The Importance of Grades for Getting Into Vet School

It is unfortunate that grades, as well as GRE scores, are weighed so heavily on admittance into vet school. People that have good GPAs but not 4.0s are not getting into schools solely based on a numbers game. So to help your chances good you need to keep your grades up. I had a 3.5 GPA, 1100 GRE, 2,500 hours of vet experience and didnt even get an interview for any US vet school. Dont get depressed by reading these numbers. There is always an exception to the rule. People get in with other things that could weigh heavily on their application. Such things could be your age, obstacles overcome, or personal disabilities. I will say that being only 22 upon applying probably had hurt me. People going back to school with more life experience are more likely to get accepted, in my opinion, than others straight out of undergrad.

So here are some admissions statistics from a select few vet schools:
UC Davis

• Average GPA’s: Accumulative (3.48), Required Science (3.33), Last 45 semester units (3.61) 
• Average GRE scores: Verbal (79% - 583 scaled score), Quantitative (76% - 721), Analytical Writing (65% - 4.72)
• Average Age: 24 (age range 20-40)

University of Georgia 

• Average GPA’s: Accumulative (3.57), Required Science (3.47), Last 45 semester units (3.63) 
• Average GRE scores: V + Q (1170), Analytical Writing (4.3)

University of Florida

• Average GPA’s: Accumulative (3.51), Required Science (3.56), Last 45 semester units (3.60) 
• Average GRE scores: Verbal (524), Quantitative (679) 1203

So not every school's statistics are easy to find. These are just three that came first to me. But as you can tell there is a similar trend. The averages of these scores is something like this:

• Overall GPA: 3.51
• Science GPA: 3.47
• Last 45 GPA: 3.61
• Overall GRE: 1225

So in order to increase your chances at getting in grades are the most important part of the application. Its sad that it comes down to numbers, its partly due to people going back to school because of the economy. Some advice would be to do the absolute best you can your last 45units because it seems schools rely a lot on those scores as you can see they are higher than the rest. 

As for the GRE? I have a hate, hate relationship with it. I honestly dont know what a test about vocabulary words has to do with veterinary medicine and why it matters how well you score on this particular test. But it is something that you can never change and must accept it. So I recommend getting a book probably a year in advance and study all the time. In addition to taking prep class. It may seem like a lot but if you score really well on the GRE you will probably get into school with an average GPA.

Here are the links to the webpages of the US and International vet schools. Some link to the admissions pages so play around and search for statistics and any advice on their FAQs. 

Please choose the appropriate link to go to that school's website:

Veterinary Medical Schools in the United States
Auburn University	North Carolina State University
University Of California - Davis	Ohio State University
Colorado State University	Oklahoma State University
Cornell University	Oregon State University
University of Florida	University of Pennsylvania
University of Georgia	Purdue University
University of Illinois - Urbana	University of Tennessee
Iowa State University	Texas A&M University
Kansas State University	Tufts University
Louisiana State University	Tuskegee University
Michigan State University	Virginia - Maryland Regional College
University of Minnesota	Washington State University
Mississippi State University	Western University
University of Missouri	University of Wisconsin
International Veterinary Medical Schools
University College Dublin (Ireland)	Murdoch University (Australia)
University of Edinburgh (Scotland)	University of Prince Edward Island (Canada)
University of Glasgow (Scotland)	Royal Veterinary College (U.K.)
University of Guelph (Candada)	University of Calgary (Canada)
Massey University (New Zealand)	University of Saskatchewan - Western College of Veterinary Medicine (Canada)
University of Melbourne (Australia)	University of Sydney (Australia)
Universite de Montreal (Canada)	Utrecht University (Netherlands)
AAVMC Affiliate Member Veterinary Medical Schools*
* Accreditation & Licensure Information
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)(Mexico)	St. George's University (Grenada)
Ross University (St. Kitts)	St. Matthews University (Cayman Islands)