Educators may design undergraduate animal and dairy science (ADS) experiences around students’ post-graduation plans. We sought to characterize associations between students’ immediate post-graduation plans and their interest in curriculum topics. In December 2023 and 2024, students in ADS 101 Introduction to Animal Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison responded via an online survey (n = 223, response rate = 95%, 64% freshmen). Students indicated their post-graduation plans (1 “definitely will not” to 5 “definitely will”), their interests in curriculum topics (1 “Not at all” to 10 “Extremely”), and their individual interest in ADS (1 “Very low” to 7 “Very high”). We segmented students into four categories: those intending to pursue veterinary school (Vet; n = 98, 43.9%), graduate school (Grad; n = 29, 13.0%), both veterinary and graduate school (Both; n = 56, 17.9%), and neither veterinary nor graduate school (Other; n = 56, 25.1%).Then, we used one-way analysis of variance with post hoc Tukey tests to examine associations. We found clear differences between students planning for Vet and Both with students intending Grad and Other, where Vet and Both had greater interest in animal physiology, breeding and genetics, animal nutrition, pathology, and welfare (F [3,219] = 16.5 to 37.2; P<0.001). Similarly, students planning for Vet and Both reported greater individual interest in ADS (M = 6.39, 5.88; SE = 0.15, 0.23, respectively) compared with Grad or Other (M = 4.83, 4.80; SE = 0.27, 0.19, respectively). Our findings confirm that post-graduation goals are related to curricular interests, suggesting opportunities to integrate career and professional development activities with ADS topics. Additionally, future work could characterize the (potentially broader) curricular interests of Grad and Other students to enhance their fit within ADS programs.