Animal Science Programs

College Majors
1

Any thoughts (positive and negative) concerning the following Animal Science (Pre-vet) programs will be appreciated:

Cal Poly (SLO)
Minnesota-TC
Ohio State
Iowa State
LSU
Rutgers
Colorado State
Arizona
Va. Tech.

Thanks, and best of luck to those still waiting to hear!

2

Colorado State is top notch. Great facilities, beautiful campus. Outstanding faculty. EXPENSIVE and less merit for OOS than other schools.

Iowa State, has a nice program, average facilities, nice campus.

Those are the two on your list my son looked at. He ended up choosing Kansas State because of a very nice vet school, great OOS merit, and early admission to vet school.

3

There are relatively few vet schools in the US, the admission process is very competitive, and there is typically much less flexibility relative to other types of professional schools. Most vet schools are at public land-grant institutions, and they strongly favor in-state applicants, or applicants from other states that have cooperative agreements. If you aren’t a resident of the right state, it may be very difficult to get in. And even if you do get in, you may have to pay a non-resident tuition rate, which can be extremely high.

Your state probably either has a public vet school, or has an arrangement with a public vet school in another state. OK, that’s the vet school you should target. Now figure out which undergraduate animal science programs feed into that vet school.

For example, Cal Poly SLO has an excellent animal science program; it is known as a “feeder” to UC Davis, which is one of the top vet schools in the country. So is Cal Poly a good choice for pre-vet? Yes it is – if you are a California resident. If not, then Cal Poly is not a good choice, despite the strength of the animal science program. The value of the Cal Poly animal science degree will be completely negated by your non-resident status, at least as far as UCD vet school is concerned.

Note also that Cal Poly does not offer financial aid to out-of-state residents. Cost of attendance will be at least $40,000 per year, and that may be going up, because they recently proposed adding additional out-of-state fees. Note also that most Cal Poly students need more than 4 years to finish their degrees.

4

Thanks for the responses. Our discussions with the animal science department at Colorado State left us with the distinct impression that their program is focused on production (i.e., animals as a food source). In fact, we were advised that those who get pre-vet advising are usually bio, as opposed to animal science majors.

We visited Iowa State a few weeks ago . . .

Residency is another issue as we are from NJ, which has neither a vet school nor an arrangement with one (I understand that there was one in the past). So, it appears, that the undergraduate choice may not be helpful for entry into a particular vet school, other than selecting a program that has the reputation of preparing students for vet school.

5

NJ is not a good place to be from if you are applying to vet school. The State of NJ currently does nothing whatsoever to support veterinary education, either in state or out-of-state. So vet schools do nothing to support NJ residents. Apparently there is a bill in the NJ legislature to restore funding, but of course there is no guarantee that it will pass.
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp?BillNumber=S737

In effect, NJ residents are handicapped by out-of-state status everywhere. The only exceptions are the few private vet schools, like Penn or Tufts, but that doesn’t really help because they have tough admissions and high tuition for everybody. Here’s the warning that Rutgers gives to their pre-vets under the current situation:

At UC Davis, the out-of-state cost approaches $300,000 for four years. http://financialaid.ucdavis.edu/graduate/vet/cost.html

This may sound weird, but it’s possible that political factors may have more impact on your vet school prospects than academic factors. To put it another way, the single most important thing you could do to improve the situation for vet school admissions and affordability might be to lose the NJ residency. So you might want to look for an undergraduate program in a state where you could establish residency during college, so that you could then apply to vet school with in-state status.

Utah State University, for example, is not on your list. But USU animal science feeds students straight to USU vet school (which is partnered with Washington State), and Utah is supposed to be an easy state for establishing residency. My understanding is that nobody pays out-of-state tuition at Utah or USU for more than a year or two, because it’s easy to establish Utah residency while you are still an undergraduate.

6

Thanks Corbett, We didn’t consider the possibility of changing state of residency, or Utah, and its too late now.

Since things are otherwise neutral in terms of vet school acceptance, do you have any thoughts on the programs listed?

In terms of environment, our daughter wants out of NJ (Rutgers), did not care for Iowa State, liked tOSU and Minnesota, and we are planning a visit to Cal Poly. I think she is leaning toward Minnesota, tOSU and Cal Poly, in that order.

Any significant differences in the programs? TOSU seems to have a bit more gen ed requirements, Cal Poly’s learning by doing approach is encouraging, but the research expenditures appear relatively small, and the small department and all on-site facilities at Minnesota is appealing . . . thanks for sharing your thoughts.

7

I don’t know much about Ohio State or Minnesota, but would expect them to be academically solid programs with good placement into their respective state vet schools. As in California, though, I would not necessarily assume that the placement rates extend to non-resident students.

If research expenditures seem low at Cal Poly SLO, it’s probably because CP (unlike Ohio State or Minnesota) is not a research university. CP is a state university, but it is not part of the better-known University of California system, and it does not offer the PhD or other doctoral-level degrees. Their focus is on undergraduate education (plus small master’s programs), with particular emphasis on agriculture, architecture, and engineering (hence the “Polytechnic” name).

Cal Poly is very well regarded in California despite the lack of doctoral programs. In practice, Cal Poly is considered a viable alternative to most UCs (other than Berkeley or UCLA) in technical fields like ag or engineering. The focus on undergraduate education, rather than research, is considered an advantage by some (in the same way that some people think that TCNJ provides a better undergraduate experience than Rutgers).

Main concern for someone from NJ might be culture shock. Twin Cities and Columbus are major metro areas. San Luis Obispo is a small college town (albeit a fun and attractive one) that is a long way from either the Bay Area or Greater Los Angeles (in the same way that State College PA is a long way from either Pittsburgh or Philly). SLO is a great location for hiking, mountain biking, surfing, ocean kayaking, or wine tasting, but it might possibly be deemed lacking in urban or suburban amenities from an NJ perspective.

If it’s not possible to establish residency during college, then check state laws to see if this is feasible after college. It might well be possible, for example, to work at an animal-related job for a year or two after graduation, and to establish residency that way. Then apply to vet school as an in-state resident, with animal-related work experience in addition to the degree. The odds of admission would be better than applying to vet school immediately after graduation as an out-of-stater with no work experience, and the tuition would be much lower as well.

8

Some of the vet schools also have the possibility of paying OOS for one year and then getting residency. Look into state laws on this. Colorado State is also very strong in Equine medicine. If you are looking a small animal it is still very good but you may be happier elsewhere. I know Ohio State is very good. Honestly my son didn’t like Iowa State either but we couldn’t really put a finger on why. Did you look at Penn?

9

momocarly, yes we visited Penn State, and she decided not to apply. (Unreasonably picky – refused to even apply to Wisconsin because her sister is there). She will choose between Cal Poly, Minnesota, Ohio State and Virginia Tech. Personally, I was shocked by the lack of African-Americans at Cal Poly (double-digit percentage of Asians and Hispanics, yet less than 1% African Americans?).