A-State's College of Veterinary Medicine evaluates candidates for nonacademic factors in the admissions process.
Experiences
There is no minimum requirement for animal or veterinary experience hours, although candidates are encouraged to seek experience in veterinary medicine, agriculture or agribusiness, animal or health science or research. Applicants should have accumulated sufficient diversity of experiences to be able to have a broad understanding of career opportunities in veterinary medicine.
Candidates should include non-veterinary, non-animal experiences and affiliations in their application. This includes experiences related to previous employment, extracurricular activities, research, and community volunteering. These experiences provide more insight to the candidate's skills, interests, goals, and values. Candidates should focus on post-secondary education experiences. Applicants who have had careers outside of veterinary medicine should include this information in their application.
Diversity Focus on Underserved Communities of Arkansas
The CVM encourages applications from talented students from underserved communities of Arkansas as determined by the needs of Arkansas.
Recommendation Letters
Letters of recommendation should provide additional perspective about the candidate that is unique from information entered into the application. Recommendation letters provide insight into the candidate’s readiness for veterinary school.
A-State CVM Applicants are required to have a minimum of 3 electronic letters of recommendation submitted. One must be from veterinarian. We recommend the additional letters be either from an academic source or employer; however, candidates may select other sources that provide diverse perspectives.
The Admissions Committee may contact a reference directly if further information or clarification is required.
Interview
There will be no interview for Arkansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine’s entering class of 2026. A-State’s CVM reserves the right to decide annually whether or not to conduct interviews for Arkansas candidates or out of state candidates. Candidates will be notified in December if interviews will take place in January/February. Participation in the interview, if held, is required for consideration.
Evaluation Criteria
In addition to the application materials and minimum requirements listed above, all applicants will be evaluated holistically, considering all aspects of an applicant’s background including unique employment and life experiences, as well as personal hardship perseverance.
The criteria below are a set of objectives and characteristics, each of which have implications for the selection of entering students to uphold the mission of the program. The "weight" assigned to each criterion as well as the method of assessment is included. Two applicant pools will be evaluated: Arkansas residents (AR) and non-Arkansas residents (Out of State).
In-State vs Out-of-State Determination
For determination of in-state versus out-of-state status, A-State's CVM will act in accordance with Arkansas State University's residency policy.
The intent is for out-of-state students to remain as out-of-state for the duration of the program. It is anticipated that upon acceptance, students will contractually obligate to continued payment of tuition during the entire DVM program that is applicable at initial status determination.
Evaluation Criteria Table
| Candidate Traits and Attributes | Applicant Data | Assessment Tool | Points Assigned (AR) | Points Assigned (Out of State) |
| Academic Excellence | Cumulative GPA/Last 45 credit hours GPA/Science GPA | Calculated | 65 | 65 |
| Diversity Focus on Underserved Communities of Arkansas | Arkansas county of residence, 1st generation college student, Rural/agricultural veterinary experience | Application Review | 5 | 0 |
| Experience and Leadership | Demonstrated engagement, experience & volunteer hours; Essays | Application Review | 20 | 20 |
| Accomplishments/Talents | Achievements, Honors and Awards | Application Review | 10 | 10 |
| Total | 100 | 95 |
General Requirements
If admitted to the program, candidates must submit official transcripts for coursework completed during the application cycle even if they do or do not include prerequisite courses. Severe negative changes (i.e. D's, F's, I's, W's) in academic performance may warrant additional consideration of the candidate's offer status by the Veterinary Admissions Committee.
Completion of a Bachelor's degree is not required.
There is a 2.8 minimum GPA to apply; however, candidates should demonstrate recent academic success in relevant coursework.
The GRE is not required or accepted.
We do not require a situational judgement test (e.g., CASPer or Kira Talent).
A-State CVM reserves the right to rescind an offer of admission or to expel a candidate from the program if it learns of applicant misrepresentation, concealment of pertinent information requested, or use of unoriginal responses in the application or during an interview.
Essay
Essays provide the opportunity to share meaningful information about a candidate's journey to a career in veterinary medicine and their understanding of the profession.
Candidates should carefully provide answers that address prompts, review their writing for completeness, messaging, spelling and grammar, and provide individualized insight about themselves.
Essay responses must be the original work of the candidate. Use of a third party service or artificial intelligence for generation of essay responses is prohibited. The Office of Student Programs and Admissions reserves the right to rescind an offer of admission or dismiss a matriculated student from the program if it is found that a candidate has misrepresented themselves, provided false information, or has not responded through their own original narrative in the application.
