canada.

[spyder45]

I suggest you keep your cash and go to a uni at home, Canada.
4 years x12000 tuition fees + 3-4K/year living expenses + another 1K for your flight every year, a total of 50-55K i.e around 100 000 Canadian dollars! Would be better to buy a small shop and start a business if your dad can fund it.

Anyway not putting you off, i just want you to be informed before considering such a move. i was not! i took a huge loan to pay international fees, and will have to pay it all back in 4 years time( 3 years post-practicing). so please take my advice into consideration.


If you get your degree from a UK university, you can't practice in Canada immediately, you probably need to do 1-2 years( at uni+ work experience) 1st.

Otherwise, look for Nottingham uni board, i recommend it there so have a look around and feel free to pm me.
Best of luck

Hey Rafael, the tuition fee for Canadian pharmacy schools are kinda expensive as well. I live in Ontario, so I would either apply for toronto or waterloo. If you are also going to live on campus (which I am pretty sure I would), it costs close to 20,000 CAD every year as well so it will still end up being around $80,000 which close to 100,000 CAD. It is also more difficult to get into the schools in ontario so people usually resort to the schools in UK. I wanted to ask if the you had to pay some of the loan back during the time you studied or were you not required to start paying after you were graduated. If you don't mind me asking, how much loan did you receive? Let me know as I am also thinking about applying in england, thanks!!

[CoolDude]

I have a friend from Canada in final year at Bradford uni. He's got an offer from Walmart for when he goes back this summer. He's told me he's negotiated with Walmart to do just 600 hours of experience and then sit the exam within months of his finals and then he'll be a fully fledged pharmacist in canada. Aparantly the guys from Walmart hunt down canandian MPharm students in the UK as theyve come to our uni twice for recruitment.

He wants to move to the US down the line and is going to get his doctorate with the University of Florida (I think) whilst working in Canada. Aparantly they do a distance learning thing using online learning tools. He reckons this will let him bypass the whole NAPLEX thing.

Don't quote me on anything lol as I don't understand how pharmacy abroad works but he's done his research from what I can tell!

Could you please tell me what UNI you are in.... "Aparantly the guys from Walmart hunt down canandian MPharm students in the UK as theyve come to our uni "???

[johnep]

Well, Bradford and Nottingham were mentioned.
Read the posts!
johnep