Review and Selection

Pending receipt from the AVMA Council on Education of a letter of reasonable assurance, the College of Veterinary Medicine aims to enroll an inaugural class of 40 students in the fall of 2025. Once the Veterinary Medical Education Building (VME) is completed the following year, the plan is to admit a cohort of 80 students, with 40 residents and 40 nonresidents.

If a letter of reasonable assurance (LOR) is in place to allow admission of students in the fall of 2025, the CVM will still be unable to use the Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS) that year. Instead, the CVM will use the admission process offered through the USU School of Graduate Studies. The CVM will likely use VMCAS in subsequent admission cycles. Regardless of which submission mechanism is used, a component of the application process may be a situational judgment test (SJT) such as CASPer, PREview, or DUET. The purpose of including an SJT is to enhance understanding of an applicant’s personal and professional characteristics.

To enter the review process, applicants must meet a minimum grade point average (GPA) requirement. Applicants who fail to meet this requirement are not subjected to further review, while those who meet the GPA criteria go through a multistep process designed to filter and rank applications. The final review and selection are performed by the selection committees.

The review and selection process for the college involves multiple steps and external and internal reviewers, and it applies to both Utah residents and non-residents. Our primary objective is to promote transparent decision-making while improving engagement, effectiveness, and efficiency.

The major steps of the process are detailed below.

Selection Process

1

Quantitative Screening of Minimum GPA Requirements

The selection committees conduct a quantitative screening of all applicants to ensure they meet the minimum GPA requirements of a 2.9 cumulative and a 3.1 math and science prerequisite GPA. Applicants who meet these requirements proceed to the next step.

 
2

Filtering and Ranking Process With Academic and Non-Academic Evaluation

 An independent external review agency (e.g., KiraTalent) may be used to filter and rank applications. This involves a detailed quantitative assessment of applicants' academic standing, including their prerequisite course GPA, last 45-semester credit GPA, and cumulative GPA. Non-academic measures are also evaluated, such as veterinary and animal experience, responsibility for direct animal care, writing quality, involvement in employment and extracurricular activities, awareness of diversity issues, the personal statement, and letters of reference. Applicants may also be asked to complete a situational judgment test (SJT), which is scored and combined with the academic and non-academic scores to create a cumulative applicant score for ranking. The GRE is not currently considered in the decision-making process.

 
3

Interview-Based Selection and Final Decision Making

The selection committees review applicants based on their ranked cumulative scores from the previous step. Starting with the highest-ranked applicants, the committees conduct interviews. The goal is to assess an applicant's strengths and potential beyond grades and standardized tests, and interviewers undergo training on diversity, equity, inclusion, and implicit bias.

The selection committees consider scenario- and behavior-based questions related to pre-professional competencies. Final decisions weigh academic score, non-academic score, and interview score. Waitlists are maintained for both residents and nonresidents, and any available seats are filled leading up to the fall semester.

4

Campus Visit and Familiarization With CVM Facilities

Accepted students are given the opportunity to visit USU to tour the CVM’s facilities and interact with students, staff, and faculty.