LMU-OP vs Ross VetPrep
Started by lmyf
Pip74
Full Member
Congratulations on both of your acceptances! How exciting. I’m choosing LMU. I wouldn’t want to attend an island school because it’s out of the country. That’s not something that would appeal to me personally. Additionally, the faster pace of curriculum would also be a drawback. I’ve heard wonderful things about LMU caring about their students. Wishing you all the best. You’ll make the right choice for yourself.
are you talking about LMU in TN or OP? because the OP curriculum is accelerated.
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I’d pick Ross for three reasons:
1. It’s more established. I wouldn’t particularly want to be a guinea pig class for a program that’s still trying to figure things out. It’s very likely that LMU will get accredited after their first classes graduate and their first class(es) will be treated like they graduated from fully accredited colleges in regards to being able to sit for NAVLE, but if all other things are relatively equal, I’d rather go somewhere that we know knows what they’re doing and has major issues sorted out. Also from what I hear LMUOP’s facilities aren’t even done yet which is scary with how long university construction can take. I wouldn’t want to learn in a construction zone.
2. Ross has clinical years at actual vet schools with teaching hospitals, which helps provide a bit more of a standard education rather than leaving it up to the lawless west of distributive programs. Some private practices are great at teaching externs…many are not. And in my experience, the schools don’t care a lot what you learn/do at offsite rotations as long as you pay tuition and pass NAVLE in the end. A distributive model can work, but I think a teaching hospital is the way to go to offer some education on site but allow some externships too.
3. It looks like Ross is cheaper than LMU anyway, I think even when factoring in the extra year of VetPrep. LMU actually provides less direct educational opportunities and actually charges you more (meaning no hospital…at least Ross sends you to a partner school). My main concern would be how you fund VetPrep with the new student loan regulations…I’d be curious what umbrella those courses would fall under in regards to the new BBB student loan caps. But if finances truly don’t matter (meaning you’re paying cash out of pocket or something) maybe that isn’t a concern for you.
They’re both three year programs which may be tough. Yes Ross has added headaches related to being out of the country and logistics of moving, but at least they’ve helped thousands of students and know what they’re doing. A brand new school may be smooth sailing and the time of your life, but it may not be. Probably things would be fine at LMU and I’m truly not trying to rag on them too hard, but I’d rather not take those risks when there’s another (and likely cheaper!) option.
1. It’s more established. I wouldn’t particularly want to be a guinea pig class for a program that’s still trying to figure things out. It’s very likely that LMU will get accredited after their first classes graduate and their first class(es) will be treated like they graduated from fully accredited colleges in regards to being able to sit for NAVLE, but if all other things are relatively equal, I’d rather go somewhere that we know knows what they’re doing and has major issues sorted out. Also from what I hear LMUOP’s facilities aren’t even done yet which is scary with how long university construction can take. I wouldn’t want to learn in a construction zone.
2. Ross has clinical years at actual vet schools with teaching hospitals, which helps provide a bit more of a standard education rather than leaving it up to the lawless west of distributive programs. Some private practices are great at teaching externs…many are not. And in my experience, the schools don’t care a lot what you learn/do at offsite rotations as long as you pay tuition and pass NAVLE in the end. A distributive model can work, but I think a teaching hospital is the way to go to offer some education on site but allow some externships too.
3. It looks like Ross is cheaper than LMU anyway, I think even when factoring in the extra year of VetPrep. LMU actually provides less direct educational opportunities and actually charges you more (meaning no hospital…at least Ross sends you to a partner school). My main concern would be how you fund VetPrep with the new student loan regulations…I’d be curious what umbrella those courses would fall under in regards to the new BBB student loan caps. But if finances truly don’t matter (meaning you’re paying cash out of pocket or something) maybe that isn’t a concern for you.
They’re both three year programs which may be tough. Yes Ross has added headaches related to being out of the country and logistics of moving, but at least they’ve helped thousands of students and know what they’re doing. A brand new school may be smooth sailing and the time of your life, but it may not be. Probably things would be fine at LMU and I’m truly not trying to rag on them too hard, but I’d rather not take those risks when there’s another (and likely cheaper!) option.
Thank you! I believe you’re referring to LMU in TN; my acceptance is for LMU in Orange Park which is a new 3 year program in the process of getting their accreditation, and with not much info posted about their actual curriculum and faculty yet. So either way, I’ll be attending an accelerated program regardless which one I choose.
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement!
Thank you for such a detailed and structured response! The concerns I have with Ross is their high attrition rate, and the fact that they do not post the passing rate for their VetPrep program. Even when I asked admissions they wouldn’t provide me that data. I don’t know how many students successfully make it into the actual first year of the DVM program. I’m afraid to move to a foreign country and not even be able to attend the actual program 😔 I agree and prefer Ross’ plan for clinical year, and maybe I’ll even get to spend that year at my IS!
It seems like tough roads (and decisions) are ahead either way.
That’s a very fair consideration. I’ll also lightly counterargue that LMUOP can’t provide you a passing rate for their program either, because no one’s done it before and they don’t know if their grads will pass NAVLE or have high attrition or not. Definitely pros and cons to both. Probably things will be fine either way, but with either school you’re going to have to put a lot of trust in your own abilities and work ethic and fate.
Have you asked the school for stats on the VetPrep program? If they can't/won't tell you anything about success rate, that's a red flag. Based on anecdotes (aka reddit, other social media, so grain of salt) the 'fail' rate of their vetprep is really high (more on my opinions on that below). Also, the vetprep program does not qualify for federal loans. So you avoid the BBB stuff, but you are either covering it with cash or a private loan.
Personally I think Ross' high attrition rate is multifactorial. The island lifestyle is absolutely not for everyone, and a portion of people leave due to that alone. Pair that with an accelerated program and the tendency for the island schools to be a little more lax/forgiving in their admissions process...yeah, they're gonna have a high attrition rate. Their vetprep program was started to 'help' with that, but if you look at the stats of students that go through the vetprep program...those are likely students that were never academically ready for vet school to begin with. The average GPAs are <3.0. Without getting into GPA =/= quality of doctor and that people with low GPAs can do fine in vet school, it certainly does not strike confidence regarding the academic readiness of the students they accept. And that's considering that Ross' average GPAs for students accepted into the DVM program are also really low in comparison to all other schools.
That said, I do agree with Jayna that Ross is well established. Plenty of people do just fine with their curriculum. LMUOP doesn't even have their faculty fully hired yet. You also don't know that LMUOP won't have a high attrition rate, you don't know if this new school/mystery curriculum (because they have been exceptionally vague with their program descriptions despite starting their first class in a matter of months...) will even set you up for success.
As a side thing to consider in the back of your mind, if you have serious doubts about both of your options you might consider assessing the competitiveness of your application (+/- improvements) and applying to other schools next year. I say that because personally I would be really hesitant to accept either of these offers, but that's just me.
