How to Get Into Veterinary School

Getting into veterinary school is one of the most competitive post-grad school challenges — more selective, in many respects, than medical school. The path requires years of deliberate preparation that most aspiring vets don’t fully understand when they first declare their interest in animal medicine. If you’re a pre-vet student, or the parent of one, the decisions you make during the undergraduate years will determine whether you’re a competitive applicant — or whether you’re reapplying for the second or third time.

That’s not a scare tactic. It’s the reality that our advisors at Great College Advice work through with pre-vet students every year. The good news is that the path is navigable when you understand what vet schools actually want, which undergraduate programs set you up for success, and what alternatives exist if the US route doesn’t work out on the first attempt. This guide covers all of it.

Why Vet School Is Harder to Get Into Than Most Students Expect

The most common mistake pre-vet students make is underestimating how difficult veterinary school admission actually is. As our advisor Pam Gentry puts it: “They love animals, and they wanna be a vet, and they are good at science, and they’re predisposed to understanding the biology — but they don’t always get that it is very difficult to get into vet school.”

The difficulty is structural. There are fewer veterinary schools than medical schools in the United States, and demand for admission far exceeds supply. Unlike medical school, where a qualified applicant has dozens of programs to choose from, the vet school applicant pool is competing for far fewer seats. This means that a student who would be a strong medical school candidate — excellent GPA, solid test scores, relevant experience — may still not gain admission to a US vet program on the first application cycle.

Understanding these early changes helps you approach the undergraduate years. It also opens up a strategic question that most pre-vet students never think to ask: Are there pathways outside the US that lead to the same outcome?

Choosing the Right Undergraduate Program

Animal Science Access Is Non-Negotiable

The single most underappreciated factor in pre-vet undergraduate planning is access to animal science coursework. Pam Gentry is direct on this point: “There are fewer colleges and universities in the US that offer animal science, and having access to animal science classes is very, very important, and we need to look for schools that offer that.”

Pre-vet students don’t necessarily need to major in animal science — but they do need to attend an institution that offers and makes those courses accessible. This is a concrete filter to apply when building a college list, not an afterthought. A student who enrolls at a liberal arts college without an animal science program may find themselves unable to complete the coursework that vet schools expect to see on a transcript.

Pre-Vet Advising Infrastructure Matters as Much as Prestige

Beyond course availability, the quality of pre-vet advising at an undergraduate institution is a direct predictor of application success. Gentry recommends looking specifically for “colleges and universities across the US that have strong pre-vet advising” and notes that the goal is to send students to institutions “that have a high success rate” in placing students into vet programs.

This is a different framework from the one most families use when choosing a college. Prestige rankings don’t capture pre-vet placement rates. A mid-tier state university with a robust animal science department and a dedicated pre-vet advisor may produce more successful vet school applicants than a highly ranked liberal arts college with no such infrastructure.

The table below summarizes the key factors to evaluate when choosing an undergraduate program as a pre-vet student:

The Clinical Experience Requirement Most Students Underestimate

Veterinary schools require documented hours of hands-on animal experience — both with companion animals and with large or exotic animals, depending on the program. This is not a checkbox item that can be completed in a summer. Competitive applicants typically accumulate hundreds of hours across multiple species and clinical settings during their undergraduate years.

The practical implication: pre-vet students need to begin seeking clinical placements, veterinary shadowing, and animal handling experience from their first year of college, not their junior year. Students who wait until they’re ready to apply often find they don’t have the breadth of experience that admissions committees expect.

This is also one of the reasons that vet school admission on the second or third attempt is common and not a sign of failure. As Gentry notes, students “need to be prepared that maybe they won’t get in the first time, but they could get in the second time, or they could get in the third time after getting some clinical experience. That can often be the case that you don’t get in right away.” A gap year or two spent in a clinical setting — working as a veterinary technician, on a farm, or in a wildlife rehabilitation program — can transform a borderline application into a competitive one.

The International Pathway: A Strategic Option Most Pre-Vet Students Don’t Know Exists

One of the most valuable pieces of information our advisors share with pre-vet students is that a veterinary degree earned outside the United States is recognized globally — including in the US and Canada. This opens a strategic alternative that most families never consider.

