WesternU c/o 2025

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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egh5047 said:
Did anyone get accepted anywhere else yet? Wondering if there’s any positives to talk about while we wait 🤣
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No, no I did not LOL I was waitlisted to interview at Midwestern but I'm taking it as a light rejection. This year was brutal for me, but Western is my last glimmer of hope.

Did you get accepted or waitlisted anywhere?
 
LokiBear said:
No, no I did not LOL I was waitlisted to interview at Midwestern but I'm taking it as a light rejection. This year was brutal for me, but Western is my last glimmer of hope.

Did you get accepted or waitlisted anywhere?
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Ugh! I feel like this year is going that way for so many of us. I was accepted at St. George’s, but now with the flying restrictions with dogs I’m not sure how I could get my dog down there so I don’t know if that would be possible. Really banking on western! (And western has been my top choice anyways). The anxiety is real!!
 
egh5047 said:
Ugh! I feel like this year is going that way for so many of us. I was accepted at St. George’s, but now with the flying restrictions with dogs I’m not sure how I could get my dog down there so I don’t know if that would be possible. Really banking on western! (And western has been my top choice anyways). The anxiety is real!!
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Oh shoot, I didn't know they put flying restrictions on dogs. St. George's campus looks so beautiful, it's just way too far from my family so I didn't end up applying there or to any of the schools outside of the states.
 
I interviewed at UofA last week and will find out if I get in next Friday. It’s pretty much a big waiting game for the two schools.

I’ve been hearing from a lot of people on here that there was an influx of applications this year. How do we know if this is true or not? I’m just trying to figure out my chances. The only thing that I know for sure is that Davis received a number of applications that has been consistent with past cycles
 
bda1120 said:
I interviewed at UofA last week and will find out if I get in next Friday. It’s pretty much a big waiting game for the two schools.

I’ve been hearing from a lot of people on here that there was an influx of applications this year. How do we know if this is true or not? I’m just trying to figure out my chances. The only thing that I know for sure is that Davis received a number of applications that has been consistent with past cycles
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Vmcas saw an increase of 19% in applications this year as compared to last year, here's the link to their article about it: Veterinary School Applications Are Up 19% — What Does that Mean for the Profession? | Today's Veterinary Practice.

I have heard that Davis did not get a significant increase as well. I hypothesize that this was partly due to the schools that dropped the GRE and/or waived experience hours, etc. and they saw an influx of applications. Davis did not drop or change any of their qualifications, and neither did Western. I just did a file review with Cornell where they dropped the GRE and the lady from admissions that I spoke with stated that this past cycle was the most applicants they've ever received at the vet school.
 
LokiBear said:
Vmcas saw an increase of 19% in applications this year as compared to last year, here's the link to their article about it: Veterinary School Applications Are Up 19% — What Does that Mean for the Profession? | Today's Veterinary Practice.

I have heard that Davis did not get a significant increase as well. I hypothesize that this was partly due to the schools that dropped the GRE and/or waived experience hours, etc. and they saw an influx of applications. Davis did not drop or change any of their qualifications, and neither did Western. I just did a file review with Cornell where they dropped the GRE and the lady from admissions that I spoke with stated that this past cycle was the most applicants they've ever received at the vet school.
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Great, thanks! I’ll check it out
 
I may be a little late to the game but is Western really a great school? I've been hearing mixed things about it like it's not a good program and it just takes your money. I live in california and never have I ever met someone who went to western vet school. I've only ever met davis vets and a handful of other schools and I've worked at about 3 vet hospitals now. Even the undergraduate program I was at that had an animal science degree, never met someone who went to western. So it makes me curious about where these vets end up. Of course, it doesn't help that davis is in california and is often compared to it but it's impossible to compare the number one school to someone like western. I happen to like the program, especially the PBL but I'm curious to know what others have heard.
 
