I was accepted to both Penn State and Udel. I visited Udel recently and was VERY impressed with the pre-vet program and their college of agricultural science. I have yet to visit Penn State but I will be in April. I was trying to see if anyone could compare the pre-vet program at Udel with the animal science program at Penn State. Udel faculty said that about 86% of their students who apply to vet school get in but I cannot find a similar statistic for Penn State. I know both schools have a farm. Udel students get to work with the animals from day one but I don’t know about Penn State. I am aware Penn State is ranked higher than Udel in general but I want to make sure I’m choosing the school with the best program to prepare me for Vet school.
I think you have some great options. Congrats. You will know more after visiting State College PA
One caveat on admissions to vet and med schools. If they have a formal advising process the numbers aren’t as useful. They politely steer candidates away from applying or simply won’t support the application.
The better metrics would be how many start on pre health path. How many eventually stay on that track. And of those who are pre health as as juniors and seniors are actually in the final pool of candidates. Usually it’s a fraction of the original cohort and the more cream of the crop of those who fight to stay in.
However, thst may not be the UDel or psu model.
I am just suggesting further investigation into that stat before using it as a decision point.
Please don’t take this as negative.
You can become a great vet out either of the excellent choices you have already.
But there are “no free lunches”, you will have to work your tail off to make it happen.
Best of luck and go get ‘em.
Penn State started as a farming college and has strong roots in Ag and a lot of resources despite the college’s smaller size (compared to other academic colleges at PSU like liberal arts or IST).
I’d encourage you to go to the school where you can earn the degree with as little debt as possible. Vet school is expensive so save the debt.
Seconding : go where it’s the least expensive, where you’ll have the least debt. Both are excellent and will prepare you for vet school if you don’t everything in your power to make it happen.
May I suggest you visit the pre-vet forum. There are a number of postings explaining the rational of undergrad schools in relationship to the intention of applying to vet school, how to apply and how this is affected by where you live. You have to work backwards a little to understand. There are only about 30 vet schools in US. The state schools reserve the highest number of seats for those students who reside in that state, followed by those students who reside in a state that has an articulation agreement with them, followed lastly by OOS students. (Lesson is that you will have a higher chance of acceptance to your state’s vet school at a lower cost). The other vet schools are private and it doesn’t matter where your undergrad work is taken and the other option is AVMA accredited foreign program. Each vet school has undergrad prerequisites, average GPA and average GRE scores as well as number of hours you have completed direct animal care under the direction of a vet, letters of recommendation from Professors and Veterinarians, community service and leadership roles in college. Therefore, it is important that you attend a school with an excellent preprofessional mentor program, where you can complete ALL of the prerequisites, (including vet hours), maintain the highest GPA possible and all of this at the lowest cost possible to you. It must also be a school that is easy to switch majors in case your plans change. Were you accepted into the pre vet program at UD? If so, that is a wonderful option. (They state that 65% are accepted into US and foreign vet schools, they don’t say if they distinguish how long or how many times the students apply prior to admission, how many OOS undergrads from UD are accepted or if they allow anyone with the prereqs to apply). The individual school rankings do not bear significance.
my mistake it was 84% not 86