How do I narrow my college list?

College Search & Selection
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I have a very long college list probably of 75 schools so it isn’t a functional list. I am not sure what I want in a school or how to go about narrowing my list. I want to go to college in a nice state (I know this is super vague but places with nature or a college that’s in a good college town?). I know want to go to a college with “pretty” architecture (like Georgetown and uni of Washington) I know it shouldn’t matter that much but I would like to go to a school that looks nice
-So far I plan to study in zoology or biological sciences related as I would like to become a vet
-I am not sure if my family qualifies for financial aid or not

  • I do not want to go to a super small school (1,000 students)
  • I want to go to a college that has school spirit
  • I do not want to go to a school that is known for having extreme political views either side
    How do I limit my college list and decide what kind of school I want to go to? And what schools should I consider?
    Sorry that this information may not be that helpful
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Have you visited some schools? That’s a starting place. Visit bigger, smaller, urban, suburban and rural. That may help narrow things down. Also, run net price calculators and talk to your parents. Affordability may also narrow the list.

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I visited UW. It was rly nice definitely applying there but idk if it was “the one”

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No, I meant visit a variety of different types of school so that you can see what you like and don’t like. For example, you may fall in love with being in a city and decide to only apply to urban schools. Or the opposite-- you realize you hate city living, so you only apply to rural schools.

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When I think bigger school + animal science + school spirit, I immediately think of Texas A&M. It’s well-known for veterinary medicine, and you won’t find a school with more spirit. I mean, it’s a ridiculous amount of school spirit. Admission is pretty competitive for out-of-state applicants, but it should be on your list to investigate.

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Most students/parents start with a budget, which in turn will narrow down the list to affordable schools. Have your parents given you a budget yet? If not, start there. Run the Net Price Calculators on each school’s website to determine affordability. After that you can use your GPA, rigor, and test scores to narrow down the school list, as well as any other factors you end up desiring (geography, setting, etc).

Does your in-state flagship have zoology/animal sciences? Most schools with have biological sciences. For animal sciences look at Purdue, UC Davis, Colorado State, UIUC, Kansas State, Mizzou. Many states have at least one public college with animal sciences/zoology.

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That is the easiest way to cut your list, especially given that you are interested in Vet school ($200-$250,000). Unless your parents can - and will!- write a check for all of college AND all of vet school, your goal should be to graduate debt free from undergraduate. The money conversation is often a hard one for parents, but it is crucial. Come back & tell us what your financial parameters are & we can go from there!

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Adding on to the budget conversation as a means to narrow the list…

This may or may not be a consideration for your family, but it sounds like it has not been discussed yet. Many parents are not familiar with the current costs of college AND since you are planning on vet school this should be addressed.

Full pay undergrad at a 4-year can cost anywhere from $100k - $320k, depending on in-state public options to private. Then vet school will be another $250k or more.

Once you’ve determined your budget and if your family is comfortable with full pay or qualifies for enough need based aid to make undergrad affordable, then use other fit criteria to narrow further.

Are you a current senior? Or junior? I may have missed that…

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First pass as mentioned above if figure out your budget.

One way would be to start with your potential major. If it’s zoology with the goal of zoo/vet then start looking at in the proximity of the major zoos in the US (San Diego, Columbus, Bronx, St Louis, Cincinnati. Find out what colleges have relationships and offer internship opportunities (You can ask the college, shoot a message to the Zoo, or search on LinkedIn (ie Columbus Zoo Intern…)

Then do some visits and get a feel for what you like. I find it helpful to keep track of all the information in a spreadsheet

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We had a list of 110. So it can be reduced.

I suggest you start visiting schools within a few hours. Don’t go to info sessions. Don’t go on tours. Just spend an hour on the campus and area and you can knock out several a day. Big, mid size, urban, rural - on your list or not - doesn’t matter. See what resonates.

Just walk campuses and areas. Is this small, big? Do I like a quad? Do I like urban? Rural?

Look at curriculums. Who likes what I want ? You can figure out. My daughter, for example, hated rural. So as we visited Miami of Ohio and Elon (we did formal tours at both but by then we removed a lot), they came off.

Per @DramaMama2021 Budget - at Gtown we learned there was no merit aid and no way I was paying $350k. That night all the no merit aid schools came off.

As for politics, you can use niche to see who is and isn’t rated liberal or conservative but honestly except at few schools, you need to seek it. One of mine goes to a right leaning student body school and one left. Frankly neither sees any of it. Will there be students politically inclined at most schools - yes. Will they impact you ? Only if you want them to.

Now there are state issues out there you might use to help narrow. Some want to avoid states taking away women’s reproductive rights or that they feel are anti lgbtq. Some are avoiding Florida because they don’t like the anti ‘woke’ culture as the governor has acted. Maybe these are considerations.

Your grades / profile - you need targets and safeties in addition to reaches. That might cut down.

Send us your list, state your live in, budget, and academic stats. We can help.

Finally, use the zoology major to limit your list. There’s not a ton. Here’s two lists.

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After cost, your GPA and test scores will play a role in which schools are realistic.

I always say start with your in-state public schools and work outwards. Most states have at least one agricultural university.

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Note that there is rarely “the one” for any student. The vast majority of students enjoy where they go and a big part of it is choosing to be involved where one goes.

There’s nothing wrong with eliminating colleges based upon any factor (size, location, cost, # of squirrels, etc), but that’s not the same as assuming there is only “one” right place to go.

Select some you like (have your major plus other attributes you prefer) that are likely to be affordable as per their NPC, making sure at least one of these is pretty much guaranteed admission, then choose once you know where you were admitted and the real financial cost of each.

