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Surprisingly, a bachelor’s degree isn’t necessarily a requirement, but depending on the school, applicants must have forty-five to ninety semester hours at the undergraduate level, and a bachelor’s degree does increase the likelihood of acceptance by a veterinary school. Many undergraduates start applying during junior year and reapply the following year if necessary. Good grades and a strong foundation in science are advantageous. The higher your grade-point average, the better your chances, but relevant work experience also counts.

What’s the best undergraduate degree for a pre-veterinary program? There aren’t any specific requirements, but most pre-veterinary students focus on the sciences. Veterinary medical colleges typically require classes in organic and inorganic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, general biology, animal biology, animal nutrition, genetics, vertebrate embryology, cellular biology, microbiology, zoology, and systemic physiology. As for math, some programs require calculus, while others require only statistics, college algebra and trigonometry, or precalculus.

Most veterinary medical colleges look for well-rounded students who have taken core courses in English or literature, the social sciences, and the humanities. It’s also a good idea to take classes in accounting, finance, and marketing. Veterinary practices are small businesses, and those business skills will help you succeed if you choose to set up your own practice. See the resources in the back of the book for a listing of colleges and universities with animal science or pre-veterinary programs.

Jill Richardson majored in chemistry during college and was admitted to veterinary school after her junior year. She obtained her bachelor’s degree after entering vet school. “I transferred my credits from my first year in vet school back to obtain an animal science degree,” she explains. She recommends that students “pick a degree that can be used for other careers. There’s not much that you can really do with an animal science degree. With a degree in chemistry, I could have considered many other opportunities. You have to take a certain number of credits in various subjects, but you could have almost any major. I would recommend taking business classes and communication classes in addition.”

Sally Perea, DVM, relaxes with Lupin, whom she saved from a shoe box left outside a dog grooming shop.

Sally Perea, who attended the University of California at Davis, majored in animal science, with a minor in nutrition. She says that the major has its pros and cons. “At UC Davis, most of the animal science majors were pre-vet. I think that this major does help prepare and train you for the things that you need to know for veterinary school; however, it doesn’t necessarily put you at an advantage over other applicants. The application committees like to see uniqueness in the applicants. However, there are specific courses that are required to apply to veterinary school, so it is a good idea to select a major that includes these needed courses.”

Before you invest years of hard work and thousands of dollars in tuition and fees, make sure that you really want to be a veterinarian. Volunteering or otherwise getting experience in the field to truly find out if veterinary medicine is the right career for you is important. “I’ve heard many veterinarians say that being a veterinarian is the greatest profession in the world, but I don’t necessarily think it is the greatest profession for everyone,” Perea says. “You really need to get exposure and find out if it is for you.”

If you decide that it is, start doing everything you can to prepare yourself. Because her father was a veterinarian, Perea had a head start in this area. In addition to helping out at her father’s clinic, she started building her experience for admission to veterinary school while in college.

“At this stage, it is important for students to gain breadth of experience in both research and clinical settings,” Perea says. “I volunteered at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital to gain more experience in a clinical setting. I also tried some new things, such as volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation center over the summer. Finally, I got involved with a research project, which led me to run my own research project during my final year of undergrad. The tough thing at this stage is that pre-vet students have to distinguish themselves from other applicants. Grades and test scores are very important, but experience and well-roundedness are just as important. So you definitely have to start preparing early.”