Career choice/ college?
Question:
1) Best places to go for my four year degree
2) Best places to go for my other college (my other two or four years in college forgot what it was called)
3) What degrees I should get
4) What grades I might need to get a scholarship or AP classes I should take
OK, let's do everything you asked--and then what you didn't ask but need to know:
1. It really won't matter what college you attend for a BS degree--unless you're in one of the most selective universities like Harvard, Yale or MIT. If it's not an impressive name university, any fully accredited school will come across as equal.
2. There are relatively few universities with a professional graduate degree in veterinary science; by the time you are close to graduation there may be a couple new ones. You should plan to apply to all of them (or most--exclude if you think you'd hate working in that geographical location or similar reasons). When you get to your junior year, work with your college's career development center to get the applications right. (Good idea: work with the career development office beginning in your freshman year!).
3. Specific degree is not important, but pre-med, biology, general science would be my choices--you'll want to put a lot of biology and chemistry in your transcript. For electives, choose a wide range of courses to give the impression of breadth--grad. schools like that (irrationally, in this case).
4. If you're talking about scholarships for undergraduate work, your school's financial aid office can give you as much help on those questions as you will ever need. If it's for the grad. program, there are few scholarships at that level--as a veterinary student (just like med. or law students) you should plan to run up an enormous, nauseating student loan debt--and don't worry, you'll be able to pay it off.
Now--the other stuff:
A. Earn a super-high GPA; 3.5 is marginal.
B. You'll have to take a graduate-school exam (I think veterinary schools like the MCAT just like medical school) and a high score there is helpful. Plan to do pre-test preparation study.
C. Veterinary schools want students who have established experince with animals, particularly large animals. While in college, find a way to volunteer or take a part-time job where you can work with a wide range of animals--working in a zoo, going out to farms to assist a large-animal vet, etc. I heard of one student whose ticket to vet school was going to Africa and working with lions.
D. Making the acquaintance of veteranarians (see C) is most helpful; you can ask them which veterinary schools they recommend (their own, usually!), you can ask them about admissions procedures like what to expect in a screening interview, and you can ask them to write letters of recommendation when you'll need them for your application.
1.) Any school is ok for undergrad. Just make sure you get good grades.
2.) Not sure
3.) You probably want to get your BS in biology
4.) Well to get GREAT scholarships, you need all A's and to be the valedictorian. As long as you get Bs, you should get some form of scholarship. I don't know many (if any) people who pay the full price of college.
If you think you can get 4's or 5's on the APs, then ANY would help. If you're going to get 1's or 2's then it's not worth it. Colleges don't care if you tried but failed. People might tell you biology and chemistry (or any science) would be good, but some colleges don't accept AP credit in your major. Therefore you may want to take AP comp or lit in order to get some of your core out of the way. Even if you dont' get AP credit for a class in your major, it might still be good so that when you take it in college it could be a little easer. There's pros and cons to everything. Good luck!!
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