My DD is a high school junior and is interested in becoming a vet. However, she is drawn more to the smaller liberal arts colleges for her undergrad vs. the large public universities. We’ve seen that both Berry College in GA and Becker College in MA have “pre-vet” programs. I’m wondering if anyone has specific experience with either of these two programs or knows of any other similar schools with strong pre-vet options. My concern is that students attending these programs aren’t actually getting into vet schools at a rate like the larger schools. I know vet schools say you can have “any major at any school”, but the reality is that certain schools are going to hold more weight than others…
The major concern for any pre-vet student is getting sufficient animal handling and veterinary experience. Successful applicants to vet school typically have several hundred hours of each, preferably with both small animals (cats, dogs, birds, etc.) and large animals (pigs, cows, horses, etc.). Universities with vet schools or animal science programs are therefore very popular with pre-vet students, but one can get into vet school from other colleges as well. I’m not familiar with Becker, but Berry offers a good variety of livestock handling experience through its farms. On an unrelated note, Berry also has the most gorgeous campus I’ve seen.
Course requirements are less of a concern but should also be kept in mind. Some vet schools require specialized courses (e.g. animal nutrition or mammalian anatomy/physiology) that are not offered everywhere.
It is very important that she likes her undergraduate degree. Vet School admission makes Med School admission look easy. Especially for females that want to be small animal vets.
There is a lot of self selection into large state schools because majors like animal science isn’t offered at many colleges.
If she goes to an LAC, make sure that she has a way of getting experience with the business end of a cow (or other large animal).
The beauty of Berry is amazing! We are in CA and not religious, so I’m not sure how she’d adjust to Berry, but I sure want to visit the campus. We’d never heard of it until she got a postcard in the mail. It looks amazing!
She currently volunteers at a small animal vet practice, but finding large animal experience is difficult where we live. It seems like at the students who want to be vets here go to Cal Poly SLO or UC Davis. I know both are great schools and they are on her list, but she is really wanting something smaller.
Smaller is hard because it is often the land grant colleges that offer pre-vet stuff, but she should look at Colo State (which is a WUE school so she might get a break on tuition) and while it is a big school, the town is rather small and the school doesn’t seem as big. Also Wyoming has a lot of ag and animal stuff, and it’s smaller.
My son is at Kansas State and says it has a very small college feel. They have an early acceptance to vet school program that has allowed him to be already accepted into vet school, and only have to go 3 years undergrad. He has a 4.0. They have a really nice honors college and a vet school so you can get everything you need there. I know it isn’t an LAC but they have really nice animal science, biology and chemistry programs. Plus there are excellent OOS scholarships available. Living expenses are very reasonable too. Lots of their students get into other vet schools too.
Unless your student is interested in applying to direct admit/early admission type programs, (Perdue, Tufts, Kansas State, U-Mass Amherst, etc.-each have their own requirements regarding GPA, grades in particular courses, some bypass the need to take the GRE and bypass application into the Vet program), then they most likely have the best chance for admission to Vet school in their home state. Most Vet schools have similar admission requirements regarding courses. Check to see what those requirements are at your local state veterinary school and if they are available at the LAC’s your daughter is interested in.
A distinct advantage to the early admit schools besides an accelerated program and the possibility of not having to take the GRE or apply to the vet school is that the program builds in the opportunities for direct animal care, (large, small, avian and exotic), under the guidance of veterinarians as well as research opportunities. Vet schools require specific number of hours in each of those areas. They also want a student to have leadership skills on campus, research experience and good communication skills.
Make certain that the LAC’s offer a strong pre-professional program. Ask what is the percentage of students who apply to vet school and are accepted. The school doesn’t necessarily need to have a designated animal science program but must offer the required courses, opportunity for research, and aid the student in finding internship and job shadow opportunities with veterinarians.
@BeachMomofGIrls Check out Ohio Wesleyan, which offers pre-veterinary medicine and two different zoology tracks. Ohio Wesleyan is LAC-sized. It offers fairly generous merit-based scholarships. And it has fantastic study abroad options that are integrated into the curriculum. Easily accessible from the Columbus airport.
Hi @BeachMomofGIrls - I know this thread is old, but I was searching for threads on Berry College and came across yours. I also have a Junior daughter who wants to go to vet school, but prefers a smaller, LAC for undergrad. We live in Georgia, so Berry College was always on our list of possibles and we visited there this weekend. As already mentioned above, Berry gives students the opportunity to get hands-on (paid!) experience working with animals and that impressed us as a real advantage because I know those animal hours are so important for vet school admission. In the information packet handed out to us on our visit, they indicate that their vet school admission rate last year was 87% which is pretty high. The majority of their students go to UGA vet school or Auburn.
As far as the southern, conservative culture, I get your concern. Even though we’re from Georgia, we live in a more liberal college town and are not particularly religious, so that’s a concern for my daughter as well. It was the weekend before final exams this weekend, so we didn’t really get a good feel for the normal campus life and will definitely want to go back for another visit if it becomes a definite possibility. But, the grounds were so incredible. When we pulled into the campus, there were 13 deer crossing a field - our tour guide said there is a 7:1 deer to student ratio. There are tons of farming activities on campus and if your daughter loves the outdoors, it’s hard to imagine a better setting.
My Veterinarians went to Colgate and Hamilton. i can’t imagine spending that much for undergrad and then going to Vet school, but it certainly can be done.
Side note - my daughter is a freshman and also wants to become a Veternarian, so I’m starting to look into this too. Keep us posted on her journey!
There are tons of farming activities on campus and if your daughter loves the outdoors, it’s hard to imagine a better setting.