Namitha Vellian ’22
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Major: Pharmacy
Hometown: Campbell, CA
Namitha Vellian spent her Thanksgiving break back in San Jose, California, a little different than yours.
Seated opposite from five of her mother’s sisters, they took turns asking questions that Namitha expected to answer on a test once she returned to Butler’s campus after the long weekend.
She’s a junior Pharmacy major in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Her aunts are pretending to be patients. A role familiar to each of them because her five aunts are pharmacists in real life.
“Coming to Butler was a big leap for me even though I’ve known for a while what I wanted to be,” Namitha says. “Not only was it tough to be so far away from my family, but I also had a rocky start in my first semester because of the workload.”
But out of the 12 universities she applied to, she chose Butler because of the supportive community she felt right away as she stepped onto campus. And once she was confronted with that workload, the campus around her did not disappoint.
“Other students in my classes and in the pharmacy fraternity are always willing to help me gain new insights on what classes to take, which professors to go to first, and how to apply what I study to my life, both in the present and future,” Namitha says.
Another reason the program at Butler stood out from the others she applied to was the fierce competition that Butler’s curriculum avoided. Instead of requiring students to take a Pharmacy College Admission Test after a few years into classes like the majority of programs, Butler only has its students pass an initial interview, complete a written exercise, and maintain a certain GPA to guarantee placement.
“So I knew that they would have my back right away rather than potentially turn me away after I put in so many semesters of work,” she says. “That’s why I felt it was so supportive—not only academically, but also emotionally and mentally as well. Everyone checks in with me because they actually care.”
Being off at school is still the big leap she always knew it would be, but at Butler it’s a lot less daunting.
“I am 100 percent glad I made this choice to be what I always wanted to be at Butler,” Namitha says. “I think that’s why I’m always so excited to return.”