Folder Review and Interview
Folder Review
The folder review consists of a careful consideration of each application and all of its parts as a whole. Members of the Faculty Committee on Admissions, LSU Vet Med Faculty, and outside veterinary professionals work in teams to assess candidates' academic preparedness, veterinary and non-veterinary experiences, statements of purpose and essays, and letters of recommendation.
As stated in our Applicant Selection Procedures, applicants with a 3.2 or lower cumulative overall GPA will be first reviewed with a focus on academic trends. This GPA will not be shared with the reviewers. This review will look for recent high academic performance in biomedical and animal science coursework in consideration of the whole application. Those with significant positive trends in upper division sciences will be returned to their residency pool for further review.
Reviewers will utilize principals from the LSU Vet Med Office of Admissions and the Faculty Committee on Veterinary Admissions Mission and Values statement to select candidates for the program. Strong candidates are able to maturely express their personal experiences and individual journey to veterinary medicine.
Applicant materials will not be assigned scores for each item (e.g., score based on GPA, score based on eLORs, etc.) nor will each item be individually weighted. Instead, applications will be considered as a whole picture of the individual and ranked among fellow applicants. Candidates will not be assigned a folder score. Application rank will not be released to candidates. Top candidates will receive an offer to the program or alternate status based on the strength of their application within the applicant pool and on the number of seats available in the program based on residency.
Applicant Interviews
A certain number of qualified applicants may be invited to interview from each applicant pool. The Admissions Committee reserves the right to decide annually whether or not it will conduct applicant interviews. Applicants will be notified before the end of December whether or not interviews will take place.
When conducted, interviews feature a three-member panel consisting of a member of the Admissions Committee, an LSU SVM faculty member, and an outside professional practitioner conduct a personal interview of the selected applicants. Interview question may focus on some of the following knowledge areas:
- Knowledge of Animal Health Care and the Profession
- Maturity / Motivation
- Professionalism
- Communication Skills
- Professional Ethics
- Awareness of the Rigors of the Professional Curriculum
- Work Ethic
Candidates will be scored and the ranked based on the interview score. This rank will be combined with the folder review rank for decision outcomes.
Are All Applicants Reviewed?
Yes. All applicants are reviewed in the focused applicant review, general residency pool review, or both.