UMN vs Auburn vs Illinois

[pancakesandwaffles]

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OOS for all, cost is not a factor. I am from California, so Minnesota is the closest, but I know winters there and in Illinois are brutal! I love that UMN is near an urban area, but I am interested in Large animal/equine, so that is an important factor for me as well. Does anyone know how these schools compare in terms of facilities, opportunities, reputation, curriculum, etc? Any insights welcome!!

 

[indysadventures]

Congrats!

There are quite a few equine and LA opportunities here at UMN and plenty of chances to get involved. The winters are definitely tough, but manageable with the right gear.

If money isn’t a factor, pick where you feel the most comfortable. You’ll get a degree and opportunities anywhere, and faculty can change so you want to avoid picking a school solely for x or y. I’d suggest visiting as many school as possible because it’s the best way to get a feel for the vibes.

ETA: I’d still suggest taking some costs into consideration at least to help with understanding how costs compare across schools.

 

[pp9]

OOS for all, cost is not a factor. I am from California, so Minnesota is the closest, but I know winters there and in Illinois are brutal! I love that UMN is near an urban area, but I am interested in Large animal/equine, so that is an important factor for me as well. Does anyone know how these schools compare in terms of facilities, opportunities, reputation, curriculum, etc? Any insights welcome!!

tagging @soupshark and @futuredogtor614 for the freshest take on UofI. I graduated in 2019 and the school has done a lot of hospital renovations since, which I understand are really nice! I don't know that one school is better for another for large animal/equine. Reputation doesn't really mean much for vet schools...all three you are looking at are accredited. UofI has a more unique curriculum with 1 quarter in both first/second year being a clinical quarter, although I am not familiar with the other two schools' curriculums for comparison.

Champaign/Urbana is ~2-2.5 hours from Chicago which I really liked, it was an easy weekend trip if you had the time. Otherwise, it's also a college town for a big 10 university so there's stuff to do and places to eat. Midwest winters can be cold (especially this current winter) but personally I don't know if that would be reason enough for me to strike a school off my list.

 

[soupshark]

I also don't know if one school is better than another for LA/equine, but what I can tell you is you will benefit from externships and outside experience when it comes to large animal and equine handling and skills practice. We have opportunities of course, but they are somewhat limited. We aren't in the best place for LA or equine, but we definitely aren't in the worst. I will say, with some more organization we could have good LA/equine opportunities here during clinics especially first and second year, and I know that one of the LA professors is working on improving our 1st/2nd year FARMS rotations. Equine is solid already but there is only 1 equine rotation you can take, meanwhile we have multiple food animal and production ones. There are other opportunities through clubs which are great and definitely help fill in some gaps. I will say the professors for the 1st/2nd year-geared (non-shadowing) rotations are pretty dedicated to getting us as much and as well-rounded experience as possible. Another point I want to emphasize is that because we have 1st and 2nd year rotations, you get exposure to the field much earlier and you get hands-on experience practicing clinical skills early, which allows you to figure out where your holes are, so you are able to seek out proper external experience during the summers before your clinical year. Lately I have been thinking about how our lack of tracking (aside from electives) might annoy me during clinical year. I'd like to spend most of my time in the large animal clinic, but it will be split up since we don't do tracking. That has pros and cons in and of itself since you might change your mind after you already picked a track, but I think I'll be wishing I was spending more time in the large animal clinic when I'm a 4th year. Who knows though, I guess.

So, like anywhere, there are pros and cons. I'm assuming UMN has a lot of opportunities with dairy cattle and I don't know a thing about Auburn. All things considered, I don't really have concerns graduating from UofI and going into equine and food animal practice because I've taken advantage of club activities and large animal electives and rotations. There's still a lot more I could be doing and I still feel like I'm learning a lot more than just what is provided in lecture. For context, I'm a 2nd year with a decent background in horses. I have basically no previous experience with cattle and that's something I want more of, so if you are coming into vet school at UofI without a background in LA/equine then you will definitely want to explore externship opportunities to supplement what you get here. I'm sure things are similar at other schools but I can't speak for those places.

 

[futuredogtor614]

I will say, with some more organization we could have good LA/equine opportunities here during clinics especially first and second year, and I know that one of the LA professors is working on improving our 1st/2nd year FARMS rotations. Equine is solid already but there is only 1 equine rotation you can take, meanwhile we have multiple food animal and production ones. There are other opportunities through clubs which are great and definitely help fill in some gaps. I will say the professors for the 1st/2nd year-geared (non-shadowing) rotations are pretty dedicated to getting us as much and as well-rounded experience as possible. Another point I want to emphasize is that because we have 1st and 2nd year rotations, you get exposure to the field much earlier and you get hands-on experience practicing clinical skills early, which allows you to figure out where your holes are, so you are able to seek out proper external experience during the summers before your clinical year. Lately I have been thinking about how our lack of tracking (aside from electives) might annoy me during clinical year. I'd like to spend most of my time in the large animal clinic, but it will be split up since we don't do tracking. That has pros and cons in and of itself since you might change your mind after you already picked a track, but I think I'll be wishing I was spending more time in the large animal clinic when I'm a 4th year. Who knows though, I guess.