Gentry explains: “You can do your vet work in the UK and have it translate across the globe. You could go to Australia, you could go to a European country, and come back to the US or to Canada with a degree in veterinary sciences and practice.”

More specifically, approximately 10 US undergraduate programs offer a direct pathway to the Glasgow School of Veterinary Science. For students who complete their undergraduate years successfully, this route provides a structured, internationally recognized path to veterinary licensure. Gentry notes: “I often put those undergraduate programs on their list because that is a pathway that they could likely be successful with, assuming they do well in their undergraduate years.”

For students applying directly to UK veterinary schools, the process differs from the US model. Students with experience with animals and foundational coursework in biology and chemistry can apply directly to UK veterinary programs — and the qualifications earned are recognized globally.

This matters strategically. A student who doesn’t gain admission to a US vet program on the first cycle has a genuine, high-quality alternative rather than an indefinite holding pattern.

Being Well-Rounded Is a Requirement, Not a Bonus

A pattern that runs through every professional health program (and vet school is no exception) is that admissions committees are not looking for students who did nothing but study science. For pre-professional students, Gentry notes that programs “want students who are well-rounded and have grown as a human into a mature adult while they’re in college.” The same principle applies across professional health programs, including those looking for the best schools in the US offering pre-dental programs.

For pre-vet students, this means that the undergraduate years should include genuine engagement outside the laboratory and the clinic. Leadership roles, community involvement, creative pursuits, and experiences that demonstrate self-awareness and interpersonal maturity all contribute to a stronger application. The student who spent four years exclusively optimizing their GPA and accumulating clinical hours — without developing a sense of who they are — is a less compelling applicant than one who did both.

This is the insight Gentry identifies as the most common mistake pre-professional students make: “Pre-professional students need to not just focus on growing academically as a student, but to grow socially and within their community, and find their voice and find who they are. Professional schools want people who know who they are, who’ve had some experiences, along with the qualifications they need.”

Common Mistakes Pre-Vet Students Make

Choosing an undergraduate college without checking for animal science access. Before finalizing a college list, confirm that the institution offers animal science coursework and has a pre-vet advising track with documented placement history.

Delaying clinical experience until junior or senior year. Begin seeking veterinary shadowing, farm experience, and animal-handling opportunities in the first semester of college. Breadth across species and settings matters as much as total hours.

Treating the first application cycle as the only acceptable outcome. The correction: build a plan that accounts for the possibility of reapplication. A gap year in a clinical role is not a setback — it is often the differentiator that makes the second application successful.

Ignoring international pathways. The correction: research UK and Australian veterinary programs during the undergraduate college search, not after a US rejection. The ten US undergraduate programs with direct pathways to Glasgow should be on every serious pre-vet student’s list.

Focusing exclusively on academics at the expense of personal development. The correction: engage authentically in activities outside the classroom. Vet schools, like all professional programs, admit people, not transcripts. While maintaining a high weighted GPA vs. an unweighted GPA is important for your initial college entry, vet schools will look for a consistent record of academic excellence and personal growth.

What a Strong Pre-Vet Strategy Actually Looks Like

The pre-vet students who gain admission to competitive programs share a common profile: they attended undergraduate institutions with animal science access and strong pre-vet advising, they accumulated diverse clinical experience starting in their first year, they developed as whole people alongside their academic credentials, and they understood from the beginning that the path might require more than one application cycle.

The students who struggle are those who treated vet school admission as a straightforward extension of undergraduate academic success, assuming that a strong GPA and a love of animals would be sufficient. They are not.

If you’re a pre-vet student or a family navigating this decision, the most valuable thing you can do right now is get the undergraduate college choice right. That single decision determines whether you have access to the coursework, the advising, and the clinical pathways that make a competitive vet school application possible.

Our advisors at Great College Advice work with pre-vet students from the college search stage through the professional school application process. If you’re building a college list with vet school in mind, we can help you identify the programs that give your student the strongest foundation, including the international pathways that most families don’t know to consider. Reach out to start that conversation.