Veterinary Schools Site Evaluation

There are a total of 400 veterinary schools in the US. While all of these schools have websites, 325 veterinary schools have some social media presence, having accounts on at least one of the three major social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. Of the schools that have a social media presence, the greatest number, almost 98% are on Facebook.

Visual Preferences

Color

Approximately 67% of the 400 veterinary schools use white as the primary color on their websites. Another 9% use grey as the primary color on their websites. Blue (7.5%), black (5.8%) and yellow (5.3%) are other colors commonly used as the primary color on veterinary school websites.

The colors used on the websites of the largest veterinary schools in the nation, are as follows:

1. Miami Dade College: white 10% and blue 2.9%
2. Ohio State University - Main Campus: white 30% and grey 3.4%
3. Houston Community College: white 36% and grey 4.3%

Font

The largest number, nearly 43.3%, of veterinary school websites use Arial as the primary font on their websites. Other fonts commonly used on veterinary school websites include Verdana (27.5%) and Helvetica (6%).

The largest veterinary school's websites use the following fonts:

1. Miami Dade College: Arial
2. Ohio State University - Main Campus: Helvetica
3. Houston Community College: Arial

Social Presence

Exactly 221 veterinary schools have YouTube channels. These schools each have an average of 222 YouTube channel subscribers. The veterinary schools with the greatest number of YouTube channel subscribers are:

1. Columbia University in the City of New York: 4,146 subscribers
2. Purdue University - Main Campus: 2,760 subscribers
3. Oregon State University: 2,420 subscribers

Exactly 263 veterinary schools have Twitter accounts. These schools each have an average of 2,180 Twitter account followers. The veterinary schools with the greatest number of Twitter followers are:

1. Indiana University - Bloomington: 27,945 followers
2. Texas A & M University - College Station: 19,518 followers
3. Ohio State University - Main Campus: 18,232 followers

Web Metrics

Although all veterinary schools have websites, only about 25% of these schools actually appear to regularly maintain their sites. This can be deduced from the fact that 75.6% of veterinary school websites have 3 or more broken links one click away from their homepage. The veterinary schools with the most number of broken links are:

1. Blue Ridge Community College: 6,741 broken links
2. Northwest Missouri State University: 6,291 broken links
3. Southeast Missouri State University: 3,219 broken links

It is also interesting to evaluate the number of HTML and CSS validation errors on veterinary school websites to get a sense of the quality of these sites. The veterinary school websites with the cleanest websites, i.e., least number of HTML and CSS validation errors are:

1. Pima Community College: 0 HTML validation errors; 0 CSS validation errors
2. California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo: 0 HTML validation errors; 0 CSS validation errors
3. Foothill College: 0 HTML validation errors; 0 CSS validation errors

The veterinary school websites with the greatest number of HTML and CSS validation errors include:

1. Bergen Community College: 178 HTML validation errors; 869 CSS validation errors
2. Alabama A & M University: 63 HTML validation errors; 905 CSS validation errors
3. Ridgewater College: 0 HTML validation errors; 846 CSS validation errors