I think that you misread my question. I did not ask for the name of a school; I asked for the name of the academic subject for which you won a book award.
Iām not a physician - so youād know better as an optometrist - now I see why you are eyemgh - I know in my MBA class we had a couple doctors who were trying to develop business acumen and my buddy did an EMBA at U Michigan and had similarā¦hence I made the suggestion.
But wanting to have a practice and 17 and getting to that point - obviously thatās a long path ahead.
TRUE!
Itās important to understand concepts like cashflow, how to read business financials, etc, but an MBA is overkill in both time and money for the purpose of running what is essentially a small business, even if itās wildly successful.
My Dās best friend is an animal science major. She did a remote year at home with SUNY Stony Brook and is transferring to Michigan State this fall. She is looking to go the exotic/zoo route. The things I remember her talking about most was how different all of the various animal science programs are, with some programs offering little more than classroom learning and fostering a goat for 4 years in the campus barn. More important than being chanced for admission, look very closely at programs that interest you. Spend time digging into the specifics and make sure you are targeting schools that offer something that matters to your objectives.
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Oops sorry! It wasnāt a subject per se, it was about the personal values reflected by a university. The award credited my community service since Iāve held some leadership positions in philanthropy clubs and I also have lots of hours.
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helpingmom40
Thank you so much! Iāll try to focus on that in the upcoming months. Thereās a lot of options to consider, and Iām going to do my best to check out as many as I can 
Yeah, this is one reason Iām so uncertain about which path to take. Iām hoping by the end of the summer Iāll have a better perspective on the large animal field since it hasnāt been that long anyways.
I think, wherever I end up, itāll be best to be somewhere that does have a vet school. Iāve visited a few around the country and have an idea of which ones are my favorite, but I donāt want to get too attached to any of them just yet.
Do you have any particular sources you recommend to learn more about this? Or specific types of courses in college to take? I know Iām a long ways away from it, but I havenāt been able to find too much info about this over google.
Thank you! The overwhelming advice from this thread to seriously consider the cheapest undergrad is really helping, and Iām glad I posted this so that I can start putting my best foot forward
I visited Purdue in March and saw the construction! My brother is going to Purdue as a freshman in the fall, and the campus is really lovely! Itās definitely on my college list
I have a daughter who will be starting a DVM program in September. We have gone through this. I will assume for this response that getting into a good DVM program is a very serious concern for you.
If you are even remotely serious about veterinary school, then you need to budget for a full 8 years of university. The last 4 years will be expensive. You should take ABSOLUTELY NO DEBT AT ALL for the first four years (ie, for your bachelorās degree). Leaving money in the college fund would be far better.
Being a veterinarian is a very good profession for someone who is totally committed to this field. However, a veterinarian does not make enough money to pay off loans which cover the cost of veterinary school (and forget about additional loans for your bachelorās degree). You absolutely need to take the cost of university into account.
There are large numbers of universities in the US that are very good for prevet programs. If you look at the universities where students got their bachelorās degree before going to a highly ranked DVM program, you will find that the students are coming from a very, very wide range of undergraduate universities.
I see that you are from Arizona. This is a WICHE state. This is huge. Absolutely look at the various WUE schools. Also keep in mind which schools have WICHE DVM programs. The public ones are Colorado State, Oregon State, and Washington State. I would put all three of these on your list probably above every single school on your existing list except for probably ASU. Some other WUE schools will have very good prevet and animal science programs even if they do not have a DVM program. Again, students will be going to these DVM programs from all over the place. Each of the WICHE states will be subsiding some students to attend DVM programs at these three public WICHE programs (as well as the one private WICHE DVM program).
Just to give you one take on the extent to which āprestigeā is going to matter for DVM acceptances (which is not at all): The last time that I looked Colorado State was ranked 153rd in the US overall. However, Colorado State has the 3rd ranked DVM program in the US and the 4th ranked DVM program in the world. It has a superb animal science undergraduate program and a superb veterinary school. There are large animals on campus. Oregon State and Washington State are also excellent. The overall ranking of the university does not matter. Having a very good animal science program does matter.
