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North Carolina State University Information

Admissions Contact Information

Phone: (919) 513-6486
Email: cvm_dvm@ncsu.edu
Address: 4700 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27606
Website: www.cvm.ncsu.edu/studentservices/admissions.html

Background Information

  •  When was the school founded? The first class graduated in 1985. So NCSU is a relatively new school, but in its short time it has created quite a name for itself in the veterinary world.

  •  What is the mission of the institution? The mission of the College of Veterinary Medicine is to enhance the career and life success of students, staff, faculty, and veterinary professionals through initiatives in curriculum and lifelong learning, development of leadership and entrepreneurial skills, and partnerships with the community.

  •  What is the campus/city like? Raleigh is the capital and hte scond largest city in North Carolina. It has a population of approximately 423,179 as of 2012. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and it is part of the Research Triangle. It's climate is similar to other southeastern states with four distinct seasons, but a short winter. The university itself enrolls over 34,000 students, making it the largest university in North Carolina. The Veterinary school is located on the NC State University Centennial Biomedical campus. It has 155 faculty, 400 staff members, and it enrolls over 300 DVM students at a time.     

  •  Is it a public or private University? NCSU is a public university.

  •  Do they have any special facilities? Some notable facilities are the Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research, Center for Chemical Toxicology Research and Pharmacokinetics, Environmental Medicine Consortium, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and Equine Health Center. Students at NCSU have many unique opportunities to become actively involved in research due to the University’s location in the research triangle.

​Ranking​

  •  U.S. News and World Report Ranking: #3 (score 4.1/5)

  • Accreditation: The North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine is fully accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association Counsel on Education. Its last evaluation was conducted in 2007.

​Required Coursework
- Animal Nutrition (3 credits)
- Biochemistry (3 or 4 credits)
- Biology (4 credits, lab required)
- Calculus or Logic (3 credits)
- General Chemistry (8 credits, labs required)
- Organic Chemistry (8 credits, labs required)
- Composition & Writing or Public Speaking or Communications (6 credits)
- Genetics (3 or 4 credits)
- Humanities and Social Sciences (6 credits)
- Microbiology (4 credits, lab required)
- Physics (8 credits, labs required and must be a two-semester course series)
- Statistics (3 credits)

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​Coursework Criteria​

  •  All required courses must be completed for a letter grade of a C- or higher to be considered for admittance.
  •  If a course is repeated, the repeated average for both classes will be calculated for the required courses and cumulative GPA sections.
  •  Required coursework must be completed for a letter grade with the exception of AP courses. All but two of the required courses or labs must be completed by the end of the fall semester of the application year. These remaining courses must be completed in the following spring semester immediately preceding matriculation.
  • There is no time expiration or time limit on required courses. Courses can be completed any number of years ago and still be considered for admission.
​Admissions General Information​

  • Professional Application Service: VMCAS

  • VMCAS Deadline: October 2nd

  • Do they have a supplemental application? Yes, they have a supplemental application available to all students who applied through VMCAS. There is a $60 fee associated with the application and its deadline is October 5th.

  • Do they have interviews? They do not have interviews at NCSU. Therefore as an applicant you really have to show them who you are as an individual through your personal statement.

  • Are AP credits accepted? Yes, AP courses can be used to fulfill prerequisite courses. NCSU must receive official transcripts for these courses for them to be used.

  •  Do they require a pre-professional curriculum? No, there is no requirement for a certain degree or emphasis in undergrad. As long as all of the required courses are completed, any student with any major can apply to NCSU.

  • ​What professional test do they accept? All students applying must take the GRE and it is highly recommended to take it prior to September 1st of your application year. For more information see the statistics section and the GRE informational page.

​Veterinary Program​

  • How many years is the program? The veterinary degree is a four year program.

  • What is the start date? First year orientation is August 2nd – 6th, the White Coat Ceremony is August 4th, and the first day of classes is August 8th.

  • What is the average class size? 110 students

  • What concentrations are offered? The concentrations in veterinary medicine offered at NCSU is Companion Animal Medicine, Equine Medicine, Food Supply Medicine, Ecosystem Health, Animal Welfare, Biomedical Research, Clinician Scientist, Epidemiology and Public Heath, Laboratory Animal Medicine, Mixed Animal Practice, Pathology, and Zoological Medicine.

