Should my friend go to UC Davis for undergrad since they are the best vet school?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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PhysicsAndMathMajor

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Out of the schools they got accepted to, they are stuck between
Washington State University,
University of Tennessee - Knoxville, and
UC Davis

They have in-state tuition for WSU and UT, but not for UC Davis.

They have very little money, and because of the FAFSA being for 2016, they won't get the Pell Grant, so UC Davis would be very expensive for them, but they are tempted to go since it is ranked #1 for the world in vet med for their graduate school rankings. They would be going for undergrad though, so I don't know how much that matters.

WSU is #14, UT is #21.

Rankings are from USNews

Their favorite place is UT, but it's the lowest rank of them all.
WSU is close to home but it has a lot of farmland which they aren't sure about. They're vegan, so they also have to consider how vegan-friendly a place is.
UC Davis is the best, but it would put them deep in debt before they even got into a vet school. Should they save UC Davis for grad school? Would it be a lot harder to get accepted for grad school if they didn't go there for undergrad?

WSU also has an accelerated track to complete a doctorate in 7 years, so that is appealing.

What do you guys think?
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Considering the very small number of vet schools, rankings don't mean very much. Plus how subjective many of the ranking criteria are.

Simply going to UC Davis for undergrad means nothing in terms of vet school acceptance. It does not give him/her a better chance at going to vet school there. Go to a cheap, good undergrad. It doesn't even have to have a vet school attached to it.

High prerequisite course completions and grades,high GRE scores, solid experience in the field, and letters of recommendation are all more important than whether the college you went to has a prestigious vet school, or if it even has a vet school to begin with.
 
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Definitely go to the MOST expensive school you can get accepted to. Debt after graduation is directly proportional to the quality of education that you get from the school. Actually, that being said, scratch that. Defer a year and go to the islands instead. Higher cost, therefore automatically better education.

Or, you can use the search bar or several other threads having been posted recently and see that you should go to the cheapest school. If it’s UT, and it’s the school you also love, freaking go there.

Sorry, I’m sassy tonight.
 
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i also am curious how they are eligible for IS tuition at two schools. if it was some sort of military thing why would they not be eligible at the third? someone pls explain
 
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As someone currently going to UC Davis and loves it: go to the cheaper one. I am extremely grateful that I get to go here and that this was the cheapest option for me, but living here is expensive even if tuition compared to other OOS schools is relatively cheap. Go to the nice cheap school with the equally great program and combined 7 year PhD program. Sounds awesome. Never go somewhere for undergrad because it's the best vet school. Our admissions team has said on countless occasions they don't care where you went to undergrad. So yeah, go with the cheapest option!

(If this is even a real post)
 
SkiOtter said:
Do professional students even have the option of a Pell Grant ever
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All undergraduate students have the option of Pell grant. I'm talking about pre-professional, not professional. I made that pretty clear, right?
Don't be so passive-aggressive.

Sorry I accidentally said "med school" instead of "vet school", I recently did a lot of research on med schools for myself so I accidentally typed that down instead.

SkiOtter said:
also, a DVM is a doctorate degree btw. ;)
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Did I say it wasn't????????

SkiOtter said:
i also am curious how they are eligible for IS tuition at two schools. if it was some sort of military thing why would they not be eligible at the third? someone pls explain
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They are still working through the details, but it's actually thanks to the Academic Common Market, which allows certain students in the Southeast to major in certain OOS schools if their major of interest is not offered in their state. I'm not sure which major she has in mind for UT (probably vet med if they offer it, some other STEM thing if not).

Their parents also own places in both South Carolina and Washington State, so they have residency in both staes, and it's because of their major that they are (potentially) qualifying for in-state at UT too.

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SkiOtter said:
^^agree
“Not sure about the farmland”
Pell grants

Like r u sure
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Idk what she meant about the farmland dude I mean I guess there isn't much to do around the area which is a bummer for her?? Lifestyle is important for students too lmao

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cdoconn said:
Definitely go to the MOST expensive school you can get accepted to. Debt after graduation is directly proportional to the quality of education that you get from the school. Actually, that being said, scratch that. Defer a year and go to the islands instead. Higher cost, therefore automatically better education.

Or, you can use the search bar or several other threads having been posted recently and see that you should go to the cheapest school. If it’s UT, and it’s the school you also love, freaking go there.

Sorry, I’m sassy tonight.
Click to expand...

I KNOW, god, sorry, I just don't know if you guys worship UC Davis as like the dream school that everyone should go to, or something. I'm not exactly a member of this community give me a BREAK. I wanted to weigh whether or not you guys had some great opinion of UC Davis as if it was the MIT of Physics or Engineering, or the Harvard of Math. Not sure how accurate those analogies are. I know plenty of professional students plan for forgiveness (at least the ones with 300k + in debt), so it felt like this might be an exception to the common sense I normally keep in mind about the cost of further education.

