I’m currently a freshman in a small rural town in NC, and I was wondering what can I do to get into vet schools of UPenn and Cornell. I am aware that these are reaches, so what are other great vet schools? I always planned on going into Harvard, Yale and Stanford but was disappointed when I found out they don’t offer vet stuff. I have a 4.42 GPA and doing all honors and the little AP’s my school offers next year , I am also doing soccer next year also. The problem is that this is a really small town with little opportunities for extracurriculars, so I need some suggestions for extracurriculars. Also since UPenn and Cornell are Ivies I don’t know if it helps that I am hispanic (affirmative action) or that I am from the south or that my school has people that generally don’t care about their education and barely graduate high school let alone go to college.
It is never too early to get animal experience. Volunteer at a shelter, pet sit in the summer, help out at a farm, anything you can do and your age allows. As you get older shadow a vet. That really helps see if you truly want to be a vet. Also we were told that schools like some extracurricular that shows you have good people skills as well. They loved that my son was a camp counsellor (also taught horseback there) and volunteered at a hospice. He also played polo and polocrosse which are not options for everyone (we didn’t own a horse so it was hard but we managed).
Realize vet school is very expensive. Start looking into what it would cost and what you can afford. Undergrad you can go anywhere. It doesn’t have to have animal science, or a vet school. It just has to have the prerequisites for the school(s) you are interested in. The key for undergrad is to graduate with little to no debt, go where you can get very good grades and animal/vet experience. Grades are a huge factor. Will your grades be better at an IVY or a state college? Think about that. We looked at large land-grant universities because they had the most that S wanted.
There are 28 accredited vet schools in the US and most of them are excellent. The top schools are UCDavis, Cornell, Colorado State, North Carolina State, Ohio State, University of Wisconsin, Texas A&M, and UPenn in that order (last ranked in 2015) but many others are also up there. My son chose Kansas State because he liked the environment and the offers he got.