Upenn vs UC Davis

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itseunsss

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Hi all,

First of all, I'm super grateful to be posting here. A year ago, I was thinking that I would be happy to be accepted to any school, and here I am with multiple options! I've been reading both UC Davis and PennVet threads closely. I've also studied the Factors When Picking A Vet School document, but I'm still quite unsure as to which one would suit me better. Maybe it's because these two schools seem so similar to me? I noticed that no one has inquired about comparing these schools yet. I'm hoping to get some input from current students or grads in terms of what I may be missing.

Similarities:
Both schools seem to have great teaching hospitals with a large caseload and many specialties to possibly shadow, great faculty, lots of clubs, and more importantly a diverse student body! Both have an amazing reputation, and I have no doubt that I will get a great education wherever I go.

UC Davis:
  • Easy move: I'm a non-traditional applicant who will be moving with a SO. We live in NorCal right now, so moving to an area near Davis will be a relatively easy move.
  • Diverse student body: UC Davis offers lots of information on their student body on their website. The average age seems low, but their ethnicity seems very diverse, which I appreciate.
  • Cheaper tuition: I'm a CA resident, so going to UC Davis will save me about $100,000 in total. Money is not that big of an issue as I have saved enough from working, but still that doesn't mean I want to splurge!
  • Possible long commute: if my SO keeps his current job, we may need to live in Benicia, which will be an hour drive for me to school. Not sure how much impact this will have on me. We are still talking about this though; we are considering moving to Davis and him getting a new job near Berkeley.
  • Lacking hands-on experience in the first two years: not sure if this is true, or even if it's true, if it matters so much. I'm sure I'll end up getting enough experience in my rotations and from clubs, but this was mentioned in several places. It seemed like UPenn students can shadow places they like whenever they can/want.
UPenn:
  • City life: this is the seller for me. Lots of great housing options so close to the campus. I know we won't have time to cook, so being surrounded by many great restaurants seems awesome. I'll probably live in the walking/biking distance of the school. My SO will have the same commute (1 hour) as living in Davis if he decides to get a job in NY, but if he gets a job in Philly, it will be much easier for him as well.
  • Shadowing opportunities: one of the student ambassadors really sold me on this. I want to continue honing my clinical skills, and it sounded like you can do this by going to the hospital whenever you can/want. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
  • Higher tuition: I keep asking myself if the convenient city lifestyle is worth that extra $100,000. Maybe... or maybe not.
  • More difficult transition: since both my SO and I have never lived in the East Coast, I'm guessing moving & getting a new job for SO in a completely new area will be a more difficult transition for both of us.
I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts/inputs they'd like to share! :)

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Hi all,

First of all, I'm super grateful to be posting here. A year ago, I was thinking that I would be happy to be accepted to any school, and here I am with multiple options! I've been reading both UC Davis and PennVet threads closely. I've also studied the Factors When Picking A Vet School document, but I'm still quite unsure as to which one would suit me better. Maybe it's because these two schools seem so similar to me? I noticed that no one has inquired about comparing these schools yet. I'm hoping to get some input from current students or grads in terms of what I may be missing.

Similarities:
Both schools seem to have great teaching hospitals with a large caseload and many specialties to possibly shadow, great faculty, lots of clubs, and more importantly a diverse student body! Both have an amazing reputation, and I have no doubt that I will get a great education wherever I go.

