Many future veterinarians grow up dreaming of saving kittens and curing sick puppies. Before you can put on that white coat, you’ll have to earn a pre-vet degree. It’s natural to wonder whether this path means trading your social life for weekends in the library or long afternoons in difficult labs.
Those concerns are valid. This article breaks down what to expect from a pre-vet major, so you can better understand the path ahead and decide if it’s right for you.
Mastering the Hard Sciences
One of the biggest challenges of a pre-vet track is excelling in the hard sciences. Courses in biology, chemistry, physics, and math form the foundation of veterinary school prerequisites and many include time-intensive labs.
Here’s just a few specific courses that veterinary school requires:
- Organic chemistry (with lab)
- Physics (with lab)
- Genetics
- Biochemistry
- Biostatistics
- Animal anatomy
These classes can be tough, especially with all the extra hours of preparation and study. You’ll have to memorize complicated topics and solve complex problems and take long tests. Performance in these classes matter; grades in required science classes are critical if you want to stay competitive for veterinary school admission.
Maintaining Your GPA
For any professional or graduate program, GPA matters. It reflects your dedication, determination, academic readiness, and study habits. The course load in vet school is demanding, so they want to make sure you can succeed. This is especially true for veterinary school, which looks for high GPAs overall.
How veterinary schools look at GPA, though, can vary. They might focus on:
- Overall GPA: Includes all college courses, like electives and general education credits, from every semester.
- Science GPA: Includes classes like biology, chemistry, physics, and classes under those subjects.
Because you have less science classes, what grades you earn matter a lot more for your GPA. You can always retake classes, but, depending on the school, they might include the failed classes in your GPA anyway. Thankfully, your grades aren’t the only thing veterinary school cares about.
Gaining Experience
No matter where you go, veterinary schools want their applicants to have some real experience with veterinary medicine. Most schools expect 300 or more hours, so you might have to work weekends, summers, and off-track semesters to earn that experience. The good news, though, is that there’s plenty of ways you can do this, like:
- Animal science internships
- Volunteering at shelters or clinics
- Becoming a veterinary technician
- Shadowing veterinarians
- Research
Is Pre-Vet Right for You?
A pre-vet degree is challenging. Balancing rigorous science coursework, maintaining a high GPA, and completing the required horse of experience takes commitment and discipline. However, none of these challenges are impossible, and now that you understand what lies ahead, you can prepare, manage your expectations, and find support.
With proper planning, hard work, and resilience, you can successfully navigate your pre-vet degree, and prepare for veterinary school.
Citations:
https://sites.allegheny.edu/pre-health-professions/pre-veterinary-requirements/
https://damiansatactprep.com/2018/09/20/difference-between-cumulative-gpa-and-overall-gpa/
https://lsa.umich.edu/prehealth/prepare/academics/science-gpa-.html
https://hpa.ucdavis.edu/veterinary-medicine