Veterinary schools post 3 percent increase in numbers of 2010 graduates

NATIONAL REPORT — The numbers of new veterinary graduates will increase by 3 percent this year.

In fact, U.S. veterinary schools will be doling out 73 more new DVM diplomas in 2010. In total, 2,563 DVMs were set to be awarded this year, compared to 2,490 last year.

The Ohio State University (OSU), for the second year in a row, will be awarding the most DVM degrees — 141 to be exact. And it's a margin well above the second-place Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, which has 132 students in its 2010 graduating class.

The University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine will turn out 128 new veterinarians, and Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences boasts of a class size of 125. Both schools increased their number of graduates from 118 in 2009.

Oregon State University's College of Veterinary Medicine had the smallest class size of 49 graduates, and Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine will bestow 58 DVM diplomas. Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine will graduate 54 DVMs and increased its class size by 9 for 2010.

Class size increases were also noted at the University of Pennsylvania (12), UC-Davis (10), Western University's College of Veterinary Medicine (9) and Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine (8).

Veterinary colleges at the University of Minnesota and the University of Missouri reported decreases in class size over the last year, with six less DVMs picking up diplomas in 2010 compared to 2009 at each school.

Data on what kinds of work this year's new graduates will pursue in the veterinary profession is not yet available, and OSU spokeswoman Melissa Weber says the college does not track its graduates' post-college career paths. But the trend of a female majority continues, she notes, as OSU's 2010 class consisted of 27 men and 114 women.