dd wants to be a vet - advice on best curricula please

[5LittleMonkeys]

I am hoping to get some advice from some of you who already have highschool students and may have already plotted the type of science coarse I need for my dd6th who wants to become a vet. I am trying to determine what will be the best curricula for her from 7th to 12th grades. I know it needs to be heavy on the science and math so I thought I would start ramping it up next year in 7th. She came out of ps behind in math but has been doing MUS with amazing results and will be starting pre-algebra next year. I'm really not interested in switching math programs; it's the science I need help determining. Right now in science she is using Apologia General Science but doesn't really love it. I think it might be a little heavy for her considering she has mostly just done animal and biology study up to now. All she ever wants to study about for science is animals. I've been explaining to her that although biology is very important to understand for her chosen profession, she needs to understand all of science to be successful.

So enough rambling and on to my questions.
1. Is there a curriculum out their that is geared more toward getting students ready for science heavy college courses such as becoming a vet?
2. What should she be studying in 7th\8th grade to prepare her for the highschool science subjects?


Thanks in advance for your responses.

[lmrich]

I so wanted to be a vet when I was a kid. I spent half a day with the vet in town and quickly changed my mind. However, I read all of the Every Creature Great and Small series before that. I would speak to your vet and see what she recommends and ask if your child can shadow for a day.

[SusanAR]

My ds who has desired to be a vet (large animal) since pre-school is a jr this year. I downloaded the degree requirements from the college/ colleges he hopes to attend and planned his hs classes accordingly. For the college degree, he is required to take statistics and two upper level maths, so he is preparing by taking pre-cal this year and will take LOF statistics next year. He studied Biology (BJU) and anatomy and physiology in 9th and 10th, is currently studying chemistry, and will study physics (probably BJU with dvds and TTC dvds) and advanced chemistry (maybe at CC ??) next year.
He volunteers at the local animal shelter and enjoys working with the horses, cattle, sheep, and goats at his grandfathers ranch.:001_smile:

[elegantlion]

No advice on curriculum, but yes I would see if she could get a job at the vet's office in the future. I worked for a vet (small animal) for 5 years and we always had a high school student during the year and at least two in the summer.

We offered a lot of boarding and there was always cleaning to be done. It's a hectic pace, very rewarding, and can be very heartbreaking at times. I think the actual experience of seeing how an clinic is run would truly round out her education.

[Paula in PA]

I have a 9yo dd who also wants to be a vet. If you do a board search for vet or veterinarian, you should find some of the threads from others with the same type of questions. There seems to be a lot of us here.

The best advice I got was balance. Go a little heavier on science & math, but don't neglect the other subjects. Also, she's going to need chemistry since biology now includes an emphasis on it. Luckily, my dd loves chem so it's not a problem for us. She's going to want some physics as well. My local university requires 2 physics classes for their pre-vet program, so it's a good idea to do at least a conceptual physics in high school.

Here's a site with lots of good info to check out: AAVMC (http://www.aavmc.org/)

[elegantlion]

Another point I might add is not to neglect communications and business skills. People skills are a necessity for a vet (sometimes clients are harder to deal with that the animals :D) and business skills would be vital is she was ever interested in opening her own practice.

[mooooom]

says to take a small engine repair class. For hand dexterity, I guess. Still looking into that - it's not my forte.

Vet schools really require a lot of volunteer hours and animal experience. We have been fostering for a shelter since she was 5 and have most of it documented. DD is heavily involved in 4H, raised her own puppy which she shows, volunteers at a horse farm every week, and plans to raise a seeing eye dog as a senior project. She also at our vets every week. She's 14.

Vet school is harder to get into than med school. We are spending a lot of time researching and reading about other animal careers, because I want to make sure that if vet school is not in her future that she has other options. She is also quite interested in animal behavior at the moment.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Wonderful suggestions so far...thanks! What I'm seeing so far is that a lot of you feel that getting them involved with real life experiences is very beneficial. We have a no kill shelter 5 minutes from my house that allows children to volunteer but they have to be 13 so we have a year to wait on that. Goofy me, I never even thought to ask my vet for advice.:001_huh: And now that I think about it I have seen highschool students there working on occasion. Thanks again.

[cathmom]

Great timing on this thread! Taking notes...

[Laurel-in-CA]

The surgeon who stitched up ds's hand several years ago recommended crochet or knitting for dexterity. He, by the way, had a philosophy major in undergrad studies and then went on to med school.

[Stacy in NJ]

She'll probably have specific advice.

[StephanieZ]

Her pre-college courses won't matter much except to the point that they help her. . .

1) get into a decent college (state univ or better)

2) do well in her college courses, especially sciences including hard ones such as organic chem, microbiology, etc.

3) get great grades and test well in college

Vet school is very competitive, so she'll need excellent (3.5 or better) grades in college and a heavy science background, and good GRE scores.

To prepare to do well in college science, I'd want her to take at least a couple AP (or community college) lab science courses in high school. To prepare to do well in those courses, she'll just need good math skills and a good attitude.

Excellence in math through alg 2/trig is absolutely essential. Competency (good grades) in calculus will be required but there is no rush. Excellent algebra skills is a must, so I'd make sure she has plenty of attention to her algebra program(s) and really *gets* it before heading off to college. Even if she doesn't do Calc until college, that is fine, so long as her pre-calc knowledge is rock solid.

Other than that, she'll need some hours in a vet clinic someday before applying, but no rush on that.

Being a well-rounded, literate, etc, student is really considered now. It's soooo competitive that there are no guarantees on admission even if the student is expemplary. So, I'd just mainly concentrate on all-round college prep and not get too strung out on specific stuff, other than making sure her math background is rock solid and her basic science background is solid enough to prepare her for college level science.

(Wife to a vet. . . and mentor to many college undergrads/vet school applicants. . .)

[5LittleMonkeys]

Stephanie Z - thanks for that great advice. Thanks to everyone else too.

She definitely has plenty of time before college to set herself up for success but it is nice knowing a tentative path to take. I like the idea of having her look into other careers dealing with animals so that she knows all the doors that could be open to her.

[katilac]

My cousin is a vet. In addition to good grades/test scores and as much practical experience as possible, the schools she applied to really wanted to her to be able to 'prove' that she was a life-long animal lover, far beyond the usual. Kids who go on to be vets are overwhelmingly those who had a childhood filled with animals. They owned numerous animals of all kinds, not just a couple of cats and dogs. My cousin, for example, owned dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, horses and more. Everyone who knew her knew of her love for animals. A generalized fondness for animals and vague interest in science does not stand out.

Now, as far as courses go, I wouldn't spend much energy planning them based on a sixth-grader's stated career choice. I would keep her on a typical college prep schedule, and make sure that she has enough free time to pursue her interests and passions on her own (which also happens to be an excellent way of seeing if something is a true passion or a passing interest; does she take the initiative to pursue it on her own?).

When she gets to high school, she can do some research: are certain colleges known as 'feeder schools' for vet schools she is interested in? what do those colleges require? She really needs to ask questions and get past the quick "four years of science" answer. are there certain texts they frown upon, certain ones they love to see? how much lab experience?

For now, she just needs to keep progressing, academics-wise. Shadowing a vet is a quick, effective way to see if the reality of the job matches her dreams of it, so I probably would try to set that up sooner rather than later, followed by volunteering when she's old enough.