College Hour Provides DVM Program Admissions Update
Members of the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (CVM) Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) Program Selections Committee presented an update on the college’s admissions requirements on March 30 as part of the CVM’s College Hour series.
Dr. Gwen Levine, chair of the selections committee and clinical associate professor at the CVM, discussed what the committee looks for in potential candidates and explained the entire application process.
Students applying for the DVM program may choose any undergraduate degree program, but pre-professional course requirements must be completed by the spring semester prior to entering veterinary school.
“Overall, we have about 56 credits of prerequisite coursework that could be completed by a motivated student within two years,” Levine said.
To be considered qualified for the DVM program, students must meet grade-point-average standards, have taken the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) in the last five years, completed 100 hours of supervised veterinary experience, and obtain three letters of reference, one of which must be from a veterinarian.
Once transcripts have been submitted to the DVM program’s main application service, GPA and GRE scores are reviewed and ranked. The selections committee then reviews the packets to assess the candidate’s animal and veterinary experience, as well as their other experiences and achievements.
“It is a rubric-driven process that allows us to be objective about a candidate’s qualifications,” Levine said.
After the initial ranking process is complete, top applicants are invited to attend Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), comprised of several stations with two interviewers at each station. Each interview station typically lasts six minutes, during which time interviewers evaluate candidates’ empathy, ethics, critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communications skills.
Dr. Glennon Mays, CVM director of recruiting and student services, reviewed the demographics and statistics of recent DVM program applicants.
In 2017, the DVM program received 601 applications, 505 of which were from women and 96 of which were from men. Of those 601 applicants, 146 were offered admission into the program (123 women and 23 men).
“If we’re going to explain why we don’t graduate more men, it’s because if they don’t apply, we can’t accept them,” Mays said.
Dr. Karen Cornell, CVM associate dean for professional programs, discussed applicants from the CVM’s Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) universities, in-state and out-of-state residents, and the cost of tuition.
If applicants from the four MOA programs—at West Texas A&M University, Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M Kingsville University, and Tarleton State University—do not gain admission to the DVM program in the standard group of students offered admission, they must meet a higher academic standard than the general applicant pool to gain admission through the MOA. Included in this admissions process for MOA students is an assessment from faculty at their home school.
The DVM class of 2022 will include a total of 152 students, more than 93 percent of whom are in-state students.
Students who are Texas residents in the DVM program will spend approximately $22,000 in tuition and fees each year. Last year, the program awarded $1.8 million in scholarships. Compared to other veterinary schools, Texas A&M is ranked as the No. 6 lowest in the cost of tuition/fees and has the lowest in debt-to-income ratio for graduates.
“Our goal is to choose and educate a veterinary school class that mirrors the demographics of the state of Texas and meets the veterinary needs of the state of Texas,” Cornell said.
