Illinois (pros)
•quarter system with 1 quarter clinicals (meaning only one cumulative test a quarter)
•early clinicals
•close to home
•wildlife center
•study abroad opportunities
(cons)
•very small town
•too close to home?
•more expensive
1. Now that I'm practicing, the quarter of clinics during 1st and 2nd year didn't really ultimately help me from a knowledge stand point. I would much rather have the structure of Mississippi or Mizzou. Likewise, as a student, I loved rotation vacation because it was a nice break from classes. I think YMMV though.
2. Closeness to home is definitely a personal choice. I'm from Denver, so I only left for long holidays (no long weekends) and one drastic family emergency when me sister died. And even then, it was a process cause my dad came to get me. It didn't bother me to be so far away with holidays and stuff. But it sucked when my sister died during and after the whole event.
3. WMC was one of the highlights of my experience. 10/10 would recommend.
4. I went to undergrad in a town or 5,000 people with 1 stop light and 3mi^2 of actually constructed town (after growing up in Denver). To me, Champaign-Urbana is big enough to supply things to do while being small enough to be affordable. I did way more in undergrad in town than I ever did in Champaign too because I dedicated *a lot* of time to vet school extra curriculars.
Florida (pros)
•in a growing community
•nicer hospital
•staff/other students seem to really care about you
•cheaper
•small ruminant extension program
•certification programs
(cons)
•weird class schedule (would be tests almost every week though less material)
•clinicals start later
•far from home
1. Illinois has essentially a brand new small animal hospital. The large animal hospital can never be completely redone without complete and total demolition, but has been getting upgrades, including an updated surgery suite in the coming years.
2. I know to a certain extent I am somewhat in the minority, but I think the vast majority of Illinois staff/faculty care about the students. I would have failed out a second time when my sister died without the support of my class and the adults around me. There are certainly things I would change. But overall, I think the students are cared about.
I will also point out that the point of open houses and tours is to sell you the school. I was the student coordinator for Illinois tour guides and definitely talked the school up for the sake of showing off the school. So keep that in mind.
3. Illinois production medicine club and equine clubs are easily in the top 5 most active clubs on campus. You can get a ton of experience through the large animal department at school if you know where to look.
4. Certification programs are worthwhile if you'll use them. Like the shelter program at UF blows everyone else out of the water essentially. But ultimately isn't very applicable to the majority of students. Same with the forensics cert. If you're going to go into forensics or do ER, it's a great resource. For those doing general practice, you'll hardly use it. Wouldn't recommend certifications being a deciding factor for vet school.
5. The testing schedule is definitely personal preference. Having 1 big test every 4 weeks made it easy to be complacent. Likewise, I didn't have that stress every week.
I'll echo the sentiment of going with the cheaper location. I actually really like going to Illinois for vet school. But I was always going to go to the cheapest school I was accepted to. They all get you to the same place in the end and there really is nothing that any school offers that makes their degree better or makes a student more likely to specialize.
