Hi guys! I am an Arizona resident I've been accepted to both WSU and OSU, and I have not been to either school, but I am planning on visiting them in February and March. I know that WSU lets OOS students change their residency and get IS tuition after their first year, so that is an obvious bonus. However, I am WICHE certified and if I get the funding, I could get IS tuition for either school, which I have seen is fairly comparable. So I have a few questions for current students of both schools to help make a more clear decision. What are the housing costs like? Does either school offer dorming or apartments associated with the school? What is Pullman like? Corvallis? What is the weather like in both? Does it snow in either city and if so, how much? How are the professors like at each school? Do they care about students succeeding and help with understanding the course material? Which classes do you think were taught well, and which classes are weaker? What kind of scholarships are available and how easy/difficult are they to get? And lastly, what kind of opportunities are there at either school for zoological medicine or working with exotics/wildlife? Thank you so much!
Hey, congrats! AZ resident at OSU here as well, non-wiche. Keep in mind that (at least when I applied), OOS non-wiche for four years at OSU is virtually the same price as OOS the first year as WSU then switching to IS for the last three. You might want to double check this, since even a few thousand dollar difference either way could make a huge difference in the long run. Here are some of the answers for OSU, though
@ziggyandjazzy might want to chime in as well since some of this stuff is so subjective.
1) Housing costs - I pay $475/month for a 2 bed, 1 bath apartment with full kitchen and living room 1.5 miles from campus. Definitely at the lower end, though you can consistently find housing under $500/month if you're willing to make sacrifices like sharing a bathroom. You'll hear people complaining about housing prices here but it's pretty reasonable if you're okay with not living in luxury. Some people commute from albany, where prices are supposedly significantly cheaper though that has its own issues with the rare snowstorms/severe ice.
2) There is family housing available through the university, which is very cheap and super close to school if you'll be moving here with others. At the very least, you need a spouse but they may require that you have kids as well? Not too sure on this since my roommate and I got disqualified when they realized we aren't married lol. The wait list to get in there is at least a year at any given time.
3) Corvallis - small (compared to Tempe or Tucson - assuming you attended one of those). I see people I know at the grocery store pretty often and randomly see familiar faces other places. For some reason, I have almost a 100% success rate of seeing my professors on hikes in the area. It's not so small where you know everyone you see, but it's definitely going to be a change from a place like Tucson, Tempe, or even Flagstaff. It rains for a few months straight (light drizzle usually) during the Winter so a lot of people don't like that. Honestly, some people end up getting seasonal depression because of it, so it's something you have to stay on top of if you're prone to that. I enjoy the rain after living in the desert my whole life but I have plenty of classmates who can't tolerate it and want to move back immediately after graduation. It's something to consider, for sure.
4) Snow - I have only lived here a year and a half so can only speak to 1 winter season. We got maybe 7 days where it snowed, but only like 4 days where it actually stuck on the ground and like 2-3 times where class was delayed until 12 pm. The most snow we got at once was like 4-5 inches and that was a pretty big deal lol.
5) Professors - It will vary as with most schools. There's one notorious professor during first year where a few people fail out. She's a great teacher, just makes her tests extremely difficult. You'll be fine if you put any amount of effort over the norm into studying for it. There are a few other professors that people don't like, which probably stems more from not studying enough on the extra challenging material. All the professors are great, though there are a few which require a bit more studying to get the same grade. I feel like I actually learned more from these professors because they made their sections challenging so it sucks in the moment, but you'll be thankful for them when you get to the more advanced classes. Besides that, most of our professors are extremely reasonable and every one of them wants you to succeed. A story I always tell is the time that my anatomy professor stayed an hour or two after he normally leaves to teach me all the structures I was struggling on. The professors are almost all clinicians in the hospital, so you'll be building a relationship with them from day one that will theoretically serve you well during fourth year. I still ask some of my professors from first year questions and they're more than willing to take the time to explain it, even though I'm not technically in their class anymore. The incredibly caring professors are one of my favorite parts about OSU.
6) Most classes are taught well, though one or two are just as disorganized as the professors. These are few and far between and the professors are still great, they just aren't the best at structuring it in a way that makes sense. You may need to do some extra self-study for the few classes that are like this but not a huge deal. Winter term phys is the notorious one but like I mentioned before, you'll learn so much from it that you'll almost be thankful it was so hard.
7) Scholarships - The school gives out $300,000+ in scholarships each year. They just have one central application for all those scholarships, so it takes 10 mins to fill out and all of a sudden you have some extra $$$. I think the further you go along in the program, the more scholarships are available to you. I got like $2,000 from the school first year but I saw some stellar third/fourth years raking in $10k+. All those people are literal superhumans so don't go into it expecting to get that much and just have it be a pleasant surprise if you do. There are also scholarships through AVMA that are given to a few students at each accredited school. I also spent a few hundred hours the summer before school started to apply for random law firm, blog scholarships, etc. and that definitely helped out a lot too. That's an option not a whole lot of people do for vet school so you can find some hidden gems if you search hard enough.
8) Wildlife - We don't technically do work on zoo/wildlife at our hospital, but we do accept special cases. E.g. albino bengal tiger came in for a CT scan, porcupine, etc. If you're interested in pathology, you'll get exposure to tons of wacko species on the necropsy floor. I've seen a giant octopus necropsy, deer, harbor seal, dolphin, otter, etc. Lots of cool stuff comes through there and you can go in to watch any time you want. Since our hospital doesn't often accept exotics, you have to take another path to get experience in that. We have a zoo, wildlife, and exotics club which does bird bandaging labs and sets up the ZWE symposium every year (WSU and OSU rotate every year). This year, it is at WSU and always includes some crazy wet labs, lectures, etc. We had wildlife necropsies, speakers from every facet of the exotics world, darting practice, etc. So you'll get that no matter which one you choose. You can also do the non-traditional track, which gives you lots of opportunities for rotations with the various zoos, aquariums, and wildlife rehab centers. You can get all the experience you want, but it's something you have to actively pursue if you're interested.
