Vet School Graduation Rates....

[Robdude]

Does anyone have information on the various graduation rates for the vet schools?

I was hoping I could find a nice list of all them; but didn't find much of anything.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[twelvetigers]

That might be a bit hard to come by. How about NAVLE pass rates? Those are often available on the school websites.

 

[Robdude]

That might be a bit hard to come by. How about NAVLE pass rates? Those are often available on the school websites.

Thank you - that helped a lot.

 

[Coquette22]

That might be a bit hard to come by. How about NAVLE pass rates? Those are often available on the school websites.

That was my thought too, TT. NAVLE pass rates will be much easier to find than graduation rates, and they pretty much signify the same thing: "How many of this school's students actually become vets?"

 

[dyachei]

That was my thought too, TT. NAVLE pass rates will be much easier to find than graduation rates, and they pretty much signify the same thing: "How many of this school's students actually become vets?"

Really depends. We lost about 7 people all told (and picked up 3). So our grad rate will show that we started with 70 and ended with however many we end up with. But our NAVLE pass rate (which we still don't know and is torture) will only be out of 66.

 

[Angelus9]

dyachei, I think you said you took the test in November but won't know the results til February? January? Is that right?

I just clicked on the NAVLE website and it said for the April testing the application deadline is January 3. Well, if there's anybody who needs to take it again, how can they apply by Jan. 3 if they don't get their results from the first time until after the deadline?

 

[dyachei]

dyachei, I think you said you took the test in November but won't know the results til February? January? Is that right?

I just clicked on the NAVLE website and it said for the April testing the application deadline is January 3. Well, if there's anybody who needs to take it again, how can they apply by Jan. 3 if they don't get their results from the first time until after the deadline?

So the deal is this: If you take it in Nov, you find out late Jan/early Feb. So the NBVME gives you until Feb 15th to reschedule your test if you don't pass. We emailed them about this since we were confused, and this is the official answer.

 

[bunnity]

You could have plenty of people drop out / fail out of the class and the NAVLE pass rate wouldn't show it. I remember a discussion on here about a Caribbean school having you take practice tests and if you don't do well enough you aren't allowed to take the real one. Don't take my word for that though because for all I know it's an SDN myth.

 

[Cautionary Tail]

You could have plenty of people drop out / fail out of the class and the NAVLE pass rate wouldn't show it. I remember a discussion on here about a Caribbean school having you take practice tests and if you don't do well enough you aren't allowed to take the real one. Don't take my word for that though because for all I know it's an SDN myth.

That was my thought. If the class started with say, 100, 50 flunked out or ran for the hills, and all of the remaining students passed, the NAVLE pass rate would look great... but the actual retention/pass rate would still be lousy.

I've never heard anything about Caribbean schools forcing a practice test... I'm going to have to search for that one.

 

[Coquette22]

That was my thought. If the class started with say, 100, 50 flunked out or ran for the hills, and all of the remaining students passed, the NAVLE pass rate would look great... but the actual retention/pass rate would still be lousy.

D'oh, my bad. I wasn't thinking, obviously. 😳

 

[Angelus9]

But don't you think the NAVLE pass rate is the more important stat, anyway?

People could leave for lots of reasons: illness, perhaps, or just finding out that veterinary school is not for them after all. Some might not be willing to put in the tremendous amount of hard work involved to succeed, not having realized just how hard it would be. All of these reasons would have nothing to do with the quality of the school itself.

 

[Cautionary Tail]

D'oh, my bad. I wasn't thinking, obviously. 😳

It'll still be interesting to see how different schools compare though... although I am not looking until after I see who accepts/rejects me, haha. No sense in freaking myself out over nothing. 😉

 

[Cautionary Tail]

But don't you think the NAVLE pass rate is the more important stat, anyway?

People could leave for lots of reasons: illness, perhaps, or just finding out that veterinary school is not for them after all. Some might not be willing to put in the tremendous amount of hard work involved to succeed, not having realized just how hard it would be. All of these reasons would have nothing to do with the quality of the school itself.

This is definitely true... however, if particular programs consistently had lower retention rates, I might (as a prospective applicant) be concerned about why. (Measure of satisfaction with the program/ resources available to students or lack thereof/ etc.)

 

[bunnity]

But don't you think the NAVLE pass rate is the more important stat, anyway?

People could leave for lots of reasons: illness, perhaps, or just finding out that veterinary school is not for them after all. Some might not be willing to put in the tremendous amount of hard work involved to succeed, not having realized just how hard it would be. All of these reasons would have nothing to do with the quality of the school itself.

You would think these instances would be fairly consistent across schools, though. Whereas it's pretty likely that some schools do a better job of creating a manageable schedule, or supporting students, or teaching stress management.

 

[Angelus9]

I bet they are, generally speaking.

I agree with Cautionary Tail, that if there is a school that seems to lose more students, it bears looking at. But it may be more a fault of that school's admission process, too - are certain schools choosing less well-prepared candidates? In medical school/graduate school, how much does a school have to be responsible for actually having to teach stress management? I don't think that's their job.

 

[twelvetigers]

Regardless, I think these stats will be very hard to come by. The only way to know is probably to have students from each school say how many they have lost, etc... schools won't be advertising their attrition rates.

 

[Cautionary Tail]

Regardless, I think these stats will be very hard to come by. The only way to know is probably to have students from each school say how many they have lost, etc... schools won't be advertising their attrition rates.

I tend to assume that the attrition rates are probably fairly decent for most of the schools here... where the lack of information scares me is with some of the Caribbean programs. Ross (my first choice OOC), for instance, seems to have a reputation for overenrollment and "weeding out". This could certainly be overstated by disgruntled students and those who tend to bag on Carib schools, but I'd sure love to see their actual stats.

 

[MSUspartan]

I bet they are, generally speaking.

I agree with Cautionary Tail, that if there is a school that seems to lose more students, it bears looking at. But it may be more a fault of that school's admission process, too - are certain schools choosing less well-prepared candidates? In medical school/graduate school, how much does a school have to be responsible for actually having to teach stress management? I don't think that's their job.

Agreed, but the school definitely has some responsibility to help students with the huge transition from undergrad to vet school...and different schools might take that responsibility more or less seriously. For example, at Michigan State, they offer a free tutor for the rest of the semester if you score below a 2.0 (76%) on the first or second exam in any class. it helps a LOT!

 

[crittergal]

I seem to remember a chart in back of the AAVMC book with attrition rates. Maybe I'm imagining that though. I don't currently have my book to check. Anyone else have one handy?

 

[Cautionary Tail]

I seem to remember a chart in back of the AAVMC book with attrition rates. Maybe I'm imagining that though. I don't currently have my book to check. Anyone else have one handy?

That they do... for the American and Canadian schools, anyway... followed by a table that tells you whether the students left because of "low grades" or "other".

Good catch! 👍

 

[dyachei]

Regardless, I think these stats will be very hard to come by. The only way to know is probably to have students from each school say how many they have lost, etc... schools won't be advertising their attrition rates.

But they will tell you when you interview. Maybe not during the interview, but I asked on my tour and was given a fairly accurate answer.