<p>I understand there are plenty of cheaper and probably better schools for pre-vet than most of the ivies. I know Cornell and Penn are both great for prevet because of their vet schools. But what about the other ivies? How good are the prevet programs at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Brown? My biggest consideration is the access to experience with vets and animals.</p>
<p>There are not that many VET grad schools, but some of them (LIKE UGA) offers you three years undergrad and then if you are doing well, your 4th year is undergrad/1st year in vet school. You may want to look at the grad schools first, and also make sure you are taking the correct undergrad classes. Do the Ivies offer animal behavior/nutrition? Requirements for grad school…</p>
<p>Pre-vet is like pre-med in that you don’t have to major in anything specific; you just have to take the prerequisites. Each vet school has a slightly different set of prerequisites - they are pretty similar to each other in most ways, with minor differences. At minimum you’ll need two semesters of physics, two semesters of biology, four semesters of chemistry (two semesters of general and two semesters of organic), a math (some places what precal and some places want statistics), English composition, and 2-3 humanities and social science electives Those classes you could take at any Ivy League/top institution, even without an animal behavior program.</p>
<p>The extras are what complicates things. Some schools want biochemistry and/or microbiology, which you could also take pretty much anywhere. A lot of them want genetics, which is probably offered in most biology departments but not at some small schools - check course listings to be sure. A couple of schools want animal science, animal nutrition, or both. Most Ivies wouldn’t offer that (Cornell and Penn, both having vet schools, most likely do - Cornell has a department of animal science, but it was difficult to find out whether Penn had those undergrad classes. They don’t require it).</p>
<p>Any major city or town is going to provide access to lots of vets and animals (domesticated house pets, at least). Princeton, New Haven, Cambridge, New York, and Providence are all major cities or suburbs with lots of veterinarians and the opportunity to shadow them and volunteer with their pets. Hanover is a smaller town, so I’m not sure about that one.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.aavmc.org/data/files/vmcas/prerequisite_chart_2013.pdf]Here[/url”>http://www.aavmc.org/data/files/vmcas/prerequisite_chart_2013.pdf]Here[/url</a>] is a list of all of the AAVMC-accredited vet schools and their prerequisites.</p>
<p>@juillet Thank you for your reply! I’m familiar with prereqs for vet school, and I could fulfill most of them just about anywhere. Im just looking to see whether or not the ivies would provide the opportunities one would need to get into vet school. While most areas would likely have local vets, Im looking to see what school is best at facilitating programs through which a student could gain veterinary and animal experience.</p>
<p>I would advise you to go where you can get lots of hands on experience, get involved, do well, and not gain a mound of debt. You have plenty of debt coming your way during vet school. Suspect the vet schools would tell you that as well. </p>
<p>The ivies are not known for vet studies. The other six you mention do not have programs,</p>
<p>giraffeinatree,</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from a state college and gained admission to vet school. I’ve heard the opinion that ivies give you an edge, but overall it will be the balance of your grades, test score, work/volunteer experience and ec’s. Oh, and the interview.</p>
<p>Unless money is no object, look at academically strong programs at schools that leave you with little or no debt. </p>