Veterinary Degrees Online

Pre-medicine, pre-dentistry, and pre-veterinary medicine are career paths and not majors. While most students planning to enter one of these fields select biology, chemistry, or psychology as a major, pre-medical, pre-dental, and pre-vet students may select any major. The University of Mary Washington has a pre-medical/pre-dental advisor and a pre-veterinary advisor to guide interested students through these curriculums. In addition to meeting with their assigned Academic Advisors, students with an interest in medical or dental school should meet with the Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Advisor (Dr. Loesser-Casey, kloesser@umw.edu) early in the first semester to discuss the requirements for medical or dental school. Students with an interest in veterinary medicine should meet with the Pre-Veterinary Advisor (Dr. Lewis, llewis@umw.edu).

New students interested in entering one of these career fields should complete the following courses during their first semester: CHEM 111, BIOL 121, MATH 121, ENGL 101, and a Physical Education course or a General Education course. New students with AP, IB or transfer credit which substitutes for one or more of these first semester courses should confer with the pre-med or pre-vet advisor during the first week of classes if they have questions concerning alternative coursework.

pre-veterinary medicine are career paths and not majors. While most students planning to enter one of these fields select biology, chemistry, or psychology as a major, pre-medical, pre-dental, and pre-vet students may select any major. The University of Mary Washington has a pre-medical/pre-dental advisor and a pre-veterinary advisor to guide interested students through these curriculums. In addition to meeting with their assigned Academic Advisors, students with an interest in medical or dental school should meet with the Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Advisor (Dr. Loesser-Casey, kloesser@umw.edu) early in the first semester to discuss the requirements for medical or dental school. Students with an interest in veterinary medicine should meet with the Pre-Veterinary Advisor (Dr. Lewis, llewis@umw.edu).

New students interested in entering one of these career fields should complete the following courses during their first semester: CHEM 111, BIOL 121, MATH 121, ENGL 101, and a Physical Education course or a General Education course. New students with AP, IB or transfer credit which substitutes for one or more of these first semester courses should confer with the pre-med or pre-vet advisor during the first week of classes if they have questions concerning alternative coursework.

The guidelines listed below are for students who hope to attend graduate school in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary science. Admissions requirements are set by the professional school and may vary somewhat from one institution to another. Students are responsible for being aware of the requirements for the school(s) they hope to attend.

Medical schools in general require at least two years of chemistry, at least one year of biology and one year of physics. The course work needed should be scheduled to ensure that the student will have completed all the relevant material prior to taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) at the end of the student’s junior year (offered in April and August). All courses required for admission to the professional school must have grades — no pass/no credit grades will be accepted.

The initial chemistry course is CH 161 (Principles of Chemistry I), which has a prerequisite of one year of high-school chemistry. Students who do not have this prerequisite should enroll in CH 101 (Introduction to Chemistry). There is an honors chemistry available for those who score high enough in the placement test given the first day of class. CH 161 is only offered fall semester of each year. All students enrolled in CH 161 must enroll in a lab section the same semester.

Students who do not pass both parts of the math proficiency test will not be allowed to enroll in CH 161.

Most medical schools require a year of physics. At Whitworth, calculus is a prerequisite for physics and should be started as soon as possible. Ideally, MA 110 (Calculus I) should be taken in the fall of freshman year and MA 111 (Calculus II) in the spring of freshman year.

The year of biology is met by the beginning biology sequence that involves taking BI 150 and 152 fall semester which are both half-semester courses, and BI 153 and 154 in the spring. Genetics (BI 363) should be taken at some point before taking the MCAT since there will be a few genetics questions on that test beginning in 2003.