Bianca
I plan on going to a 4-year college, but I have five choices to choose from, please help me decide.
I'm mainly looking into my top three colleges. My top college has everything I want; biology, physics, pre-pharmacy, and veterinary medicine, but it's also 4 hours away from my family. All these majors are different but they are all the same in some ways. I still don't know what I want to be, but I know for certain that I want to help in some way. My second top college only has physics and biology, and it's about an hour away from my family. My third top college also only has physics and biology, as well as it being an hour away from my family. They are all under $20,000 per year; top college being $16,904, second college being $19,843, and third college being $19,232. #medicine
1 answer
Kim Igleheart
Kim’s Answer
Bianca,
I am assuming you are referring to Texas A&M. If not, I apologize!
Veterinary Medicine is usually an advanced degree, and possibly should not enter into your decision for your undergraduate schooling. Please see this list of majors for Texas A&M: http://catalog.tamu.edu/graduate/degrees-programs/
Getting into veterinary school is extremely competitive. Selection process: http://vetmed.tamu.edu/dvm/future/selection-process
If that is something you feel very strongly about, start now to find out what you need to do to improve your chances of acceptance. For example, A&M requires 100 hours of "veterinary experience" (working directly with a veterinarian, either paid or volunteer). Also research what percentage of students complete their undergrad elsewhere. I don't know that attending undergrad at A&M will improve your chances of admission. (I was not able to quickly locate this information, but, I'm sure it is available!)
Texas A&M does not offer a Pre-Pharm degree. <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 33);">opsa.tamu.edu/OPSA/media/library/pharmacy.pdf </span>They have a pre-pharm student organization, and recommended curriculum, but you have choices as to what degree you want to get. However, 80% of the students completed their undergrad at A&M. If you feel strongly about Pharm, it would probably be best to complete undergrad at A&M.
The two other schools are only an hour from home. That is actually do-able as a commute, rather than living on campus, and will save you a lot of money. It won't result in the full college experience, however, if you are thinking of going for an advanced degree, other than PharmD, it is something to consider. You could take classes 2-3 days a week, take some on-line classes, night classes, etc. Many night classes meet only one day per week. Even if you live at school, it will be easier to go home more often for holidays, etc.
Just by looking at these websites, it is clear that it is very important what classes you take in your undergrad if you are interested in vet school or pharmD. Vet school will look at how many sciences classes you took per semester, how many total hours you took per semester, etc., to determine if you will be able to handle vet school . If you are considering advanced schooling, please read up on these requirements prior to starting college!
My recommendations at this point? If you can afford to go to A&M, I would probably go there. It is a highly reputable school. Of course, I don't know anything about the other two choices!