College Decision Question

[Kota1000]

Hello!
So I am a senior in highschool and will be going into undergraduate studies this fall. All the colleges I’ve applied to have accepted me. I plan on double majoring in biology and chemistry.

All the schools I applied to are public universities that have good science programs and availability for research. Two are big ten schools, which are UW Madison and UM Twin cities, one is Ivy League (Cornell), and two are smaller University of Wisconsin schools (UWGB and UWSP). Now I would rather go to UWGB because it is smaller and they have a prevet emphasis for a biology major, plus I feel like I would do better in a smaller school. Additionally UWGB is cheaper then Madison or the Twin Cities.

My questions is does the type of university affect my chances of getting into veterinary school? Will I be okay if I go to a smaller university as opposed to a big ten school?

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[MadCatter]

Hello!
So I am a senior in highschool and will be going into undergraduate studies this fall. All the colleges I’ve applied to have accepted me. I plan on double majoring in biology and chemistry.

All the schools I applied to are public universities that have good science programs and availability for research. Two are big ten schools, which are UW Madison and UM Twin cities, one is Ivy League (Cornell), and two are smaller University of Wisconsin schools (UWGB and UWSP). Now I would rather go to UWGB because it is smaller and they have a prevet emphasis for a biology major, plus I feel like I would do better in a smaller school. Additionally UWGB is cheaper then Madison or the Twin Cities.

My questions is does the type of university affect my chances of getting into veterinary school? Will I be okay if I go to a smaller university as opposed to a big ten school?

Personally, I would pick 1) the cheapest school and 2) not choose for the name. I find my school has a tougher grading system, and though vet schools can sometimes take academic rigor into account, I feel it’s better to have a 4.0 from an “easier” school than a 3.0 from an Ivy League or what have you.
I would recommend a smaller school, as it allows you to get to know professors really well and therefore get better recommendations.
Lastly, the biggest advice I would give myself is to make sure your school has a strong prevet community. I am one of maybe 5 pre veterinary students at my school, and I have had to learn everything on my own. I wish I could have pre vet clubs and mentors who could have helped me find shadowing opportunities and help when choosing classes.
This is just my two cents, but I hope I help at least some!


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[DVM2024]

I go to an undergrad that's not particularly prestigious and not at all known for its biology program, and I still got in. Where you go for undergrad really doesn't matter. Choose the school that makes the most sense for you--location, finances, and happiness. Study hard, focus on getting diverse experiences, and have fun over your next 4 years

 

[thedogtorisin2020]

Hello!
So I am a senior in highschool and will be going into undergraduate studies this fall. All the colleges I’ve applied to have accepted me. I plan on double majoring in biology and chemistry.

All the schools I applied to are public universities that have good science programs and availability for research. Two are big ten schools, which are UW Madison and UM Twin cities, one is Ivy League (Cornell), and two are smaller University of Wisconsin schools (UWGB and UWSP). Now I would rather go to UWGB because it is smaller and they have a prevet emphasis for a biology major, plus I feel like I would do better in a smaller school. Additionally UWGB is cheaper then Madison or the Twin Cities.

My questions is does the type of university affect my chances of getting into veterinary school? Will I be okay if I go to a smaller university as opposed to a big ten school?

The type of university, as long as it is accredited, does not affect your chances of getting in at all! I went to a smaller college for all four years of my undergrad (I mean real small, like 1500-3000 people at most small). I got in to 5/6 of the vet schools I applied to! I really recommend smaller schools if you want more professor one on one time. That factor really helped me so much during my time in undergrad. Some of my friends went to a huge state school and they've told me that once in a while they have had to wait FOUR HOURS to see the TA for help; not even the professor!! I recommend going where you want and where will be financially good because vet school is so expensive and is only getting more expensive. Going to a smaller/unknown school will not have an affect on your chances!

 

[JustPaws]

I went to art school for my BA, then patch-worked my science prereqs at 5 different community colleges and still got in. Go to the cheapest school if that's your favorite, unless the Ivy is gonna give you a ride or you can do something else with your major if/when you realize you don't want to be a vet and transfer majors.

 

[EngrSC]

I went to a large university for undergrad (35,000 students) and I’m glad I experienced the dorms and lived in a college town. I wasn’t a partier by any means, but it was cool that there was always something going on and concerts on campus and what not. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. The benefits to a large university are the ability to avoid certain professors, the multitude of things you can get involved in, and the ability to choose from a large number of electives for your general requirements, etc. The downsides include getting lost in the crowd and potentially taking classes like gen chem in a 500-person lecture hall where the professor doesn’t know you from Joe Schmoe.

