Best Schools for Each Specialty

[Tbeezer12]

I was wondering if there is a particular thread already that has each specialty (emergency and critical care, wildlife, equine, farm animal, etc.) broken down into the best vet schools for those specialities. If not, would someone be willing to share some information on this? I'm interested in narrowing down my choice to schools that have great wildlife/emergency med programs, however, I also have an interest in large animal.

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[anesthtc]

Probably going to be a bit hard to come by since each person here is going to be familiar with only a couple schools - not enough to make an accurate comparison. Then there's the other problem that universities will put forward their best image to applicants and claim to be the best at something, when we all know that there are multiple measures for what qualifies as "best". As a general rule you're going to want to consider what kind of clientele are going to be coming to each university. Those that are located in regions with major cattle operations are going to naturally have more experience with treating cattle. Schools located in urban areas will likely have more experience with small animals. Even then it might be the case that an urban school has an unusually high number of faculty with experiences treating wildlife in South America or something.
It might be easier if you gave people like 2 or 3 schools and asked if there are any students who could offer their opinions on the depth or availability of what you're looking for.

 

[futurevet333]

I am curious about what specialties are "best" at the following schools: oregon, washington, ohio, cornell, iowa, upenn and uc davis if anyone has any input on those schools

 

[bluesails]

Probably going to be a bit hard to come by since each person here is going to be familiar with only a couple schools - not enough to make an accurate comparison. Then there's the other problem that universities will put forward their best image to applicants and claim to be the best at something, when we all know that there are multiple measures for what qualifies as "best". As a general rule you're going to want to consider what kind of clientele are going to be coming to each university. Those that are located in regions with major cattle operations are going to naturally have more experience with treating cattle. Schools located in urban areas will likely have more experience with small animals. Even then it might be the case that an urban school has an unusually high number of faculty with experiences treating wildlife in South America or something.
It might be easier if you gave people like 2 or 3 schools and asked if there are any students who could offer their opinions on the depth or availability of what you're looking for.

I agree with this. Sometimes it's kind of easy to deduce what programs might exist at only certain schools based on unique things about their campus / location. Tufts, for example, has a wildlife clinic on campus (I believe Cornell has one about 2mi away) which obviously implies their students get wildlife experience and volunteering pretty easily. Cornell is in an area with a huge dairy industry and therefore has great bovine programs. Penn has the NBC and no one will deny that they are really great for equine.

That said, even after identifying those I would recommend trying to talk to students from different schools and asking them what kinds of opportunities they had to do work in what they wanted to do. Even if a school doesn't obviously have a huge emphasis on large animal, their students might be able to get a ton of experience through a really well-run extracurricular organization or through a few outstanding professors who love to have students help them out with research etc. So I wouldn't automatically discount a school you like based on whether it is well known for something!

 

[shortnsweet]

This is kind of like trying to rank schools. You just can't.

Plus, it doesn't really matter in vet school. You go where you get in, and you add your own experiences to supplement specialties you are interested in.

 

[twelvetigers]

You could look at caseload, and you could look at faculty and professors doing research in the areas you are interested in. That is about as specific as you could get. You can seek out things you are interested in just about anywhere. If you only want to practice on llamas, you may not see many at Tufts. (I have no idea the actual llama caseload at Tufts, lol.) Aside from that. Go to a school that is the least expensive for you.