DVM Application Process

The Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS) is the clearinghouse for all vet school applications nationwide. All applications flow through VMCAS. Make sure you bookmark their site, it will be your one-stop shop to help you on your journey to becoming a veterinary student.

You must submit a non-refundable $75 Supplemental Application Fee. Payment can be made online via credit card or by mailing a check. Click here for access to online payment. Check should be made to “The University of Georgia” and mailed to: Parker Moore, Senior Director of Admissions, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7372, USA. All payments must be submitted by the September 16^th VMCAS deadline.

To be considered for admission to the College you must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or greater. As part of our review process, UGA calculates your overall GPA by looking at any and all courses taken at the undergraduate level and beyond over the last 10 years. If you have retaken a course due to poor performance, both grades are considered as we calculate your overall GPA.

Prerequisite courses

Required courses (in semester hours) must be completed by the end of spring term with a grade of C (2.00) or better prior to fall matriculation. These courses must be completed at an undergraduate level. All required science courses must be taken within the last 10 years.

• 6 hours of English;
• 14 hours of humanities or social studies (examples of courses: psychology, sociology, philosophy, history, government, foreign languages, economics, or fine arts);
• 8 hours of general biology (for science majors; full year with laboratory — please note that BIOL 1103 and BIOL 1104 taken at UGA will NOT count toward our general biology requirement);
• 8 hours of general chemistry (full year with laboratory);
• 8 hours of organic chemistry (full year with laboratory);
• 8 hours of physics (full year with laboratory);
• 3 hours of biochemistry;
• 8 hours of advanced biology courses (300/3000-level or higher biology courses(at the undergraduate level) that have general biology as a prerequisite. Behavior, production and ecology courses do not count toward the advanced biological sciences requirement. Recommended: 300/3000-level comparative anatomy, physiology, microbiology, cell biology, or genetics).

Online Courses

Beginning with the Fall 2023 semester, we are returning to our original policy for online coursework. If a prerequisite course requires a laboratory, we require that laboratory be taken in-person. We will allow hybrid courses (lecture online – laboratory in-person), however, we highly recommend that you complete these courses in the traditional lecture style format. We will still recognize prerequisites completed online from Spring 2020 – Spring 2023.

The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine no longer has a GRE requirement to apply to the program. We do not incorporate the scoring of this test in anyway throughout our admissions process.

We do not accept veterinary technician courses to fulfill prerequisite requirements.

AP credits must appear on official college transcripts and be equivalent to the appropriate college-level coursework.

Submit transcripts directly to the Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS). The UGA CVM does NOT accept any transcripts and you would be responsible for re-submitting to the proper location. All transcripts must be submitted by the application deadline.

You are required to submit official transcripts from every institution of higher education attended, including transient courses and joint enrollment courses taken during high school, even if the courses are listed as transfer credits on another transcript. Failure to submit transcripts from each institution you have attended will result in an incomplete application that cannot be considered for admission.

Three electronic letters of recommendation are required with your application that you will submit to VMCAS.

• At least one must be completed by a veterinarian you have been employed by or for whom you have done volunteer work.
• The others should be completed by people who can evaluate your background fairly and judge your potential for entering the veterinary profession.
• We strongly recommend that you refrain from having a family member write a letter of recommendation, even if that family member is a veterinarian.

Committee reference letters will not be accepted.

A minimum of 250 veterinary experience hours is required for all applicants. The 250 hours must be completed at the time the VMCAS application is submitted. To count toward veterinary experience, you must be under the direct supervision of a veterinarian. If you are not under the supervision of a veterinarian, the experience is considered animal experience.

The following general descriptions are not inclusive, nor do they supersede existing regulations concerning in-state residency. This is only an explanatory guide for Georgia residency for tuition purposes. Detailed official guidelines are listed in both the UGA Bulletin and in the codes of the University System of Georgia.

For Georgia resident status, the three most important things to remember are:

• Students must first prove that they have established a primary domicile or permanent Georgia home at least 12 consecutive months immediately preceding the beginning of classes for the term to be considered for residency. Typically, the residency status of a dependent student is tied to the status of the parent(s), or in the case of divorce, the tax-dependent or majority support parent, so the parent(s) must show proof of domicile.
• Students and/or parent(s) of dependent students also should be able to provide documentation showing payment of Georgia state income tax, as this shows a tie to the state that proves financial support for the Georgia educational system. Mere property ownership in Georgia, by itself, is usually insufficient.
• The Office of Admissions also suggests that students be able to provide copies of any other documents showing their intent to be a Georgia resident, such as a Georgia driver’s license, car or voter registration, home ownership, full-time employment records, etc. Attending college in Georgia is not proof of intention to be a Georgia resident.

Since the University of Georgia is a state-supported institution, students must show documented proof of residency and the duration of their residency in order to qualify for in-state tuition.

In reviewing petitions for in-state residency, UGA CVM considers each student’s situation as unique, and so there are no universal formulas. In general, though, the three items mentioned previously are key. UGA CVM does understand that there are situations, such as parents living in separate states or a family in the military, that may alter the review process.

Special Situations Involving Residency Classification

The following descriptions should help in understanding what the our Office of Admissions considers when reviewing certain situations.

Dependent versus Independent Students

If a student is listed as a dependent on their parent’s / parents’ or legal guardian’s previous year’s tax returns or receives more than 50% of their financial support from a parent or guardian, they are considered a dependent student and UGA considers the student to be a resident, for tuition purposes, of the parent’s / parents’ or guardian’s state of residence. (A legal guardian must provide court and/or financial documentation of support for the student.)

An independent student who wishes to establish in-state tuition residency must document that his/her parent(s) have not claimed him/her as a tax dependent for the 12 months prior to the start of the term, and that he/she has provided 100% of his/her financial support as shown in federal and state tax returns. No student shall gain or acquire in-state classification while attending any post-secondary educational institution in this state without clear evidence of having established domicile in Georgia for purposes other than attending a post-secondary educational institution in this state.

Non-U.S. Citizens

Non-U.S. citizens are only eligible for in-state residency if they are lawful permanent residents as documented by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service or have been granted a visa in an eligible category. F-1 student visas are not eligible. These students must still provide documentation of in-state residency for the 12-month period prior to the start of the term.

As stated before, all petitions for in-state residency are considered in their entirety, so every file must be reviewed based upon its own merit. In addition, this page is meant as a general guide about Georgia residency for tuition purposes, but does not supersede any existing policies for in-state residency found in the UGA Bulletin and in the codes of the University System of Georgia.

*Important Note: Once a student matriculates into the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, he/she cannot change his/her tuition classification to become a Georgia resident for tuition purposes.

Out of State Residency — Contract States

We have contracts with the states of Delaware and South Carolina. In each class, we admit 29 students from South Carolina and 2 from Delaware. All applicants from these two states are required to contact the Higher Education Commission about residency verification.

South Carolina

SC Commission on Higher Education

1122 Lady Street, Suite 300 Columbia, South Carolina 29201

Contact: Kenita Pitts-Howard

Phone: 803-856-0037 Fax: 803-737-2297
Website

Delaware

Delaware Higher Education Commission

Carvel State Office Building 820 N. French Street Wilmington, Delaware 19801

Contact: Juliet Murawski

Phone: 302.735.4120 Fax: 302.577.6765

Due to a change in our curriculum, The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine no longer accepts transfer students.