Does anyone know the percentage of UC Davis undergrad applicants to UC Davis vet school who get into the vet school?
Wondering if anyone knows the answer to this? Thank you!
I do not believe that information is specifically listed in their statistics. However, various statements in their admission profiles imply that the admit rate for Davis students is probably not too different from their overall admit rate.
For example this document for the class of 2026 (admitted in 2022) states that the number of admitted UC Davis students is “proportionate to the number of applicants from UC Davis”: https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk491/files/inline-files/Admission%20Profile%20for%20the%20Class%20of%202026_Final.pdf
And this one for the class of 2028 (admitted in 2024) states that “Applicants are not selected based on the school attended”: https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk491/files/inline-files/Admission%20Profile%20for%20the%20Class%20of%202028%20Final%20Version.pdf
I expect that they need to make these pronouncements because the number of Davis students continuing on to vet school is always quite high! But it’s quite possible that the high number is just because the applicant pool of Davis students applying to vet school is huge.
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Keep in mind that a number of people who start freshman year as pre-vet will change their path while in college.
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Attending UC Davis as an undergrad doesn’t give you a disproportionate edge over other equally qualified candidates.
As an undergrad at UC Davis, there are opportunities to work in animal science labs and to work with animals in the different care facilities on campus. Pre-vet students who are attending other schools are finding opportunities at their schools or in the communities around their schools.
Edit to add: UC Davis’ Health Professions Advising has a section for Veterinary Medicine.
Some examples of pre-vet experiences include, but are not limited to:
- UC Davis Department of Animal Science internships
- UC Davis Department of Animal Science: Barn Residency Program
- Internships through Vet Aide Club or PSSD
- Volunteering at Yolo County Animal Services or other local shelters
- Volunteering at Knight’s Landing Clinic or Mercer Clinic for the Pets of the Homeless
- Work at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital
UC Davis HPA offers pre-req charts for various health professions. Here is the chart for vet med.
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I agree. If a student is interested in theater or business, they look for schools with strong programs in those areas. UC Davis is known to have a strong animal science program. It is attractive to undergraduates who think they might want to go into vet medicine.
Animal Science is in the top five majors at UC Davis. If you poke around on the Aggie Data site, you’ll see that CAES is the second largest college on campus. L&S is approximately 40% of the undergraduate population and CAES is around 23%.
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At least from what I have seen at a different very good DVM program, the various students in the program come from a very wide range of undergraduate universities. This same thing could be said for other very good graduate programs in a wide range of different fields.
If you are in-state in California, and if you are intending to go on to become a veterinarian, and if you have been accepted to UC Davis, and if you feel that it is a good fit for you, then I think that it is likely to be a very good choice. I also think that it would be a good choice for quite a few other career intentions if you change your mind (which is a very normal thing to do).
If you are out of state for UC Davis, and if you want to become a veterinarian, then pay a lot of attention to the cost of education. In this case there is a high likelihood that most students would be better off going somewhere else to save money when getting a bachelor’s degree.
Yes, exactly. I expect that UC Davis will attract a lot of undergraduate students who were the ones who already had a good chance of eventually getting into a DVM program, and then UC Davis provides them with a great undergraduate education. It would not be surprising if the number of UC Davis students who go on to a DVM is high. One daughter participated in a summer program elsewhere which had a very high rate of helping students get into a DVM program, but again this was mostly because the criteria to get accepted to the summer program overlapped so strongly with the criteria to later get into a DVM program, and then also the program was excellent. These numbers are tough to evaluate.
But I do think that for an in-state high school student who thinks that they want to go on to a DVM, UC Davis is an excellent university.
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That is absolutely true, but if you look at the profile docs I linked above, you will see that there are a LOT of students from UC Davis in the UC Davis vet program. Look at them and see… it is quite dramatic. So you can understand why pre-vet or prospective pre-vet students might look at this and think there might be an admission bias. (Which is probably why UC Davis includes those statements denying such bias.)
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Wow! You are correct.
I think that this sort of “relevant related experience” is very important. I also think that it is valuable that UC Davis has both small and large animal experience available.
This is true also. My older daughter and I still think that this experience and other related veterinary experience helped a lot to get a few DVM acceptances (but not at UC Davis). She however got much of this experience at a school that does not even have a DVM program (that is good for animal sciences, and has large animals on campus or very nearby). Probably just about any university has some veterinary clinics nearby, although a university in a large city might not have large animals anywhere nearby and I think that having some large animal experience is a big plus.
I am also impressed by the mean GPA for the out of state students accepted at UC Davis. Of course the pre-vet classes are the same as the premed classes, so students have gotten these very high GPA’s in very tough classes.
My daughter went to Wyo which doesn’t have a vet school but does have animal science as an undergrad major. I remember seeing a lot of work study jobs available to work with the animals, and they seemed to pay more than shelving books in the library too. Wyo does participate in WICHE professional schools so residents can go to other vet schools for instate rates.
Friend went to CSU-Ft Collins and worked at the vet school as a receptionist or doing other jobs as an undergrad. It did help her to know the profs and administration, which I think helped when she applied to vet school; she did get in and attended for vet school.
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I have not read all of the responses, fwiw a very dear friend went to undergrad at Davis pre vet (very tough curriculum and she is very bright ). Even worked in the lab, professors wrote recommendations for her. Tried two years in a row and denied both times. Was told her gpa of 3.75 too low as cut off was more like 3.8. She is now a happy vet. But her advice, go to a less rigorous school but with great program and get the very best gpa you can. Highly competitive and gpa matters most and doing undergrad there was great experience but didn’t help for admittance to vet school there. However she had other great options in the end because she came from an excellent undergrad.
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