Hi.
My high school Junior daughter is interested in going to an animal-related profession, specifically a Veterinarian. So we are doing some research on careers and colleges. We live in California. I know the basics, such as DVM is a graduate school, and there are 30 schools in the US, and there are prerequisite courses, animal exposure and GPAs for applying to those schools, etc. My specific questions are:
In this AAVMC list, what are the affiliate and provisional members? Are these provisional members in the pipeline to be approved for offering DVM program? - AAVMC
What is comparative medicine? The link to UC San Diego does not work, and the link to Stanford is very confusing.
I know 4 colleges offer âdirectâ admission to DVM program. She is not interested in locking her in DVM from the UG level. But then I stumbled onto this Edinburrg program, which is a transfer from CalPOly SLO, which sounds lovely. https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/cal_poly_partnership_guide.pdf Does anyone know of other such programs in the country? Is there a comprehensive list somewhere of this kind of special program?
I heard someone mention a BVS or Bachelor of Vet Science degree, which can lead to vet hospital management-related jobs. Is this correct, and if yes, could anyone provide details of what this is and where it is offered?
(1) The Accreditation credential is more or less guaranteed for all of the programs which have popped up in the past 15 years - essentially once a school has announced itâs intent to open a Veterinary School in the US, they have already been given reasonable assurances by the AVMA accreditation arm their program will be accredited as long as they continued to meet the guidelines. However as a parent, I would have reservations about sending my child to a âbrand newâ veterinary program - if they were a candidate at an established program and got in, I wouldnât even consider a new one.
(2) You are referring to Undergraduate and Graduate Level Studies -yes? as UC San Diego and Stanford do not have Veterinary Schools. Those programs are animal related but not a prescribed seat in Veterinary Programs to obtain a DVM. Within the DVM programs, almost all of the coursework is essentially a âcommon coreâ type with a limited number of electives available outside those paths. There has been talk about spliting the DVM programs into practice sectors - such as Large Animal vs. Small Animal or even including Academic/Research but while students can choose to focus more of their own energy into these areas (and select electives in them) - the DVM degree is still a universal rather than a species limited degree. There are Graduate Students in the College of Veterinary Medicine who are enrolled in studies which do not obtain the DVM (Veterinarian Degree), those are Masters and PhD students in their respective departments.
(3) The âdirectâ programs afford very few seats - and are generally even more highly selective in who can progress. Because we are generally talking about 17-18 years olds who are looking at these types of programs, I am not a big fan as it can really silo their focus before they have any real appreciation for the breadth of opportunities out there.
(4) As I recall, the BVSc is a degree titled for programs outside the US / Canada - such as the UK and Australia, these are still Veterinarians but they are going through a pathway different from that of the DVM in the US, and then still must pass their NAVLE qualifying boards to practice in the US.
Historically, a Bachelors of Science in Veterinary Medicine has been a degree which was granted to students who had been admitted to the Veterinary School (DVM program) and completed their first 2 years of the 4 year program. My understanding was this degree was utilized to address the situation where students were admitted to the DVM program w/o having obtained a Bachelorâs degree previously - this Bachelors then granted them the academic degree necessary for those students to pursue the dual-degress (such as DVM-MS / DVM-MPH / DVM-PhD) and also for those who would go on after their DVM degree to speciality medicine where Masters Degree" training was part of their post VDM work. Fairly few students are admitted to programs in the US w/o Bachelors, but by granting all DVM students with a Bachelors of Science / Veterinary Medicine after 2 years in the program it fixed this âproblemâ for all students.
Running a Veterinary Hospital does not require Veterinary Science or Animal Science background - I would argue that the opposite is actually true - a general business degree / background is much more likely to be helpful. If someone then wants to progress on to Hospital Administration at the larger practices / specialty practices or even at the level of the Veterinary Schools, they are likely best served by Business degrees (Bachelors in Business, MBA, MHA) and/or seeking certification thru a practice management curricula (CVPM or the like).
As an additional bit of insight - as your daughter is a Junior in High School, you are putting the cart before the horse here in terms of trying to evaluated Veterinary School options.
Realistically, your entire focus should be on the quality of her undergraduate school, her fit with that school, and her ability to perform academically in that school.
The University / College she attends and the specific undergraduate major is of less importance towards admission to veterinary school than is her intellectual ability to perform and her success in actually performing - as long as she is within a range of majors acceptable to Veterinary School applications and she completes the prerequisite courses (which are fairly consistent from one veterinary school to the next) she can come from an University and any College â College of Ag. / Ani Sc, College of LAS, or other STEM related majors. IMO, you should be thinking about what major works best for her -alternative plans - in the event she does not go to Veterinary School.
My understanding of the applications landscape for Veterinary School is this - one has to be in the competitive pool of applicants with a mix of GPA, Science GPA and Test Scores (GRE). You are either in our out of the pool based on this. Once an applicant has made the minimums here to be in the pool, these factors are not the weighing factors used to determine admissions offers - the next step is the so called holistic review of the candidate aside from their academic scores and tests scores - their âextra curricularsâ showing interest in veterinary medicine, Animal Exposure Hours, of participation in group works and leadership qualities. And from that pool comes Interview offers (MMI - Multiple Mini Interviews). With each step narrowing the field, but for those candidates which remain in the pool, the preceding criteria are no longer considered or considered minimally impactful in making the next cut.
However, the bottom line is academic performance qualifies one to be in the pool first. So pick the best fit for her to perform first and foremost, and which offers her the best options for her future outside of Veterinary Medicine (Which still keep her in the pre-reqs qualifiers).