Special Considerations

RESIDENCY CONSIDERATIONS IN ADMISSION

• Preference is given to applicants who are residents of Illinois and who do not claim residency in another state. Half the seats are reserved for Illinois residents.
• A significant portion of each class (approximately 80 seats or half the class of 160) is offered to highly qualified nonresidents.

DEFERRAL OF ADMISSION

• The Admissions Advisory Committee assumes the applicant, if offered admission, is fully prepared to enter the veterinary program starting in the next fall semester.
• Deferral of admission is considered on a case-by-case basis and granted only under extreme circumstances.

PETITION FOR DELETION OF FIRST YEAR UNDERGRADUATE GRADES (OPTIONAL)

• The Admissions Advisory Committee recognizes that extraordinary circumstances may negatively affect the academic performance, and subsequently the grade point average, of a student.
• Applicants who have or will complete a BS/BA degree prior to matriculation have the option of petitioning to delete grades earned during their first semester or first year of undergraduate work from the grade point average calculations.
• Prerequisite courses taken in that first semester or first year will be excluded from counting toward meeting prerequisite requirements and will need to be repeated in subsequent studies before prerequisite requirements are considered to have been met.
• You must provide an appropriate explanation of the circumstances that led to the poor academic performance.
• If you wish to petition the Admissions Advisory Committee to delete your first semester or first year of undergraduate grades from the calculations of your grade point average, you must submit a petition of explanation in the Illinois questions embedded in the VMCAS application.

Please contact our office if you have any questions regarding this information.

PETITION TO IGNORE ACADEMIC RECORD COMPLETED OVER 6 YEARS AGO (OPTIONAL)

• The Admissions Advisory Committee recognizes that an academic record completed over 6 years ago may not appropriately reflect the current academic abilities of the applicant.
• Applicants who completed a BS/BA degree 6 years or more prior to matriculation for DVM studies at Illinois may petition to have all course work related to the BS/BA studies ignored in the admission decision process.
• To be eligible for consideration for admission, the applicant must meet or exceed the requirements of Plan B, unless the applicant has completed a second BS/BA degree.
• The applicant must provide an explanation for why the BS/BA course work should be ignored.
• Prerequisite courses taken in that first semester or first year will be excluded from counting toward meeting prerequisite requirements and will need to be repeated in subsequent studies before prerequisite requirements are considered to have been met.
• If you wish to petition the Admissions Advisory Committee to ignore academic record completed over 6 years ago, you must submit a petition of explanation in the Illinois questions embedded in the VMCAS application.

Please contact our office if you have any questions regarding this information.

GRADUATE COURSE WORK SUMMARY (OPTIONAL)

If you are completing or have completed an MS or PhD degree, the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois recognizes the use of graduate course work in the calculation of your Illinois Science GPA. Note that no more than eight (8) semester hours of graduate level independent study credit will be applied to the calculation of your Illinois Science GPA. Please review the following rules:

Use of Graduate Course Work in the Grade Point Average Calculations

The course must include the following criteria:

• A hypothesis was formulated and tested by the collection of experimental data, data were analyzed, conclusions were drawn concerning the validity of the hypothesis, and results were reported in an oral or written format.
• No more than four semester hours of research-related credit will be applied to the calculation of the science GPA.
• You must provide contact information for the instructor of the course, or a knowledgeable member of the department faculty.
• The course must be completed and graded prior to the fall semester during which you are applying.

Thesis Research Credit

There are numerous ways Thesis Research is assigned a transcript grade.

• Some institutions assign a letter grade each semester, or quarter.
• Some institutions assign a Pass/Fail (P/F) or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) or Credit/No Credit (CR/NC) each semester.
• Some institutions defer (DF) the grade each semester until the thesis is completed, at which time a grade change is filed and the appropriate transcript grade entered.
• For the purpose of grade point average calculations, letter graded Thesis Research will be treated as a regular course. P/F, S/U, CR/NC, and DF graded Thesis Research will be assigned an equivalent letter grade (typically A) by endorsement by the thesis advisor.
• No more that eight (8) semester hours of Thesis Research Credit will be applied to the calculation of the cumulative grade point averages.

Independent Study Courses

If you have completed graduate level independent study courses which you wish to be included in the calculation of the science grade point average, you must notify our office at the time of application. No more than eight (8) semester hours of graduate level independent study will be applied to the calculation of the science grade point average.

Please contact our office if you have any questions regarding this information.