Increasing Class Sizes

[guppy73]

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So I've been wondering this for a while: I know that from my Tufts interview (confirmed by someone else in the Tufts thread), that they're increasing their numbers a bit for the incoming class. I also seem to recall that others (Missouri & Penn, I think) are doing the same. So I thought I'd start a list, out of curiosity. What schools are increasing their class sizes this year?

Tufts: from 80-->90 students

 

[tpad40]

Tufts: from 80-->90 students
Penn: from 115 --> 125 (last year was an exception 😱)
Virginia-Maryland: I know it is +5 OOS seats, someone fill in the numbers!!

 

[jaydog12]

U. of Missouri: 80 to 110

 

[pressmom]

Tufts: from 80-->90 students
Penn: from 115 --> 125 (last year was an exception 😱)
U. of Missouri: 80 to 110
U. of Tennessee: 70 --> 85 (class of 2011 was 70, 2012 was 96 (anomaly), 2013 will be 85)
Virginia-Maryland: I know it is +5 OOS seats, someone fill in the numbers!!

 

[hopefulvet21]

why are they doing this? just because of the falling economy? Isn't this going to negatively affect our job market in a few years? As much as I'd like one of those seats, I think the limited number of spots is a good thing in many respects.

 

[Angelo84]

The reasoning we were told it that there is always some attrition in each class by fourth year so by increasing the class size that starts there won't be holes in clinics. Currently there are times when there are less than the ideal number of students or no students on various services. The drawback of having a good case load is when there aren't enough students to take the cases (so each student is a little too busy). With the new lecture hall opening up there will no longer be the issue with number of seats and there is enough room in anatomy and the other smaller group stuff (PBL, clin skills) that adding one or two people to each section wouldn't make a difference.

So no its not due to the economy. And I don't think that graduating a few more vets a year is going to make for much competition for jobs...

Note--this is for Tufts I don't know the reasoning for other schools.

 

[mistifical]

Tufts: from 80-->90 students
Penn: from 115 --> 125 (last year was an exception )
U. of Missouri: 80 to 110
U. of Tennessee: 70 --> 85 (class of 2011 was 70, 2012 was 96 (anomaly), 2013 will be 85)
Virginia-Maryland: 90-->95 (15 OOS, 30 MD, 50 VA)

There is increased demand for veterinarians, so a lot of schools are trying to increase their class size in an attempt to better meet the demand. Also, raising OOS rather than instate probably gives the budget a bit of a boost...

 

[laurafinn]

Tufts: from 80-->90 students
Penn: from 115 --> 125 (last year was an exception )
U. of Missouri: 80 to 110
U. of Tennessee: 70 --> 85 (class of 2011 was 70, 2012 was 96 (anomaly), 2013 will be 85)
Virginia-Maryland: 90-->95 (15 OOS, 30 MD, 50 VA)
Massey: 100 --> 120 (most new spots are for internationals)

 

[hopefulvet21]

So no its not due to the economy. And I don't think that graduating a few more vets a year is going to make for much competition for jobs...

Ooohh, that's just what the financial aid lady told us at the presentation during interviews (but she may have said it in more of a joking manner I guess). I guess graduating a few more vets a year wouldn't make much difference, but if this is a trend and the class sizes increase each year, it seems like it would make a difference gradually. Is it an ongoing trend, or just this year that schools are doing this?

 

[Angelo84]

To my knowledge tufts is increasing the class size to 90 and then leaving it there. So no?? I'm not sure I understood your question....

 

[cowgirl in MO]

I believe that Missouri is increasing the number of seats for a couple of reasons.

1. To bring in more tuition $ to the school. While the University of Missouri has been promised by the State to receive the same amount of funding as last year, they will still experience increased costs as the cost of fringe benefits increase and some faculty receive equity raises to get their salaries on par with the market average. Even receiving the same funding as last year, the effect is that it feels like less funding.

2. To meet the growing shortage of veterinarians.

 

[Jochebed]

why are they doing this? just because of the falling economy? Isn't this going to negatively affect our job market in a few years? As much as I'd like one of those seats, I think the limited number of spots is a good thing in many respects.

I wouldn't worry about this much. There's shortages in veterinarians of pretty much any stripe anywhere you go in the country and growing every year. I think the average for a 4th year student is that you'll interview at 5 places and get offers at like 3 or something (roughly anyway) so the odds really are good because there really aren't enough of us and getting to be more so every year.

 

[Bill59]

It's absolutely the money. There have always been some students that are admitted and don't make it to 4th year, that hasn't changed.

What's changed is most states have cut funding to higher education, including veterinary schools. There's only so much grant money and gifts/endowments, and the teaching hospitals can only see so many patients. That leaves tuition. And the only way to increase tuition income is to raise tuition and increase the number of students paying tuition, and schools are doing both with abandon. And if you can increase the number of students paying out of state tuition, even better. So you'll notice a lot of the increase in numbers is increase in OOS slots.

 

[W2BVet]

That makes complete sense but then why do some schools allow OOS students to gain residency after a year and pay IS tuition.

 

[DVMorBust]

That makes complete sense but then why do some schools allow OOS students to gain residency after a year and pay IS tuition.

It's not the schools that grand residency, it's the state. Some states you can't gain residency if you're going to school and moved for that purpose, some you can...and as state schools, they follow the residency requirements of the state.

 

[W2BVet]

ohh ok then that makes sense..thanks for clearing that up. That sucks for those schools..great for OOS studnets though.

 

[nyanko]

Tufts: from 80-->90 students
Penn: from 115 --> 125 (last year was an exception )
U. of Missouri: 80 to 110
U. of Tennessee: 70 --> 85 (class of 2011 was 70, 2012 was 96 (anomaly), 2013 will be 85)
Virginia-Maryland: 90-->95 (15 OOS, 30 MD, 50 VA)
Massey: 100 --> 120 (most new spots are for internationals)
UC Davis: 131 --> 133


Not much, but it's something. 😀

 

[KittyRex]

UC Davis: 131 --> 133


Not much, but it's something. 😀

You must have been at the interview workshop yesterday, Nyanko. 🙂 (I was just about to post this.)

b.t.w. for those who are applying in a few years, the dean mentioned they are trying to increase the class size to 160 in the future.

 

[nyanko]

You must have been at the interview workshop yesterday, Nyanko. 🙂 (I was just about to post this.)

b.t.w. for those who are applying in a few years, the dean mentioned they are trying to increase the class size to 160 in the future.

I was. I was the one with the purple/blue/green in my hair (I fixed it last night though!) who asked about doing the DVM and PhD concurrently but not in the VSTP like that one girl on the panel was doing.

I knew they had been discussing the move to 160 for awhile (last year I was an employee of the vet school and so received a lot of emails about staff/faculty stuff), and was hoping they'd actually start moving on it. Wish it was a little quicker though.

Good luck with your interview!

 

[KittyRex]

I was. I was the one with the purple/blue/green in my hair (I fixed it last night though!) who asked about doing the DVM and PhD concurrently but not in the VSTP like that one girl on the panel was doing.

Nice! I thought you spoke very well. 🙂 And being from the Bay Area, it was nice to finally see some purple-greenish hair at an admissions function for a change. I actually felt overdressed for the first time at an admissions event. (Asian girl with blouse and dress slacks... not like that distinguishes me at all from more than 1/2 of the people there. )

Applying for the VSTP or a concurrent DVM/PhD sounds awfully complicated! I wish you the best of luck next year (and have complete faith that you will rock it!)