They added the extra rotations for when I was a second year, so I actually don't have experience with the production or other food animal rotations. I only had the 1 equine one and 1 FARMS one prior to my clinical year, and honestly that and the palpation labs were probably the extent of my experience with those species prior to clinics since I wasn't the type of person to seek out large animal experience stuff.

There is an equine junior surgery you can take as a third year, but there's only a small number of spots in it so they do a lottery for people who are interested in it. As far as clinical year stuff: since we don't track, everyone has to go through FARMS, equine medicine, and equine surgery; you also have to take a primary care rotation through UIUC (can be equine), and a second ER rotation (everyone goes through small animal ER, and they let you repeat that or choose FARMS, equine med, or equine surgery as your second since you will have on-call ER shifts). The other options available on campus (but are electives, so no guarantee you get placed in them) are equine therio and population medicine.

 

[supershorty]

Tagging @_rae_ and @potentialsheltervet for additional UMN things

 

[_rae_]

Ooh I didn’t post on this one because I am a ✨small animal girlie✨. Posting here as a reminder to come back to this when I’m at my computer.

 

[_rae_]

So from a small animal girl's perspective, UMN is heavy on small animal, lighter on large animal, which I think could be argued for many schools. However, I think our large animal team is really great. I was very worried about my large animal classes but have actually been doing really well in them. Not because they're easier than small animal, but because I genuinely feel they are taught very well. UMN's curriculum is set up so your first year is a lot of foundational knowledge. First semester is small animal anatomy, second semester is large animal anatomy. Second year is when we start getting into the medicine aspect. Again, I feel like a lot of our professors are small animal vets but I have had large animal cases in almost every class.

We have two teaching herds on campus, one dairy cow herd and one horse herd, but we also have field trips every semester to goat, dairy, and beef farms. The large animal hospital hires students as overnight techs and we also have mandatory "clerkships" each semester where we spend 3-4 hours in small animal urgent care and primarily the equine center though if something is cool or interesting, they'll send you over to the large animal hospital. Sometimes nothing happens, sometimes a quarter horse with a peri-rectal abscess only previously described in a paper about European horses come in and the attendings have you do a rectal palpation after they drain it. Ask me how I, the small animal girlie, know about that one.

One of my orientation leaders is a USDA veterinarian. Our public health class obviously goes over a lot of food animal stuff. And there's small ruminant and camelid club, production animal medicine club, and we have something called "horse angels" where you help feed and care for the horse teaching herd. When I did the summer scholars program one of my classmates did research into wild boars as disease vectors for swine facilities and another one did lameness in cows as an indicator for mastitis.

You're in the twin cities, so it's not like you're right on farmland, but I do think our large animal opportunities are worthwhile, they're just not something I've personally paid a ton of attention to. I do also agree with Indy that while cost not being a factor is incredible, it's still money you (or someone) is spending. For me, my threshold was about $15k difference, meaning if I genuinely loved a school I wasn't going to pick the cheaper one just for money reasons (this was before BBB). That number will be a personal preference, but I would put a price on what you think is reasonable.

 

[potentialsheltervet]

Seconding what are said about our large animal team. Depending on the makeup of interests in your class, there can be some competition for externships/summer jobs in equine in particular, so be aware of that. However, there is a relatively large eventing community here and of course lots of dairy and poultry (less beef).
Because UMN is more small animal focused, I know my large animal interested friends sometimes felt annoyed with how much of the required curriculum was very broad for large animal and very specific for small. I suspect that's related more to accreditation and NAVLE requirements than to specific school things, but I know it was a persistent source of frustration. Third year spring is a breeze for SA people and absolutely chaotic for large animal/equine because a lot of it is playing catch up from how much is small animal focused. That's likely the case at most schools at this point, tbh, and I really liked my large animal classes. But just know for the first few years it'll feel like you're skimming large animal and slamming cats and dogs.
If you reach out to faculty they will be more than happy to work with you to find externship opportunities and make suggestions for things to do. We have really great people here and they get very close to the large animal people because there are fewer of them. There are some professors that make me wish I were doing mixed because I miss them lol.
Minnesota manages its winters really well. I strongly recommend snow tires, especially if you have a small vehicle.
Also, full transparency, there is currently, shall we say, unrest between students and administration because of recent events and admin's response to it. So if you were to visit and all the students look angry to be here, that's not the default state.

 

[_rae_]

Also, full transparency, there is currently, shall we say, unrest between students and administration because of recent events and admin's response to it. So if you were to visit and all the students look angry to be here, that's not the default state.

^This. I am very disappointed and frustrated with admin right now but that is not a reflection on my professors, the curriculum, or my peers. Despite that frustration, I am enjoying quite a few of my classes this semester. I have been thinking a lot about it the last few weeks and even despite all of it, I do not regret choosing UMN. I think it was the right choice for me.