University of Guelph Academic requirements
High School
In high school, choose the academic stream and take all the science, math and English prerequisites necessary.
University
Complete at least two years (4 semesters) of full-time studies in university. Full-time is a minimum five one-semester courses, for example 2.5 credits at the University of Guelph or 15 credit hours at a US school. Prerequisite courses are listed below.
All prerequisite courses must be completed in acceptable full-time semesters in any year of their university studies. Courses should be completed within a university undergraduate program - courses taken during graduate programs, professional programs, and certificate programs are not acceptable.
A full-time semester (full course load) is minimum 2.50 credits at the University of Guelph. This is typically five courses at 0.50 credits each per semester. While 2.00 credits may still be considered full-time status, 2.50 credits are required for DVM purposes. For universities that use the 3.00/6.00 credit system, students must have five courses weighted at least 3.00 credits each for a minimum total of 15.00 credits per semester. (International students from the US should take a minimum of 15.00 credit hours per semester). Courses must be taken/studied at the same time to ensure an appropriate work load. Field courses or any courses that are pursued over one semester and credited in another semester do not count towards the latter semester's courses for this purpose.
You can study at any accredited university and take any major that interests you, but you cannot take college-level courses for the science prerequisites. You can apply to the DVM program in your third year, after finishing two years of university. If accepted, you do not need to finish your four-year degree program and can simply transfer to the DVM.
Candidates from institutions other than the University of Guelph may submit one semester of four one-semester courses for consideration provided that the other semester in the same academic year has a course load of six one-semester courses, or the equivalent. At least three of the four courses must be at the third or fourth year level (or four of the six). Candidates must provide a letter of support from their academic advisor stating that this is the normal structure of the program. “Normal structure” means that all students in this program take this schedule of studies.
A course that runs the full year will have the credit weight divided equally and half applied to each of the two semesters the course is taken.
Please note that the GPA from your last two full-time semesters, and the average from your 8 prerequisite courses must both be 75% or higher in order for you to be considered further for entry to the DVM program.
Prerequisite Courses
2 Biological Sciences = 1 credit (with recommended emphasis on animal biology)
Cell biology = 0.5 credit
Genetics = 0.5 credit
Biochemistry = 0.5 credit
Statistics = 0.5 credit
2 Humanities/social sciences = 1.0 credit (Consider topics such as ethics, logic, critical thinking, determinants of human behaviour and human social interaction.)
Download the list of University of Guelph courses acceptable as prerequisites here.
If you are a mature student, or changing your career path but are lacking some of the prerequisites, downland our Changing Career Path document.
Important Regulations Regarding Acceptable Courses
The specific course requirements listed below must have been completed at the university level before admission to the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program will be considered. Courses do not need to be completed in a designated Pre-Veterinary program.
Courses will not be acceptable if they are repeats of previously passed courses, or if they are taken at the same level or a lower level in a subject area than previously passed courses in the same subject area. This includes courses with significant overlap in content. Students should consider their institution's course sequencing in determining if a course is considered the same level.
- The DVM Admissions Committee cannot evaluate Honours, Pass-Fail, and Satisfactory-Unsatisfactory grading systems. Applicants should obtain a numerical or letter grade for all required courses and the grades should be certified by the Registrar of the university attended.
- A maximum of TWO acceptable distance education, online courses (0.50 credit) may be included in a semester. The semester must include a minimum of 2.50 acceptable credits total.
- A person's semester/year level is determined by the number of credits that have been completed successfully in his or her degree program plus those that are in progress. Once a person has reached twenty half-year courses (10.00 credits at the University of Guelph), he or she is considered a third-year student.
- For students in science programs with more than 10 credits, 60% percent of credits in each full-time semester must be taken at a 3000 level (third year level) or above. However, 40% of the credits in a full-time semester may be taken at the level of the applicant’s choice.
- Candidates who hold a non-science bachelor’s degree in which they did not take some of the prerequisite courses because they were not part of their program may return to university as part of a non-degree semester(s) to gain the prerequisites for DVM. These courses must be assessed by the University of Guelph Admissions Office to ensure they are being taken at the maximum appropriate year level.
Applicants with a degree who have a documented commitment, such as work or family responsibility, can present their case to the Admission Committee requesting the option of completing their academic requirements on a part-time basis. This should be done before starting the return to classes. See below for the process.
Failure to comply with the course level rules will result in the exclusion of all coursework from the ineligible semester(s) toward a DVM application.
Course Evaluation Request
If you are not studying at the University of Guelph, you must submit up to two options for the courses that you want to use as prerequisites for approval prior to application. Click here for more on making a course evaluation request.
Requests must include:
- A transcript of university courses completed to date - a photocopy is fine. Please know that schools such as Trent, York, Brock, Nipissing and Laurentian report courses by year only on their transcripts so a breakdown of which were done in which semesters must also be included
- A list of proposed courses for any future semesters you are planning
- A list of the eight courses to be presented as prerequisite courses and detailed course descriptions/syllabus for each. You may present one or two choices (no more) for each of the eight. Please ensure to include course codes, titles and to identify which course is being presented as which prerequisite
- your email address and contact information
THIS PROCESS IS NOT FOR UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH COURSES. Please do not email course evaluation requests. Submit by fax or mail only to:
Deanna Lundmark
Admission Services UC L3
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
Fax: 519-766-9481
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