Clamwich said:
I may be a little late to the game but is Western really a great school? I've been hearing mixed things about it like it's not a good program and it just takes your money. I live in california and never have I ever met someone who went to western vet school. I've only ever met davis vets and a handful of other schools and I've worked at about 3 vet hospitals now. Even the undergraduate program I was at that had an animal science degree, never met someone who went to western. So it makes me curious about where these vets end up. Of course, it doesn't help that davis is in california and is often compared to it but it's impossible to compare the number one school to someone like western. I happen to like the program, especially the PBL but I'm curious to know what others have heard.
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wow I'm shocked because I have not heard a single negative statement about western. I'm currently attending the University of Delaware and we've had a decent handful of our alumni (we have a pre-vet med degree) attend wester, one who is still there currently and they have only ever raved about the program. One alumni that I keep in contact with frequently is a kick ass emergency vet and she has told me plenty of her friends from her time at western are successful veterinarians all over the country.
 
Clamwich said:
So it makes me curious about where these vets end up
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Our first year oncology resident and our 3rd year equine surgery resident both attended Western.

And keep in mind that the rankings have nothing to do with with the education aspect of the veterinary college. Its based on things like grant acquisition.
 
Clamwich said:
I may be a little late to the game but is Western really a great school? I've been hearing mixed things about it like it's not a good program and it just takes your money. I live in california and never have I ever met someone who went to western vet school. I've only ever met davis vets and a handful of other schools and I've worked at about 3 vet hospitals now. Even the undergraduate program I was at that had an animal science degree, never met someone who went to western. So it makes me curious about where these vets end up. Of course, it doesn't help that davis is in california and is often compared to it but it's impossible to compare the number one school to someone like western. I happen to like the program, especially the PBL but I'm curious to know what others have heard.
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I mean to be fair, the PBL way of learning isn’t for everybody. If you like the traditional lecture set up, I can see why you would say you disliked the program. Also, if California residents apply to both Davis and Western and get into both, they’re probably more inclined to choose Davis because it’s cheaper. Western is also a newer school. These might be reasons why you’re seeing more Davis vets than Western vets in California. However, that doesn’t mean Western has a bad program. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it from people who have attended. If you’re interested in the program, I would ask people on here who have attended Western what their opinions are.
 
Clamwich said:
I may be a little late to the game but is Western really a great school? I've been hearing mixed things about it like it's not a good program and it just takes your money. I live in california and never have I ever met someone who went to western vet school. I've only ever met davis vets and a handful of other schools and I've worked at about 3 vet hospitals now. Even the undergraduate program I was at that had an animal science degree, never met someone who went to western. So it makes me curious about where these vets end up. Of course, it doesn't help that davis is in california and is often compared to it but it's impossible to compare the number one school to someone like western. I happen to like the program, especially the PBL but I'm curious to know what others have heard.
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I'm from Virginia and my managing vet is a Western grad and out of around 15+ vets I've worked with, she is the best and most knowledgeable one. I think Western mostly gets a bad rap sometimes because it's private and tuition is high plus they don't have a true teaching hospital which some people think shouldn't be allowed and affects education. I understand the teaching hospital argument, but I think Western gets around that with its location because LA County with the amount of wealth that exists there has some of the most top-notch veterinary hospitals in the country so western is able to make use of local programs to educate students where schools in smaller cities or in the country that don't have teaching hospitals can't do as easily.
 
Western has a teaching hospital/clinic btw
The only reason its not considered a hospital is because it's not open 24/7. For a teaching clinic to be considered a teaching hospital it has to be open 24/7.
 
savethecows said:
Western has a teaching hospital/clinic btw
The only reason its not considered a hospital is because it's not open 24/7. For a teaching clinic to be considered a teaching hospital it has to be open 24/7.
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To be fair, it's also missing quite a few specialties (oncology, neurology, etc as examples), and it certainly doesn't have the same level of costs as a full teaching hospital since it doesn't have the same capabilities. Even if it had an 24/7 emergency service attached, it would be less capable in scope to the clinic I'm going to post-graduation. As a student, I still wouldn't consider it a teaching hospital if it had 24/7 emergency in addition to it's current set up.