UC Davis:
  • Easy move: I'm a non-traditional applicant who will be moving with a SO. We live in NorCal right now, so moving to an area near Davis will be a relatively easy move.
  • Diverse student body: UC Davis offers lots of information on their student body on their website. The average age seems low, but their ethnicity seems very diverse, which I appreciate.
  • Cheaper tuition: I'm a CA resident, so going to UC Davis will save me about $100,000 in total. Money is not that big of an issue as I have saved enough from working, but still that doesn't mean I want to splurge!
  • Possible long commute: if my SO keeps his current job, we may need to live in Benicia, which will be an hour drive for me to school. Not sure how much impact this will have on me. We are still talking about this though; we are considering moving to Davis and him getting a new job near Berkeley.
  • Lacking hands-on experience in the first two years: not sure if this is true, or even if it's true, if it matters so much. I'm sure I'll end up getting enough experience in my rotations and from clubs, but this was mentioned in several places. It seemed like UPenn students can shadow places they like whenever they can/want.
UPenn:
  • City life: this is the seller for me. Lots of great housing options so close to the campus. I know we won't have time to cook, so being surrounded by many great restaurants seems awesome. I'll probably live in the walking/biking distance of the school. My SO will have the same commute (1 hour) as living in Davis if he decides to get a job in NY, but if he gets a job in Philly, it will be much easier for him as well.
  • Shadowing opportunities: one of the student ambassadors really sold me on this. I want to continue honing my clinical skills, and it sounded like you can do this by going to the hospital whenever you can/want. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
  • Higher tuition: I keep asking myself if the convenient city lifestyle is worth that extra $100,000. Maybe... or maybe not.
  • More difficult transition: since both my SO and I have never lived in the East Coast, I'm guessing moving & getting a new job for SO in a completely new area will be a more difficult transition for both of us.
I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts/inputs they'd like to share! :)
I think you already know in some sense which school you should go with. Imagine what you could do with that extra 100k-why "splurge" on an education that will prepare you similarly? Use that extra money to take vacations while in school with your SO. Really 100k is not worth it. Year 1-3 may be easily doable with the long commute you're talking about, keep in mind year 4 you often have to be within x minutes of the teaching hospital. I know at some schools people will still live far with their SO and just crash on a friends couch during on-call times. Also it sounds like UC Davis would overall be the easiest transition which I would encourage you to do-vet school is hard on both of you, do your best to consider them, because it can make a world of difference once you hit the ground running. You're at school for 12 hours a day some weeks and they may only see you 1-2 hours that week. Being in a less stressed environment especially that first semester while everyone adjusts can literally make or break a relationship, even people who have been married years and raised kids, etc. My SO and I never fought so much than my first semester of vet school.

Also you'll have more time to cook than you think. My SO and I trade off cooking. If I have light days ie no exams and he's working then I cook. If I have a hard week like last week 3 exams and a mountain of other things to do he'll cook. If neither of us have time to really cook that's what frozen meals are for. TBH we only go out for special occasions. Plus going out as often as you're implying usually isn't healthy and vet school is stressful enough. I highly encourage trying to do your own healthy meals. Gaining weight in vet school is something that's easily done unfortunately. I have nothing to offer on the individual schools, but wanted to give you feedback on the SO part, because that support is so important and I'm sure as you know goes both ways. Also Penn is not worth an extra 100k. No school is. Use that extra money for you and your SO.
 
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful response! He has been very supportive throughout this whole process, and I definitely want to choose a path that will be an easier transition for him (and me)!
 
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You might want to look into your estimated commute time from Philadelphia to New York. Trains range from 1 hour 10 to 1 hour 30. Friends I know who do this on occasion have 2 hour + commute door to door.
 
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Current Penn student. I don’t think Penn is worth an extra $100,000. If money is somehow no object and it’s really not an inconvenience, sure. No one can tell you what that money is worth to you, only you can. But it can easily mean another good chunk of years paying off debt. So take that into account.

I do love Penn. Some students feel differently. Some really hate it. But that’s true of any school you go to. No school will appeal to 100% of its students. Some don’t like the curriculum (which is being redesigned for the class incoming 2021). Some don’t like the city. Some don’t like that the large animal campus is an hour away. There are many pros and cons, but a lot of them are subjective.

The case load IS massive. One of the highest of any hospital in the country. You’ll see everything from distemper to IMPA to gunshot wounds coming into the emergency service. It’s really incredible. There are tons of opportunities to shadow by signing up through clubs, or you can contact clinicians directly. I’ve spent dozens of hours shadowing ES, neurology/neurosurgery, dentistry, and oncology. You could honestly shadow in every hour of your free time if you wanted to. I mean, don’t, but it’s that available.

There are also tons of research opportunities. Penn is a research powerhouse in and of itself, and that extends into the vet school. Other schools obviously have research opportunities as well, but research is something very important to Ivy League schools. As a result, we have professors and clinicians receiving millions of dollars each for their projects.

When I came to Penn I was worried that there was going to be this air of “at Penn we do everything better than everyone else” because you always hear talk of “PennWe’s.” That’s not the case. It’s way more of an undergrad thing. Yea you’ll talk to other students at other schools and say “oh, at Penn we do this” but not as a way of saying it’s better that way. Just as a way of comparing how things are done. The whole Penn snobbery is really hyped up by people who didn’t go here and I’m not sure where it came from, but it definitely isn’t currently a thing. Also this isn’t to say that Penn does everything better and we just don’t brag about it. We don’t do everything better. If you’ve heard of the whole “PennWe” thing then hopefully what I’m saying here makes sense lol.

Some negatives: learning can be very self-directed. Especially anatomy. I haven’t really struggled much luckily because I’m a self-directed learner, but I have a lot of friends who have. This is very much a personal negative and some people don’t mind it. I wish there was a little more hand holding. It would be nice.

