So I know this thread is a few months old, but I just thought of a few things that weren't stated directly here that may be important for the OP.
* This was definitely pointed out above in several posts, but just to be very clear and direct: Although many schools do not require a bachelors degree, this policy essentially applies to students applying as juniors or for non-trad/career changer students returning to school...it was not intended to allow students to take only prerequisite coursework. If you look at just the "prerequisite" pages of various school websites or at the school descriptor pages on AAVMC, it may say "bachelors degree is not required", but if you dig in further, such as in the FAQ, many will say that they only consider students with junior status or equivalent. Even schools that do not specify a grade level, a lot of schools will have a minimum number of TOTAL credit hours which is significantly greater than the credit hours required to complete pre-requisites. For example Cornell does not specify that you have to be a junior, but they require 60 course hours minimum, so if you were theoretically doing 15 credit hours/semester (so full time), it would take you two years. Essentially you will NEED to complete those credit hours eventually, no matter if you are full time, part time, non-trad, traditional, 19 yo or 40 y0. So while not completing a bachelors will save money because you have fewer years of tuition/living expenses to pay, it really does not save any money going part time versus full time. You need to pay for that minimum number of credits no matter whether you are full or part time, and in fact it often saves money to take the courses full time because spending less time in total to get those credits means you will spend less on living expenses, university fees, etc. So yes you CAN get in without a bachelors degree, but going to undergrad part time really does not save you any money. If you want to save money on undergrad that's definitely a smart choice, but you can do it by taking some classes at a community college, getting academic credit for internships, applying for scholarships (which is REALLY important to do now because scholarships are far more scarce for vet school...even if it's not huge, $1,000-2,000 can often cover a whole course!)
*While some people have mentioned the benefit of a bachelors as a fall-back, you also need to think about the limits that not having a bachelors will place on you even if you DO get your DVM. Now many-- probably the majority-- of vet career opportunities won't exclude you because of not having a bachelors, there are those opportunities that will be hindered by this. For instance there are a good deal of government jobs that require you to have a bachelors even if you have a DVM. Now a lot of these have an allowance that work experience can be used to fulfill this requirement, but it often has to be 5-10 years of full time work. There are also many scholarships that you can only apply to if you have a bachelors. Finally at some schools if you decide you want to enroll in a dual degree program like DVM/MPH or DVM/PhD, you need to meet the requirements for the other grad degree, and that often involves having a bachelors or a minimum number of full-time years in undergrad. You may not think that you are interested in these things now, but do you really want to limit yourself?
*Many vet schools spend a lot of time looking at how well-rounded a student is, what the student could contribute to the school and how to create a diverse class. All applicants (or all of the ones that are actually considered) to the vet school have met the prerequisite requirements. All applicants have shadowing/volunteering/interning experience in veterinary and animal setting. The thing is that vet schools don't want a class of students who did great in pre-requisite coursework and are excellent at working with animals but have little experience outside of that. It is the experiences outside of the veterinary realm that makes an applicant really unique, and often the most significant and innovative contributions to veterinary medicine (or any field for that matter) come from people who have experience in many different fields/aspects of life. For me, I had several schools comment post-acceptance that they liked that I started out pre-med and therefore had several work experiences in human hospitals, that I was a French major, and that I am working on writing/illustrating a children's book to submit to literary agencies. Now you definitely don't have to complete a bachelors to gain experience in a wide variety of fields, but being a full-time students is one way to explore class/clubs/sports etc. that are outside the realm of vet med. People who are career-changers, who have families, or who finish their bachelors early and take time to travel/work abroad also have tons of unique experiences to share. Your path of completing just the pre-requisite courses while working and interning/volunteering in vet and animals fields may be challenging and time-consuming, but it leaves little time to gain experience in other realms. These are the kind of experiences that will help you stand out as an applicant, and you will be VERY glad once you start vet school that you took the time to pursue other interests before starting your DVM.
Also bonus of getting in the most undergrad coursework possible is that it WILL help you with your GRE!
Hope this excessively long post is helpful 🙂
