Students in the veterinary medicine program have high employment rates, according to a survey done by the American Veterinary Medical Association. 

An AVMA survey of 101 seniors showed that 87 percent received employment or advanced education offers, with an average of about two offers per student. A little under 50 percent accepted offer of employment. 

A total of 1,766 students are enrolled in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, based on fall 2015 census data from CSU Institutional Research. Of these students, 49 percent are undergraduate students.

The college offers majors such as biomedical sciences, environmental health, microbiology, and neuroscience.

The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences have the largest percentage of females enrolled, 70.5 percent identified as female in fall 2015. 

Senior biology major Megan Doan came to CSU because of the reputation of the veterinary program. 

“I knew I probably wanted to try to go for vet school, so I thought coming here for undergrad would be a good way to get the education at CSU and maybe make myself look better,” Doan said. 

Doan said that the undergrad program helped her prepare for her future plans of vet school. 

“I think the undergrad program here is really helpful. I’ve heard from others who’s gone to vet school say that they were really well prepared by their undergrad at CSU,” Doan said. 

Students in the undergrad program take a lot of general science courses such as microbiology and virology. Professor of microbiology, immunology and pathology Erica Suchman said that CSU is one of the few colleges with an undergraduate pre-vet program.

Suchman said that the course work can set any student up for preparation into any branch of veterinary school. 

“Microbiology is based on infectious disease, which is a big part of veterinary medicine, and a student, if they are a microbiology major, can use biomedical science elective courses to take anatomy and physiology,” said Suchman. “So they can get everything they need to get ready for vet school in pretty much any programs.”

About 30 percent of students are in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program and 359 students, or 20 percent, are in master’s and doctoral programs. The average starting salary for graduates was $66,493 according to the office of Veterinary Academic and Student Affairs.

Junior Veterinary Medicine major said that hands-on work helps her be prepared for the career. 

“You get a lot of hands-on training at the hospital and you take a huge course load in hard sciences to be prepared to answer all of these scientific questions that you have to answer in veterinary medicine,” junior veterinary medicine major Maggie Jones said.

Due to the program at CSU, students feel like they are prepared to go into the real world Jones said. 

“I feel like they have the latest and greatest research and knowledge about the field, and I know i’ll go out very prepared as a clinician,” Jones said. 

Collegian Science Reporter Seth Bodine can be reached at news@collegian.com or via Twitter @sbodine120.