  • What other degrees are offered? Master of Science/Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Fisheries and Wildlife, Master of Specialized Veterinary medicine, combined DVM/MBA, and combined DVM/PhD.

  • What are the residency placement options? They have many internship and residency placements. They can all be viewed at the website listed under residencies. Some examples are anesthesia, cardiology, neurology, and oncology.

  • What is the NAVLE pass rate? In 2013 the pass rate was 96%.

  • What is the retention rate? The retention rate is a piece of information that is hard to find because it is not something that school put out there very often. As far as could be found for NCSU, in 2006 they only had one student drop from the DVM program. So they have a fairly good retention rate.

  • What are some student activities? There are a number of associations and organizations on campus for Veterinary students at NCSU. Some examples are Psi Chapter of Phi Zeta Honor Society, Turtle Rescue Team, and VETS. NCSU also offers strong mentored research programs in the field of veterinary medicine. There are more than 40 different intramural and Division I varsity sports along with 400 student organizations and a variety of student publications and media outlets.  

  • What professional development do they offer graduates? They have continuing education programs for NCSU graduates and other veterinarians in order to continue and enhance their professional development. Throughout the year they hold a variety of seminars looking at a wide-range of topics, such as small animal ultrasound, feline orthopedics, and equine health symposium.

  • What academic support programs do they have? NCSU has an Academic Support Unit (ASU), which is an organization meant to provide DVM students with testing services, learning management skills, preparation for course materials, and help with audience response system. Something very interesting that they offer is a free online anatomy course offered to all incoming first year students because many students don’t get a lot of anatomy exposure during undergrad.

  • What is the curriculum? Their curriculum can be found at http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/dvm/. The basis of thier curriculum is a two phase process. The first three years are considered the three-year phase and the second phase occurs during the fourth year for the clinical training. During the first three years, the semester are broken up into 13 week core course periods with a 2 week period of selective courses that are each one credit. The last year is set-up in a block system approach to clinical education. The academic calender is divided up into 2 to 4 week periods of clinical rotations in focus area, elective blocks, and continued required coursework.

Admissions Statistics (2013)

General Statistics 

# of applications received per year - 662

# of out-of-state applicants per year - 471

# of students accepted - 96

% of applicants accepted - 14.5%

% of in-state students enrolled - 83.3%

% of out-of-state students enrolled - 16.7%

% female - 79.1%

% male - 20.8%



Resident GPA Statistics

Required cumulative GPA - 3.0

Avg. cumulative GPA of admitted students - 3.66

Avg. last 45 credits GPA of admitted students - 3.76

Avg. required credits GPA of admitted students - 3.68

Avg. cumulative GPA of denied students - 3.45



Non-resident GPA Statistics

Required cumulative GPA - 3.4

Avg. cumulative GPA of admitted students - 3.84
Avg. last 45 credits GPA of admitted students - 3.89
Avg. required credits GPA of admitted students - 3.84
Avg. cumulative GPA of denied students - 3.78



Resident GRE Statistics

Avg. verbal score for admitted students - 154 (61%)

Avg. quantitative score for admitted students - 152 (52%)

Avg. analytical score for admitted students - 4.16

Avg. total overall score for admitted students - 306



Non-resident GRE Statistics

Avg. verbal score for admitted students - 154 (61%)

Avg. quantitative score for admitted students - 154 (60%)
Avg. analytical score for admitted students - 4.38
Avg. total overall score for admitted students - 308

​Subjective Review Components
As typical with most Veterinary schools, NCSU uses the components of the VMCAS and secondary applicants to determine admissions. They have eight major components that they use to evaluate each student. When applying to NCSU students need to focus on each of these sections and strengthen their application based on what the admissions committee is looking for in applicants.

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1. Veterinary Experience: NCSU has a four hundred hour minimum required number of hours of veterinary experience for applicants. These hours can be obtained through clinical, medical, agribusiness, health science, or medical related scientific research experiences. In order to be highly competitive, they recommend that students have supervised experiences in three or more different veterinary related areas (small animal, large animal, research, food animal, exotic, aquatic, wildlife, zoological medicine, etc.). These veterinary experiences can be paid or volunteer, but they be completed under the supervision of a veterinary or PhD scientist. Applicants are evaluated on duration, level of duties, and diversity of the experiences.

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2. Animal Experience: There is no required number of hours of animal experience; however it is highly recommended that applicants have at least one hundred hours with a variety of different activities. These animal related experiences could be working with livestock, breeding/showing dogs, working at a zoo, equestrian activities, or volunteering an animal shelter.

