Mississippi State (OOS) vs. Michigan State (IS)

[honeypot999]

Does anyone have any advice deciding between these two? I haven’t been offered acceptance yet, but have completed interviews with them.

I’m not sure how I feel about Michigan states flipped classroom, but I love their clinics, and the dairy program. However their interview was off putting and too sterile. I visited Mississippi state and kind of fell in love with how welcoming people are and how the professors want you to succeed.

Mississippi has 2 years of clinical while Michigan state does 1.5 years of clinical.

As for cost Mississippi is about $60k more over the 4 years than Michigan State. I do have an education fund to help offset loans, but I am unsure how much is currently left in it after undergrad. I know people really preach the “go to the lowest cost school” and that’s excellent advice but I don’t know.

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[supershorty]

$60,000 is a lot. That's a down payment on a house, and the interest that you'll accumulate on it is nothing to sneeze at.

We say "go to the cheapest school" for a reason. The student debt that you'll carry from vet school is going to follow you for a large portion of your life, and while right now you might be okay with living like a student, some day, you may want more than that and it will be more difficult to attain with the more loans you carry.

Interviews aren't a reflection of what the program is like, IMO - you get much better feedback from talking to students at each program, so doing what you're doing here and asking other people is a great start (just keep in mind that answers will be biased since no one has attended both programs).

Any AAVMC-accredited program is going to give you a great education to be a competent veterinarian. Go to the one that's going to give you the least student debt at the end of it.

 

[VeggieTrex]

In my post-bacc/masters were trying out the flipped classroom/Team Based Learning and I've been enjoying it so far. The way our Professor has explained it were reviewing the material at least 4 times by the end of our class session. I've found it takes some of the pressure off, and I feel like I retained a lot of the material we've covered with it so far. It's pretty common in the human med side apparently.

 

[honeypot999]

In my post-bacc/masters were trying out the flipped classroom/Team Based Learning and I've been enjoying it so far. The way our Professor has explained it were reviewing the material at least 4 times by the end of our class session. I've found it takes some of the pressure off, and I feel like I retained a lot of the material we've covered with it so far. It's pretty common in the human med side apparently.

That makes me feel better about it. Plus Michigan State does the system approach so that’s helpful as well.

$60,000 is a lot. That's a down payment on a house, and the interest that you'll accumulate on it is nothing to sneeze at.

We say "go to the cheapest school" for a reason. The student debt that you'll carry from vet school is going to follow you for a large portion of your life, and while right now you might be okay with living like a student, some day, you may want more than that and it will be more difficult to attain with the more loans you carry.

Interviews aren't a reflection of what the program is like, IMO - you get much better feedback from talking to students at each program, so doing what you're doing here and asking other people is a great start (just keep in mind that answers will be biased since no one has attended both programs).

Any AAVMC-accredited program is going to give you a great education to be a competent veterinarian. Go to the one that's going to give you the least student debt at the end of it.

plus you’re absolutely right about all of that. I guess I need to see what happens when decisions come out to really make that decision. If I don’t get into one over the other.

 

[whateverforever]

I asked about the flipped classroom at MSU in both forums if you want to read through the responses I got, here they are 🙂

Can any current Michigan state students talk about the curriculum (cross posted to the other forum too)

Can any Michigan State students talk about the curriculum


Also as someone who previously was accepted in state at MSU and chose to go elsewhere, I very much regret that decision and I ultimately ended up withdrawing from vet school in large part due to the fact that I was super stressed about the cost of school's impact on my future. (Admittedly things were a lot more bleak and new grads were having trouble finding jobs at that point but even so...) I actually reapplied this year, and although I applied out of state, I've decided I won't go out of state if I'm not accepted to my in state. I cannot stress enough that unless you are wealthy or there is some super MAJOR reason to go elsewhere like a sick family member, custody situation or military spouse or something, in state is almost always the best choice. School is just the way to the future, it is not the end goal.

 

[honeypot999]

I asked about the flipped classroom at MSU in both forums if you want to read through the responses I got, here they are 🙂

Can any current Michigan state students talk about the curriculum (cross posted to the other forum too)

Can any Michigan State students talk about the curriculum


Also as someone who previously was accepted in state at MSU and chose to go elsewhere, I very much regret that decision and I ultimately ended up withdrawing from vet school in large part due to the fact that I was super stressed about the cost of school's impact on my future. (Admittedly things were a lot more bleak and new grads were having trouble finding jobs at that point but even so...) I actually reapplied this year, and although I applied out of state, I've decided I won't go out of state if I'm not accepted to my in state. I cannot stress enough that unless you are wealthy or there is some super MAJOR reason to go elsewhere like a sick family member, custody situation or military spouse or something, in state is almost always the best choice. School is just the way to the future, it is not the end goal.

This is really great information and great explanation. Guess we will have to see how things shake out in the end since I don’t think my interview went well.

 

[whateverforever]

@honeypot999 everyone gets nervous, hopefully you did better than you think!

 

[honeypot999]

Well I got into Michigan state and had a discussion with my parents about paying for vet school. They said there’s enough money to cover wherever I go, so now it’s a lot of hard thinking about what is right for me.

My gut says Mississippi but my logical side says Michigan State.

 

[JaynaAli]

Go to the cheapest school, graduate as a competent veterinarian from your cheapest option, and let your parents go on a bomb@ss retirement vacation with an extra $60,000+ in their pockets. If I had a way to “give” my parents 60,000 I’d take it.