UPenn vs. Tufts. vs. Auburn

[rb0323]

Feels so surreal to have a choice between multiple schools! There's definitely pros and cons for each so I just wanted to get some other opinions before I make my final decision. For reference, I'm interested in equine medicine (particularly sports medicine & rehab) and may be interested in pursuing a specialty at some point. I also have not heard about any scholarship opportunities yet but I'm lucky enough to be nearly debt-free after undergrad and will be receiving a little bit of help from family to pay for vet school. I know the general advice is to attend your cheapest option but I'm having a hard time turning down the incredible opportunities available at Penn in relation to my specific interests so any insight would be extremely helpful!

UPenn (OOS)
- pros: most advanced technology and facilities (at least for equine), highest and most diverse equine caseload, closest to home where my entire family lives, urban area with lots of opportunity/things to do (when there's time), recorded lectures
- cons: most expensive tuition ($63,146) and cost of living, equine hospital is an hour away from main campus

Tufts (OOS)
- pros: relatively close to home, cheaper cost of living than Penn, advanced technology and facilities, decent sport horse caseload, equine hospital on-site, recorded lectures
- cons: tuition almost the same as Penn ($60,694), freeeezing cold

Auburn (OOS)
- pros: cheapest tuition ($49,000) and living expenses, equine hospital on-site, warmest
- cons: very far from home (would need to fly/pay for airfare), not the best sport horse caseload in relation to the other two based on my understanding, lectures are not recorded (not necessarily a deciding factor but still not ideal)

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[Dana_May_B]

Hey there! First off, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You have been accepted to some incredible schools!!! Truly take some time to just celebrate your success in the next few days haha. I applied and was accepted to Tufts and UPenn too this cycle, so even though I'm really not familiar with Auburn, I thought I could maybe give some reasoning as to why I am leaning towards not accepting a seat at those two schools and instead, choosing a cheaper option. First, I absolutely loved Tufts and had such an incredible interview experience with them, but I truly do not think that with your area of interest, they have anything to offer that is worth the extra cost over Auburn. That's a $40,000 difference with just tuition alone over the 4 years, not even living costs, and those loans will be accruing interest too. Both Auburn and Tufts have an equine hospital on site, and so I just don't see a higher sport horse caseload being worth tens of thousands of dollars. That's totally my opinion as someone not really involved with horses though, so definitely take that as you will.
Second, I am from right outside of Philly so I was over the moon to be accepted to Penn. I am interested in poultry, so my people are out at the New Bolton Center too! It seems like they have just the absolute best facilities, but I was so disappointed talking to some current students and even New Bolton faculty when I was asking about opportunities to go out to the New Bolton Center before clinics. The faculty members told me that unless we could find the occasional weekend time or wanted to spend our summers doing research at NBC, we would simply be too busy at the Philadelphia campus during the first 2 years to really have meaningful experiences at NBC during the school year. I was kinda sad to hear that I wouldn't really be able to interact with my species of interest in the classroom until like my 3rd year of vet school! On top of that NBC is an hour away from the main campus like you said, so if you don't plan on bringing a car with you into the city and paying astronomical parking fees, you'll be stuck trying to get a ride with a friend or even paying for an Uber to get to the New Bolton Center during those first few years since there is no public transportation to get there. With all of that being said, the price tag at Penn is a hefty one, and I've been thinking long and hard about how much the opportunity to get to be at the New Bolton Center during my final year at Penn is worth to me.
Lastly, with Auburn, I totally feel you on moving away from home and being scared about that. I am considering UGA and not Auburn, but they are both very far from our families in the northeast. I've been down here at UGA for undergrad though, so at least I know the area and have made some friends, but let me say that I am absolutely not looking forward to being 13 hours away from my friends and family back home if I end up deciding to attend UGA. The tuition and cost of living are very difficult to turn down though, and part of me is telling myself that its just 4 years, and then I can move back home for the rest of my life and buy a house with the money I saved compared to Penn However, being interested in a very specific area of interest like you, I am lucky that UGA just so happens to be located in the poultry capital of the world and this is really the best school for my career. My advice to you is to take some time to write out how much a higher equine caseload is worth to you. Would you spend $10k a year to go to a school solely for that aspect? Talk to equine vets and equine-focused students at each school to see what they think too. I made a chart on a google sheet that had a column for each "thing" I was looking for in a vet school, like location, species of interest, facilities, etc, and then I gave each school a score of 1-5 for each column. I added weight to the columns, so for me, location was like a 3 on a scale of 1-5 in terms of importance to me, and then I multiplied the scores I gave each school by the weight of each column and added it up. This can help you visualize if there really is one school that is a better fit than the rest, and then you can start thinking about how much extra in terms of cost you think those desirable things are worth.
So sorry for such a long post, but I'm going through the same decision as you and just writing this out is also helping me decide! Haha again though, I do wanna emphasize that I'm not a current student at any school so its entirely possible that I've mischaracterized something. All I can do is make a decision based on the information I have learned about each school though, and this is what I have gathered so far.

