Resources in Animal Biology

[Anonymous]

My daughter is very interested right now in sciences majors for college that would enable her to work with animals for a career and perhaps as a veterinarian. Her specific goal at the moment is to become a veterinarian at a zoo. There isn't anyone in our family who she can turn to for advice on this area and so I thought I'd ask if anyone could share resources and/or advice on this area for college that I could pass on to her. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I am a vet, there is only one 6 year combined college/DVM program (Lincoln Memorial in TN, it is pretty new). Otherwise, need to go to college and major in biology or something in the sciences to cover the prereqs for vet school, if you actually want to work with animals during college, a large state university with an agriculture school would make sense, but can get plenty of animal experience in the summer at vet clinic as as volunteer or at a farm somewhere. Vet school is more difficult than med school to get into, so need really good grades and some practical or research experience. The best schools in the country are generally considered Penn and Cornell for academic/research oriented animal medicine. Vet school is expensive so if you have an in state option worth exploring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a vet, there is only one 6 year combined college/DVM program (Lincoln Memorial in TN, it is pretty new). Otherwise, need to go to college and major in biology or something in the sciences to cover the prereqs for vet school, if you actually want to work with animals during college, a large state university with an agriculture school would make sense, but can get plenty of animal experience in the summer at vet clinic as as volunteer or at a farm somewhere. Vet school is more difficult than med school to get into, so need really good grades and some practical or research experience. The best schools in the country are generally considered Penn and Cornell for academic/research oriented animal medicine. Vet school is expensive so if you have an in state option worth exploring.

Thanks so much for your thoughts. Right now, she's considering Wildlife Science as her undergrad, hopefully at Virginia Tech, and then going on to vet school. She's also looking at Virginia Tech for vet school (it is in-state for us) but they seem to have a huge focus on farms and food, and she's not sure if that'll make it harder for her to get where she wants -- working with zoo animals. This is an area that we really know nothing about so while I'm sure she'll get good counseling at college once she goes in for undergrad I'd like to help her learn a little to start. I am assuming that a research oriented program would be better for her interests but I do cringe at the different costs for Cornell vs. VT.