On the other hand, I also wish more vet schools had a wellness clinic/service like Western does since so many students go out into the world as GP/ER clinicians, and primary care should be required. As an example, Internal Medicine at my school doesn't necessarily prepare you to manage internal medicine cases in the average real world clinic; it just teaches you to recognize the extremes and when it's appropriate to bunt them to a more capable clinician/hospital (one of our internists also spent all of her lectures telling us not to do things at all and just refer. Obviously a great person to learn from when you spend four years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a doctor 🙄 ).

The distributive model has it's own pros/cons. I've personally have loved my off campus electives more than a lot of my on campus stuff, and the hospital I'm going to post-graduation is a hospital I spent 4 weeks on while off campus. I think there's real world value in getting students off campus to real hospitals where they can see the "horse" cases instead of the "zebra" cases since the vast majority of the class will not specialize or deal with the crazy cases during their career. COVID has definitely shown the benefit of students going off campus, and I hope this experience encourages more balance in getting students off campus more.

The main downside of the distributive model (and the only personal qualm I have with it) is that the tuition is comparable (or higher!) than other schools *with* a teaching hospital without any of the benefits of having one. Western gets a double whammy by being in a high cost of living area as well. They're charging the same or more for a product with "less tangible" benefit, if that makes sense. It's easy for our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year equine students to sign up for foal watch here, drive 10 minutes to the hospital, and do a 2 or 4 hours shift on foal watch. Those opportunities are out there for Western students for sure; it's just harder for them to find and has a higher financial expense. Most teaching hospitals are not self-sustaining and are supported by student tuition. So how do the few private schools justify the similar price tag, regardless of their location?

I personally applied to Western because my application fit their student profile to a t. I am pretty confident I would have actually done better in my didactics at Western compared to Illinois simply because I don't do straight lecture well. However, I still would have picked Illinois over Western (and CSU my in state overall) despite the fact I would have done better at Western. Ironically it was my first rejection that cycle lol.
 
Clamwich said:
I may be a little late to the game but is Western really a great school? I've been hearing mixed things about it like it's not a good program and it just takes your money. I live in california and never have I ever met someone who went to western vet school. I've only ever met davis vets and a handful of other schools and I've worked at about 3 vet hospitals now. Even the undergraduate program I was at that had an animal science degree, never met someone who went to western. So it makes me curious about where these vets end up. Of course, it doesn't help that davis is in california and is often compared to it but it's impossible to compare the number one school to someone like western. I happen to like the program, especially the PBL but I'm curious to know what others have heard.
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Growing up in Northern Cali, it had always been my dream to attend UC Davis for vet school. I transferred from a JC to Davis, and I am finishing up my last quarter of undergrad here at Davis now. I have been working at the UC Davis vet med teaching hospital (VMTH) and in an ophthalmology research lab associated with the vet school for almost 2 years. Although I applied to Davis and did not get in, I'm honestly not all that sad because I'm ready to go and live in a different area and experience something new. Growing up it was kind of engrained in me to go to Davis since it's "number 1," and I vaguely heard things here and there about Western as it was first developing it's program. I have been frequently talking to a current 3rd year at Western that went to Davis for undergrad and she has said nothing but positive things. In addition, I have met and heard about some pretty fantastic veterinarians coming out of Western. With any new program it's going to take some time for them to develop some credibility from its outsiders, and I have a feeling Western is going to gain a better reputation as time goes on with all of the amazing vet's coming out of the program.

