Veterinary School

[HAD214]

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I'm in high school and my grades are not that great. Freshman year I got As and Bs Mostly but a couple of Cs and One D. I'm in my sophomore year and have gotten As Bs And Cs. Do I still have a chance to get into vet school? Even the easier vet schools to get into if I started to work hard now? I realize I should've been working harder and I didn't.

 

[DVMDream]

I got A's, B's and C's too... in undergrad of college! Oh noes! Will I ever make a good vet??? 😱

 

[battie]

I even had an F. Made life hard, but got through it. 0/10 would recommend having an F though. Also, 0/10 would recommend D's in undergrad.

 

[hazelmoo]

The vet schools won't even ask your high school grades... As long as you get into college and make better grades then. I know lots of vets who started out in community college anyways! It's not a big deal as long as you make the grades and get the experience then.

 

[wildlifer]

I'm in high school and my grades are not that great. Freshman year I got As and Bs Mostly but a couple of Cs and One D. I'm in my sophomore year and have gotten As Bs And Cs. Do I still have a chance to get into vet school? Even the easier vet schools to get into if I started to work hard now? I realize I should've been working harder and I didn't.

Those grades aren't that atrocious. If you're only a sophomore in high school, you're still quite a ways off from even applying to veterinary schools. So relax and worry about finishing high school and getting accepted into college.

 

[rockatiel]

I even had an F. Made life hard, but got through it. 0/10 would recommend having an F though. Also, 0/10 would recommend D's in undergrad.

And I would maybe 2/10 recommend having too many C's. You can get into vet school with them (I had 3) but it does complicate things the more you get.

 

[deleted676737]

I almost failed out of high school, lol.

Seriously, though, vet schools won't see nor will they care about your high school grades. Just make sure you do well in undergrad.

 

[deleted676737]

That being said, I will add that getting good grades now will help down the line when it comes time for paying for college. If you do well enough to secure generous scholarships that pay most/all of your undergrad costs, then you'll be in a better place later on if becoming a veterinarian is your ultimate goal. The cost of vet school is atrocious enough -- if you can avoid having undergrad debt on top of that if at all possible, it will help.

For the record, if there is one thing I wish I would've done differently, it's find a way to have paid for undergrad without relying on loans.

 

[rockatiel]

And please please please pick the cheapest undergrad possible. School prestige does not matter to schools. It's course rigor, as long as you do well in it. I chose a tiny state school over a prestigious private college that would have left me 200K in the hole out of the gate and I am SOOOOOOO glad I did it. I don't have any debt and will be starting vet school this year.

 

[wildlifer]

That being said, I will add that getting good grades now will help down the line when it comes time for paying for college. If you do well enough to secure generous scholarships that pay most/all of your undergrad costs, then you'll be in a better place later on if becoming a veterinarian is your ultimate goal. The cost of vet school is atrocious enough -- if you can avoid having undergrad debt on top of that if at all possible, it will help.

For the record, if there is one thing I wish I would've done differently, it's find a way to have paid for undergrad without relying on loans.

This is very true. You could always take classes at a community college to help save $$ and then transfer to a university. I wish my 18 year old self had done that, but my local community college is literally next door to my high school and back then, I absolutely needed to get away from home area for my own sanity 😛

 

[deleted676737]

And please please please pick the cheapest undergrad possible. School prestige does not matter to schools. It's course rigor, as long as you do well in it. I chose a tiny state school over a prestigious private college that would have left me 200K in the hole out of the gate and I am SOOOOOOO glad I did it. I don't have any debt and will be starting vet school this year.

Heck, I even went to a small "cheap" state school and wound up in ~$40k of debt. To be entirely fair, I didn't know what I wanted to do at first, so I took five years and lived on campus the entire time... and with my costs coming out to be ~$15k/yr, it could have been much worse. I was always sort of jealous of those who got full rides and/or had parents with enough money to cover their kids' schooling. But I do recognize that I could have had significantly more of it paid for if I had just tried harder.

While I don't regret my undergrad experience at all, I do wish I had considered community colleges or similarly inexpensive options first.

Don't make the same mistake, OP! If you do eventually get into vet school, you will thank yourself later.

 

[rockatiel]

Heck, I even went to a small state school and wound up in ~$40k of debt. To be entirely fair, I didn't know what I wanted to do at first, so I took five years and lived on campus the entire time... and with my costs coming out to be ~$15k/yr, it could have been much worse. I was always sort of jealous of those who got full rides and/or had parents with enough money to cover their kids' schooling. But I do recognize that I could have had more of my undergrad paid for if I had just tried harder; I don't regret my undergrad experience at all, but I do wish I had considered community college or other options first.

