Preveterinary Medicine Graduate at University Of Rhode Island
The Preveterinary program at the University of Rhode Island is a Bachelor of Science program in the Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences in the College of the Environment and Life Science designed to prepare students for admission to schools of veterinary medicine. Animal health is an integral part of of animal science and the veterinarian is the key professional in the field. Admission to a DVM program requires superior academic achievement, completion of challenging undergraduate coursework, and knowledge and experience in the field of veterinary medicine. Extracurricular activities and personal qualities are also taken into consideration. Admission to veterinary school is highly competitive and students are encouraged to explore secondary career objectives.
Courses in our preveterinary program are designed to meet the requirements of virtually all the schools of veterinary medicine in the United States. Since veterinary school admission requirements are subject to change and are not uniform it is essential that students recognize their responsibility to keep abreast of requirements for specific institutions they wish to apply to. Strong faculty advising, the URI Health Professions Advisory Commitee and the Animal and Veterinary Science Club all work together to help he student. The courses that are part of the basic science requirements include: General Zoology, General Botany, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, General Physics, Calculus, Statistics and Microbiology. Some examples of concentration and supporting courses are Introductory Animal Science, Animal Nutrition, Physiology of Reproduction, Genetics, Companion Animal Management, Anatomy and Physiology, Endocrinology, Pathology, Animal Behavior and Animal Diseases. The remainder of the program is made up of the University general education requirement and free electives. A total of 130 credits are required for graduation.
Careers in veterinary medicine are numerous. Private practice, either in small or large animal medicine, federal, state and local assignments dealing with disease control and public health, teaching and research; food and drug companies hire veterinarians for product development and testing. Other opportunities include zoos, wildlife preserves, aquariums, racetracks, laboratory animal facilities etc. There are also specializations in non-practice areas such as pathology, medical computing science and scientific administration.
Special opportunities and facilities include the Peckham Animal Center, internships and special projects. At the Peckham Animal Center students have the opportunity to work with sheep, dairy goats, poultry, horses and on a limited basis dairy cattle. Most of these opportunities are done in conjunction with course work; our goal is to provide students with hands on work early in their program with students then expanding on this experience through a variety of internships. Recent internships completed by students include the Farm and Equine Internship at the Willam H. Miner Institute , the Mystic Marinelife Aquarium and the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, RI. Recent special projects have included research in control of reproduction in sheep, animal well-being, and Lyme disease.