Thirty-Three Schools, One Pattern
Veterinary medicine has about 33 US schools, a centralized application (VMCAS), and a median acceptance rate near 14%. The selectivity table below has a signature quirk: the lowest rates belong not to the ranking elite but to the value schools — top-10 programs with cheap in-state tuition, where demand piles up fastest.
The 15 Most Selective US Veterinary Schools
| School | Acceptance rate | GRE median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin | 4.0% | 158 | #8 |
| Tennessee | 4.2% | 154 | #23 |
| Oregon State (Carlson) | 5.4% | 154 | #22 |
| Minnesota | 6.1% | 158 | #10 |
| LSU | 7.1% | 153 | #26 |
| Western University (CA) | 8.2% | 152 | #28 |
| Michigan State | 9.0% | 157 | #12 |
| UC Davis | 9.2% | 162 | #2 |
| Cornell | 10.0% | 163 | #1 |
| Penn | 10.0% | 160 | #5 |
| Ohio State | 11.0% | 161 | #4 |
| Colorado State | 11.0% | 161 | #3 |
| Texas A&M | 12.0% | 159 | #6 |
| NC State | 12.0% | 159 | #7 |
| Georgia | 13.0% | 158 | #9 |
Full data for every school is on the veterinary school acceptance rates page.
Why the Cheap Schools Are the Hard Schools
Wisconsin is the pattern's purest case: #8 nationally at about $30,000 in-state — and 4% acceptance, because value concentrates demand. Tennessee and Oregon State run the same equation at lower rankings. Meanwhile Cornell (#1) and UC Davis (#2) admit at 9–10%: their applicant pools self-select to GRE medians of 162–163, so fewer people apply casually. This is the same cheap-equals-crowded dynamic documented in the most affordable veterinary schools — in vet med, the affordability list and the selectivity list are close to the same list.
The Credentials Column Is the Honest One
GRE medians on this table span 152–163. An applicant at 158 is a genuine candidate at Wisconsin, Minnesota, Georgia, and NC State — and a stretch at Cornell and Davis — even though the acceptance rates suggest the opposite ordering. Sort by where your GRE and GPA sit against each school's medians (see what is a good GRE score for vet school and acceptance rates by GRE and GPA), not by the queue length.
See your odds at all 33 US vet schools.
AdmitBase compares your GRE and GPA against admitted-class data at every US veterinary school and sorts them into Safety, Target, Reach, and Far Reach.
Get Started Free →Residency Beats Everything
Public vet schools reserve most seats for residents and contract-state students, so the same file can face 4% odds out-of-state and several times that at home. The strategy hierarchy is fixed: your in-state school first, your state's contract seats second (about twenty states without a vet school buy seats at partners), then out-of-state programs where your stats clear the median. Build the list with how to build a vet school list, and pressure-test the finances — the profession's real gatekeeper — with veterinary school debt and salary.