LA kids do have it easier than other states sadly. I didn't get a full ride, but here in LA we have a federal award program called TOPS, which awards students money for undergrad based on their high school GPA and ACT/SAT score. And it's a lot of money. I had the second highest TOPS and it covered everything for me and then some. Living off campus, I get a $1500 check from the school every semester. Kinda wish I had saved that money up better, though...

 

[dyachei]

And please please please pick the cheapest undergrad possible. School prestige does not matter to schools. It's course rigor, as long as you do well in it. I chose a tiny state school over a prestigious private college that would have left me 200K in the hole out of the gate and I am SOOOOOOO glad I did it. I don't have any debt and will be starting vet school this year.

look, I think going cheap is better, but schools definitely give "points" for academic rigor and those are often (but not always) private schools.

So it is a consideration. That being said, I think finances are very important.

 

[rockatiel]

look, I think going cheap is better, but schools definitely give "points" for academic rigor and those are often (but not always) private schools.

So it is a consideration. That being said, I think finances are very important.

Thank you for the clarification, I wasn't sure if the rigor points had to do with name, designation of classes as honors, how many hours were taken at one time, etc. but yes, more often than not the private schools have the tougher degree programs. In my case the ranked school was much too expensive, even after federal awards and scholarships, for me to even consider it. But it will be a different decision for everyone, especially those lucky (smart) ducks with college funds.

Ah, that's neat! My ACT score was actually pretty high (31, I think?), but my GPA was deplorable, so I don't know if I even would've qualified for that program.

In Missouri, we have Bright Flight, which awards a very generous scholarship to the top 3% of high school graduates based on GPA and ACT, but there was just no way I would made that cut.

You needed a GPA of at least 2.0 to graduate HS, no? You would have been awarded something 🙂

 

[dyachei]

Thank you for the clarification, I wasn't sure if the rigor points had to do with name, designation of classes as honors, how many hours were taken at one time, etc. but yes, more often than not the private schools have the tougher degree programs. In my case the ranked school was much too expensive, even after federal awards and scholarships, for me to even consider it. But it will be a different decision for everyone, especially those lucky (smart) ducks with college funds.

At UTK (where I went to vet school) they gave you points for course load and academic rigor (classes taken at a well-known more difficult school, usually). I don't believe honors courses receive special consideration.

 

[battie]

And please please please pick the cheapest undergrad possible. School prestige does not matter to schools. It's course rigor, as long as you do well in it. I chose a tiny state school over a prestigious private college that would have left me 200K in the hole out of the gate and I am SOOOOOOO glad I did it. I don't have any debt and will be starting vet school this year.

My undergrad is ridiculously cheap. 10,000 a year give or take (for everything: tuition, fees, housing, food, etc), plus whatever you spend for fun. With my scholarships and RA position, my most expensive semester was 3,300 and my cheapest semester was 1,200 I believe. The schools are out there. You just have to be willing to move and go there. The price you pay for my cheap undergrad is living in a rural Nebraska town with 5,000 people when school is in (2500 without the school). Not a whole lot to do if you don't want to find it. After my job as RD is done, the school will have given me back every cent I gave them and more.

 

[rockatiel]

My undergrad is ridiculously cheap. 10,000 a year give or take (for everything: tuition, fees, housing, food, etc), plus whatever you spend for fun. With my scholarships and RA position, my most expensive semester was 3,300 and my cheapest semester was 1,200 I believe. The schools are out there. You just have to be willing to move and go there. The price you pay for my cheap undergrad is living in a rural Nebraska town with 5,000 people when school is in (2500 without the school). Not a whole lot to do if you don't want to find it. After my job as RD is done, the school will have given me back every cent I gave them and more.

Mine is similar pricing, with a lot of options for campus employment. They encourage a lot of graduates to stay and take jobs here (i.e., recruiting, marketing, anything else the degree they just got qualifies them for) or they can also go to grad school here and take an assistantship, which carry a lot of benefits here. My town is also very tiny too lol.

 

[alohacat319]

And please please please pick the cheapest undergrad possible. School prestige does not matter to schools. It's course rigor, as long as you do well in it. I chose a tiny state school over a prestigious private college that would have left me 200K in the hole out of the gate and I am SOOOOOOO glad I did it. I don't have any debt and will be starting vet school this year.

Going to a state school is awesome. With my financial aid, even including living expenses, tuition, fees, etc I actually got paid by my school to go to undergrad when I add it all up. My university gave me a quality education and I avoided debt until vet school. [emoji16] I looked at going out of state for undergrad, but I'm with Rocky-- I'm very thankful I stayed put where it was cheap.