 

[rb0323]

Hey there! First off, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You have been accepted to some incredible schools!!! Truly take some time to just celebrate your success in the next few days haha. I applied and was accepted to Tufts and UPenn too this cycle, so even though I'm really not familiar with Auburn, I thought I could maybe give some reasoning as to why I am leaning towards not accepting a seat at those two schools and instead, choosing a cheaper option. First, I absolutely loved Tufts and had such an incredible interview experience with them, but I truly do not think that with your area of interest, they have anything to offer that is worth the extra cost over Auburn. That's a $40,000 difference with just tuition alone over the 4 years, not even living costs, and those loans will be accruing interest too. Both Auburn and Tufts have an equine hospital on site, and so I just don't see a higher sport horse caseload being worth tens of thousands of dollars. That's totally my opinion as someone not really involved with horses though, so definitely take that as you will.
Second, I am from right outside of Philly so I was over the moon to be accepted to Penn. I am interested in poultry, so my people are out at the New Bolton Center too! It seems like they have just the absolute best facilities, but I was so disappointed talking to some current students and even New Bolton faculty when I was asking about opportunities to go out to the New Bolton Center before clinics. The faculty members told me that unless we could find the occasional weekend time or wanted to spend our summers doing research at NBC, we would simply be too busy at the Philadelphia campus during the first 2 years to really have meaningful experiences at NBC during the school year. I was kinda sad to hear that I wouldn't really be able to interact with my species of interest in the classroom until like my 3rd year of vet school! On top of that NBC is an hour away from the main campus like you said, so if you don't plan on bringing a car with you into the city and paying astronomical parking fees, you'll be stuck trying to get a ride with a friend or even paying for an Uber to get to the New Bolton Center during those first few years since there is no public transportation to get there. With all of that being said, the price tag at Penn is a hefty one, and I've been thinking long and hard about how much the opportunity to get to be at the New Bolton Center during my final year at Penn is worth to me.
Lastly, with Auburn, I totally feel you on moving away from home and being scared about that. I am considering UGA and not Auburn, but they are both very far from our families in the northeast. I've been down here at UGA for undergrad though, so at least I know the area and have made some friends, but let me say that I am absolutely not looking forward to being 13 hours away from my friends and family back home if I end up deciding to attend UGA. The tuition and cost of living are very difficult to turn down though, and part of me is telling myself that its just 4 years, and then I can move back home for the rest of my life and buy a house with the money I saved compared to Penn However, being interested in a very specific area of interest like you, I am lucky that UGA just so happens to be located in the poultry capital of the world and this is really the best school for my career. My advice to you is to take some time to write out how much a higher equine caseload is worth to you. Would you spend $10k a year to go to a school solely for that aspect? Talk to equine vets and equine-focused students at each school to see what they think too. I made a chart on a google sheet that had a column for each "thing" I was looking for in a vet school, like location, species of interest, facilities, etc, and then I gave each school a score of 1-5 for each column. I added weight to the columns, so for me, location was like a 3 on a scale of 1-5 in terms of importance to me, and then I multiplied the scores I gave each school by the weight of each column and added it up. This can help you visualize if there really is one school that is a better fit than the rest, and then you can start thinking about how much extra in terms of cost you think those desirable things are worth.
So sorry for such a long post, but I'm going through the same decision as you and just writing this out is also helping me decide! Haha again though, I do wanna emphasize that I'm not a current student at any school so its entirely possible that I've mischaracterized something. All I can do is make a decision based on the information I have learned about each school though, and this is what I have gathered so far.

Thank you so so much, that's incredibly helpful. Speaking with Penn grads that I've worked with in the past and hearing about the opportunities Penn has given them in the equine field has really pulled me in that direction but the cost is definitely somewhat terrifying lol. I will definitely try to reach out to other students at all three schools and see what their advice is. Best of luck to you as well!

 

[PippyPony]

@rb0323 even if you're interested in Sports Med, one thing you may also want to evaluate is the schools' "GP" equine offerings. Tufts does have an active equine sports medicine program and the large animal hospital on site for emergencies/complex referral cases (an advantage over Penn where New Bolton is at least an hour away from campus - more in traffic, tbh), but there is little-to-no general practice field experience for equine in the curriculum right now -- especially on the main campus. There are opportunities to ride along with some ambulatory equine vets at the field service clinic in Connecticut, but those are things you would have to actively seek out on your own, especially prior to clinical year.

Just something to think about for all 3 schools in case you aren't fully set on the specialist route (which often changes once people are in the midst of school anyways )

 

[rb0323]

@rb0323 even if you're interested in Sports Med, one thing you may also want to evaluate is the schools' "GP" equine offerings. Tufts does have an active equine sports medicine program and the large animal hospital on site for emergencies/complex referral cases (an advantage over Penn where New Bolton is at least an hour away from campus - more in traffic, tbh), but there is little-to-no general practice field experience for equine in the curriculum right now -- especially on the main campus. There are opportunities to ride along with some ambulatory equine vets at the field service clinic in Connecticut, but those are things you would have to actively seek out on your own, especially prior to clinical year.

Just something to think about for all 3 schools in case you aren't fully set on the specialist route (which often changes once people are in the midst of school anyways )

Thanks for the advice! That's a great point and something I can definitely look into. If you have any other insight into equine opportunities at Tufts or the other two schools I'd love to hear as I'm trying to gather as much information as possible before the April deadline