Thoughts/Recommendations between Purdue/UDel/UMass Amherst for aspiring future vet?

This is a very good idea. Have your kid take a look at the AVMA and SAVMA websites and do the salary calculators. Vet school is expensive without the commensurate salary compensation, and a person should go into that with their eyes wide open. The education during vet school is fantastic…but working as a vet in the real world is nothing at all like school.

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Agree those numbers are concerning and worthy of further inquiry.

The advice to become familiar with the AVMA website is spot on. The national average rate of acceptance into vet school is about 15%. Your best chance of acceptance, (in most cases), is into your own in-state vet school. Those states without vet schools have articulation agreements with nearby states. Also important, does the college or university issue a recommendation to every student who wants to apply to vet school, or is it through a committee with joint signatures? How strong is their pre-professional advisory program?
Most animal science programs are geared towards research, animal management, food production, etc. While students will be able to work with the animals, unless it is geared toward medicine and under the direct supervision of a vet, it will be great experience, but it will not count toward animal medical care. Keep undergraduate costs as low as possible. Best of luck to all.

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And pay attention to in/out of state admit rates which varies by vet school. Some take a higher percentage of in-state kids than others. At one point the conventional wisdom was to only apply to your in-state vet school (if you have one) because if you were not good enough to get in there you are not good enough to get in anywhere out of state. I think that is less true now than it was at one time (at least for certain schools). Most of the schools accept what is in effect the common app for vet schools. Some have supplemental requirements/essays; others do not. There are not that many vet schools (30) so you can research them and determine the best one for your kid/circumstances.

Definitely agree with the undergrad as cheap as possible approach. Vet school is expensive and its all loans or cash. Very minimal scholarships. Schedules are doing a better job of educating kids about the reality of debt (and vet incomes which are not super high). Also trying to reduce costs but that is a tougher lift.

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Thank you, very helpful.

Very good questions. I have read in a couple places that the average acceptance rate is 42%, so I am surprised to hear 15%.

Also stumbled across this which was interesting.

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From what I have seen, the 10-15% number is average acceptance rates for US vet schools. The 40% number is the percentage of applicants who get into a vet school each year. Some applicants are accepted at multiple schools but can only go to one. So waitlists move. For some schools they move a lot.

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I liked this article. Most of it rang very true. There might have been just a couple of things that didn’t apply in our case, but that we nonetheless have heard applies to many students.

It was sad seeing the dog with porcupine quills, but of course this and some things that are quite a bit yuckier are a big part of a vet’s life. Vet’s do after all see animals when help is needed.

That was our experience. Our daughter for example had a specified spot on one waitlist that seemed a bit high to me (in the 50’s if I remember correctly). They told her that she would probably get in, and she did. My guess (it is only a guess) is that they do not “overbook” for vet school, so for every student who gets into four DVM programs there are at least three students who get off the waitlist somewhere.

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