Canadian Veterinary School Comparison

[mpang]

Could anyone give me some input on each of the following vet schools,


1) The Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) at the University of Prince Edward Island / the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown
2) The Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan
3) The Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph

I understand that one residency determines which school that you can apply to, but I would love to hear what everyone thinks of these schools, say, if AVC is better for certain area of study, then may be it's worth to move to one of those Atlantic provinces to establish my residency before I apply. Thanks in advance.

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[pawprints]

From what I've heard (and I may be totally wrong...please someone correct me if I am!), AVC, of the 3 schools, has a large component focused on aquatic organisms, due to the large number of fish and lobster farms in the maritimes...They do this at the sacrifice of avian medicine, since of the AVC graduates, a large proportion of them go into the fish medicine industry out there...One of the vets I work with went to AVC and felt that when she graduated, compared to students at other vet schools, she knew very little about avian medicine, but knew loads more about fish, etc...

Also, apparently Western has a large focus on large animal, being in the middle of the prairies, and very little on aquatic and a reduced amount on avian...Since it's brand new, I don't think you'll get a lot of feedback about this school yet, but I think it's safe to say that it is largely focused on LA.

OVC also has less focus on aquatic...I think that other than that, it's pretty well-rounded SA, equine, LA, avian...

Again, these are just opinions people have told me, so I'm not 100% sure, but I figured it would give you a starting point...

 

[lcarter103]

I just wanted to clarify that WCVM (Western) is not brand new; I think the previous poster must have been thinking about the new school in Calgary. WCVM is in Saskatoon and has been around for about 45 years.

I would agree that WCVM might have a bit more exposure to large animal (especially food animal) stuff than the other schools if that happens to be your interest, though I doubt the actual curriculum between the 3 schools varies very much. Obviously WCVM will not have the exposure to aquatic medicine that the AVC does just as a result of it's location, but there are always externships in 4th year if you want a bit more exposure to things like that.

L

 

[aretoo]

I think you are getting WCVM confused with the new school in Calgary. That's the one that is heavily focused on large animals (mostly cattle I guess but there's also a lot of 'alternative' livestock and horses around Calgary so you'd probably learn a lot about those too). The first-ever class is currently in first year.

WCVM in Saskatoon is, from what I've heard, another good all-around school, though the caseload in the teaching hospital is smaller than at OVC.

OVC is great, it's where I applied...not sure what their *focus* is or whatever, but they have a great teaching hospital with outstanding vets. And there's always a LOT of research going on, and tons of opportunities to get involved with research and other stuff to work on clinical skills.

To be honest I haven't really looked into any of the other schools in too much detail since I can only apply to OVC.

 

[Neoformans]

I think in terms of getting a good education, all 3 of the Canadian schools are excellent. I'm not certain about what exactly the differences in each cirriculum are, though I have heard and as others have mentioned that WCVM is more focused on food animal medicine, I have heard that OVC is great for equine medicine and has more opportunities in companion animal medicine too.

I think another thing to really consider is where you will have the best chance at getting in:
ie. Establishing residency in Manitoba may give you a better chance at WCVM than establishing residency in Nova Scotia for AVC. (I'm not sure, have to check the stats)

Also, the residency requirements are different for each school. For OVC, if it will be your first time living and working in Ontario, you must be living and working there for 12 months before the March 1 application deadline. Which really means you should be living and working in Ontario for 18 months before the Sept you enter OVC.

 

[pawprints]

I just wanted to clarify that WCVM (Western) is not brand new; I think the previous poster must have been thinking about the new school in Calgary. WCVM is in Saskatoon and has been around for about 45 years.

L

Oops! You're totally right, I was thinking of the new Vet school in Calgary, thanks for catching that!

 

[mpang]

OVC sounds like a great school, I initially wanna to apply there, then I learned about the residency requirement, so I thought "WCVM it is". After reading you guys response, may be I should just move and work there for a year? Or if I just apply no matter what, would I be classified as international student? Or I won't be considered at all?

Also, the MCAT, OVC only takes MCAT? What if I already wrote my GRE? Does it have to be MCAT? Thanks in advance.

 

[lcarter103]

I think I recall from other posts that you're in Alberta? So why not apply to WCVM/Calgary? I don't know much about the Calgary school, but WCVM is a fantastic school and very well-respected. If you're able to apply without moving to establish residency, why not, especially since you have to take the MCAT to apply to OVC? Just curious.

 

[mpang]

Yes, but OVC sounds like a more well-rounded school and I have always wanna to move to Ontario, without knowing the residency requirement, I have planned on attending Uof Toronto for my pre-vet, but now, not too sure.

Does OVC have any residency requirement?

 

[lcarter103]

That makes sense - I wasn't aware that you hadn't done your pre-vet work yet, so I guess you've got plenty of time to establish residency somewhere else. I do have to disagree with you that OVC is a more "well-rounded" school than WCVM (or AVC probably); I'm a small animal person and I definitely feel like I'm getting a great education in that area at WCVM, but there's also many people in my class who are food animal/equine people who will also come out of the WCVM with a fantastic education. Also I think one of the previous posters mentioned that OVC has a higher caseload in the teaching hospital than WCVM - if you look on their websites, they state that they see a similar amount of animals per year (~15,000 + field service), so again, I doubt there's much difference. The bottom line is that I think the differences between the schools themselves are minimal. That being said, if you'd rather live in Ontario that's totally understandable - the winters are awfully cold in Saskatoon! Best of luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Neoformans]

Remember that "residency" means time spent outside of post-secondary education, meaning if you go to UT for 4 years, none of the months you are in school will count towards residency in Ontario. Though if you spend the summers working in Ontario when you're not in school (4 months x3 = 12 months) and you have T4s to show this, it will count towards your residency.

