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Animal Science programs - which university is best?

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Scarlet Jerry

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Jul 30, 2001
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One of my relatives is a HS senior who is accepted to Rutgers, UConn, UMass, Virginia Tech, Delaware, and University of Maryland. Putting any favoritism aside, does anyone have experience with the animal science programs at these universities? She wants to ultimately be a vet.

Thanks, in advance, if there is anyone who can offer expertise or experience in this domain.

Scarlet Jerry
 
I assume she knows the acceptance rate at vet schools. We can always use more doctors. Those schools are easier to get into. Good luck. $$$$
 
Thanks for these responses. She also was accepted at Penn State, but it did not make her final cut. Any overall impressions about these schools, beyond their animal science program, would be appreciated.

Scarlet Jerry
 
Scarlet Jerry said:
Thanks for these responses. She also was accepted at Penn State, but it did not make her final cut. Any overall impressions about these schools, beyond their animal science program, would be appreciated.

Scarlet Jerry
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One thing I know, if she goes to Rutgers and gets an animal science degree and the vet thing doesn't work out, she can walk across the street and get a job, at BMS. Or hell any pharmaceutical company and she'll find fellow Rutgers Grads galore to get her foot in the door. It's definitely one area where Rutgers holds an advantage over all those you mentioned.

Now if the Vet thing does work out. There's a real shortage of Farm/Ranch Vets in NJ. Our Vet is always slammed. She likes being able to get out and see the different farms and talk to people. Farm/Ranch people are nicer and more appreciative than your average domestic pet owner. It's not so much the person, Ranchers just have a greater knowledge and understanding of their animals. Her truck is her office and loves the freedom.
 
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koleszar said:
One thing I know, if she goes to Rutgers and gets an animal science degree and the vet thing doesn't work out, she can walk across the street and get a job, at BMS. Or hell any pharmaceutical company and she'll find fellow Rutgers Grads galore to get her foot in the door. It's definitely one area where Rutgers holds an advantage over all those you mentioned.

Now if the Vet thing does work out. There's a real shortage of Farm/Ranch Vets in NJ. Our Vet is always slammed. She likes being able to get out and see the different farms and talk to people. Farm/Ranch people are nicer and more appreciative than your average domestic pet owner. It's not so much the person, Ranchers just have a greater knowledge and understanding of their animals. Her truck is her office and loves the freedom.
Click to expand...

Thanks. What is BMS?
 
Scarlet Jerry said:
One of my relatives is a HS senior who is accepted to Rutgers, UConn, UMass, Virginia Tech, Delaware, and University of Maryland. Putting any favoritism aside, does anyone have experience with the animal science programs at these universities? She wants to ultimately be a vet.

Thanks, in advance, if there is anyone who can offer expertise or experience in this domain.

Scarlet Jerry
Click to expand...
Large or small animal vet. Serious question. It impacts the decision.
 
My son is starting at SEBS (Cook) in Fall. Animal Science is his major. Visted many schools large and small....Delaware Valley University and Cobbleskill (SUNY) were pretty cool but chose Rutgers since more options, if major changes. Wife and I studied Env. Science at Cook College as well. Great campus....SkilletHead Reminded me that we visited Maryland and got in but he is RU bound. Liked it more.
 
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Scarlet Jerry said:
One of my relatives is a HS senior who is accepted to Rutgers, UConn, UMass, Virginia Tech, Delaware, and University of Maryland. Putting any favoritism aside, does anyone have experience with the animal science programs at these universities? She wants to ultimately be a vet.

Thanks, in advance, if there is anyone who can offer expertise or experience in this domain.

Scarlet Jerry
Click to expand...
Hey Jerry,

Rutgers and Maryland have the best reps among that group. They are both members of the American Association of Universities, which is basically the best 65 uni's in the US (and Canada). The others are not.

Vet school is indeed tough to get into. More than picking the best school among these, she will need to knock it out of the park as a student. That includes getting good grades and getting to know some of her profs. Volunteer for stuff, work your way up to being a research assistant, etc.

She should also think a bit about what if she changes her mind and wants to do something else. At RU and Maryland, you have a wide range of other opportunities.

Best of luck to her! Hope this helps.
 
