Before you even get far into the process of veterinary school you need to think very long and hard about if this is really what YOU WANT to do! You always have to keep yourself at the core of all of your decisions and weigh the advice of others carefully. As unfortunate as it is, there can sometime be family pressure for or against a certain career pathway. You can't go into this profession for anyone but yourself because this is a huge life choice.

 

Next, start thinking about what is going to make you happy and how you picture yourself in the long-term. Committing to a veterinary school means at least four years and potentially more if you choose a specialization.

 

Below are some of the basics that you want to think about:

- Diverse campus: do you like a rich multicultural environment?

- Urban/Rural campus: which setting do you prefer? Do you want to ride/bike to class or are you fine with driving to campus?

- Location: is the school located in a city you could see yourself settling down in or will you need to move after you get your DVM?

- Climate: do you want seasons or only nice temperature all year round? Do you just want to get away from home or stay close?

- Profession interest: what kind of veterinary emphasis are you interested? Research, clinical, specialization, zoological, marine….etc. Try to find schools that are known for that particular area of veterinary medicine.

- Joint degrees: does the school have the degrees you are interested in?

- Requirements: do you meet them? If not, you might want to look to improve your application or search for other schools. In addition, you need to make sure that you even meet all of the academic and extracurricular requirements as they can vary between schools.

- Tuition: is the school in-state or out-of-state? Are you prepared to go into that much debt?

 

MOST IMPORTANTLY, is it a right fit for you? If you visit a campus and discover that you don't like some major aspect then DON'T go there. You are going to spend four years there and you won't do well if you are miserable. Sometimes it can be very difficult to determine if a school is right for you, but with hard work, lots of research and reflection, in addition to getting help from your support system, you will be able to figure it out.  

 

Speaking of your support system, it is very crucial to have one. Choosing, applying, and getting into veterinary school is a very grueling and long process. You are going to need to have those people in your life that you can call to talk about how frustrating the process is, how excited you are that you just submitted everything, or to just be there for you to talk through your problems. In addition, your support system is a huge resource for you in making this big decision. Faculty members and professional advisor can help suggest school options, improve your application, and help guide you through the process of figuring out what you want in a school. Other people resources that you can utilize are graduate students enrolled in your programs of interest, veterinarians you work with, friends, and your family. At times you might seem like you are alone in this process, but always remember that there is someone you can turn to for advice, help, or simply a listening ear.

 

My own person selection process:

- I started thinking about what veterinary schools I wanted to apply to during my sophomore year of college. The sooner you start looking into schools the better because it will give you an idea of what you have to look forward to, what you want in a college, and especially what special requirements your schools of choice might have. The biggest factors that I looked at were location, tuition, and prestige. I wanted a school that was semi-close to home (so California wasn't really an option), warm weather was definetely a plus, it need to be located in a larger city for my fiance as he was looking for engineering jobs, tuition couldn't be astronomically high (so Ohio State was out of the question), and I wanted it to be ranked in the top ten veterinary schools in the U.S. In order to stay organized with how you approach choosing a school, I suggest that you make an excel spreadsheet that outlines all of the attributes that you care about for each of the schools you are thinking about applying to. This process led me to choose Michigan State University, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Carolina State University. I definetely don't regret choosing any of these schools because they were all great options for my situation. What I do regret is not broadening my options and choosing more schools to apply to so that I would have hopefully had  more options to choose from when acceptance/decline time came around in March. In the end, I have chosen to go to Michigan State University and I couldn't be happier. It is close to home, the tuition is in-state, it is a larger city, I have a great support system there, and it is ranked in the top ten schools. No matter what, make sure that you are happy in your decision!