What does school ranking mean?

[kittyy]

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Hi everyone,

I keep seeing rankings for the vet schools and I wanted to know how they rank them. The school I liked the most has a low ranking and I'm not sure what to think about this, especially because I have been accepted to a school with a high ranking.


Thanks,
Rachael

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

"What does school ranking mean?"

Precisely jack. If this was a list of hundreds of schools and we were talking about #1 versus #500, then yes, it might matter. But between #1 and #28? The difference is negligible. Most of those rankings are based on research funding, research generation, donation rate of alumni, and student/faculty surveys anyways. Not quality of education.

Eg. "The rankings, compiled every four years by U.S. News and World Report, are based on peer assessment surveys the publications sends to college deans, administrators and faculty members at each of the nation’s 28 veterinary colleges accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). "

Peer assessment surveys? So basically the highest ranked schools are the ones where the faculty pat each other on the back the most 😉


I went to a mediocre-ranked, smaller school and got a fantastic education. Yeah, there's some name bias in the job market (e.g. grads from certain schools liking to hire grads from the name school) but overall it is very unlikely that your school choice will even remotely hurt you.

Go to the one you want to be at - that's more important than ranking by far.

 

[kittyy]

Thank you. The one I want to go to wait listed me, but I'm going to wait and if I need to I will accept the other school and deny it later.

 

[Jamr0ckin]

Just FYI - UTK hasn't been ranked recently because they were on limited accreditation because of the large animal part of the school. Now, with our expansion of the large animal and equine unit we are back to full accrediation.

But again - rankings mean crap.

 

[heylodeb]

Psh.RANKINGSareEVERYTHING!!!!!

Signed,
UC Davis Student
…............

Just kidding. As much as I would love to say they mattered cuz I'm at one if the "top" ones, they really really don't . Go to the school that you like the most (or is the cheapest....) and you'll get a good education wherever you are.