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WhtsThFrequency said:
Considering the very small number of vet schools, rankings don't mean very much. Plus how subjective many of the ranking criteria are.

Simply going to UC Davis for undergrad means nothing in terms of vet school acceptance. It does not give him/her a better chance at going to vet school there. Go to a cheap, good undergrad. It doesn't even have to have a vet school attached to it.

High prerequisite course completions and grades,high GRE scores, solid experience in the field, and letters of recommendation are all more important than whether the college you went to has a prestigious vet school, or if it even has a vet school to begin with.
Click to expand...

Thank you for clarifying that bit on whether or not it gives you a better chance.
On that last sentence though, I know - that's pretty typical stuff. I wasn't asking for that. In fact it almost seems like it contradicts the previous sentence. I trust she'll get ALL of that regardless of whether she goes to Davis, WSU, or UT. She's less interested in how it affects her chances though than the VALUE that she'll get out of it. It seems fair to assume that at the best school, she'll get a lot of solid, valuable experience, and potentially a wider, more valuable selection of courses than anywhere else.

Coopah said:
As someone currently going to UC Davis and loves it: go to the cheaper one. ...
Never go somewhere for undergrad because it's the best vet school. Our admissions team has said on countless occasions they don't care where you went to undergrad. So yeah, go with the cheapest option!

(If this is even a real post)
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It is a real post haha, thank you! It's nice to have that perspective from a UC Davis student and to know that you heard that from the admission team too. :)
 
She should go to the cheapest school. Yes, past a certain debt level vet students generally plan on doing income-based repayment, but at the end of the repayment period you still have to pay taxes on the "forgiven" portion, so it is still to your advantage to keep your debt load as low as possible, especially before she's even in vet school! As an out-of-state vet student, I'm very fortunate that I didn't have any debt from undergrad. I'm going to end up with over $250k in debt from vet school as it is, if I already had a ton of debt from undergrad vet school may not have been feasible for me at all.

As WTF mentioned, vet school rankings mean very little. If I understand/remember correctly it's based on the school faculty ranking each other, a lot of the criteria is based on what research is going on at the school, and some schools choose not to participate in the ranking process. Any AVMA accredited vet school will give her a quality education.

PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
On that last sentence though, I know - that's pretty typical stuff. I wasn't asking for that. In fact it almost seems like it contradicts the previous sentence. I trust she'll get ALL of that regardless of whether she goes to Davis, WSU, or UT. She's less interested in how it affects her chances though than the VALUE that she'll get out of it. It seems fair to assume that at the best school, she'll get a lot of solid, valuable experience, and potentially a wider, more valuable selection of courses than anywhere else.
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But in that case, why look at the rankings for the vet schools to determine where she'll get the best quality undergrad education?? I have no idea how those schools are ranked for undergrad, but they're all well-known state schools. We're not talking about some tiny private school in the middle of nowhere that may not have many vets nearby to shadow or offer all the prerequisite classes she needs. You said it yourself, she could get a good education and experience at any of the three schools. I'm sure UC Davis is a good school, but nobody worships it as a dream vet school just because of its ranking, other than naive pre-vet students who don't know any better.

SkiOtter said:
also, a DVM is a doctorate degree btw. ;)
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I read that sentence of the original post as WSU has an early admissions program so she could do undergrad + DVM in 7 years, but maybe I'm wrong.

@Caiter92 is a second year at WSU and vegan, so she could offer advice on how vegan-friendly Pullman is!
 
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@PhysicsAndMathMajor if your friend could get on here I think she'd get the most useful advice and guidance that way. Like others have said go the cheapest route because with government wanting to shut down repayment plans that's not a reliable option to count on looking toward the future. Like others any AVMA accredited school will give her a good education as will a small undergrad. I think a vital piece here though is knowing your education and how much you get out of it depends on you as the student. Also just because they own property in both places doesn't qualify her for IS. Often they require a drivers license, voter registration, etc and that's the state you are a resident of for tuition purposes as far as vet school goes. I can't speak to vegan friendly as far as WSU goes but Pullman has grocery stores she can shop vegan at like I'm sure they do now. Also yes being happy in your living environment is important but not a vital necessity. There are alot of hurdles for your friend to overcome before going to vet school including acceptance in which they may not get to pick where they go as it's decided for them. Best advice I think for now is for them to go to the cheapest school with a major they want and can get the prereqs done. Going to an undergrad attached to a vet school basically means nothing unless she got into an early admit program and even most of those are being eliminated and can't be counted on as a sure way to get in considering the GPAS and other requirements they'll have to keep along the way.
 
