Hi all – I received a lot of helpful feedback from this community when my D18 was going through this process, so I thought I’d come to the well again for my D20. A little bit about her: Her stats are 33 ACT and 4.0 unweighted GPA with 9 APs and otherwise all honors classes. She has pretty standard ECs with a couple of leadership roles and some good experience working with animals. She wants to go to vet school down the road and loves animals, the outdoors, and working with kids. Her activities reflect those interests and her essays should be pretty good.
Right now, she has 4 colleges on her list – UGA, USC, Berry College, and Furman. I know they’re all very different, but she has her reasons for liking each of them. Here are her thoughts on those 4:
UGA - Finances are going to be important, and UGA will likely be the smartest financial option, as well as being a great school. But, we live in Athens, GA so UGA gets a ding for being in her hometown. Also, she will almost certainly want/need to go to UGA for vet school for financial reasons and she doesn’t love the idea of remaining in Athens for the next 8 years.
University of South Carolina – Mainly my suggestion because I’m an alumni. She likes the strong Honors Program and that it’s a bit smaller than UGA. Not crazy about the downtown Columbia location, but on her list in the hopes of a scholarship and Honors College admission.
Berry College – She loves the location, the outdoorsy feel of the campus, and the smaller size. I worry that it might be too small and she’d be in the higher range academically at the school, which might be fine, but might frustrate her too. They have a very strong animal science program with a guaranteed job working with animals during college. She’d have to get a scholarship for it to be reasonable for us.
Furman – She loved the overall feel, size, and academics of this school. Would probably be her first choice if affordable, but a scholarship seems much less likely.
Can anyone recommend any colleges that are located in the mountains – either northeast or northwest – and that are small/mid-sized with a decent shot at merit for her stats and good animal science or biology programs?
I’d look at Juniata. It is small and with her stats your D is likely to get merit money. They have a good wildlife ecology program. Also they have a field station on a nearby lake where students can spend a semester.
Sounds like she has some great options! What’s your upper budget?
There are some fabulous Colleges that Change Lives colleges in the Northwest. I’m thinking Lewis & Clark is a school that I bet would offer merit money. Mt. Holyoke in the northeast and they offer full and 1/2 tuition scholarships and some other merit $$.
For LACs that offer merit, you need to show some demonstrated interest to get $$ offers – visit, reach out for interviews, take part in admissions webinars, etc.
What about Agnes Scott if she would like to stay close to home or maybe University of Kentucky, through the academic common market she could major in Animal Technology/Animal/Equine Science/Equine Science and Management and pay instate tuition. My friends daughter is in her second year and she is loving the program.
Thanks so much for the replies! Great suggestions! Our budget is about 25k/yr if that helps with the suggestions. I found our first time through this that my older D was pretty successful at getting merit offers that brought COA to around 40k, but it was difficult getting it lower. Older D had higher test scores, but also cared a lot more about going to a highly ranked school. This D isn’t hung up on prestige at all, so I’m hoping we can get the COA lower even,with her slightly lower test scores.
@AOP1925 - I would love her to look at Agnes Scott, but she’s not big on schools in large cities. I know it’s in Decatur, but she thinks all,of that area is Atlanta - sigh. ?
Not a bad thing if she wants to get into Vet School. Vet school is likely harder to get into than Med School. Woman that want to small animal vets are hugely over-represented in admissions.
@Eeyore123 - good point and you’re right that she’ll need top grades for vet school. She is leaning toward large animal, though, so hoping that will help too. I had no idea how competitive vet school and thw vet profession had become until,we started looking into it recently!
University of New Hampshire. Strong pre-vet program with a very high acceptance rate to vet school. Maybe merit with her stats. Great location in southern NH for outdoors interest. Small town feel with vibrant university vibe.
In terms of location and size UNC Asheville might be of interest. Public LAC with a good reputation. Asheville is a fantastic small city in the mountains. I don’t know about their sciences so she’d want to look into that. . She’d be very competitive for merit aid there.
Agree privates for $25K is tough even with merit. Mt. Holyoke has a full tuition scholarship that could be worth a shot if she’s interested. Beautiful campus and top notch academics.
Yes, being interested in large animal helps. If she isn’t already, she needs to be comfortable around the business end of cows/horses. Make sure that she has a sound backup plan. The data from Berry shows the reality of pre vet. 8.1% of the total population has a pre vet concentration. However, only 6% of the graduates have that concentration. If you assume that the class sizes are equal and the the % in the Junior and Senior classes are 6%, that implies that they Freshman and Sophomore would be 10%. In simpler terms, about half the students that walk in the door with the idea of being a vet change their mind (or have it changed for them) by the time that they graduate. It would be interesting to ask Berry how many of the ~22 students that graduate with a pre vet concentration actually get into a Vet School. Only about 100 residents of GA get into Vet School every year (80 at UGA).
I can’t give you a college suggestion since all those S17 applied to are not in the mountains except Colorado State University and that would probably be above your budget (it was above ours). We have learned in our journey (son just sent in his vet school application) that grades are most important, experience second, GRE scores next if your school requires it. Look at UGA’s vet school requirements. Make sure whatever school she goes to offers all the classes that are on the list. It is added stress if she needs to search for classes to take in the summers that your in-state will accept. Go to a school where she can easily get animal/vet experience hours. A college in the middle of nowhere with no vet school and no animal facilities around would make it hard. However a college in the middle of nowhere with a vet school or near lots of animal facilities would be fine.
Go where you can get the best grades with no debt!! Being above the general population is actually a positive. My son is well above the average at his school but everyone in pre-vet is right where he is. Also most of his classes are with pre-meds who are also tippy top of the school. He has felt very challenged. The advisor even suggested not doing the honors college to ensure top grades since vet schools do not care.
Go where you can have a backup degree plan or backup job plan with your degree. So many people change their minds. Being large animal is a plus but not a real hook. S is equine but has done a little of everything undergrad. It is a long expensive road and the pay isn’t great when you are done. Advice we were given “If you can see yourself doing anything else do it. If you can’t push ahead.” S has pushed ahead and is glad that he has … so far. Good luck!
Don’t know about pre-vet programs at these, but significant merit plus mountains made me think of Ohio U and U West Virginia. Perhaps Miami U in western Ohio (I don’t know if that’s a mountainous area) which has a zoology major, although the merit there may not be sufficient for your budget.
Thanks again for all of these suggestions. @LuckyCharms913 - I was just thinking about Miami U and will double check to see if the merit might make it possible. We’ll look at all of the other suggestions too.
I also appreciate the vet school specific advice from @Eeyore123 and @momocarly. My D has done an internship at the UGA large animal vet hospital, so she’s been exposed to all kinds of animals (including the “business end” ) and loves all of it so far. She definitely still has a lot to learn and may end up deciding its not for her after all. She also has contemplated teaching - which would be a much easier and less costly path - so we’ll see. Thanks again for the advice!
University of Alabama and Univ of AZ are two other great options for decent scholarship money. They would be university assured, so you could count them as automatically affordable. There’s also Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn.
Thanks again for the suggestions everyone. She just increased her ACT composite to 34, so we’re revisiting these suggestions to see if the one point increase will make merit more likely at any of these options. I wish more schools would provide potential merit scholarship charts for various GPA/test score ranges like Miami Ohio or U Alabama do, but I know most schools don’t want to be that transparent about it. Hunting merit is so hard!
) and loves all of it so far. She definitely still has a lot to learn and may end up deciding its not for her after all. She also has contemplated teaching - which would be a much easier and less costly path - so we’ll see. Thanks again for the advice!