Pre-vet questions

Pre-Vet & Veterinary Medicine
1

<p>This summer we checked out schools for my oldest daughter with a focus on Environmental Science programs in the east. During the tour we discovered that D1, at her guidance counselor’s suggestion, is thinking long term about becoming a veterinarian, although she still has some reluctance because of the frequency of euthanasia on pets. We are therefore trying to consider how to evaluate different schools pre-vet programs. Some statistics on D1:</p>

<p>Academic program: more difficult at a very good public school, 2 AP classes junior year, 4 this year. School doesn’t rank.
GPA: 3.95 (U), 4.05 (W)
SAT 1: 680 (CR), 650 (M), 720 (W)
SAT II: 620 (Math II), 680 (Biology)
ACT: 32 (best in Science, Math, and Writing, weakest in English?)
AP: French 3, English Language 5</p>

<p>Her ECs are good ones for Environmental Sciences and animal sciences, but not for most other majors. Her fun college ECs are horseback riding and fencing, which she considers a must. She alternates between wanting practical minors in animal sciences or business, or fun minors in classical studies or medieval studies, both in English.</p>

<p>She will probably apply to eight schools. Her current list of schools:
Reach:
Cornell
Wellesley
Colby
Match:
William and Mary
Mt. Holyoke
Safety:
Gettysburg
UVM
Allegheny</p>

<p>She has visited all of the above except Allegheny and William and Mary. She will probably replace Allegheny with UC Davis, where we are considered instate as my employer is the UC. She is considering alternatives to William and Mary. She has been intrigued by recent mailings from Tulane and Kenyon. I want her to look more closely at Tufts and LeHigh. She tends to prefer smaller schools so Cornell and Davis will require visits during the school year if she is accepted.</p>

<p>Some questions:</p>

<p>Veterinary school is very competitive. Does she read as a reasonable candidate?</p>

<p>How does pre-vet typically differ from pre-med?</p>

<p>What should we look for in a pre-vet program? good counseling? anything else?</p>

<p>Some schools, e.g., JHU, have reputations for very unpleasant competitiveness in pre-med classes, do other schools have that reputation?</p>

<p>Are there any obvious problems with the schools we are considering?</p>

2

<p>If she gets good grades, she will be a reasonable candidate. Pre-vet and pre-med can be very similar/identical. There might be an advantage attending an undergrad program that also has a vet program. Check out the searcheable list of vet schools on the website of the AVMA.
AVMA</a> Educational Resources</p>

<p>Or schools with a vet tech program, also searcheable.</p>

3

<p>Not surprisingly, the schools with the best undergraduate pre-vet programs and advising are the same schools where the colleges of veterinary medicine are located. Here's a list of U.S. and foreign vet schools:</p>

<p>United States Veterinary Medical Schools and Colleges:</p>

<p>Auburn University </p>

<p>Colorado State University </p>

<p>Cornell University </p>

<p>Iowa State University </p>

<p>Kansas State University </p>

<p>Louisiana State University </p>

<p>Michigan State University </p>

<p>Mississippi State University </p>

<p>North Carolina State University </p>

<p>Ohio State University </p>

<p>Oklahoma State University </p>

<p>Oregon State University </p>

<p>Purdue University </p>

<p>Texas A&M University </p>

<p>Tufts University </p>

<p>Tuskegee University </p>

<p>University of California, Davis </p>

<p>University of Florida </p>

<p>University of Georgia </p>

<p>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign </p>

<p>University of Minnesota </p>

<p>University of Missouri </p>

<p>University of Pennsylvania </p>

<p>University of Tennessee </p>

<p>University of Wisconsin-Madison </p>

<p>Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine </p>

<p>Washington State University </p>

<p>Western University of Health Sciences </p>

<p>Canadian Veterinary Medical Schools and Colleges:</p>

<p>Universit</p>

4

<p>Veterinarians have come from all of the schools that your daughter is considering (by the way, William and Mary is a reach). The key, as collegehelp has noted, is for her to maintain a very good college GPA and score well on the GRE. She also could begin sooner rather than later to begin getting practical volunteer or paid experience working with a vet. My daughter is interested in becoming either a vet or a professor of biology and she knows she has a much better chance of ending up on the faculty at Swarthmore than as a practicing vet. Admissions don't get much tougher than vet school.</p>

5

<p>I did PM you, hope you have time to read and reply.</p>

6

<p>Pre-Vet students can be from really any school. Some schools offer animal science majors, but you can be any major you want as long as the requirements are completed. Focus on picking a school that you feel comfortable with and not just focus entirely on which one has the best pre-vet program. What matters most is getting a good education while maintaining good grades, which is the most important. When looking at schools, see if you can find schools that don’t deliberately try to hurt students grades, like down curving scores. Veterinary students really need top grades, so a helpful environment with overall caring professors will be beneficial.</p>