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3. Educational Experience: This component looks at the level of an applicant’s academic excellence, the course load per term, employment concurrent with school attendance, and participation in intercollegiate athletics. They are looking to see how active students are and if they can handle the heavy course load of veterinary school. Honors, awards, and advanced degrees are also taken into consideration.

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4. Evaluation Forms and Recommendations: At NC State, they require three letters of recommendation that are submitted directly through the VMCAS application. They prefer only to receive the letters lettesr and it is strongly encouraged that two of the recommendations be submitted by veterinarians or PhD scientists that you have actively worked with. You are also required on the supplemental application to provide contact information and a small explanation about every veterinarian that you have worked with that wasn't used as a reference letter. 

 

5. Personal Statement: The personal statement is sent through the VMCAS application and thus it will be the same for every college that you apply to. NC State outlines three different topics that they want you to specifically touch on in a personal statement. First, tell them something about yourself. Second, explain to them how your interest in veterinary medicine came about in the context of your experiences and lastly what your career goals are and what you currently anticipate doing with a degree in veterinary medicine. 

 

6. Diversity: They do look at the diversity of an applicant, or most specifically what unique attributes a student can bring to the college. A lot of the ways in which they determine the diversity of a student is through their supplemental application essays. This is a way for students to give the admissions board a little bit more of a personal view of who they are. Examples of diversity that NC State seeks out is a unique career interest, graduate school work, NC residency, life experiences, personal hardships, or being part of a minority group. 

 

7. Extracurricular and Community Activities: Lastly, they look at your level of involvement outside of your academic work. They want to see that you were involved on campus and in the community. Schools like to see well-rounded students who are going to suceed. Any leadership positions are great and should be emphasized in the application.

Tuition and Fees

  • In-state tuition = $15,378

 

  • Out-of-state tuition = $38,140

 

  •  Is there an enrollment deposit required? Yes, there is a $250 deposit and it is due by April 16th. - Cost of living in the regions = The composite index for the cost of living in Raleigh is 93.3, which is below average in the United States.

 

  • Residency status options = NCSU is fairly unique because they offer the opportunity for out-of-state students to become in-state classification for tuition purposes if they meet the residency requirements. While these requirements are extensive and must be established at least 13 months prior to application, I spoke with an admissions counselor and she informed me that almost all out-of-state students earn in-state residency by their second year. The requirements are outlined in several websites that are linked under the NCSU page.

 

​Funding Options​

  • Grants-in-aid - They have the diversity graduate assistance grant, which is a program that provides a stipend of up to $4000 for the academic year. Awards are only given to African-American students who are NC residents. They did used to have the NC Student Loan Program for Health, Science, and Mathematics, however this has been suspended this past year for the foreseeable future. 

 

  • Fellowships - NCSU Vet School has the CVM Travel Fellowship that helps cover the cost of certain classes that require international traveling during the summer.

 

  • Scholarships - There are scholarships available on a limited basis through funds made possible by gifts from private benefactors. These scholarships are awarded by the Faculty Scholarship Committee based on demonstrated financial need and academic achievement. There are outside scholarships that can be found through such organizations as the US Department of Agriculture. Many scholarships are not awarded and applied for until students are actually 2 or 3 years into the program 

 

  • Assistantships - There are assistantships avaliable for graduate and veterinary students. There are such programs as the CVM graduate student stipends which amount to $667 per month plus health insurance. There are also NCSY Teaching and Research Assistantships and the USDA Nationals Needs Fellowships in Animal Biotechnology.  

 

  • Loans - A very important and unfortunate change for graduate and professional students occured for this past academic year and into the future. Graduate and professional students are no longer eligible to receive subsidized loans through the FASFA because of cuts to federal funding. You should still apply through the FASFA if you planning to get financial aid in the form of loans or scholarships. The FASFA needs to be completed by March 1st. 

 

  • Military Funding - The U.S. Army offers a variety of scholarships for veterinary students. If you are interested in the military, they will pay for your entire tuition in exchange for four years of service as a veterinarian. They also pay for all of your books/fees and you get a $1907 per month stipend. Once you start school you are a Second Lieutenant and after you graduate you are promoted to a Captain. This is a great opportunity if the military is something you are interested in. 

Helpful Links for NCSU
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