SGU vs ROSS

[Marbury1234]

Hey everyone!! I got accepted in SGU and Ross Veterinary University. I really wanted to go to school in the Caribbean to get experience in marine/exotic/wildlife veterinary medicine. Anyone have any idea which school will offer better opportunities to become a speciality vet in these fields? Thanks!

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[SkiOtter]

Your most important time for any of those opportunities will be during clinical rotations and making connections with clinicians in those areas. Some schools have exotic med services that you can rotate through and you can schedule externships off campus as well. The best benefit would be the most flexibility with how many free elective rotation spots you have for on campus stuff and how many you can use for externships.

Also, keep in mind that many off campus clinical rotation externships for that field will be scheduling people anywhere from 2-3 years before you even go there for your rotation.

 

[ClinicalAdvisor]

Ross for sure. Awesome education.

 

[theSAvet]

I would advise going to both islands and seeing what it’s like first. I am in the process of withdrawing from one of them (I’m trying to be neutral) because the island and the schools curriculum was not a good fit for me. There are many students who thrive in the program, and I’m happy for them, but there is a large population of students who are either unhappy but see themselves sticking it out or unhappy and actively trying to get out. It is not as easy or exciting as you may think going to a Caribbean school, but if you take the time to thoroughly investigate it, and you find that it is for you, I wish you all the best.

 

[pcough2011]

Can't give you any info on Ross but I can share what SGU has to offer in terms of wildlife/exotics experience. The SGU curriculum has one mandatory exotics (fish, marine, herps, avian, pocket pets) course, a 6th term exotics/wildlife selective, and a new 3-day selective course in conservation medicine. Outside of classwork we have the opportunity to participate in sea turtle nesting season monitoring each spring. And if you're interested in research, there is occasionally the opportunity to do small research projects or do an MSc involving wildlife or fish medicine. Don't get me wrong, I love SGU for a lot of reasons, but I'd say we probably have roughly the same amount of wildlife opportunities as most other universities. In fact, I know Florida has a way stronger aquatics focus than we do, and Tufts, Cornell, and NC State are probably better for wildlife. But like @SkiOtter said, you're gonna get most of your wildlife and exotics stuff during summer externships or clinical year rotations. So choosing a clinical year school with the most flexibility and elective options is crucial.

 

[meowlover]

SGU 100%, more student success focused bs Ross

 

[Ardently.cowenby]

Can't give you any info on Ross but I can share what SGU has to offer in terms of wildlife/exotics experience. The SGU curriculum has one mandatory exotics (fish, marine, herps, avian, pocket pets) course, a 6th term exotics/wildlife selective, and a new 3-day selective course in conservation medicine. Outside of classwork we have the opportunity to participate in sea turtle nesting season monitoring each spring. And if you're interested in research, there is occasionally the opportunity to do small research projects or do an MSc involving wildlife or fish medicine. Don't get me wrong, I love SGU for a lot of reasons, but I'd say we probably have roughly the same amount of wildlife opportunities as most other universities. In fact, I know Florida has a way stronger aquatics focus than we do, and Tufts, Cornell, and NC State are probably better for wildlife. But like @SkiOtter said, you're gonna get most of your wildlife and exotics stuff during summer externships or clinical year rotations. So choosing a clinical year school with the most flexibility and elective options is crucial.

I was looking for info about SGU for a friend. Im a current student at AVC. If you’re from the US can you confirm that you can’t get US gov loans to attend SGU?

 

[SkiOtter]

If you’re from the US can you confirm that you can’t get US gov loans to attend SGU?

You can get US government loans to attend both SGU and Ross for their DVM programs. You cannot get government loans for any of their pre-DVM programs/“vet prep” because they are not the AVMA-accredited program, only the DVM program is. You can get US government loans for the European schools that are AVMA-accredited too (their DVM-equivalent programs, they don’t call it DVM though at the UK schools).
Here is the list of AVMA-accredited schools.

https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/colleges-accredited-12-23.pdf