I'm honestly not a huge fan of the Davis area, I get year round allergies where I'm constantly congested and get bad migraines in which I never had any allergy issues before moving here, the students are pretty studious and I feel like the town is dry and boring and there isn't much to do especially since it's kind of secluded, and I hate the weather - winters are really cold and it mostly rains, and summers are brutally hot where it's almost 100 degrees everyday. The more I learn about Western and its PBL program, the more that I find how much of a better fit the curriculum is for my learning style. In addition, I've always loved visiting Southern Cali and I (and my dog actually LOL) prefer the warmer weather. I've heard that Pomona isn't the greatest area but I also grew up in a pretty bad location in the bay area and that is something that won't be new for me. My only concern with Western is the price, its 55K a year whereas Davis is 32K. Essentially I could attend Davis for vet school twice for the same amount that I'll be paying for Western. When it comes down to it, Western gave me a chance by offering me an interview because they can see my potential whereas Davis didn't - so that's also their loss of losing a great applicant. I really hope to follow in these amazing Western vet alumni steps and break down any negative connotations associated with its vet program.
 
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Clamwich said:
I may be a little late to the game but is Western really a great school? I've been hearing mixed things about it like it's not a good program and it just takes your money. I live in california and never have I ever met someone who went to western vet school. I've only ever met davis vets and a handful of other schools and I've worked at about 3 vet hospitals now. Even the undergraduate program I was at that had an animal science degree, never met someone who went to western. So it makes me curious about where these vets end up. Of course, it doesn't help that davis is in california and is often compared to it but it's impossible to compare the number one school to someone like western. I happen to like the program, especially the PBL but I'm curious to know what others have heard.
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I’ll chime in here as well. I also go to davis and got rejected this cycle. I know vet students there that have told me they have no idea what they’re doing and that they feel like they’re floundering. I used to be someone who would go by rankings until I realized that if the AVMA doesn’t even rank, they’re probably not the most accurate of rankings. I discovered a lot of them rank by the amount of research input. Which makes sense why western isn’t on a lot of these rankings, they’re only about 20ish years old and have to compete with schools that have been involved in research for 50-100+ years. Also, I love Davis, but when I look back on what I learned in animal science, I don’t remember much. That’s why I like the PBL style over didactic. I tend to hold on to the cases that I’ve had as an intern for the past 3 years, compared to regurgitated lecture styles. That’s why I’m waiting to hear back from western before I even think about putting a deposit down for Ohio. I also recently talked to a vet who went to western about a decade ago, she stressed how practice ready she felt and that they started letting students do spays and neuters their first semester there. That really stood out to me as well. No matter where you go, you can get a good education, and pass your boards, but graduating and feeling like you can 100% work as a vet I feel like is the most important. No employer is going to care what school you went to, they’re going to care that you pass your boards and are prepared for the job.
 
battie said:
To be fair, it's also missing quite a few specialties (oncology, neurology, etc as examples), and it certainly doesn't have the same level of costs as a full teaching hospital since it doesn't have the same capabilities. Even if it had an 24/7 emergency service attached, it would be less capable in scope to the clinic I'm going to post-graduation. As a student, I still wouldn't consider it a teaching hospital if it had 24/7 emergency in addition to it's current set up.

On the other hand, I also wish more vet schools had a wellness clinic/service like Western does since so many students go out into the world as GP/ER clinicians, and primary care should be required. As an example, Internal Medicine at my school doesn't necessarily prepare you to manage internal medicine cases in the average real world clinic; it just teaches you to recognize the extremes and when it's appropriate to bunt them to a more capable clinician/hospital (one of our internists also spent all of her lectures telling us not to do things at all and just refer. Obviously a great person to learn from when you spend four years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars to become a doctor 🙄 ).

The distributive model has it's own pros/cons. I've personally have loved my off campus electives more than a lot of my on campus stuff, and the hospital I'm going to post-graduation is a hospital I spent 4 weeks on while off campus. I think there's real world value in getting students off campus to real hospitals where they can see the "horse" cases instead of the "zebra" cases since the vast majority of the class will not specialize or deal with the crazy cases during their career. COVID has definitely shown the benefit of students going off campus, and I hope this experience encourages more balance in getting students off campus more.

