Predictive Value of Veterinary Student Application Data for Class Rank at End of Year 1

Brief Communication: Predictive Value of Veterinary Student Application Data for Performance in Clinical Year 4

Student application packages for admission to the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine currently include the following information: undergraduate grade point average (GPA), GPA in science courses, GPA in non-science courses, GPA for the last 45 hours (GPALast45hrs), Graduate Record Examination Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning (GRE-QV) score, GRE Analytical Writing (GRE-AW) score, and grades for 10 required prerequisite courses. From these data, an academics score of up to 70 points is calculated. Faculty reviewers also score each applicant up to a maximum of 30 points (FileScore), giving a total possible score of 100 points. Previous analyses demonstrated that the file score and academic variables are significantly related to first-year GPA of veterinary students; however, it is unknown how these variables relate to performance in clinical rotations. The present study pooled the two most recent graduating classes to compare each academic score component to student clinical rotation grades received during year 4 (CGrYr4) in the teaching hospital. Only one component of the student application packages-the pre-admission GRE-QV score-significantly correlated with CGrYr4.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Pre-Veterinary Opportunities and Recommendations for DVM Admissions

During the summer of 2020, a survey-based study was conducted at North Carolina State University, a land-grant university, to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on pre-veterinary students' ability to gain experience hours for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) admissions. Of the 286 respondents (47% of the respondent pool), 92% reported losing at least one animal, veterinary, research, extracurricular, or work opportunity due to COVID-19, and 59% were not able to find a replacement. Of the lost experiences, 74 (20.8%) were for academic credit, resulting in 131 total academic credit hours lost, while only 12 credit hours were gained via alternative experiences. Of respondents, 30% (29.7%) identified as applicants of the 2020-2021 Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS) cycle. More than half (52.6%) of the sample identified being concerned about the strength of their VMCAS experiences due to these lost opportunities. Many respondents reported considering delaying application submissions by taking a gap year (17.5%) or having had their intended graduation timeline affected (14.8%). Since the majority of veterinary colleges utilize a holistic review process, this study provides a basis for understanding the effects of COVID-19 on the duration, depth, and diversity of experiences gained by future DVM applicants. This article also provides recommendations for DVM admissions adaptations based on the outcomes of the data.