UTK (OOS) VS Illinois (OOS)

[DogDangIt]

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Hi Everyone!

Having the opportunity to make a choice is wonderful and I'm so grateful but I am dreading it lol. I have been accepted to Illinois, UTK and Wisconsin as an OOS student. I am mainly deciding between UTK and Illinois now that I've visited both schools. They are both wonderful and I could see myself going both places.

The main factor influencing my decision is that I want to go into large animal, specifically I want to pursue equine sports medicine/theriogenolgy but also dable in some food animal. Right now. I plan to do an internship after graduation regaendless of where I go so I would just like to know which school provides the most opportunity.

Even though Iliinois would end up being my cheaper option by a couple thousand dollars, if UTK is the better option for what I want to pursue then extra money doesn't matter to me. I know that sounds ridiculous but in my mind I’m already taking out loans and the difference of a couple thousand dollars shouldn't dictate where I get the better education for my desired field.

I would love to hear you thoughts as it will definitely help in my decision. And thank you for taking the time to read this post!

 

[vampyrica]

@soupshark pinging soup for illinois equine :3

 

[WildZoo]

If the difference is truly a couple thousand (like...literally a couple) then I can understand seeing them as financially similar enough to decide based on other things. Just wanted to clarify that it is actually a couple thousand, including cost of living expenses. Because otherwise, as always, you are better served saving the money.

UT has an equine performance and rehab center (EPRC) which I'm sure you saw when you visited. I am not sure exactly how the faculty staffing pans out these days since it's somewhat shared with equine surgery, but from looking at the website there is at least one faculty member still there who is boarded in sports medicine and rehab, and they have a residency position for that as well. You can choose to rotate through EPRC during your clinical year for up to 6 weeks.

There are also two boarded theriogenologists and a therio resident, they work with large animal as a whole so not strictly equine. When I was a student the therio rotation involved client animals but also practicing with the teaching mares and cows, and you get some experience with the teaching herds in the didactic years as well. Again an elective that you can choose during clinical year for up to 6 weeks.

Decent food animal caseload unless you're interested in swine specifically - the only pigs they regularly see are of the potbellied variety. Mostly small herds of cattle otherwise, a fair amount of small ruminants and camelids, and a decent amount of individual animals from rescues and such from what I recall when I was there. There are separate equine and farm animal field service departments as well if you are interested in those.

 

[pancakesandwaffles]

I'm curious why you aren't considering UW? I am deciding between there and UIUC

 

[DogDangIt]

If the difference is truly a couple thousand (like...literally a couple) then I can understand seeing them as financially similar enough to decide based on other things. Just wanted to clarify that it is actually a couple thousand, including cost of living expenses. Because otherwise, as always, you are better served saving the money.

UT has an equine performance and rehab center (EPRC) which I'm sure you saw when you visited. I am not sure exactly how the faculty staffing pans out these days since it's somewhat shared with equine surgery, but from looking at the website there is at least one faculty member still there who is boarded in sports medicine and rehab, and they have a residency position for that as well. You can choose to rotate through EPRC during your clinical year for up to 6 weeks.

There are also two boarded theriogenologists and a therio resident, they work with large animal as a whole so not strictly equine. When I was a student the therio rotation involved client animals but also practicing with the teaching mares and cows, and you get some experience with the teaching herds in the didactic years as well. Again an elective that you can choose during clinical year for up to 6 weeks.

Decent food animal caseload unless you're interested in swine specifically - the only pigs they regularly see are of the potbellied variety. Mostly small herds of cattle otherwise, a fair amount of small ruminants and camelids, and a decent amount of individual animals from rescues and such from what I recall when I was there. There are separate equine and farm animal field service departments as well if you are interested in those.

Hi! Thank you for taking the time to reply. It does come down to a few thousand dollars in tuition differences since I am very lucky to have my parents helping me out with housing and living costs. So the only main difference in cost between the two is the tuition.

 

[DogDangIt]

I'm curious why you aren't considering UW? I am deciding between there and UIUC

From what I have read an heard the new curriculum at UW is a flipped class room approach and I have found from classes in undergrad that model is not the most beneficial to me so I am more drawn to a traditional classroom model! Many people I know like flipped classroom but it's just not for me. I’m still planning to tour the school but I know the curriculum at the other two suits me better.

 

[soupshark]

Hi! Thank you for taking the time to reply. It does come down to a few thousand dollars in tuition differences since I am very lucky to have my parents helping me out with housing and living costs. So the only main difference in cost between the two is the tuition.

I'm replying with this in mind. I went and looked at OOS tuition for both and they are both $58k per year so they are the same price.

It sounds based off what WildZoo said that UIUC and UTK have similar equine situations. We don't have an equine rehab center (though I think there are plans for one eventually?) but we have a treadmill and there are research opportunities with sports med stuff like that. We have an equine medicine and surgery service with 9 clinicians, 3 of which are boarded in sports med. You can rotate through there for 6 weeks in addition to 2 weeks on primary care and therio. As for therio we have a department with one clinician (who is amazing) and not a lot of people are interested in it so it's easy to get experience with that. The same for medicine and surgery and primary care too. Our equine therio is separate from our production animal therio. We have a full farrier service with electives for 2nd and 3rd years, a professional development course (last quarter of 4th year) and is incorporated into our EQMS rotation (1st/2nd and 4th year), so you will have mandatory farrier experiences and some elective ones as well! I personally loved the farrier elective so I think it's worth doing (you get to actually trim the horses! Like, a lot!) Our AAEP club is also well ran and offers a lot of opportunities to get hands on experience in many areas of equine practice. They also have funding for externships.

Our farms service sees mostly cattle and small ruminants but we also see camelids and swine. Illinois has a lot of swine. You can also rotate through farms for 6 weeks and population medicine for 2 weeks. We have a teaching herd of cattle, horses, and 2 goats which you have opportunities to get experience with during didactic years also (we also have clinics first and second year so you get clinical experience right away too). There are more equine opportunities than large animal, which sounds like it's aligned with your goals, but still enough that if you change your mind you can still get ample experience in large animal or other areas. Don't limit yourself, you never know what you might discover!

 

[Georgethecat]

How does COL compare between the 2 schools. It's great that your parents are able to help out with these costs, but money saved is money saved and maybe that can go towards tuition costs.