West Philly isn’t the greatest. I love Philly. I’ve lived in this city for 5 years and grew up just outside of it. That being said, I love center city. West Philly is just a little... dirtier. On campus is great. Honestly anywhere East of like 41st-ish and south of Chestnut is perfectly fine. West of there is still safe. I live west of there. But too far west and north and it gets very gross. The campus itself is extremely safe though and honestly on par with most other schools in cities.

We don’t get as much hands-on learning as part of the curriculum as other schools. We do get some, and there are tons of wet labs and shadowing opportunities as I’ve said, but not directly as part of the curriculum. I get a lot of hands-on experience through my job at school, but again, I had to seek that out. I know clinical experience is important to you, as you’ve said, so I want you to know that it’s available. You just have to go and find it.

Our program isn’t a 2+2 program, meaning two didactic years and two clinical years. It’s technically 2.5+1.5 since you can start clinics in your third year. Others choose to do 3+1. So it’s not too bad and you can get an extra 6 months of clinical experience if you want, but you still won’t get 2 years. Again, that’s a subjective negative.

Overall I love Penn. I’ve obviously never been a student at Davis so I can’t speak to it comparatively. But if that $100,000 is something that you can see impacting your life negatively then definitely go to Davis. This forum specifically is here for reasons other than “go to the cheapest school” because enough people preach that daily in the regular pre-vet forum, and for good reason. So I won’t harp on that. If you have any questions please let me know.
 
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Choose Davis. 100%. I'm not even one of those gO tO tHe cHeApEsT sChOoL people (I could see reasons for choosing a school slightly more expensive) but 100,000 (before interest! I assume) is not something to ignore. Penn is ridiculously overpriced. It's the second most expensive school accredited by the AVMA.
Also you'll have more time to cook than you think. My SO and I trade off cooking. If I have light days ie no exams and he's working then I cook. If I have a hard week like last week 3 exams and a mountain of other things to do he'll cook. If neither of us have time to really cook that's what frozen meals are for. TBH we only go out for special occasions. Plus going out as often as you're implying usually isn't healthy and vet school is stressful enough. I highly encourage trying to do your own healthy meals. Gaining weight in vet school is something that's easily done unfortunately. I have nothing to offer on the individual schools, but wanted to give you feedback on the SO part, because that support is so important and I'm sure as you know goes both ways. Also Penn is not worth an extra 100k. No school is. Use that extra money for you and your SO.
Mehh different strokes for different folks but I eat out all the time. There's a food co-op a few blocks from my house where I get lunch at (think like the hot food at Whole Foods) extremely frequently. I also eat out or get take out at least once a week. I LOVE being in an environment where I have access to cheap and healthy restaurants. Additionally, I actually have difficulty maintaining weight in vet school (and have several friends who have the same issue) due to stress so I dont think a one size all approach really fits here.
 
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You might want to look into your estimated commute time from Philadelphia to New York. Trains range from 1 hour 10 to 1 hour 30. Friends I know who do this on occasion have 2 hour + commute door to door.
Something my SO is considering in case he doesn't find anything appealing in Philly :).

Current Penn student. I don’t think Penn is worth an extra $100,000. If money is somehow no object and it’s really not an inconvenience, sure. No one can tell you what that money is worth to you, only you can. But it can easily mean another good chunk of years paying off debt. So take that into account.

I do love Penn. Some students feel differently. Some really hate it. But that’s true of any school you go to. No school will appeal to 100% of its students. Some don’t like the curriculum (which is being redesigned for the class incoming 2021). Some don’t like the city. Some don’t like that the large animal campus is an hour away. There are many pros and cons, but a lot of them are subjective.

The case load IS massive. One of the highest of any hospital in the country. You’ll see everything from distemper to IMPA to gunshot wounds coming into the emergency service. It’s really incredible. There are tons of opportunities to shadow by signing up through clubs, or you can contact clinicians directly. I’ve spent dozens of hours shadowing ES, neurology/neurosurgery, dentistry, and oncology. You could honestly shadow in every hour of your free time if you wanted to. I mean, don’t, but it’s that available.

There are also tons of research opportunities. Penn is a research powerhouse in and of itself, and that extends into the vet school. Other schools obviously have research opportunities as well, but research is something very important to Ivy League schools. As a result, we have professors and clinicians receiving millions of dollars each for their projects.

