Pre-Veterinary Coursework

Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals.

SMSU provides the required pre-professional coursework for students who intend to enroll in a D.V.M. program. You are not required to have a bachelor's degree to start a D.V.M. program. However, applicants with a BS or BA are given preference, and the vast majority of admitted students have a bachelor's degree. Undergraduate students do not have to major in one of the sciences. However, much of the pre-professional coursework is science focused and so most students major in one of the science areas. We encourage students to pursue a major that they find interesting so they will be successful.

Applicants may be required to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) for admission into the D.V.M program. Please check with each program as this requirement varies between schools. The GRE measures the applicant’s verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing. For more information about GRE and preparation for the exam visit https://www.ets.org/gre/

Some schools may require a certain number of hours of quality animal, veterinary, and/or research experience for admissions. Animal experience may include working with livestock, breeding or showing species, working in zoos or animal shelters. Veterinary experience includes job shadowing and other work completed under the supervision of a DVM. Research is not necessarily limited to animal studies. It includes activities that support an understanding of scientific method, evidence of problem solving and observational skills, data entry and analysis and other related experiences that exhibit a significant contribution to a research project.