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Pre-Professional Academic Requirements (Prerequisites)

The admissions committee for the College of Veterinary Medicine views a solid and broad undergraduate experience to be crucial preparation for successful completion of the veterinary curriculum. Applicants will be expected to have completed all the prerequisite courses before matriculation. As such, the committee strongly recommends completion of the baccalaureate degree prior to applying to the DVM program. If a baccalaureate degree has not been earned by the time of application, the committee will still base its decisions on the strength and breadth of the applicant’s educational background. Therefore, the committee will look for evidence that courses from the following categories have been satisfactorily completed: Courses within these categories are listed under General Education Requirements for graduation in the WSU catalog

http://catalog.wsu.edu/Catalog/Apps/GeneralInfo.asp

Applicants must find equivalent coursework at their own institutions.  Please see the list below for baseline course equivalency

*See Key Point 4

Students are encouraged to take additional upper division science courses, including but not limited to anatomy, physiology, embryology, microbiology, immunology, nutrition or accounting  

Note: Students who participate in the Combined DVM/Honors College must fulfill all requirements that apply to these individual programs, such as completing the baccalaureate degree, honors thesis, etc, prior to the awarding of the DVM degree.

The following are the WSU DVM program Physical & Biological Science prerequisite courses, equivalencies of which must be met at other institutions:

Biological Science: (8 semester hours w/lab) The biology of organisms, plants, animals ecology, and evolution, including cellular and molecular biology and genetics (WSU Biol 106 & 107)

Inorganic Chemistry: (8 semester hours, w/lab) Stoichiometry, structure, gases, liquids, solids, solutions, thermodynamics, kinetics, equilibrium, volumetric and gravimetric analysis Acid-base, ionic, molecular, solubility, oxidation/reduction equilibriums, kinetics, electro-chemistry, systematic chemistry of the elements, coordination compounds (WSU Chem 105 & 106)

Organic Chemistry: (4 semester hours w/lab) Structure and function in organic chemistry; reaction mechanisms, molecular orbital theory, alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and radicals; biological applications (WSU Chem 345, see KEY point #2)

Biochemistry: (3 semester hours) Proteins (amino acids, protein structure, enzyme kinetics and mechanisms); metabolism (carbohydrate structure, glycolysis, TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, glycogen metabolism, and metabolic integration); molecular genetics (Central dogma, DNA structure, packaging, replication, repair, RNA transcription, translation, genetic code, protein targeting, gene expression, DNA technology) (WSU MBioS 303)

Mathematics: (3 semester hours) Elementary functions; graphs, properties, and applications of polynomial, rational, exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions (WSU Math 107 or equivalent)

Physics: (4 semester hours) Algebra/trigonometry-based physics; topics in mechanics, wave phenomena, temperature, and heat (WSU Phys 101)

Genetics: (4 semester hours) Basic Mendelian genetics, meiosis, mitosis, chromosome rearrangement, DNA structure and replication, mutations, bacterial and phage genetics, gene regulation, transcription, translation, plasmids, transposons, cloning, population genetics, evolution (WSU MBioS 301)

Statistics: (3 semester hours) Graphical methods, descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency, probability distributions, variables, estimates and sample sizes, hypothesis testing, inferences, experimental design, and randomization (WSU Stat 212, 412 or Psych 311)

Please note the following KEY POINTS about prerequisites:

1. Prerequisites outlined above apply to all students Ensuring that all physical and biological science prerequisites have been completed by no later than spring semester of the application year is solely the responsibility of the applicant.
2. Advanced Placement (AP) or Running Start credits will fulfill prerequisite requirements if approved by the main WSU Admissions office.  Applicants should keep in mind that completion of these courses early is an opportunity to qualify for and enroll in upper division physical and biological science courses, rather than simply as a means for “testing out” of prerequisites The goal of the applicant should be to prepare him/herself as best they can for our rigorous, science-based, veterinary curriculum Upper division science courses are deemed to be highly preparatory for the DVM program.
3. Students are urged to satisfy these requirements before entering the professional program If admitted to the DVM program without a bachelor’s degree, students must fulfill WSU general education requirements in order to receive their undergraduate degree during their four years in the professional curriculum Applicants should consult the WSU catalog for specific general education requirements needed for the bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Science.  
4. These prerequisites must be met prior to beginning the DVM program if the applicant does NOT have a bachelor’s degree at the time of matriculation.  If an applicant does have a bachelor’s degree, WSU-CVM Admissions will consider these courses fulfilled.

  WSU Undergraduate program