Cornell vs Tufts

[SVD_97]

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Hello! I'm deciding between Cornell and Tufts this cycle and would love to hear insight from students at either program.

I am IS at Tufts, but their cost is comparable to OOS at Cornell; 66-67k per year for tuition, totaling 100k for COA.

I'm interested in pursuing in wildlife medicine/infectious disease. I know Cornell has very strong wildlife funding and opportunities, and was wondering how Tufts compared. I've looked into the Tufts wildlife clinic work study and was wondering if there are any other opportunites/experience for students interested in wildlife?

I'm going to go through vet school open-minded and am also interested in potentially specializing in small animal medicine. Does either school provides better opportunities or placement for internships and residencies post-grad? I have looked at the VIRMP match data and it looks like Cornell may have better residency matching stats in recent years, but was wondering if anyone could speak to their personal experience.

Would love to hear about any perspectives that folks have about either school and the surrounding areas! Any general insight about the respective programs/curriculums, as well as your specific experiences would be really appreciated.

Thanks so much!

 

[max_wildlife]

I'm interested in pursuing in wildlife medicine/infectious disease. I know Cornell has very strong wildlife funding and opportunities, and was wondering how Tufts compared. I've looked into the Tufts wildlife clinic work study and was wondering if there are any other opportunites/experience for students interested in wildlife?

Hi! I was a wildlife-focused veterinary student Tufts student; I graduated in May 2025. I volunteered in the wildlife clinic, and was a work study student in a wildlife research lab. I was interested in free-ranging wildlife and disease; my work-study gig incorporated a field season during the summer between first and second year, and then mostly necropsy and remote work. The proximity to Boston made it pretty accessible to get additional clinically-based wildlife experiences at a center closer to the downtown area.

I currently spend 1-2 days per week at a wildlife center with a fairly high caseload (~4k patients/year) and I felt fairly well-prepared by my experiences during school, but the connection I made with my work-study PI were invaluable and I consult with them often. I'm at GP/exotics clinic the other few days a week and I feel like my general education through Tufts prepared me well-enough for that as well.

 

[SVD_97]

Thank you for your response! Did you know anyone during your time that commuted from the Boston area? I live in Somerville now, and unfortunately not close to the commuter rail stop in Back Bay, so I would have to commute an hour by car each day. Just wanted to know whether that is feasible, or if I would be missing out on opportunities by not living somewhere nearby in Central Mass.

 

[max_wildlife]

Thank you for your response! Did you know anyone during your time that commuted from the Boston area? I live in Somerville now, and unfortunately not close to the commuter rail stop in Back Bay, so I would have to commute an hour by car each day. Just wanted to know whether that is feasible, or if I would be missing out on opportunities by not living somewhere nearby in Central Mass.

I knew of someone in the year below me — l didn’t know her well, but as far as I know, she made it work. If you live in Somerville, I’m sure you know about the traffic lol

I reverse-commuted here and there; to a wildlife/exotics hospital in Braintree and also right into Boston for a few weeks for externships. For Boston I was able to take commuter rail most of the time, still drove many times if I couldn’t get up early enough. For Braintree I was lucky enough to have a later morning start time lol so that wasn’t as bad. The traffic was pretty much always awful so I kinda adapted to that; I had to pull some early mornings to make that work and it was more the early start that brought me down. I def preferred city life over central Mass life, and walking through downtown, picking up coffee, kinda absorbing the energy, all of it made up for the early mornings.

If you have the energy for the regular commute, I’d say go for it. I became pretty restless in central Mass pretty quickly though so take my advice with a grain of salt 😅

 

[Fishy_Applicant]

Thank you for your response! Did you know anyone during your time that commuted from the Boston area? I live in Somerville now, and unfortunately not close to the commuter rail stop in Back Bay, so I would have to commute an hour by car each day. Just wanted to know whether that is feasible, or if I would be missing out on opportunities by not living somewhere nearby in Central Mass.

Fwiw, there are a couple V29s that commute 1hr+ into NH. And one with a long commute into CT. So you could do it if you wanted. It wouldn't be fun but there are people doing it.

 

[vetstudent9]

HI! I'm currently at Cornell and we have a really robust wildlife program. There are opportunities to work as a student worker in the wildlife hospital and all of my friends who do absolutely love it! There are also many elective classes geared towards wildlife and exotic animal medicine. A special program we have at Cornell is Expanding Horizons where you can get funded to travel to a country during a summer to do research and work with wildlife species. There are also many opportunities to do research and other experiences. I think internship and residency are very much down the line things to worry about, no matter where you go those programs will be available.