Hi, my daughter is planning to pursue pre-vet track and is contemplating among the below four colleges for which she has been accepted:
UMass, Amherst
UMD
Juniata College
Franklin & Marshall
Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.
I would think large state schools would have a better program so UMD or Umass IMO
What’s the net price at each?
[to figure out the net price, calculate:
(tuition, fees, room, board) - ( grants, scholarships) = …]
What are her stats?
Juniata is excellent for anything Pre-Health including pre-Vet - very supportive, wants to see students excell and reach their goals.
Franklin and Marshall is the better college academically, so she’d need to have excellent study habits and grades, with a rigorous academic background.
UMD and UMass Amherst: which one is instate?
Did she get into the College of Agriculture or of Science? Which major?
Both UMD and UMass Amherst are out-of-state for us.
UMD-50K (no scholarship) College of Agriculture & Natural Sciences (Major:
Animal Science)
UMass-38K (scholarships) Vetenirary and Animal Sciences
Juniata-23K(scholarships)
My D likes Juniata. But we parents have a little concern that Juniata is not well-known generally.
What about F&M?
So the real discussion is UMass v. Juniata as of now.
Juniata is well-known for the quality of its science program and for how supportive it is in the pre-health field.
Ask whether students can easily volunteer or intern or work with horses; cattle; other frm nimls; zoo/park animals; a local vet.
One difference is the size of the program: at Umass, the pre-vet program is selective and they have about 75-80/495 majors (freshman class across all colleges= 4,600 students), 25-30% of whom gain admission to vet school.
Juniata has a much smaller freshman cohort - 400 all majors included and pre-vet students mix with pre health. Only 2 students per year create a pre vet “POE” (major) but in the past years 100% applicants got into vet school. So, fewer peers but more certainty of getting into vet school.
Financially,can you afford both without loans?
Vet school is quite expensive. One should seek out a school that: is affordable, where a student can maintain at least a 3.7 GPA, is located where a student can complete the prerequisites of direct animal care under the auspices of a vet, is not competing with a slew of pre-med students where there may be weed out classes, has a preprofessional advisor, offers courses that most vet schools will require, (https://www.aavmc.org/data/files/vmcas/prereqchart.pdf), has a history of high placement to vet schools.
Vet schools look at GPA, (many require grades of B or better in some higher level science courses), high GRE scores, direct animal care, demonstrated leadership and community involvement in areas other than veterinary medicine, a candidate must be well spoken and essays must be very well written with regard to animals and their owners. Any unusual hobby, skill, etc. will make a student stand out among applicants.
Best of luck to her.
Totally agree with @ECmotherx2 . I’m not familiar with the specific colleges you mention but do have experience getting a child into vet school. The only thing I would add is to look at your in-state vet school (if you have one) and see what their pre-requisite courses are. Make sure whatever college you have offers those courses. It can be difficult to get the classes other places sometimes. The major is not as important to vet schools so pick one that your student feels that she would be happy using as a career if she decides vet school isn’t for her (like lots of students do) or choose a college where she could change majors if her desires change. Good luck!
Sounds like Juniata has the edge: more supportive, exact major not important for vet school (so “animal science” v. “Biology/chemistry” wouldn’t matter to them), less expensive.
Of the four undergrad colleges that we were mentioned, I know of vet school classmates that graduated from three of those schools (UMass, UMD, Franklin and Marshall). I’ve never heard of Juniata College but that certainly does not mean that is is not competitive for vet school. To put things in perspective, two of my classmates (I went to Cornell) graduated from community colleges. The application process is more than just what college you went to but also how did and what other extracurriculars made you stand out.