Vet School Admissions: A Profile of the “Average” Accepted Vet Student

I’ll be the first to admit that I love statistics. In fact, I used to work for a company in Los Angeles doing statistical analysis on a daily basis. I like numbers and analyzing them as i think they can tell you a great deal of information about the population you’re looking at.

So let’s look at a very specific population — students who have been accepted to the UC Davis Veterinary School in the past 6 years (classes graduating between 2009 through 2014). I have posted these files for you to examine yourself, but for the sake of this post, I will used the aggregate statistics from each year to average data for you to review.

AVERAGE
CA Applied 550.7
WICHE Applied 85.3
Non-Resident Applied 424.0
Total Applied 1060.0
CA Accepted 132.2
WICHE Accepted 2.0
Non-Resident Accepted 9.2
Total Accepted 143.3
Female Applied 870.3
Male Applied 189.7
Female Accepted 105.2
Male Accepted 25.0
GRADES
Cumulative GPA 3.5
Required Science GPA 3.3
Last 45 units GPA 3.6
GRE Verbal 579.5
GRE Quant 708.3
GRE Analytical 4.9
AGE 24.8
Youngest 19.8
Oldest 40.8
ETHNICITY
African American / Black 0.7
American Indian / Native American 0.5
Asian/Other Asian 16.8
Caucasian 81.0
Hispanic / Mexican American / Other Spanish 8.8
Multi-Ethnic 5.2
Decline to State 17.2
PRIMARY UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE
UC Davis 41.0
UC 30.8
CSU 19.0
Other CA 10.0
Out of State 29.3
UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS
Animal Related Science 47.3
Biological Science 61.0
Natural / Environmental Science 5.5
Other 16.2
UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES
BA 27.7
BS 97.8
No Degree 4.7
ADVANCED DEGREES
MA/MS 15.5
PhD 1.8
YEARS IN COLLEGE AT APPLICATION
2 2.8
3 22.3
4 53.7
5 26.3
Over 5 25.0
AVERAGE HOURS OF EXPERIENCE 3158.3
NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS
1 86.2
2 32.0
3+ 12.0
AREAS OF VET MED
Small Animal 46.8
Equine 16.0
Mixed 10.8
Wildlife 9.2
Large 5.8
Lab Animal 7.0
Small / Equine 5.7
Research 7.7
Avian / Exotics 4.8
Food 7.2
Zoo 4.0
Academic / Teaching 2.8
Dairy 2.2
Fish 0.2
CA Applied 518 514 548 584 594 546 550.7
WICHE Applied 77 75 90 104 88 78 85.3
Non-Resident Applied 299 377 482 490 453 443 424.0
Total Applied 894 966 1120 1178 1135 1067 1060.0
CA Accepted 132 131 122 129 135 144 132.2
WICHE Accepted 1 2 4 2 1 2 2.0
Non-Resident Accepted 8 6 15 10 7 9 9.2
Total Accepted 141 139 141 141 143 155 143.3
Female Applied 725 776 924 986 930 881 870.3
Male Applied 169 190 196 192 205 186 189.7
Female Accepted 100 103 106 104 110 108 105.2
Male Accepted 22 28 25 27 23 25 25.0
GRADES
Cum GPA 3.47 3.42 3.47 3.56 3.53 3.48 3.5
Req. Science GPA 3.36 3.28 3.3 3.42 3.35 3.33 3.3
Last 45 GPA 3.61 3.55 3.59 3.62 3.62 3.61 3.6
GRE Verbal 583 574 574 588 575 583 579.5
GRE Quant 702 702 702 711 712 721 708.3
GRE Analytical 5.04 5 5 5 4.72 4.72 4.9
AGE 26 26 25 24 24 24 24.8
Youngest 20 19 20 20 20 20 19.8
Oldest 40 41 34 45 45 40 40.8
ETHNICITY
African American / Black 0 1 0 1 2 0 0.7
American Indian / Native American 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.5
Asian/Other Asian 14 13 11 14 20 29 16.8
Caucasian 75 78 84 80 88 81 81.0
Hispanic / Mexican American / Other Spanish 13 14 7 3 6 10 8.8
Multi-Ethnic 9 3 9 9 1 0 5.2
Decline to State 10 22 20 24 15 12 17.2
PRIMARY UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE
UC Davis 35 46 39 42 39 45 41.0
UC 33 29 29 33 26 35 30.8
CSU 12 20 20 19 30 13 19.0
Other CA 8 6 10 9 14 13 10.0
Out of State 34 30 33 28 24 27 29.3
UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS
Animal Related Science 36 41 60 53 57 37 47.3
Biological Science 58 67 61 52 55 73 61.0
Natural / Environmental Science 7 3 2 9 7 5 5.5
Other 21 20 8 16 14 18 16.2
UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES
BA 38 26 21 24 22 35 27.7
BS 83 99 106 99 102 98 97.8
No Degree 1 6 4 8 9 0 4.7
Advanced Degrees
MA/MS 15 10 22 14 14 18 15.5
PhD 1 2 1 5 2 0 1.8
YEARS IN COLLEGE AT APPLICATION
2 2 3 3 6 3 0 2.8
3 16 16 24 20 27 31 22.3
4 51 56 49 53 55 58 53.7
5 28 30 32 29 21 18 26.3
Over 5 25 26 23 23 27 26 25.0
AVERAGE HOURS OF EXPERIENCE 3250 3550 3000 3025 3100 3025 3158.3
Number of Applications
1 79 82 86 87 87 96 86.2
2 31 34 30 36 34 27 32.0
3 9 9 12 8 12 10 10.0
4 or more 3 6 3 4.0
AREAS OF VET MED
Small Animal 47 43 45 50 47 49 46.8
Equine 12 25 15 13 15 16 16.0
Mixed 16 7 11 13 8 10 10.8
Wildlife 11 8 9 11 3 13 9.2
Large 2 7 7 6 9 4 5.8
Lab Animal 7 6 7 3 9 10 7.0
Small / Equine 5 6 6 4 9 4 5.7
Research 6 11 6 8 7 8 7.7
Avian / Exotics 5 5 4 4 5 6 4.8
Food 3 6 10 7 10 7 7.2
Zoo 4 3 2 6 6 3 4.0
Academic / Teaching 2 4 5 2 2 2 2.8
Dairy 2 0 4 3 3 1 2.2
Fish 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.2

1 thought on “Vet School Admissions: A Profile of the “Average” Accepted Vet Student”

  1. i just wanted to say that i am very excited to have found your blog and find it very inspiring. i recently graduated college with a BA in psychology… and, like you, i realized soon after that what i really wanted and had wanted all along was to be a veterinarian. i started pre-vet coursework this semester and i’m really excited, if a LITTLE bit scared. i’m looking forward to reading the rest of your blog!

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