As a post-bacc student I went to a small college (6,000 students) for 2 years to take my prereqs for vet school. I also loved it but for different reasons. I was able to get 2 strong letters of recommendation from professors I had for multiple classes, who I was able to form relationships with due to the small class sizes. I also really enjoyed taking classes with a lot of the same people. The school had clubs and activities and what not but definitely not on the same scale as where I went to undergrad.

Anyway, both large and small schools have their pros and cons. I agree with what people have said above - name doesn’t matter and definitely consider cost. If you learn best by interacting with the professor and asking questions then a small school may be a better fit. If you’re super outgoing and want the Greek life experience with something fun to do every weekend, the large university may be a better. So if cost is similar between the schools, I would consider how you learn and what you hope to get out of your college experience on a personal level.

 

[SkiOtter]

I know @batsenecal went to an incredibly small college and it was very cheap so she didn’t have a lot of loans coming from undergrad.
I would definitely recommend going to the cheapest college you can, especially if you think you would thrive there more than a large state university. Grades, experiences, and letters of recommendation matter way more than the name of the school. And you do not have to major in something sciencey if you would rather major in something else. Pick something that you could make a career out of as a back up plan in case you change your mind about vet school or it just doesn’t work out for one reason or another.

 

[battie]

My questions is does the type of university affect my chances of getting into veterinary school? Will I be okay if I go to a smaller university as opposed to a big ten school?

My undergrad had 2,000 students total and has had people accepted to vet school every year since 2014. I went to this tiny school in a town with one stop light because it was super cheap, and then I had scholarships. I graduated without debt from undergrad and cannot be more thankful considering the economic problems we're going to be facing.

You're free to message me!

 

[Kota1000]

Thank you everyone this is super helpful! It makes me feel so much better about choosing UWGB as opposed to the larger schools!


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[CombinedDriving67]

I went to a tiny school that basically no one has heard of. Seriously, we had 850 students. Total. For me it was amazing and I loved the school. So my advice to you is pick the best school for you, because as long as it is accredited, it really doesn’t matter. Consider happiness, cost, location, programs, and extra curriculars. And remember you can always transfer if it’s not the place for you.

I’m pretty sure I’m the first person from my school to go to vet school but I also think I’m the first person to apply haha. It was mostly an art and business school. My degree is actually in management but that’s a story for another day. Good luck to you and enjoy it!

 

[ajs513]

I will say that, in general, the name of prestige of where you went to undergrad doesn’t really matter. People have already talked at length about how you should go to a cheaper school where you feel you can excel. I agree.

However, if a school has an actual pre-vet program, they’ll often have an approximate acceptance rate to vet school. I’ve typically seen this on the somewhere on the department page for bigger schools that have a pre-vet program. My undergrad was a big ten school with a ton of pre-vets. My major was actually Animal Science: Pre-Veterinary Medicine and Research Track. We had five different animal science concentrations. Some other large schools have a similar structure. My program’s acceptance rate to vet school, provided you made a 3.2 or above cumulative GPA, was 80%. Another big ten school I looked into was 30%. I’m sure there are a bunch of factors for why those numbers are what they are, but it still made a big impact to me. It said that if I went through the program and did a pretty good job, I’d get into vet school. And I did. So did the vast majority of my peers. I’ve spoken to a lot of my friends about this, and even at big schools they couldn’t really think of many others in their equally large programs who got in. So basically, find a school that seems to do a good job setting their students of for success.

On top of that, and I’ll get a lot of comments I’m sure saying that it’s not necessary (and it’s not entirely necessary), I found it extremely useful to be able to take many animal science classes that I’d be taking again in vet school. For many of my peers who hadn’t taken comparative anatomy before, the class was extremely difficult. For me, it wasn’t horrible because I had seen almost all of it before. Animal Nutrition is another class that is giving my classmates a hard time. The class isn’t really taught well in my opinion, and it makes learning it for the first time extremely challenging. I haven’t had that difficult of a time with it because I was taught it really well before, so I know what I’m looking at when 20 different numbers are thrown out and they ask us to calculate TDN. I could go on and on about this, but I think it’s been great to have taken these classes before. It’s enough of a shock going from undergrad to a professional program. Lessening that shock really makes life a little easier. Again, people will disagree and say they have done just fine having never taken these classes, and I’m sure that’s true. Most people go into vet school never having taken them. But I’ve found that I’ve struggled far less than my classmates in classes I’ve taken before.

 

[SkiOtter]

I will say that I didn’t take anatomy, histology, physiology, or really ANY other “vet school classes” in undergrad (aside from online animal nutrition because it was a prerequisite for some places I was applying including my in state) and did fine in them in vet school. Animal science classes weren’t offered at my large university. Definitely not necessary to have. Sure, it’ll help you some but not that much compared to saving a lot of money in loans will help you in the long run.

