# Universities with PhD programs in animal or equine science



## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

Oklahoma State University


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

University of California at Davis. Washington State U at Pullman. Possibly Oregon State (Corvallis). I only know about the west coast.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

I would guess Michigan State
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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

North Carolina State University has a graduate animal sciences program and a great vet school, too.
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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

Whatever school you pick, if it's not in your home state, I'd recommend you move there a year or 2 ahead of time so that when you enroll you are a legal resident of that state so you can get the lower tuition rates.


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## ForeverArabians (Dec 6, 2012)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> Whatever school you pick, if it's not in your home state, I'd recommend you move there a year or 2 ahead of time so that when you enroll you are a legal resident of that state so you can get the lower tuition rates.


Haha! Even if I go right after undergrad?
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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

ForeverArabians said:


> Haha! Even if I go right after undergrad?
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


That's different, if your grades are good and you qualify, there a lot of programs who will bring you in and give you a stipend or student work programs. But the difference in $$$ is significant.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> That's different, if your grades are good and you qualify, there a lot of programs who will bring you in and give you a stipend or student work programs. But the difference in $$$ is significant.


While every field is different, in the sciences, I would not advise anyone to go to a PhD program if they aren't fully funded. Stipends and assistantship will vary, but if you are paying out of pocket for a PhD, your program doesn't want you there. If you can't end up fully funded, that means you're going to be at the bottom of the heap as far as getting lab time, an advisor, research team, etc. Without a top-end research record during your PhD years, you're not going to get an academic job. It's just that cutthroat right now.

This is a good read: Heretical Guide to Getting a PhD in the Hard Sciences | Daniel D. McKinnon


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## ForeverArabians (Dec 6, 2012)

Thanks, all! This was super helpful! Should a Master's be funded too?


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

ForeverArabians said:


> Thanks, all! This was super helpful! Should a Master's be funded too?


In my college days in engineering, the universities did offer fellowships (tuition + living stipend) in the masters programs. They required you to be a TA (teaching assistant) to professors teaching undergrad courses.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

ForeverArabians said:


> Thanks, all! This was super helpful! Should a Master's be funded too?


OSU offers the funding for that, one of my former employees went through that program.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

I think master's programs these days are confusing. With more and more people seeing the master's, rather than the Bachelor's, as the terminal degree, demand just keeps going up. Many universities see master's as a cash-cow and seem to be taking more students, fewer fully funded. I was fortunate that both my master's and PhD (in social sciences) were both fully funded, and most of my friends were in the same situation. But I'm not sure if it's as much the norm in Master's programs right now.

Again, a lot of this is field specific- if you're in an MBA or Master's in Education, often your employer is paying for it. I know fewer people with a hard sciences master's degrees, and those that have them got them along the way to a PhD, so I'm not completely sure.

The best suggestion is to do your research and go do in-person program visits, making sure that they arrange for you to meet current students. When I went on PhD visits, the students I met had the best insight into the funding situation. Most of them echoed what the department chairs told me, but there was one stark exception. When I was at UT-Austin, the program suggested that all students were fully funded. By the students had a really different story, explaining that most people were "lured" there with funding their first year, but after the first year, people who thought they were fully funded actually had to engage in cutthroat competition to get hired on to grant-funded projects, with not enough funded projects to go around. Sounded like a nightmare.


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