Your prevet classes will overlap with premed classes. This means that there will be very, very strong students in your classes at any ātop 200ā university in the US. There will be tough classes and tough exams.
My daughter was quite successful in DVM admissions (4 acceptances including 2 ātop 10ā schools). Academics helped. However, I think that what really mattered was the amount of experience that she had working with animals in a variety of veterinary, social, agricultural, research (no animals harmed), and emergency situations. She attended an undergraduate university that was NOT ranked in the top 100 universities overall, but that has a very good animal science program. Really, do not look at overall rankings. They do not matter.
Look for things such as the opportunity to work with animals. Here is an example of a program that the University of Vermont offers potential prevet students:
Similar programs may be available at other universities. In the UVM case the cows shown in the picture are not very far from the middle of campus. You can be reaching inside a cow one morning, and in a math class that afternoon (hopefully after washing your arm).
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We have seen current prices a bit over $80,000 per year for out of state students or private schools. In state might be only slightly more than $60,000 per year.
To me this puts the total price closer to the $240,000 to $340,000 total cost for four years. This is TODAYās prices.
Given that the OP is from a WICHE state, they have some chance to get in-state prices at the various WICHE DVM programs.
Iāll add on to what others have said. My son just finished his first year of vet school at Kansas State and is loving it. He got in their early admit program out of high school and was able to only do 3 years undergrad. He has no debt at this point and has had summer jobs in all parts of the country. He feels he is getting a top education and the future looks good. He was OOS and they gave him great scholarships. Look at options not prestige. Go where you know you can get top grades, experience and no debt if possible! If the school has a vet school it can make it easier to form contacts and get experience but it isnāt mandatory. Prestige of the undergrad school is not a part of vet school admissions.
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WAY too early to worry about this. Do well in undergrad. Get into vet school. Build up your clinical and surgical chops. Then learn about the business aspect. No need to get the cart ahead of the horse. 
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One piece of advice I will give you is to learn about the power of compound interest. We ended up fine, but we didnāt start retirement investing until after all of our debt was paid off. Squirreling away even little bits of money into a Roth when youāre in school and not making enough to pay much, if any taxes, will pay off. Beyond that, always invest as much as need be to get your full match, even if you still have unpaid debt. There are very few ways to get an immediate 100% return. That will FAR outweigh any additional accrued interest in delaying your debt service a little. Lastly, work hard, but enjoy the process. 
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Thank you, and congrats on your daughterās success! Iāll add those colleges to my list. Iām hoping to compile a spreadsheet with estimates for the costs of undergrad/yr for each potential college. Iāll be checking out the WICHE programs too since I hadnāt heard of that before this thread.
Haha I understand. Iāll check out compound interest and Roth investments since my only knowledge of finances really comes from AP Econ lol. Thank you so much for all of the advice youāve given me!
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WICHE is the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
WUE is the undergraduate part of WICHE. This is what you might make use of for the next four years. However, in addition to WUE for undergraduate students, WICHE also supports a number of professional programs including DVM programs.
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WICHE is the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. It is a consortium of western schools. They do an undergraduate tuition exchange (WUE) where students from other WUE states pay 150% of instate rather than out of state tuition. It is mildly to moderately competitive, depending on the school, major and year, but awards can be better than that. They allow states without professional schools to send their students to other states at favorable tuition rates. As has been mentioned by several of us previously, you want to find the best western Vet Schools and then apply to the appropriate pre-vet major at those schools for undergrad. That will be your most cost effective way into great vet programs. I havenāt set foot on WSU, but Oregon State and Colorado State are beautiful and both in nice small college towns, but close enough to big cities.
EDIT: Oops! @DadTwoGirls beat me to it!
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