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MixedAnimals77 said:
@PhysicsAndMathMajor Also just because they own property in both places doesn't qualify her for IS. Often they require a drivers license, voter registration, etc and that's the state you are a resident of for tuition purposes as far as vet school goes.
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I'm not sure about the details, but I think she has confirmed with admissions that she qualifies as in-state.

As for the rest of it you made a lot of great points.

LyraGardenia said:
@Caiter92 is a second year at WSU and vegan, so she could offer advice on how vegan-friendly Pullman is!
Click to expand...

I will consider reaching out to her, thank you.

LyraGardenia said:
But in that case, why look at the rankings for the vet schools to determine where she'll get the best quality undergrad education?? I have no idea how those schools are ranked for undergrad, but they're all well-known state schools.
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True, unfortunately, as far as I'm aware no one has really made rankings for specific majors or pre-professional programs for undergrad, so HS students don't really have anything specific to go off of other than the department webpage and the grad school rankings (which are usually more reflective of research - you can only HOPE that their research has a strong correlation to the quality of the undergrad - which is a little unreliable admittedly, but what else is there to work with?)

From everyone's posts it looks like the general consensus is that the undergrad school doesn't affect vet school admission chances, and that there isn't really a wide range in the quality of the education between the AVMA accredited schools.

Thank you for advice guys.

Edit: I'm only adding this bit of text because changing small grammar mistakes is not allowed if it looks too similar to the last post.
 
Go to the cheapest undergrad like everyone said, because i went to UVM and it cost me $200,000 on top of what my vet school is going to cost. Vet school usually takes people 20 to 30 years to pay back, so theresls some context for ya
 
PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
Did I say it wasn't????????
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Ya didn’t specify which doctorate you could get in 7 years and I was making a joke. Chill ya tits.
PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
Their parents also own places in both South Carolina and Washington State, so they have residency in both staes, and it's because of their major that they are (potentially) qualifying for in-state at UT too.
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Just owning a house in the state does not usually qualify you for in state tuition in that state. I’ve checked for a different state my parents have a house in.
PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
Idk what she meant about the farmland dude I mean I guess there isn't much to do around the area which is a bummer for her?? Lifestyle is important for students too lmao
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For 4 years of vet school she can suck it up for a third of the debt. That’s what most people do.

PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
I know plenty of professional students plan for forgiveness (at least the ones with 300k + in debt), so it felt like this might be an exception to the common sense I normally keep in mind about the cost of further education.
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Also, no one should ever be banking on forgiveness because you don’t know if it will be around by the time you need it. Which would suck. Why not go to a cheaper school to begin with, that is just as good, than rely on a government program and put yourself in triple the debt? Your friend should go to the cheapest school they can for undergrad (which btw, I DIDNT realize you were talking about bro) AND vet school

PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
On that last sentence though, I know - that's pretty typical stuff. I wasn't asking for that. In fact it almost seems like it contradicts the previous sentence. I trust she'll get ALL of that regardless of whether she goes to Davis, WSU, or UT. She's less interested in how it affects her chances though than the VALUE that she'll get out of it. It seems fair to assume that at the best school, she'll get a lot of solid, valuable experience, and potentially a wider, more valuable selection of courses than anywhere else.
Click to expand...
Any school you’ll be fine with. You can get experience outside of school easily if you try. You don’t have to go to a school with a vet school to get quality experiences. And your friend also doesn’t have to major in anything science related. They can major in underwater basketweaving as long as they complete the prerequisites for the schools they want to apply to. She should major in something she can fall back on just in case vetmed doesn’t happen to work out or she has to take a couple gap years and wants to work in her field.
 
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PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
True, unfortunately, as far as I'm aware no one has really made rankings for specific majors or pre-professional programs for undergrad, so HS students don't really have anything specific to go off of other than the department webpage and the grad school rankings (which are usually more reflective of research - you can only HOPE that their research has a strong correlation to the quality of the undergrad - which is a little unreliable admittedly, but what else is there to work with?)
Click to expand...
That ranking doesn’t account for other schools who DON’T have a vet program and are also great schools for undergrad though.
 
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1) Vet school rankings don't mean ****
2) Going to UC Davis for undergrad does not increase your chances of getting into vet school there. Establishing CA residency might, but going to undergrad there alone doesn't do that for you!
3) There is no need to go to a school with a vet school in order to get into vet school. I didn't. Many many vet students didn't.
4) UTK is awesome and I am personally offended by the assumption that stupid rankings in any way change that :p
5) Go where it's cheapest.
 
