Pre-Veterinary Medicine
If you’re a current student at Cornell, schedule your appointment with the Associate Director of Dimensions to get started planning your future career in veterinary medicine.
Prepare for veterinary school
Choose a major
- Biochemistry and molecular biology
- Biology
- Chemistry
These majors are good choices and are our most popular for pre-veterinary medicine since they help satisfy most prerequisites for veterinary medicine school. However, you may consider another major instead. You strengthen your application if you double major in biochemistry and molecular biology with another major outside of the natural sciences because it sets you apart from other applicants.
Complete your prerequisite coursework
Not all veterinary schools require the same prerequisites. Meet with the Associate Director of Dimensions to review school-specific prerequisites. Veterinary schools are highly competitive and seek students with a strong science and social science background.
Typical prerequisites include:
- Two English, writing, or comparative literature courses
- Two general biology courses
- Two general chemistry courses
- Organic chemistry I, II, and lab
- Two physics courses
- Two mathematics courses, typically calculus I or II and statistics
Additional considerations
- Biochemistry
- Microbiology
- Genetics
- Public speaking
- Conservation science coursework, research, or scholarship-intensive coursework
- Psychology
- Independent study opportunities (summer, year-round, or post-degree)
Take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
Most veterinary schools require the GRE (administered by the Educational Testing Service) for admission. Dimensions provides resources and 1:1 professional support when you are preparing for the GRE, which consists of verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing sections, and lasts approximately four hours.
Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
A few veterinary schools will accept MCAT scores instead of the GRE, but it is best to check with the programs you’re most interested in to see which entrance exam you should take; only taking the MCAT may significantly limit your options.
Apply to veterinary schools
Before you begin to apply to veterinary schools, meet with the Associate Director of Dimensions to plan out the steps necessary for applying.
You will also meet with Cornell’s Health Professions Committee. Cornell’s Health Professions Committee will review your application in its entirety and author a committee letter of recommendation.
If you’re interested in learning more about Cornell’s pre-veterinary program, let us know.