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Scarlet Jerry said:
Thanks. What is BMS?
Click to expand...
O and forgot getting into Veterinary school is very difficult to get into. Not that the rigors are so demanding, just that so few offer it. There's so few slots you have to be top of the tops. A lot of people have the grades and simply have to go out of the country.

Luvscarletknights said:
My son is starting at SEBS (Cook) in Fall. Animal Science is his major. Visted many schools large and small....Delaware Valley University and Cobbleskill (SUNY) were pretty cool but chose Rutgers since more options, if major changes. Wife and I studied Env. Science at Cook College as well. Great campus....
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Our Farm helper decided to go to Delaware Valley, she liked it a lot and chose them over some others. She really liked that it wasn't a huge school and felt she could get a more personalized experience. she wants to be a Vet, I told her when all else fails there's always Guatemala.
 
DelVal is (SEBS) Cook on Steroids but again not many options in case things change. Quite impressive though. Cobbleskill had a hatchery to support local restaurants and a USDA meat packing facility.
 
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Thanks for your responses, everyone. She is a super smart student. As a New Jersey resident, I think that she wants to go out of state, despite that fact that my son and I went to Rutgers, along with her mother, and we all had great experiences followed by successful careers. I didn't know anything about Delaware Valley, but she did not apply there, so it's not an option. I will ask her if she is interested in large or small animals. I know that she volunteers at a horse ranch, but I know that she also loves puppies.

Regarding the schools that are her finalists, she liked the UMass and UConn campuses, but as people mentioned, Rutgers, Penn State, and Maryland are AAU universities, so they are in a higher academic class than the others.

Thanks, again, for everyone's help.

Scarlet Jerry
 
Virginia Tech is kind of in the middle of nowhere in the southwestern part of VA. From the culture standpoint, that's going to be the school that is the most different than the others and most foreign from a kid from this part of the country. Some would thrive in a completely different cultural environment, for others, it would be a struggle. How happy one is in the environment that they go to college in absolutely has an impact on one's grades, and thus one's ability to get into a graduate program.
 
Yes, I went to Penn for grad school after I graduated from Rutgers. It's a great school, but like colleges in any urban area, the neighborhood was very sketchy when I was there. A student was murdered in her on campus apartment my first week of school. I visited again a year ago, and the whole surrounding area as been transformed, so it appears to be much safer now.

Scarlet Jerry
 
Scarlet Jerry said:
Yes, I went to Penn for grad school after I graduated from Rutgers. It's a great school, but like colleges in any urban area, the neighborhood was very sketchy when I was there. A student was murdered in her on campus apartment my first week of school. I visited again a year ago, and the whole surrounding area as been transformed, so it appears to be much safer now.

Scarlet Jerry
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That whole area is dramatically changed in the last 30 years. Actually an $$ area these days.
 
Somewhat related, but I have a friend who moved here from Northern California to do her veterinary residency because of the wide variety of high quality vet hospitals in NJ. Definitely a good place to be for the field long term, even if after an undergrad program elsewhere.
 
WhiteBus said:
Where are you getting that inaccurate info?
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It's not inaccurate at all. They only admit a class of around 125 a 1/4 of the applicants are residents they take less than 10% of all applicants. A lot of kids go to Delaware Valley because they're associated with Penn Vet and hope to get in. Vet school is cut throat there's only like 30 schools in the entire country which offer it.
 
Not on your list but I had a family member go to Cornell. This was back in the 1980s.
I also work with someone who went to Texas A&M. Not sure where these school rank, but both people are very smart and successful.
 
koleszar said:
It's not inaccurate at all. They only admit a class of around 125 a 1/4 of the applicants are residents they take less than 10% of all applicants. A lot of kids go to Delaware Valley because they're associated with Penn Vet and hope to get in. Vet school is cut throat there's only like 30 schools in the entire country which offer it.
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Penn doesn't have a strict resident qualification for the Veterinary program. There is no minimum requirement. The only favored applicants are those that have experience with a Veterinarian office with Penn grads.
 
