How important is it for me when choosing where to finish the rest of my undergrad? Should I continue as planned as a Biochem major/pre-med or would I be better off at an ag focused school with a pre-vet program? Thanks for any input!
Importance of Pre Vet vs. Biochem or Pre Med Major
- Thread starter kafh
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vet schools don't care about what your major is.
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Aren't pre-med and pre-vet pretty similar in the classes you are taking? And biochem has a lot of the prerequisites for vet school, at least all the programs I've looked into. With pre-med and pre-vet not actually being majors, why don't you keep biochem and just fulfill all the vet school requirements while you're at it? If you don't enjoy biochem, maybe you should switch, but why quit it and then not have a major at all?
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As stated on multiple threads on here, as long as you have pre-reqs it doesn't matter. If you are applying to Davis, you must have a degree, but the major is non-specific. Someone in my class has a Biochem major. Another has a Theater degree. Most don't have a degree at all.
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Just curious, if you don't mind saying, what school are you at?
This statement somewhat surprises me based on what I've seen in some schools' accepted student stats (and the general impression that I've gotten here). Then again, maybe it just the school I've been looking at (only those where I have the pre-reqs).
Totally understand if you don't want to share that info, though.
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She is at LSU - just assuming she doesn't care (plus you could look back in posts to find out, or, yanno, notice that she is from LA and a vet student. 😉 )
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Thanks. Totally just didn't notice the location/student part.
That's definitely a school whose numbers I haven't looked at all, so, okay.
Interesting though that LSU is like that. I guess I had always assumed that most people have a degree, so really neat to learn that that's not as common as I thought.
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FWIW, at SGU all of my classmates (at least from what I can tell) have bachelors at the least and a lot have advanced degrees. i have yet to find anyone in the class younger than me either (just because my birthday is late in the year)
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Hehe nah that's common knowledge. LSU does a 3+1 program where you can do 3 years of undergrad and then apply and get your degree after your first year of vet school, which is what a lot of the people in my class have done. But its very common for students to not have a degree coming in. I almost didn't... I finished by the skin of my teeth.
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One of the major points to make with regards to the LSU statistics is that the count of degrees in the accepted class is at the date of acceptance (from late-February to late-April). Those statistics do not account for a large portion of those applicants accepted without a degree that go on to graduate in May of that same year. For instance, in the LSU SVM's Class of 2015, the statistics indicate that 67 of the 88 accepted did not have a degree when accepted in the middle of the spring '11 semester. However, approximately a third of those 67 went on to graduate with a degree at the end of the spring '11 semester. Another approximately 20% of the remaining two-thirds are scheduled to earn their undergraduate degree in the fall '11 through LSU's 3+1 program.
One thing we tell potential applicants is that there is no preference given to applicants with an undergraduate degree (or an advanced degree for that matter) over someone without a degree. However, it all depends on how an applicant shows how the experience and knowledge learned through having earned his/her degree will make the applicant a stronger DVM student and how this will, in turn, make the applicant a stronger practicing veterinarian.
