Hello, can anyone give me any insight on the vet placement rate of UNH-Durham? I know the program is connected to Tufts, but I would love to hear some perspective on this program, as compared to other ones in the country re: greater success of placement.
Our second daughter wants to be a vet (currently 11th grade), and she is very strong academically, but, I figure it can’t hurt to choose a school/program that has a decent placement rate.
You might reach out to these folks and ask for data. Note - most that start probably self select themselves out of medical school. It’s true in pre med and likely in pre vet as well.
But I imagine they have stats.
One advantage of UNH is you can get an under $40k out of state with merit, dependent upon your stats - to help save money for vet school.
I’m guessing placement rates are more student related than school related. UNH is a less selective school so overall its student strength will be less which might impact professional schools. If there is an affiliation to Tufts, then find out what is needed and does it provide an assured admission. I don’t see the affiliation you note on either school’s webpage.
Vanessa Grunkemeyer, DVM, DABVP (Avian)
Director, UNH Pre-Veterinary Advising Program
Office: Kendall Hall Room 111
Email: vanessa.grunkemeyer@unh.edu
Phone: [(603) 862- 0176](tel:(603) 862- 0176)
General Information
Jen Surina
Office: Agriculture, Nutrition, & Food Systems, Kendall Hall Room 225
Email: jennifer.surina@unh.edu
Phone: [(603) 862-0822](tel:(603) 862-0822)
I would be SHOCKED if it did that it would be plastered on their homepage I would think.
I have a friend who has a kid who is in college pre-vet and UNH and UVM were finalists (amongst a few others) for them. They decided on UVM and I am pretty sure if UNH provided a Tufts guarantee they would have gone to UNH.
I am not sure where you are, but they have speciality pre-vet tours: Academic Sessions (COLSA)
FWIW My kid had entirely different interests, but I thought UNH was great when we visited and I have another friend who is an instructor at an ivy and their kid went to the business school and really raved.
I think that UNH is a very good choice for a pre-vet student, particularly if you are in-state or can get significant merit aid.
Just over 5 years ago I got to listen to the incoming reception for new DVM students in a very good DVM program. They said where each student got their bachelor’s degree. The quick summary is “all over the place”. I think that the actual school where the program was located was probably the only school mentioned 10 or more times, out of something like 140 incoming students. I remember hearing a couple of other schools twice, but there was a very, very wide range in terms of where the students were coming from.
One very important thing to keep in mind for a potential DVM student is that you need to budget for a full 8 years of university. Our daughter when she was in her DVM program said that most of the other students in the same program were taking on way too much debt, and most did not want to talk about it. It would be best if you can help you daughter in a very significant way with the cost of the DVM program. For many of us this can be easier to do if we start with an affordable undergraduate university.
One thing to look at is the CREAM program at UNH. Our daughter did something similar but at UVM. The success rate at getting into a DVM program from these programs is insanely high (I sort of vaguely recall something in excess of 80%). Part of the reason for this is that you do not automatically get into these programs, but instead need to apply, and the acceptance criteria overlaps with the criteria for getting into a DVM program. However, part of the reason is that these are very good programs that give the students very good experience.
As one example of this, just before our daughter was applying to DVM programs I told her that I was impressed that she had reached inside a cow three different ways. She gave me a funny look, paused, and then said “Dad, which way don’t you know about?”. As another example, when in the DVM program at one point they split into groups of 8 students and needed to draw blood from a dog. My daughter was the only one in her group that could do it. The reason? She had drawn blood from cows many times, starting with the CREAM program.
And I also agree with another poster that UVM is another university that is very good for an undergraduate pre-vet program.
The last thing that I might mention is that while academic strength is important for a potential DVM student, a few other things are just as important. One is determination and the desire to stick with it. Another is experience with animals. If possible experience with both large and small animals is valuable (“big ones and little ones”, to quote a former presidential candidate way out of context). The willingness to get yucky is also important. The ability to afford to pay for 8 years of university without taking on much in the way of debt is also important.
My daughter loves being a veterinarian. Hopefully your daughter will also. Best wishes and let me know if you have any other questions.
This is GREAT input. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave such a substantial comment!
UNH’s DVM placement rate is around 80%, way above the national average. My daughter’s classmates all did very well when they applied.
Do you know if they had completed the CREAM program?
I am wondering whether this only counts students who have completed the CREAM program. For these students yes the DVM placement rate is slightly over 80% (I looked it up after posting my comments above). This is of course exceptional, and is similar to the rate for students who complete the CREAM program at UVM.
Regardless I agree that UNH is very good for a pre-vet student.
And congratulations on behalf of your daughter’s classmates.
My daughter wasn’t in CREAM and is attending CSU DVM. Two of her classmates were. Two others were not. All seem to be doing well aside from the normal stress of transitioning from undergrad to medical school.
Please pay -extremely close attention- to DadTwoGirls comments.
My wife and I are both Veterinarians.
If any of our three children had shown significant interest in becoming a veterinarian I would have given the following advice;
(1) Look at the -minimum- admission criteria for your state or state cooperative veterinary school first, then also look at another 4-5 schools in areas she might want to attend. Understand that beyond the strict academic number (GPA / STEM GPA) things published there are often additional requirements for exposure hours etc.
(2) With the creation of so many ‘new’ (established in last 20 years) and ‘planned’ veterinary programs set to come on line(opening next 4-5 years) along with the major expansion in available seats at existing schools - understand that the top line academic performance hurdle (GPA) is still relatively high but not insurmountable. It won’t take a 4.0 and there are programs that report average GPAs of under 3.5 - however you will find most of these will be the ‘private / for-profit’ schools and those are generally your most expensive options.