When I came to Penn I was worried that there was going to be this air of “at Penn we do everything better than everyone else” because you always hear talk of “PennWe’s.” That’s not the case. It’s way more of an undergrad thing. Yea you’ll talk to other students at other schools and say “oh, at Penn we do this” but not as a way of saying it’s better that way. Just as a way of comparing how things are done. The whole Penn snobbery is really hyped up by people who didn’t go here and I’m not sure where it came from, but it definitely isn’t currently a thing. Also this isn’t to say that Penn does everything better and we just don’t brag about it. We don’t do everything better. If you’ve heard of the whole “PennWe” thing then hopefully what I’m saying here makes sense lol.

Some negatives: learning can be very self-directed. Especially anatomy. I haven’t really struggled much luckily because I’m a self-directed learner, but I have a lot of friends who have. This is very much a personal negative and some people don’t mind it. I wish there was a little more hand holding. It would be nice.

West Philly isn’t the greatest. I love Philly. I’ve lived in this city for 5 years and grew up just outside of it. That being said, I love center city. West Philly is just a little... dirtier. On campus is great. Honestly anywhere East of like 41st-ish and south of Chestnut is perfectly fine. West of there is still safe. I live west of there. But too far west and north and it gets very gross. The campus itself is extremely safe though and honestly on par with most other schools in cities.

We don’t get as much hands-on learning as part of the curriculum as other schools. We do get some, and there are tons of wet labs and shadowing opportunities as I’ve said, but not directly as part of the curriculum. I get a lot of hands-on experience through my job at school, but again, I had to seek that out. I know clinical experience is important to you, as you’ve said, so I want you to know that it’s available. You just have to go and find it.

Our program isn’t a 2+2 program, meaning two didactic years and two clinical years. It’s technically 2.5+1.5 since you can start clinics in your third year. Others choose to do 3+1. So it’s not too bad and you can get an extra 6 months of clinical experience if you want, but you still won’t get 2 years. Again, that’s a subjective negative.

Overall I love Penn. I’ve obviously never been a student at Davis so I can’t speak to it comparatively. But if that $100,000 is something that you can see impacting your life negatively then definitely go to Davis. This forum specifically is here for reasons other than “go to the cheapest school” because enough people preach that daily in the regular pre-vet forum, and for good reason. So I won’t harp on that. If you have any questions please let me know.
Thank you so much for your response. I've seen many of your posts on the Penn thread (full of encouragement and great advice) that I was secretly hoping that you'd post here :oops:. I really appreciate your input! I really loved my tour, the current students that came out on my interview day, the atmosphere, etc. The acceptance call from Penn was the most exciting one for me for some reason. I really wish my interview day at Davis was a tad bit better, but I keep reminding myself that one day isn't enough to learn everything about the school. Thanks again!

Choose Davis. 100%. I'm not even one of those gO tO tHe cHeApEsT sChOoL people (I could see reasons for choosing a school slightly more expensive) but 100,000 (before interest! I assume) is not something to ignore. Penn is ridiculously overpriced. It's the second most expensive school accredited by the AVMA.

Mehh different strokes for different folks but I eat out all the time. There's a food co-op a few blocks from my house where I get lunch at (think like the hot food at Whole Foods) extremely frequently. I also eat out or get take out at least once a week. I LOVE being in an environment where I have access to cheap and healthy restaurants. Additionally, I actually have difficulty maintaining weight in vet school (and have several friends who have the same issue) due to stress so I dont think a one size all approach really fits here.
Haha! I have a feeling that I will be eating out most of the days :rolleyes: even when I have the time to cook. If you don't mind telling me (PM is fine too!), are you a current student at Davis?
 
Thank you so much for your response. I've seen many of your posts on the Penn thread (full of encouragement and great advice) that I was secretly hoping that you'd post here :oops:. I really appreciate your input! I really loved my tour, the current students that came out on my interview day, the atmosphere, etc. The acceptance call from Penn was the most exciting one for me for some reason. I really wish my interview day at Davis was a tad bit better, but I keep reminding myself that one day isn't enough to learn everything about the school. Thanks again!
You’re welcome! I know in that thread I usually hype up Penn since it’s my school, has been since I was a child, and it has a special place in my heart. But I do know it’s far from perfect. Then again, everywhere is.

I also want to stress again that the decision is ultimately up to you. If you decide that you really really really want to go to Penn and spend the extra money (which is a lot) because you have the means, then go for it. If you don’t, you will get an exceptional education at Davis. See if @Coopah is available to discuss some specifics about the school.
 
Hi all,

First of all, I'm super grateful to be posting here. A year ago, I was thinking that I would be happy to be accepted to any school, and here I am with multiple options! I've been reading both UC Davis and PennVet threads closely. I've also studied the Factors When Picking A Vet School document, but I'm still quite unsure as to which one would suit me better. Maybe it's because these two schools seem so similar to me? I noticed that no one has inquired about comparing these schools yet. I'm hoping to get some input from current students or grads in terms of what I may be missing.