 

[PetVet23]

No vet school should put any kind of weight on where you do your undergrad, the only thing that matters is that you get your prereqs done and have a solid GPA. I went to a smaller university because I knew I would be happier there, one of my classmates graduated from the same university, and I know of many others that attended smaller schools as well. What you need to consider most right now is where you think you will be happy and thrive! There's no sense in spending more to go to a "big name" school if it means potentially jeopardizing your personal well-being and therefore causing lower grades. Many of my prereqs were even transferred into my university from a community college from high school dual-enrollment (and showed up on my vet school applications as being from a community college), so trust me when I say it truly doesn't matter where they come from as long as you do well.

TL;DR - do what's going to make you happy and successful!

 

[St3phni]

I definitely agree with everyone’s advice on this thread. Do what you love I went to UC Riverside as an undergrad and anyone who knows about the UC system can attest to our gargantuan student population. In terms of LOR’s, I definitely feel going to a smaller college would have helped me a ton since I feel like I would have been able to get to know professors there more easily as opposed to being one of the million students there. Luckily though, I ended up not needing a LOR from a professor cause the programs I applied for did not require a professor LOR for students who have been out of college for a while. I started applying for vet school 5 years out of undergrad (I graduated in 2014) and was accepted on my second try (so technically have been out for 6 years). Things have a way of working out even though it may not seem so at the moment


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[Kota1000]

I will say that, in general, the name of prestige of where you went to undergrad doesn’t really matter. People have already talked at length about how you should go to a cheaper school where you feel you can excel. I agree.

However, if a school has an actual pre-vet program, they’ll often have an approximate acceptance rate to vet school. I’ve typically seen this on the somewhere on the department page for bigger schools that have a pre-vet program. My undergrad was a big ten school with a ton of pre-vets. My major was actually Animal Science: Pre-Veterinary Medicine and Research Track. We had five different animal science concentrations. Some other large schools have a similar structure. My program’s acceptance rate to vet school, provided you made a 3.2 or above cumulative GPA, was 80%. Another big ten school I looked into was 30%. I’m sure there are a bunch of factors for why those numbers are what they are, but it still made a big impact to me. It said that if I went through the program and did a pretty good job, I’d get into vet school. And I did. So did the vast majority of my peers. I’ve spoken to a lot of my friends about this, and even at big schools they couldn’t really think of many others in their equally large programs who got in. So basically, find a school that seems to do a good job setting their students of for success.

On top of that, and I’ll get a lot of comments I’m sure saying that it’s not necessary (and it’s not entirely necessary), I found it extremely useful to be able to take many animal science classes that I’d be taking again in vet school. For many of my peers who hadn’t taken comparative anatomy before, the class was extremely difficult. For me, it wasn’t horrible because I had seen almost all of it before. Animal Nutrition is another class that is giving my classmates a hard time. The class isn’t really taught well in my opinion, and it makes learning it for the first time extremely challenging. I haven’t had that difficult of a time with it because I was taught it really well before, so I know what I’m looking at when 20 different numbers are thrown out and they ask us to calculate TDN. I could go on and on about this, but I think it’s been great to have taken these classes before. It’s enough of a shock going from undergrad to a professional program. Lessening that shock really makes life a little easier. Again, people will disagree and say they have done just fine having never taken these classes, and I’m sure that’s true. Most people go into vet school never having taken them. But I’ve found that I’ve struggled far less than my classmates in classes I’ve taken before.

Thank you for this! Luckily UWGB has a prevet biology major that is aimed for students to get into UW Madison’s vet school, it also has a prevet club that does a lot of volunteering. I’m not sure what the acceptance rate into vet school is from uwgb though. I feel confident I can get at least a 3.7gpa, I’ve always had a 4.0 in high school, including taking AP and honors courses. Additionally the 4 college courses I’ve taken already I’ve gotten A’s in.


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[ajs513]

Thank you for this! Luckily UWGB has a prevet biology major that is aimed for students to get into UW Madison’s vet school, it also has a prevet club that does a lot of volunteering. I’m not sure what the acceptance rate into vet school is from uwgb though. I feel confident I can get at least a 3.7gpa, I’ve always had a 4.0 in high school, including taking AP and honors courses. Additionally the 4 college courses I’ve taken already I’ve gotten A’s in.


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The major takeaway from this thread should be that you should go where you feel you will excel, especially if it’s cheaper. Anything extra is just that. Extra. If you can get a 3.7 anywhere then you’ll be in a great place. It sounds like you have a good work ethic and should be able to do well in college.

 

[JJ Bittenbinder]

I went to a small liberal arts college and reiterate what others said above. A small school gives you a bunch of opportunities to get involved. I was able to start doing research my first semester my freshman year by reaching out to professors (who didn't have any grad students so all the help they had was us undergrads!)

Congrats on all your college acceptances, that's awesome!!