 

[chagheill]

From my understanding of both OVC and AVC (not sure of the other schools), the 12-month residency requirement can be fulfilled as long as you are not a full-time student while living in the province. Time spent as a part-time student WILL count towards the residency requirement.

I have a few friends who switched to part-time student status (taking 2 courses per semester) solely to establish residency. OVC & AVC require the majority of your pre-req course work to be completed at a full course load, but will allow up to 3-4 courses to be completed during a partial course load. Most, if not all, Canadian schools state that ALL course work be completed during full time studies, but in reality this is not true - many have done summer classes or taken classes part time due to financial circumstances, a poor grade / repeating a class, realigning with a degree stream, etc. If they limited the applicant pool to only students who had completed all their course work as full time students, the pool of applicants would decrease significantly.

One caveat: taking core science requirements such as org chem or micro while part time is generally frowned upon, and may in fact place you below someone who actually had lower marks but completed the classes at a full course load. Non-core courses and electives, however, are generally quite acceptable if they're completed at a partial load.

If you're serious about moving to a province to establish residency to ease your entry into vet school, I'd suggest either moving to Calgary or PEI. Calgary because of the new school which, to my knowledge, is only accepting Alberta residents, and PEI as they have a disproportionate amount of spots at AVC compared to the province's population. For example, Nova Scotia has 16 spots at AVC , New Brunswick has 14, while PEI has 10. Nova Scotia has a population of 900k, New Brunswick around 750k, and PEI has 140k. In essence, this means PEI has one spot for every 14000 people, whereas NS and NB have one spot for roughly every 50000 people. As you only compete against people from your own province, it's a simple numbers game.

 

[stoby08]

Does anyone know is it easier to get into Canadian vet schools or US schools? I am currently living in South Carolina and completeing my pre reqs. But I grew up in Alberta. I emailed Sask and Calgary but haven't got an answer on if I could even apply.

 

[bunnity]

Which country are you a citizen of? And if you are a citizen of both, which one are you a legal resident of? The answer to your question really depends on your residency.

 

[Gwymer52]

Veterinary colleges in Canada reserve a number of places for foreign students (by the way, this includes American citizens). The residency requirement applies to Canadian citizens residing in other provinces - similiar to the US designation "out of state" application.

 

[Gwymer52]

Veterinary colleges in Canada reserve a number of places for foreign students (by the way, this includes American citizens). The residency requirement applies to Canadian citizens residing in other provinces - similiar to the US designation "out of state" application.

 

[thnythe]

Veterinary colleges in Canada reserve a number of places for foreign students (by the way, this includes American citizens). The residency requirement applies to Canadian citizens residing in other provinces - similiar to the US designation "out of state" application.

Ontario and Atlantic Veterinary Colleges reserve a number of seats for foreign students -- Western and Calgary Vet Colleges do not.

 

[168135]

I had a dream last night that I got into the Calgary school... they were letting any Canadian in because they were a new school in my dream!

A girl retaking organic clem with me said says she's planning on applying to vet school... she knows NOTHING about applying. She said she's going to apply to OVC for experience. I told her she couldn't apply because she wasn't a resident and she just shrugged. She also told me that a vet will be letting her shadow. She said she might start doing that in September. I suggested that she started NOW because the more hours you have the better, and she shrugged again. got plenty of animal experience, but she has no vet experience. She's also not planning on taking organic II. AVC won't look at her retake mark. I tried to direct her towards this forum but she just... shrugged.

I hope half the people applying to AVC next year are like her... I'd get in no problem

So would OVC just laugh and rip up her app? How does that work?

 

[SocialStigma]

I had a dream last night that I got into the Calgary school... they were letting any Canadian in because they were a new school in my dream!

A girl retaking organic clem with me said says she's planning on applying to vet school... she knows NOTHING about applying. She said she's going to apply to OVC for experience. I told her she couldn't apply because she wasn't a resident and she just shrugged. She also told me that a vet will be letting her shadow. She said she might start doing that in September. I suggested that she started NOW because the more hours you have the better, and she shrugged again. got plenty of animal experience, but she has no vet experience. She's also not planning on taking organic II. AVC won't look at her retake mark. I tried to direct her towards this forum but she just... shrugged.

I hope half the people applying to AVC next year are like her... I'd get in no problem

So would OVC just laugh and rip up her app? How does that work?

You don't need orgo to apply to OVC. And to get an interview (aka be in the top 200 applicants), they just look at your prereq GPA, GPA of last 2 semesters, and MCAT mark. I don't think they look at LORs/experience until the interview stage. So it is possible for her to get an interview just based on her marks and MCAT but she will definitely be cut in the second round.

 

[Coquette22]

You don't need orgo to apply to OVC. And to get an interview (aka be in the top 200 applicants), they just look at your prereq GPA, GPA of last 2 semesters, and MCAT mark. I don't think they look at LORs/experience until the interview stage. So it is possible for her to get an interview just based on her marks and MCAT but she will definitely be cut in the second round.

But the girl isn't even a resident. I wouldn't think she'd even be considered. She'd probably just get a letter back informing her she wasn't a resident and therefore, was disqualified from application.