Take all this advice (including mine) with a grain of salt and do your own research. Cornell undergrad is very difficult to get into, as well as expensive. You are probably better off looking at a SUNY (there are several large ones) or a private school that will offer you big scholarships or financial aid. Attending a non-vet school for undergrad won’t hurt you if you get good grades and lots of animal experience and do well on the GRE. My D will be starting vet school this fall. We are from NY, she went to undergrad in PA. Cows are about the only animal she has zero experience with, so I wouldn’t worry about that. Cornell did work out to be the best financial deal for her, but she got into multiple vet schools and hasn’t made a decision yet. I believe NC State is the cheapest vet school overall, but they get an insane number of applicants every year and take most of their class from NC.
My top advice is to plan on “working” (with no pay) every single summer of college in order to get the animal experience you will need. The sooner you start, the better. Vet-supervised experience is different from animal experience - both are important. You will want to spend enough time with one or more vets to get great recommendations from them. Vet supervised opportunities are harder to find than you might think so start looking and applying to things early. And the investment of time, sweat, and money is no joke. Shadow some vets to make sure you really want this. If money or grades are a big issue, you might want to consider a 2 year vet tech degree instead. You’ll get paid less but do similar work and spend less time and money on school.
If you’re in NY state,I’m betting that Cornell Vet school has certain guaranteed transfer arrangements with a number of SUNY schools like it has for its agricultural school. So look into that. If you have a SUNY near you, maybe you can go in and talk to an admissions officer. Or talk to some veterinarians in the area - they may know which schools feed into Cornell.
Cornell Vet does not have any guaranteed transfer arrangements, not even for its own students. Everyone has to apply after a minimum 3 years of undergrad.
Yea, no guaranteed transfer from Cornell undergrad to vet. However, I had noticed that many undergrad students who earn one of the animal science undergraduate awards got into Cornell vet school (just my observation from my year)
The easiest way to look at it is like this: Most vet schools require essentially the same core group of courses for admission, but you can do them at the school of your choice. Every grade counts, and vet school is incredibly difficult to get into in this country. It’s also extremely expensive, and vets make less than a quarter of what M.D.s make. Since you are still in high school, I would suggest this: during high school, volunteer as much as possible, doing real work, at the largest veterinary hospital you can. Many places will train you in restraint and assisting; you don’t necessarily have to know a lot going in. If you live in NYC, the Animal Medical Center has a fantastic volunteer program, and if you work out well as a volunteer, they’ll often times hire you for pay. You will learn a ton, and it will make or break your decision to go to vet school. You may decided, instead, to become an RVT. RVTs (Registered Veterinary Technicians) can do a whole lot while under indirect supervision of a DVM, including dental extractions, suturing wounds, and all modes of wound care/bandaging and critical care nursing. They also run the anesthesia, including induction, maintenance, and recovery during surgery. In a big hospital, there is a ton you can do. The downside: being an RVT does not pay well at all, and it can be frustrating at times to see what our equivalents (RNs or Nurse Practitioners) in human medicine are paid. At any rate, you will also find that you need to decide if you want to pursue large animal/equine or small animal medicine. I know many, many vets (I’m a second career RVT who worked for 10 years in a very large small animal referral practice), and the surest way to vet school is spectacular grades plus working for a couple of years for a practice with several vets. You will want those excellent references.
@TomSrOfBoston - that is simply not true, and it’s misleading to aspiring vets reading this thread. Can you name a single vet school that accepts ONLY applicants from in state or states with contractual agreements? I don’t think there is one. Most favor in state students but will still enroll as many as 25% or more from out of state. My student got into 5+ schools and was only in state at one of them.