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Priorities should be:

  1. Budget
  2. Major
  3. Likelihood of Acceptance
  4. (tied) Geography (how far from home and area surrounding the university)
  5. (tied) Vibe (school spirit, politics, your kind of people, etc)

#1 criterion is definitely Budget. The hard reality is it doesn’t matter if you find your dream school and can get in to it if you can’t afford it. My dream car might be a Ferrari (it’s not), but if I can’t afford it, it’s not going to become a reality for me.

Also start with finding your safeties! You can add on those reaches later, but find the safeties you will be happy at. A safety has to be 1) a school you can afford, 2) a school that you are likely to get into, 3) a school that has your major, and 4) a school that you genuinely like that you will be happy at. If it doesn’t check all those boxes it’s not a safety. Find those schools first and then look for your targets and reaches.

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Are you a junior in high school from Hawaii? If so, it might be difficult to visit colleges in person.

In a previous thread, you mentioned attending school in Australia. Are you looking to move far from home (10+ hour flights), making it difficult to come home over breaks?

In another thread, you mentioned wanting to keep costs under $50K/year. Was that just a number you threw out or did you discuss it with your parents? You also seem to be aware that you need to keep costs down if you want to go to vet school. You might see if any of the schools on your list are part of the WUE tuition savings program.

Beyond evaluating your academic qualifications (GPA, test scores, etc),

  • Sort colleges by price
  • Sort colleges by distance from home, proximity to an airport and travel costs
  • Sort colleges by pre-req requirements and whether or not you can meet them
  • Sort colleges by application costs and number of essays required

After you’ve sorted the colleges, you can look more into the campus culture and community.

At one point, you mentioned UCSB. I’m assuming you chose that campus because of its location. It does not have very attractive architecture. If you are considering the UCs, which will be more than $50K/yr, you should look at UC Davis (also not very attractive architecture). UC Davis is one of the top vet schools and approximately 1/3 of their vet students did their undergrad at UC Davis. Application Statistics - Class of 2024

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I am a junior

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First discussion. What can your parents afford ? Second question and more importantly - what do they want to afford?

You can have them run the Gtown net price calculator.

If it shows full pay but they don’t want to pay full (and find out what they are willing), you’ll be able to shorten your list quickly!!

I do think for zoology one is likely to end up at a public land grant vs a private and depending on your stats there are many great and affordable ones.

You visited UW? Do you live in Washington ? The WUE would be a great place to find lower tuitions. A school like Colorado State is well known in this area.

There’s 8 overall - maybe this is a place to start (if you live in the WUE zone).

Not sure we know your stats yet - do we ?

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Bama will be cheap. 38,000 kids and Roll Tide!!

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Gotcha. You are a junior so you have plenty of time. I wrongly assumed you were a senior. While you do need to have a budget discussion with your parents at some point, this is not as urgent.

If you would like to clarify the points brought up by @lkg4answers you will get more accurate advice. In the meantime, visit and research schools as much as possible to figure out what type campus you prefer. Keeping your career goals in mind, look for schools that will give you opportunities to either volunteer or work with animals. That will help you confirm your interest and will help with DVM applications.

@DadTwoGirls do you have suggestions for a student interested in vet medicine?

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I didn’t catch what state you were in but Michigan State ticks your boxes, from your list provided (my sophomore goes there). They even have a veterinary school. The son of a friend of mine spent the summer working at a zoo in Kenya through the school, so they have a strong study abroad as well. If one of your parents is an active duty/veteran, you will get in-state tuition no matter where you live.

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This is very useful information. What your grades are and what you can afford would also be useful information.

DVM programs are expensive (we have a daughter who just started her second year in a DVM program). You should budget accordingly.

It would be a very good idea to avoid taking on any debt for your bachelor’s degree if this is possible.

Pre-vet classes will overlap a lot with premed classes. These classes will be very academically demanding, and will be full of very smart students. Exams will be tough. There will be lots of homework.

For getting accepted to DVM programs, experience working with animals will be critical. Quite a bit of this experience will need to be in a veterinary situation (such as working in a vet clinic). I have heard a recommendation that a student have 1,000 hours of experience before applying to a DVM program, but I think that my daughter had quite a bit more than this. She and I both think that this experience had quite a bit to do with her success at getting admitted to multiple programs. She got some of this experience while she was an undergraduate student, and some of this after getting her bachelor’s degree and before applying to DVM programs (and then more after applying while waiting to hear back).

One place to start is your budget. What can you and your parents afford without taking on debt? You should run the NPC on a few schools and see whether they are likely to fit this budget.

Another early step is to look at your in-state public options. If you are from a WUE state, then this is good news because there are multiple WUE schools with very good pre-vet programs (Colorado State, Oregon State, and Washington State also have very good DVM programs). You should visit a few schools and see what you think. If you are interested in pre-vet program, see what each school has and see whether they have a farm near campus. Having both large animal and small animal experience can be helpful.

In terms of visiting UW, I have to wonder which UW. Wisconsin has a very good DVM program. Washington State does also, but the University of Washington does not (but is probably good for pre-vet).

Also, be aware that being a veterinarian does involve helping sick animals get better. However, it also involves dealing with dying animals and their distraught humans. It involves getting kicked, bitten, and pooped on. It involves reaching inside a cow several different ways (for example, cows are not good at swallowing pills and sometimes you need to place the pill inside the cow, one way or another). My daughter was required to get a series of rabies vaccinations to just start the program (two COVID vaccinations, also required, were mild by comparison). We have gotten recent short videos from her of some baby animals that she has helped, including a camel and an alpaca that were both cured from infections. She had a bad day recently where every animal died or was about to die except for one rat that was relatively easy to treat. The next day a beautiful horse came in that was in bad shape with colic – it was touch and go but they were able to save it. This is all part of the normal day to day of a vet.

I might. However, knowing where the student is from will help.

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