hi there! im currently a freshman in hs and i go to a decent school district here in new jersey.
i know its so far but so close, but i want to be a vet when i grow up.
im not sure how it works, undergrad in bio and grad in animal sciences ??
i want to go to upenn, cornell, uc davis, ohio state (my cousin went there), maybe texas a&m? (idk ab texas a&m because of the whole golden retriever thing going on over there)
those seem to be the best schools for future veterinarians?
my gpa is at an all time low, i have an 81 in my elective, computer sciences (which will go up soon once he grades everything). unweighted, my gpa is like a 3.6-3.7, its pretty bad.
i take mostly honors courses, hnrs bio, hnrs english, hnrs world cultures, hnrs computer science, hnrs geometry, cp latin (first year taking latin)
grades in these classes:
hnrs bio: mp 1: 90, mp 2: 90
hnrs english: mp 1: 85, mp 2: 91
hnrs world cultures: mp 1: 85, mp 2: 100
hnrs computer science: mp 1: 95, mp 2: 81 (like i said, the 81 will go up)
hnrs geometry: mp 1: 76 (whoops), mp 2: 89 (honors geometry at our school is exceptionally hard, due to the teacher being rlly bad at teaching)
cp latin: mp 1: 95, mp 2: 100
health : mp 1: 91
gym: mp 2: 100
for my extra cirriculur activities:
key club - i have 68 hours
gonna do spring boys tennis
swimming (for a team, not school)
for the courses i plan to take:
sophomore year: ap chem next year, ceramics (elective, required art course), honors everything
junior year: ap bio, ap macroeconomics (elective, required financial class), etc.
i will be taking pre calculus next year because I plan to take algebra 2 over the summer
senior year: AP EVERYTHINGGGGG
I was also wondering if i should take ap computer science? would it be useful? my school does not have an animal science elective. i would also like to know if i should take latin all 4 years of hs? we really dont learn anything in that class, but its an easy a.
when i am 16, i also plan to volunteer at a local animal shelter
please leave below suggestions on what i should do, i know my gpa needs some fixing up but i’ll work on it
Vet school admissions is like med school admissions. You get an undergrad degree and take the prescribed prevet courses. Animal related EC’s would be critical in college.
Vet school admission is more competitive than med school admission. Out of state vet schools admit few if any out of state students unless your home state has an agreement with that state.
Find out what schools have spots for NJ kids. Being from NJ is especially tough because NJ does not have a vet school. The state contracts with schools in other states to reserve a few seats for NJ kids. Cornell has a few seats (or at least used to). I think Penn has NJ seats as well. Go to Rutgers undergrad and major in animal science. Save your money for vet school. It will cost almost as much as med school but you won’t make a medical doctor’s salary when you graduate.
In addition to what was said above, you need to understand that if you are a female and want to be a small animal veterinarian,you are way over represented.
You may want to look at this incoming student profile. http://vet.osu.edu/sites/vet.osu.edu/files/legacy/userimages/u42/admissions%20brochure%20web%20version%202015.pdf
This is also a good overview of the admissions process. It is likely similar at all vet schools.
http://vet.osu.edu/sites/vet.osu.edu/files/legacy/userimages/u42/admissions%20brochure%20web%20version%202015.pdf
My son is at Kansas State studying to be an equine vet eventually. First thing. Get good grades in HS so you can pay as little as possible undergraduate. Get animal hours. Even walking dogs counts as animal experience. Track your hours starting NOW! Make a spreadsheet. Every time you do anything with animals write down what, with who and how long. Shadow a vet! This is the most important thing. You will not know if you really want to be a vet until you have watched them. They spend less time with animals and more with people than you would imagine. They deal a lot with owners that can not understand why everything costs so much! It is really a high stress job and has one of the highest suicide rates of all professions. When you do start looking at undergraduate schools the school is not as important in pre vet as the grades are. Make sure the school you eventually go to offers the prereqs the vet schools you plan to apply to require. You can major in anything you want to as long as you get the prereqs in. My son’s school requires 64 hours of prereqs. The most common majors are Biology and Animal Science but not the only ones by any means. Next look at the colleges with early admissions programs. In those you can get a spot held for you in the vet school if you maintain certain grades overall. That solves the OOS problem but only if you can afford going OOS for vet school. It is VERY expensive and there are not many scholarships available, at least for the first two years. Schools with early admissions programs are Purdue, Mississippi State, Kansas State and Oklahoma State (but only for OK residents). There may be other newer programs. Just as an example my son was accepted to the K-State early admissions program with very good grades, an Ok ACT score and not many AP classes, but LOTS of animal hours and vet hours. He will go three years undergrad and then go right into vet school even before he gets his degree. There are a lot of options out there. Latin is not needed but the higher the GPA you have the more options you have. Vets do not make that much money and it is only a career to go into if you really have a good feel what you are getting into. Good luck
“senior year: AP EVERYTHINGGGGG”
First of all, you are a high school freshman. It is too early to be worrying about your senior year. However, when you get there it is probably a bad idea to take all AP classes. You want to get good grades, and you want to take a course load that is comfortable for you.
If you want to become a veterinarian, then you need to avoid all debt for undergrad and also get very good grades for undergrad. However, you don’t have to go to a “top 20” university. Your in-state public universities would be fine for undergrad, as would any of at least a couple of hundred universities in the US.
“unweighted, my gpa is like a 3.6-3.7, its pretty bad.”
You should work on getting this up. Keep ahead in your homework, always pay attention in class, seek out help where you need it.
“when i am 16, i also plan to volunteer at a local animal shelter”
This is a good plan if you want to become a veterinarian. However, you also should keep an open mind regarding other possible majors and other possible careers. You have a lot of time to figure this out.
just an update, i realize that i cannot do ap chem next year. i would probably take that senior year. should i take ap computer science instead?
My opinion is that you don’t need it. I think AP US History would be better.
APUSH would be my history class that is required. computer science is an elective
When is time To make your schedule for sophomore, junior and senior come back and will help you pick which coruses should take. Right now, focus in doing good as a freshman.
oh i would like this now! i schedule my courses for sophomore year in a month