Pre-Veterinary

Houghton’s pre-veterinary program will give you a broad education while offering courses specified by veterinary medical colleges for admission.

Veterinary colleges stress the desirability of a well-rounded post-secondary education. They accept students without regard to their pre-professional majors and sometimes after three years or 90 hours of credit; however, most applicants major in biology or chemistry and, on average, have more than 100 hours of pre-professional training.

Because there are relatively few veterinary colleges, the number of students accepted each year into veterinary curricula is small. Therefore, excellence of academic achievement and personal character as well as familiarity with the profession are necessary for admission.

Why Study Pre-Veterinary Medicine at Houghton?

  • Do science in your very first year in our hands-on, experiential program.
  • Be mentored, supported and cared for by invested faculty members who care about your academic success as well as your spiritual, emotional, and professional growth.
  • Travel to a developing country to study foundations of health development.
  • Conduct, publish and present real research with one or more of Houghton University’s faculty members.
Learn more about the biomedical sciences major

Personal Attention from Invested Faculty

With a departmental emphasis on personalized teaching and close relationships among faculty and students, pre-vet students have many opportunities to get to know their professors on a personal level. Professors teach the labs as well as lectures instead of relying on teaching assistants to teach the laboratory sessions, and class sizes are deliberately capped to maximize interaction between faculty and students.

Experiential Learning Opportunities

At Houghton, we emphasize hands-on engagement in the field of biology where our students do science as scientists in the first year of the general biology sequence. Learning experiences are often open-ended and require critical thinking and input from students regarding design, implementation and analysis. Students can work directly in the field through off-campus study, practicums, internships and student-faculty research collaboration.

Undergraduate Research

Many motivated majors do real research with one or more of the faculty at Houghton University. Some of these students publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals or present talks and posters at regional and national conferences. Opportunities for research include the Collaborative Research in Biology course, independent study, senior honors projects and the Summer Research Institute. Students have also traveled with faculty to work with collaborators (e.g., Cornell University and the Sierra Nevada mountains of California).

Recent Graduates and Veterinary School Admittance

Recent Houghton University graduates have been admitted to, are attending or have recently graduated from the following schools:

  • Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine
  • The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine
  • Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine
  • Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
  • Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine