Evaluation of selection and performance of students in the professional curriculum in College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University

Abstract

Each year, over 6000 individuals apply for admission to United States Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and roughly 2300 are accepted. Of these applicants, over 800 apply for the 128 seats in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University (CVM). To determine who is admitted to CVM, 10 faculty members, serving as the Selections Committee, review the qualified applicant files and interview roughly 30 applicants individually. After interviews are completed, the Selections Committee meets to discuss each applicant interviewed. The discussion includes the students scores on the graduate record exam (GRE), grade point averages (GPA), animal experience, academic strengths, interview scores and comments, career goals, letters of reference, etc. The applicants are then ranked by vote and available positions offered to the top-ranked applicants. Using factor analysis, selection of students for admission in to the professional curriculum at the College of Veterinary Medicine was based upon interview (~35%), then grade point averages (GPA, ~18%), and then scores on the graduate record exam (GRE, ~14%). For the students admitted into the program, canonical correlation analysis was used to determine that 70% of the variance in their performance could be explained by their criteria such as various undergraduate GPAs, scores on the GRE, program of origin, and scores on various portions of the interview. Additionally, planned contrasts were used to evaluate the effect of undergraduate program of origin upon performance. It was determined that students from schools with average SAT II scores of 1000 or less performed at a lower level than students from programs with higher SAT II scores.