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Anyone who thinks the US News rankings of vet schools mean anything needs to look into how those rankings are determined. It is basically
1) a popularity contest plus
2) the number of times research papers published by that institution are cited in other papers

Nothing there about the quality of the veterinary education you'll be receiving, the facilities, depth and breadth of learning opportunities, or anything that most vet students care about.
 
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WildZoo said:
Anyone who thinks the US News rankings of vet schools mean anything needs to look into how those rankings are determined. It is basically
1) a popularity contest plus
2) the number of times research papers published by that institution are cited in other papers

Nothing there about the quality of the veterinary education you'll be receiving, the facilities, depth and breadth of learning opportunities, or anything that most vet students care about.
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Don’t forget what color tie the Dean was wearing that day! And the current weather.
 
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I didn't run my rankings for this year yet, but I think that MSU might still be #1 for closest Cracker Barrel to campus.
 
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Also, I went to UC Davis for undergrad. It doesn't help your chances to get into vet school there at all.

Edit**
Felt like I should add that I was throughoutly prepared for vet school by my undergrad work at UCD. I still regularly review my notes from lactation and reproductive biology as those topics come up in other classes here.
 
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Teepster87 said:
I didn't run my rankings for this year yet, but I think that MSU might still be #1 for closest Cracker Barrel to campus.
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I think OKState is #1 with number of Walmarts within city limits (3). If not, we’re likely #1 in number of Sonic Drive In’s within city limits (also 3.)
 
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cdoconn said:
I think OKState is #1 with number of Walmarts within city limits (3). If not, we’re likely #1 in number of Sonic Drive In’s within city limits (also 3.)
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CSU is probably highly ranked for number of dispensaries. Also I keep being told we have a large number of days of sunshine a year, which I've never bothered to fact check but seems true based on my generic ability to go outside sometimes.
 
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PhysicsAndMathMajor said:
Out of the schools they got accepted to, they are stuck between
Washington State University,
University of Tennessee - Knoxville, and
UC Davis

They have in-state tuition for WSU and UT, but not for UC Davis.

They have very little money, and because of the FAFSA being for 2016, they won't get the Pell Grant, so UC Davis would be very expensive for them, but they are tempted to go since it is ranked #1 for the world in vet med for their graduate school rankings. They would be going for undergrad though, so I don't know how much that matters.

WSU is #14, UT is #21.

Rankings are from USNews

Their favorite place is UT, but it's the lowest rank of them all.
WSU is close to home but it has a lot of farmland which they aren't sure about. They're vegan, so they also have to consider how vegan-friendly a place is.
UC Davis is the best, but it would put them deep in debt before they even got into a vet school. Should they save UC Davis for grad school? Would it be a lot harder to get accepted for grad school if they didn't go there for undergrad?

WSU also has an accelerated track to complete a doctorate in 7 years, so that is appealing.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

If the goal is to get into Vet School, then you want to look into programs that have direct admittance from their undergraduate pool.

Mizzou is an example of this. Mizzou allows students to gain automatic acceptance into their vet school if they meet certain requirements and grades during their undergraduate years at Mizzou.
 
VetRunner6044 said:
If the goal is to get into Vet School, then you want to look into programs that have direct admittance from their undergraduate pool.

Mizzou is an example of this. Mizzou allows students to gain automatic acceptance into their vet school if they meet certain requirements and grades during their undergraduate years at Mizzou.
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I wanted to expand on this for others who may stumble upon this post, since I think this post simplifies things just a little too much. The core is factually correct though. I was part of an early admissions program. You applied to the program during September of your freshman year of undergrad. If you were chosen (which isn't a guarantee, it's actually a pretty competitive program...more competitive on an applicant-to-seat ratio than regular IS admissions), the requirements were actually pretty strict and about half of the people in my Early Admit class were 'kicked out' of the program. Yes, I did get 'automatic acceptance', but I still had to apply, interview, and maintain grades that were actually better than the average traditional applicant for the seat that was being 'saved' for me. I am very close with the admission director and she said our early admission interviews were every bit as hard, if not harder, than the regular vet school interviews...they were making a big commitment to save our seat for us in 3-4 years, so they wanted to make sure we could hack it and were dedicated. I just wanted to clarify since these programs can be really good especially if you're a freshman and can meet their requirements. Once you've gotten a little bit of undergrad over though, you wouldn't be eligible for some schools.
 
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MixedAnimals77 said:
ooh IDK about this. Larimer county is like 3rd in CO for most marijuana shops in the state...I felt like I had to hunt for MJ dispensaries up there. (Here it's like one on every corner) :p
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There are dispensaries for @Mad Jack?? :eek:
 
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I think the state of Oklahoma would actually shut down at the prospect of a pot shop, so none here. :laugh:
 
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