(3) Student debt on -entering- the program is just as important as it is on what they believe they are going to incur while in the program. Student debt is crushing many younger veterinarians - and they may be counseled beforehand that it’s not that big of a deal because of the federal government loan payback programs. It’s still a HUGE problem.
(4) A much larger portion of students are going into internships and specialty residencies now versus 30 years ago. This is usally a 1-4 year process on top of the undergraduate and veterinary school period. While specialty salaries are generally higher (though it varies by specialty) the delay of 4 years and possibly needed additional loans is something to be considered.
(5) Really consider what your daughters Plan “B” and Plan “C” would be at each school she might be interested in - If she loses interest in Veterinary Medicine after 1-2 years, or if her performance isn’t lining up with the admissions criteria - what major is she in and can she easily change to others that are also promising for other careers -or- would she have to consider an undergraduate transfer else where. I would hazard a SWAG that the percentage of kids heading off to college who say they are ‘pre-vet’ versus the percentage who end up actually applying as viable candidates for admissions is probably 3:1 or 4:1.
(6) The overall landscape of Veterinary Practice in the US has been and will continue to change for the forseeable future. We have seen a significant increase in the large scale corporate ownership (Mars - Banfield, VCA etc) and well as consolidators and private equity concerns are becoming a larger employer. Where as this has, in some cases, increase the -starting compensation- for new grads over the past 15+ years (versus the old system with 90+% private ownership practices), there is considerable turnover and burnout reported within these organizations -and- your top end compensation tends to flatten out, especially with fewer ownership / partnership opportunities for a new grad to mature into (either to earn in or buy-in).
I would encourage -you- to take at look at the COA/debt simulator as well as the Q&A information provided by the VIN Foundation to help you to understand why the financials are really just as important as your daughters interest in “pre-vet”.
We are 10 minutes from UNH and looked at it closely for S23, who was looking for animal science/pre-vet major. It had a strong program but I do not recall it having any arrangement with Tufts or any other Vet School for that matter. My son was never going to go there anyway, but in my mind, UMASS Amherst had the better program. No school will guarantee admission unless you enter a 7-8 year program at the outset. There are a handful of those programs. Some schools have partnerships with Vet Schools to allow their students to apply early and receive an early acceptance conditioned on maintaining a certain GPA. More rarely, there is an opportunity to shave a year off by having you first year of vet school be the final year of your bachelor’s degree. Some schools will entertain applicants who have not completed a Bachelor’s but I do not know how such an applicant can fare against many applicants that will have a BS in hand.
Tufts maintained an early acceptance program (not early admission) for many years with UMASS Amherst, WPI, and a couple other places, but it was discontinued last year. Perhaps it will be resurrected in the future.
We looked at all the New England flagships (UNH, UMASS-Amherst, UVM, UMAINE & UCONN). Each had livestock farm (not all had the CREAM program) and high research activity. We went to accepted students day at all except UCONN and UNH (separate visit).
My kid chose UMASS because the program presentation was substantively excellent (though not flashy) and because UMASS HAD early acceptance partnerships with Tufts and the University of Edinburgh. After application and interview with Edinburgh, S23 received a conditional (non-binding) acceptance to Edinburgh as a junior, but will not attend until he graduates with his B.S.
It is important to consider the cost implications of your undergraduate choice given the expense of vet school and student loan changes. Beyond cost, a high GPA, strong undergrad advising, animal hours, veterinary hours, and research hours will make applicant competitive for vet school. As will completion of as many pre-requisites as possible.
A list of accredited programs and pre-requisites are available at the AMPVMA.
If you cannot find them let me know.
Good luck!
It’s a relatively smaller number of admits - non degree attendees at start has historically ranged 5-10% for decades.
My wife and I were both in after 3 years undergraduate(she was the year behind me). There were 5 non degree attendees (I don’t know admit numbers) in my class that started with 85 students . 4 were after three years, 1 was after two years.
Most of the Accredited Schools have an integrated pathway for those entering without a bachelors to attain one through the normal course of study (BS in Veterinary medicine) after 2 years to ensure those graduating have both a Bachelors and a DVM by finish. This wasn’t always the case but was done so that students could apply for academic residency programs that would confer a MS or in some cases a PhD after finishing the DVM (or in some case while pursuing the DVM. Since the DVM is considered a “professional degree” credential rather than an academic degree credential the path goes BS-Masters-PhD.
It’s also something to consider the possibility of attending the undergraduate school that houses the veterinary school as well - my Alma Mater allowed me to exit the College of LAS after three years to start Veterinary School and then permitted me to use my first years courses in veterinary school back as credits to gain my BS from LAS. Thus I have two BS ( one biology from LAS and one veterinary medicine) in addition to my other degrees.
The AAVMC (Association of American Veyerinary Colleges) tried to track a lot of admissions as well as graduation and post grad info and is worth check out - they report the historical % of Non Degree at admission has been at between 5-10% historically. Though the last few years data has not made it to their charts yet and was trending downward after 2016 (down to like 6% in 2019). However the chart reads like it may more like the % of non degrees attending rather than admitted because it refers to them by “class”.
Great info given above. My son is a veterinarian and now in his residency for radiology so we have been around this for awhile. UNH is a good program. Also look at the schools with early admit programs. There are several. My son did Kansas State (excellent program), also liked Mississippi State’s program. There is also one at Purdue and a few other schools. I know that at Kansas State and Mississippi State you can apply while you are still in high school If you are accepted you are in their program. Undergrad you have to meet the current requirements and then you will be accepted to their vet school. We loved the guaranteed admission part of things. He was able to complete his requirements in 3 years undergrad and then do his 4 years of vet school (with a full scholarship for one of those semesters). Good luck with all.
