title: Perceptions of veterinary admissions committee members of undergraduate credits earned from community colleges or online compared to traditional 4-year institutions.
abstract: Veterinary admission committees are asked to create and implement a fair, reliable, and valid system to select the candidates most likely to succeed in veterinary school from a large pool of applicants. Although numerous studies have explored grade point average (GPA) as a predictive value of later academic success, there has been little attention paid to how and where an applicant acquires his/her undergraduate coursework. Quality of academic program is an important component of applicant files, and it is suggested that the source of a candidate's coursework might influence admissions committee decisions, perhaps even outside of the committee's immediate awareness. Options for undergraduate education include taking classes at a traditional four-year institution, a community college, or online. This study provides an overview of the current state of online courses and community colleges in the US as a foundation to explore the views of veterinary admissions committee members pertaining to coursework completed at traditional residential 4-year schools or at community colleges and whether they are delivered on campus or online (at either type of institution). Survey participants reported a pattern of preference for traditional four-year residential coursework compared to online or community college courses. These results are interesting given the exponential growth of students taking online courses and data showing community colleges are providing a successful gateway to obtaining a four-year degree. This also points to the need for admission committees to discuss potential biases since the information about type of school and/or course may not be consistently available for all applicants. Finally, at a time when admitting a diverse class of students is a goal of many programs, it is of special concern that there are potential biases against courses taken online or from community colleges - venues that tend to draw a more diverse population than traditional 4-year universities.
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, 1601 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1601, USA.
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Kogan
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, 1601 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1601, USA.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, 1060 William Moore Dr, CVM Main Building, Box 8401, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schoenfeld-Tacher
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, 1060 William Moore Dr, CVM Main Building, Box 8401, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA.
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Hellyer
keywords: Admissions criteria; Community college coursework; Online coursework; Veterinary admissions