My daughter is interessted in Veeterinay program. (Still years away)
I am not resident of Texas (Illinois)
Couple of questions I have on this.
If she does her pre-vet study at one of the Texas school, can that also help her meet residentcy requiremeent as she is going to do her 4 year undergradeuate/pre-vet from State of Texas?
If she does 4 year undergraduate study in Texas, does she qualify as resident for undergrad from 2nd year as she will be resident for first year during her undergrad? Or she has to pay out-of-state fee for all 4 years of her undergrad study?
What is the best feeder school for undergrad/pre-vet to get admitted to Texas A&M DVM admissison?
We are not residents of Texas, and I cannot completely answer your questions. However, I do have a daughter who is currently studying in a DVM program, and have some experience that might be relevant.
One issue is that at least in what I have seen the students in a DVM program come from a very wide range of undergraduate universities. Also, quite a few of them have veterinary-related work experience both as undergraduate students and also after getting their bachelor’s before applying to DVM programs.
We live in New England (in the northeast of the USA). There is only one DVM program in New England, which is at Tufts University. It is a very good program. However, it is private and being in-state would help very little in terms of cost of attendance. After she graduated university, our daughter moved west to a different state and established residency there. She then worked in veterinary-related jobs until she reached the age of 25. Then she applied to DVM programs. The result is that she is now paying in-state costs in a very good program. Her work experience almost certainly helped quite a bit in terms of getting multiple acceptances to good programs. Her worked experience also helped her to be sure that she wanted to be a DVM, and wanted to put in the time and effort needed to do this.
My best guess is that as long as you (the parents) live in Illinois, your daughter might need to reach the age of 25 for her to be considered independent of you and therefore eligible for in-state costs at universities in most other states. If she graduates university at age 22, then this would give her plenty of time to establish residency in Texas or elsewhere.
One thing to think about is that DVM programs are expensive. You would be best off to avoid debt for undergrad. If possible saving some college money in the bank or 529 might be a good idea. I will also note that UIUC has a very good DVM program (as does your neighboring state to the north).
I do not think that I would care about the difference in ranking between Texas A&M versus UIUC for their DVM programs. I would care about making sure that I could afford to pay for eight years of university with as little debt as possible. To me UIUC seems like a great place for an in-state student who is interested in veterinary medicine to get their bachelor’s degree.
Thanks for your answers.
Yes, UIUC will be our first choice.
While being a vet is my D’s lifelong dream from the her first year birthday wish to today.
At the same time it is bit more challanging to get into UIUC and I see A&M has comparitvelly easier criteria to get admitteed to DVM program, that’s why I was exploring other option if UIUC doesn’t pan out.
I was reading how you can establish residecy in state of Texas and this is what school website said.
Q: “How do I establish residency?”
“One must be an independent (not claimed as a dependent for income tax purposes), US citizen or permanent resident, (have a green card, also known as card I-551 or the evidence of I-551 stamp in the passport) or international student who is eligible to establish a domicile in Texas and live in the state of Texas for 12 consecutive months and establish a domicile in Texas prior to enrollment.”
This means, as far as I don’t claim my daughter as dependent on my tax forms and she stays/works in TX. for 12 months, she can establish residency without 25 year age requirement, correct?
I would still appreciate answers to other questions but iterating them here once again.
If she does her pre-vet study at one of the Texas school, can that also help her meet residentcy requiremeent as she is going to do her 4 year undergradeuate/pre-vet from State of Texas?
If she does 4 year undergraduate study in Texas, does she qualify as resident for undergrad from 2nd year as she will be resident for first year during her undergrad? Or she has to pay out-of-state fee for all 4 years of her undergrad study?
What is the best feeder school for undergrad/pre-vet to get admitted to Texas A&M DVM admissison?
I think it would be best to contact Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine to ascertain what they require for residency status.
Texas A&M gives preference to in state residents. They accept approx. 88% of the incoming class from residents of Texas.
Illinois accepts about 50% of the class from residents of Illinois.
You will notice that while very similar, different vet schools have different course, GRE-some are not considering GRE, grade and hours working under the direct supervision of DVM as pre-requisites.
Good that you are doing the research in advance. Also, how well your student does in grades, research, internships, evaluations, and the ranking of the vet school will make a difference should they want to apply for a post grad speciality/internship and residency. A strong resume and LOR from a well known vet professor carries weight. Also take a look at the first time pass rate for the NAVLE from the different vet schools.
Information is best obtained through the residency source listed above.
They can answer your questions directly regarding undergrad and give information on residency for the vet school (or direct you to the right person).
We live in TX but our son chose to go OOS undergrad and to vet school. The school was a better fit for him since he could never stand Texas A&M. Undergrad was actually cheaper with his scholarships and only needing 3 years undergrad where he went. Vet school is more expensive but he loves it there and luckily we could afford it. There are lots of variables to your first two questions and the school will be the source to ask. They don’t mind answering the questions. It isn’t easy to get residency but in TX not impossible. Where my son goes it is impossible. Whatever they are in year one they stay no matter what. So even though he has lived in KS for over 4 years he is not a resident. As far as best feeder schools. A&M is the highest feeder (obviously) other than that it is a big mix. In 2020 they accepted 155 in state residents and only 27 OOS. Didn’t seem to matter where the residents went undergrad just what their statistics were.
Back when I was in college 3+ decades ago, qualifying for in-state tuition wasn’t very difficult. I didn’t know anyone who paid out of state tuition for more than a year. But now from what I have read, its much more difficult in most states to do that. Will vary by state so you should check specific state requirements. But often it is triggered on why you came to the state. If you came for education, you cannot qualify for in-state tuition. Everyone I know who went out of state for undergrad paid out of state tuition for 4 (and a couple more than 4) years. But I don’t think that is universally true.
In terms of feeder programs for vet school, I am not sure there are many of those (and definitely not when you look at the schools themselves). Vet schools tend to be large state schools with large numbers of undergrads and large animal science undergrad programs. As a result, they have a lot of applicants to vet schools and as a result get more admissions than do smaller schools with fewer applicants.
At one point, the convention wisdom was you only needed to apply to the vet school in the state of your residence because if you didn’t get into that school, its unlikely you would get in anywhere out of state. I think that is somewhat less true today (depending on the school). In/out of state percentages vary by school (3 where my daugther applied vary from NC State at 80% NC residents, Wisconsin at 66% WI residents and Ohio State at 44% Ohio residents).
More than the undergrad you think is a good feeder school, I would look for one at which your kid will best succeed. Grades will be important. Also, as already noted, debt should be avoided for undergrad to the extent possible. Vet related experience will also matter.
I definitely wouldn’t limit the search to one vet school. Different schools are looking for different types of applicants. Not getting into one doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get into another. Best of luck to your daughter.