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RU205 said:
Not on your list but I had a family member go to Cornell. This was back in the 1980s.
I also work with someone who went to Texas A&M. Not sure where these school rank, but both people are very smart and successful.
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Cornell Ag is not as difficult to get into as Cornell but is a part of the school. It's how Cornell gets all those good wrestlers to wrestle for Cornell. They also have Finger Lakes Community College where their Olympic training center is located. Can't get into Cornell Ag, go to Finger Lakes for a year while wrestling there then you get into Cornell Ag. It's why they've won 39 Ivy Wrestling Championships in 70 yrs.. UPenn has just started getting into the wrestling game with a lot of private money dumped into their own Olympic wrestling club.
 
WhiteBus said:
Where are you getting that inaccurate info?
Click to expand...
koleszar said:
It's not inaccurate at all. They only admit a class of around 125 a 1/4 of the applicants are residents they take less than 10% of all applicants. A lot of kids go to Delaware Valley because they're associated with Penn Vet and hope to get in. Vet school is cut throat there's only like 30 schools in the entire country which offer it.
Click to expand...
Vet medicine is far from my forte but isn't Penn Vet not applicable relative to the OP because it's an advanced degree program leading to DVM? It's not a bachelor's degree granting program as far as I'm aware so applicants aren't coming out of high school. Perhaps the OP's relative has sights set on Penn Vet eventually, but that would be in 4 years at the soonest.
 
RUnTeX said:
Vet medicine is far from my forte but isn't Penn Vet not applicable relative to the OP because it's an advanced degree program leading to DVM? It's not a bachelor's degree granting program as far as I'm aware so applicants aren't coming out of high school. Perhaps the OP's relative has sights set on Penn Vet eventually, but that would be in 4 years at the soonest.
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Correct but there are specific curriculum requirements in obtaining a bachelors degree to qualify for admission.
 
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koleszar said:
Cornell Ag is not as difficult to get into as Cornell but is a part of the school.
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It's been a back door into Cornell for years being NYState's land grant school.

In some respects, not too much different than when Rutgers College was still private and not yet designated the State U of NJ (up until 1946) and the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science (before it was renamed Cook) was the affiliated college that was NJ's land grant school.
 
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RUnTeX said:
Vet medicine is far from my forte but isn't Penn Vet not applicable relative to the OP because it's an advanced degree program leading to DVM? It's not a bachelor's degree granting program as far as I'm aware so applicants aren't coming out of high school. Perhaps the OP's relative has sights set on Penn Vet eventually, but that would be in 4 years at the soonest.
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Also I don't know any programs that get you a DVM without a bachelor degree. So I'm confused about you thinking Penn is different than any other University. Some allow you to apply when you reach 90 credits (Penn included) but the admission rate under those conditions are less than 1%.
 
WhiteBus said:
Also I don't know any programs that get you a DVM without a bachelor degree. So I'm confused about you thinking Penn is different than any other University. Some allow you to apply when you reach 90 credits (Penn included) but the admission rate under those conditions are less than 1%.
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I'm not saying Penn is any different than other Vet programs. I was questioning why Penn Vet was brought up in this thread in the first place since it's not immediately relevant to a discussion of undergrad Animal Science programs. The OP even mentioned his relative is a HS senior.
 
RUnTeX said:
I'm not saying Penn is any different than other Vet programs. I was questioning why Penn Vet was brought up in this thread in the first place since it's not immediately relevant to a discussion of undergrad Animal Science programs. The OP even mentioned his relative is a HS senior.
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Because Penn has a program with undergrad curriculum and connections to actual veterinary work experience. The OP did say that she ultimately wanted to be a Vet
 
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Pick the animals they want to treat, size, what type format the animals are found (lab, home, farm, zoo, wild) then focus on the school from there.

They are all hard to enter, Cornell is the best I've heard of around here (NY/NJ).

Sometimes being hard to get into, isn't the best measuring stick for what the actual Student will receive in the program.
 
My son is a veterinarian.
His Cook Animal Science major prepared him well.
More than once Vet school classmates asked him "how come you know this stuff already?"
and his answer was "I learned all of this already at Rutgers."
 
motorb54 said:
My son is a veterinarian.
His Cook Animal Science major prepared him well.
More than once Vet school classmates asked him "how come you know this stuff already?"
and his answer was "I learned all of this already at Rutgers."
Click to expand...

This is also my experience when I went to veterinary school. (BTW- Rutgers/Cook crushes Delaware Valley in academics, and reputation.
 
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