<p>There is a great little school on both of my D's radar which offers an innovative program that no other school offers. It is through the psych department and deals with human/animal bonding. It involves working directly with service animals and as pre-vet hopefuls and animal lovers this is what is so attractive to them. If they attend this school they plan to double major in bio or bio chem and this program. </p>
<p>Now, the school doesn't offer a BS. It only offers BAs in all disciplines. How much of a concern should this be for my girls; who at this point want to go on to vet school? Do you think that the benefits of a double major which combines so much hands-on animal care and training as well as lab science would outweigh any concerns over not earning a BS?</p>
<p>I really believe it's the program that matters, not the initials on the degree. At my S's very highly regarded school, the liberal arts college gives only BA's, while the engineering school gives BS's. Many of those BA grads go on to very good medical, vet, dental, research Ph.D, etc, graduate schools.</p>
<p>Most med/vet schools do not require applicants to have a particular degree. In fact most recommend that students get a degree in something they would be happy to have as a career (a plan B). They do require the student to have taken certain prerequisite classes (chemistry, organic chemistry etc etc).</p>
<p>Many top LACs, with good track records of placing students in vet schools, give only B.A.s, so I don't think this should be any concern at all. This list will give a good idea of the typical expectations for veterinary programs, which sometimes don't require any college degree at all:</p>
<p>At some colleges, certain departments offer both a BA and a BS, with the BS program being more specialized.</p>
<p>At other colleges, this distinction between BA and BS does not exist. For example, at my daughter's university, all students in the College of Arts and Sciences get BA degrees, even those who majored in biology, chemistry, physics, or geology. </p>
<p>Vet schools or other graduate/professional schools will be able to tell by your daughter's transcript what kind of work she did in college. Except in cases where both BA and BS programs are offered in a particular subject, the difference between the degrees is not meaningful.</p>
<p>while I agree that vet & med schools do not expect students to have " pre-med" major- there is a catch.
To major in a science- at the colleges I am familiar with, you need to know this freshman year.
There are so many pre-reqs in math and science for the higher level science courses like microbio, o-chem, chemical physics, that you have to get started right away.
I think it is always better to generalize in the sciences for undergrad- because there is so much overlap between disciplines in the real world.
While I agree that you don't need a science related degree for med school, to be admitted, I would imagine that most students will do much better in med school with that background.
Im not sure if anatomy is even required for admission though- one of Ds friends has a bio degree from Reed, which doesn't offer anatomy, & she is in her 3nd year at Tulane med school.</p>
<p>Worrying about which type of degree is offered is in itself BS (sorry-- couldn't resist). Have students graduating with this degree from this program gone on to vet school? I would imagine so. I think you are worrying over nada. Garland is right, many LACs oonly offer BA's (mine was in Latin-- it is officially an AB) even though my undergrad degrees (I was a double major) are in the sciences. Anyway, it sounds like an interesting program- and as long as your daus take the prereqs for vet school, they could probably major in Medieval History and still qualify for vet school as long as they had the science prereqs!!</p>
<p>jym thanks! I got a kick out of your post! Thanks. The program would enrich what they would be doing on a pre-vet bio track. Vet school programs require a certain number of hours actually working with animals so this program would help to achieve that in a unique way.</p>
<p>Thanks, historymom! I hoped you would take my pun in the spirit in which it was intended! Glad to see it was! And, btw, I'd not thought about your screenname when I picked Medieval History as an example-- that was a fluke! BTW, can you share where this program is that your girls are exploring? It sounds fascinating!</p>
<p>My college didn't offer either! We received a Bachelor of "insert major here." I believe the current president of GM North America has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering. I don't think it hurt him a bit not to have a B.S.!</p>
<p>That sounds like a great program. I'm a HS senior and also very interested in going into veterinary medicine. From my understanding, majors don't matter much as long as you complete the pre-req science classes for vet school. And a program that incorporates hands-on animal experience is a huge plus because lots of animal experience is a crucial factor into getting into vet school.</p>
<p>historymom-
It is a good thing CC was acting sluggish this past day-- kept me form saying something silly about the name of the program! :D Lots of visions came into my head.....</p>
<p>Just to add another twist - where I went to school, it was easier to get a B.S. than a B.A. (in liberal arts). The B.A. had a foreign language requirement that the B.S. didn't have - that was the only difference. The thinking was that if you intended to go to grad school, you'd need the B.A. since many grad programs had/have foreign language requirements.</p>