The main downside of the distributive model (and the only personal qualm I have with it) is that the tuition is comparable (or higher!) than other schools *with* a teaching hospital without any of the benefits of having one. Western gets a double whammy by being in a high cost of living area as well. They're charging the same or more for a product with "less tangible" benefit, if that makes sense. It's easy for our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year equine students to sign up for foal watch here, drive 10 minutes to the hospital, and do a 2 or 4 hours shift on foal watch. Those opportunities are out there for Western students for sure; it's just harder for them to find and has a higher financial expense. Most teaching hospitals are not self-sustaining and are supported by student tuition. So how do the few private schools justify the similar price tag, regardless of their location?

I personally applied to Western because my application fit their student profile to a t. I am pretty confident I would have actually done better in my didactics at Western compared to Illinois simply because I don't do straight lecture well. However, I still would have picked Illinois over Western (and CSU my in state overall) despite the fact I would have done better at Western. Ironically it was my first rejection that cycle lol.
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yea that's why in my comment I said not a true teaching hospital because of some of the departments they lack and I think they are transparent about that but LA county is the most populous county in the US and there are plenty of opportunities in LA. If anything it would be food animal that I might be a little concerned about as far as availability but I'm sure they have places worked out for that.
 
Clamwich said:
I may be a little late to the game but is Western really a great school? I've been hearing mixed things about it like it's not a good program and it just takes your money. I live in california and never have I ever met someone who went to western vet school. I've only ever met davis vets and a handful of other schools and I've worked at about 3 vet hospitals now. Even the undergraduate program I was at that had an animal science degree, never met someone who went to western. So it makes me curious about where these vets end up. Of course, it doesn't help that davis is in california and is often compared to it but it's impossible to compare the number one school to someone like western. I happen to like the program, especially the PBL but I'm curious to know what others have heard.
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Hi! So I've worked with doctors from all over the place (20+ different education routes to be exact).
Out of that experience I've worked with a total of 3 doctor from western and even a student who was a part time tech. Across the board I've really learned it's all about what you take from class (which holds true for all schools). I've met amazing western doctors and also not the best , but I've experienced this across the board from all other vet schools.
 
Thanks for the input everyone! Again, I'm not saying western is a bad school, I've just heard that it has a bad rep (maybe because of cost?) and I found it interesting that I've never met a western vet despite having lived in northern, southern, AND central california. But my experience is mine alone. In any case, I can't even make a decision to attend if I don't get an offer 😂
 
Clamwich said:
Thanks for the input everyone! Again, I'm not saying western is a bad school, I've just heard that it has a bad rep (maybe because of cost?) and I found it interesting that I've never met a western vet despite having lived in northern, southern, AND central california. But my experience is mine alone. In any case, I can't even make a decision to attend if I don't get an offer 😂
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I can't comment on Western's vet program since I don't go there but I'm sure all vet med programs are good to be acredited. The "bad rep" you heard about may be due to the school's over accepting drama for the last two years. Long story short, the school over accepted students by a great number. Then when more students committed to their seats and paid deposits than the class size (even before the April 15 deadline, I think), Western deferred some of those committed students to the following year, delaying their matriculation for one year AND didn't refund their deposits back. Despite complaints made by many, even to AAVMC after this practice on c/o 2023, Western did that again on c/o 2024. You can go to those threads and look in detail.
 
DVMdreamcometrue said:
I can't comment on Western's vet program since I don't go there but I'm sure all vet med programs are good to be acredited. The "bad rep" you heard about may be due to the school's over accepting drama for the last two years. Long story short, the school over accepted students by a great number. Then when more students committed to their seats and paid deposits than the class size (even before the April 15 deadline, I think), Western deferred some of those committed students to the following year, delaying their matriculation for one year AND didn't refund their deposits back. Despite complaints made by many, even to AAVMC after this practice on c/o 2023, Western did that again on c/o 2024. You can go to those threads and look in detail.
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I think this is partly the reason why there is someone new in charge of admissions this year for Western....
 
Not sure if I should laugh or cry lmao did anyone get an acceptance?
 
Do you guys know how likely it is to even get off the waitlist? I’m so sad haha
 
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