Similarities:
Both schools seem to have great teaching hospitals with a large caseload and many specialties to possibly shadow, great faculty, lots of clubs, and more importantly a diverse student body! Both have an amazing reputation, and I have no doubt that I will get a great education wherever I go.

UC Davis:
  • Easy move: I'm a non-traditional applicant who will be moving with a SO. We live in NorCal right now, so moving to an area near Davis will be a relatively easy move.
  • Diverse student body: UC Davis offers lots of information on their student body on their website. The average age seems low, but their ethnicity seems very diverse, which I appreciate.
  • Cheaper tuition: I'm a CA resident, so going to UC Davis will save me about $100,000 in total. Money is not that big of an issue as I have saved enough from working, but still that doesn't mean I want to splurge!
  • Possible long commute: if my SO keeps his current job, we may need to live in Benicia, which will be an hour drive for me to school. Not sure how much impact this will have on me. We are still talking about this though; we are considering moving to Davis and him getting a new job near Berkeley.
  • Lacking hands-on experience in the first two years: not sure if this is true, or even if it's true, if it matters so much. I'm sure I'll end up getting enough experience in my rotations and from clubs, but this was mentioned in several places. It seemed like UPenn students can shadow places they like whenever they can/want.
UPenn:
  • City life: this is the seller for me. Lots of great housing options so close to the campus. I know we won't have time to cook, so being surrounded by many great restaurants seems awesome. I'll probably live in the walking/biking distance of the school. My SO will have the same commute (1 hour) as living in Davis if he decides to get a job in NY, but if he gets a job in Philly, it will be much easier for him as well.
  • Shadowing opportunities: one of the student ambassadors really sold me on this. I want to continue honing my clinical skills, and it sounded like you can do this by going to the hospital whenever you can/want. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
  • Higher tuition: I keep asking myself if the convenient city lifestyle is worth that extra $100,000. Maybe... or maybe not.
  • More difficult transition: since both my SO and I have never lived in the East Coast, I'm guessing moving & getting a new job for SO in a completely new area will be a more difficult transition for both of us.
I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts/inputs they'd like to share! :)
Thanks for the tag @ajs513!

I'm happy to speak about anything regarding Davis, I didn't read everything but I thought I saw you had a disappointing tour day? I would recommend going to the cheaper school, even if you can afford the extra 100k. That would be a nice start to your own practice one day. Also would be more than enough to live on without your husband having to stress about finding new work.

As far as the commute goes we have all our lectures recorded so you can likely stay at home for most of those but you still have to be in for group work, discussions and labs. I would recommend living much closer as it makes things way easier but we have students who commute from the bay every day until forth year where you need to be within 20 minutes of school if you're on call.

I'll be happy to answer any questions regarding the school truthfully, there are things I don't like here (the scheduling oh god) but for the most part I love it here and I love the people here.
 
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Something my SO is considering in case he doesn't find anything appealing in Philly :).


Thank you so much for your response. I've seen many of your posts on the Penn thread (full of encouragement and great advice) that I was secretly hoping that you'd post here :oops:. I really appreciate your input! I really loved my tour, the current students that came out on my interview day, the atmosphere, etc. The acceptance call from Penn was the most exciting one for me for some reason. I really wish my interview day at Davis was a tad bit better, but I keep reminding myself that one day isn't enough to learn everything about the school. Thanks again!


Haha! I have a feeling that I will be eating out most of the days :rolleyes: even when I have the time to cook. If you don't mind telling me (PM is fine too!), are you a current student at Davis?
Lol yup I love eating out. good food gives me great joy!

I am not, I go to Oregon State. (but still, west coast best coast :p )
 
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Thanks for the tag @ajs513!

I'm happy to speak about anything regarding Davis, I didn't read everything but I thought I saw you had a disappointing tour day? I would recommend going to the cheaper school, even if you can afford the extra 100k. That would be a nice start to your own practice one day. Also would be more than enough to live on without your husband having to stress about finding new work.

As far as the commute goes we have all our lectures recorded so you can likely stay at home for most of those but you still have to be in for group work, discussions and labs. I would recommend living much closer as it makes things way easier but we have students who commute from the bay every day until forth year where you need to be within 20 minutes of school if you're on call.

I'll be happy to answer any questions regarding the school truthfully, there are things I don't like here (the scheduling oh god) but for the most part I love it here and I love the people here.
Sent you a PM. Thank you @Coopah! :D
 
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