GRE for Vet School: Which Programs Still Require It in 2026-2027? The current GRE requirement status at every US AVMA-accredited vet school, why almost every program has dropped the test, and what to do with the 100-200 hours of prep time and $220 test fee you no longer need to spe
The short answer: for the 2026-2027 application cycle, the GRE has effectively disappeared from US veterinary school admissions. Virtually every AVMA-accredited US DVM program has either eliminated the GRE entirely or made it optional with no admissions weight. Among Caribbean programs, Ross University Veterinary School remains the notable exception — GRE is “highly recommended” with priority review for applicants who submit scores, though not strictly required.
This represents a dramatic shift from the GRE landscape of 2018-2020, when most US vet schools required the test and competitive admission expected combined scores of 300+. The November 2022 UC Davis senate faculty vote to eliminate the GRE was a watershed moment — once a top-tier program publicly dropped the test, the rest of the field followed within 24-36 months. By the 2025-2026 application cycle, the GRE was no longer a meaningful admissions factor at any major US vet school. The 2026-2027 cycle confirms the new baseline.
For prospective vet school applicants, this changes the time and money allocation math substantially. The 100-200 hours typically spent on GRE preparation, plus the $220 official test fee, plus the additional $50-$100 per program for score reporting, all add up to a meaningful pool of resources. Reallocated to prerequisite coursework — the application factor that genuinely matters to every US vet program — this same time and money produces 1-2 additional prerequisite courses on the transcript. The economic and strategic case for GRE prep has effectively disappeared alongside the test requirement itself.
This article walks through the current GRE requirement status at every US AVMA-accredited DVM program, the specific Caribbean exception, the reasons programs dropped the test, what to do with the recovered time and money, and how to handle GRE scores from previous test attempts. The audience: prospective vet school applicants making time-allocation decisions for the 2026-2027 application cycle or beyond.
| The bottom line for 2026-2027 vet school applicantsDo you need to take the GRE for US vet schools? No. Every AVMA-accredited US DVM program has either eliminated the GRE or made it optional with no admissions weight as of the 2026-2027 cycle. Do you need to take the GRE for Caribbean vet schools? Mostly no, with one caveat. Ross University Veterinary School marks the GRE as “highly recommended” and gives priority review to applications including GRE scores — though applications without GRE scores are still fully reviewed. What should you do with the time and money you would have spent on GRE prep? Reallocate to prerequisite coursework completion. The same 100-200 hours and $300-$500 budget that previously went to GRE prep produces 1-2 additional prerequisite courses through PrereqCourses.com, which directly improves the science GPA and demonstrates academic capability — application factors that genuinely affect admission outcomes. |
The following table represents the current GRE requirement status at every US AVMA-accredited DVM program for the 2026-2027 application cycle. Status was verified against each program’s published admissions guidance during the article’s preparation. Always confirm requirements directly with each target program before submitting your application, as policies can change between cycles.
| Program | Current GRE Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| UC Davis | Not required | Dropped Nov 2022 by senate faculty vote |
| Cornell University | Not required | GRE not used in admissions evaluation |
| University of Pennsylvania (Penn Vet) | Not required | GRE not part of admission evaluation |
| Ohio State | Not required | No standardized testing required |
| Colorado State | Not required | No GPA minimums; emphasizes letters |
| Tufts (Cummings) | Not required | Distance Traveled holistic process |
| University of Florida | Not required | Emphasizes academics + experience |
| Purdue University | Not required | Holistic review process |
| Michigan State | Not required | Recommends 150+ vet experience hours |
| Mississippi State | Not required | VMCAS + supplemental application |
| University of Tennessee (UTK) | Not required | Last-45 GPA weighted equally |
| Iowa State | Not required | 200+ total experience hours required |
| University of Minnesota | Not required | Recently discontinued per published guidance |
| Oklahoma State | Not required | Dropped starting 2025-2026 cycle |
| Texas Tech | Not required | No GRE, no Casper, no GPA minimum |
| Texas A&M | Not required | Uses TMDSAS; Casper required |
| Auburn University | Not required | “GRE is not used to assess applicants” |
| Kansas State | Not required | Permissive online course acceptance |
| North Carolina State | Not required | 400+ vet experience hours required |
| LSU | Not required | Recently transitioned to GRE-optional |
| University of Georgia | Not required | Holistic review process |
| Washington State | Not required | Holistic review |
| Oregon State | Not required | OSU-CCVM program |
| Virginia-Maryland (VMRCVM) | Not required | Multi-state regional program |
| Western University (WesternU) | Not required | Problem-based learning model |
| Midwestern University | Not required | Arizona campus |
| Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) | Not required | Tennessee program |
| Long Island University (LIU) | Not required | New York DVM program |
| Tuskegee University | Verify directly | Historically required; verify current cycle status |
The pattern is unambiguous: across virtually every AVMA-accredited US DVM program, the GRE is no longer a requirement for the 2026-2027 application cycle. Per the AAVMC’s Veterinary Medical School Admissions Requirements (VMSAR) database, applicants can verify current requirements at each target program in a single consolidated reference. Representative confirmation from Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine: “The GRE is not used to assess applicants for admission to Auburn’s DVM program.” Similar language appears across the published admissions pages of Texas Tech, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State. The era when GRE prep was a standard part of vet school application preparation has effectively ended.
Among Caribbean AVMA-accredited DVM programs, Ross University Veterinary School maintains the most distinctive GRE policy. Per Ross University’s published admissions requirements: “The GRE is highly recommended, but not required for Ross Vet applicants. Applications that include the GRE, regardless of GRE score, will be given priority in the review process.”
This policy is structurally different from the US programs that have eliminated the GRE entirely. At Ross, submitting GRE scores moves your application into a faster review queue. The policy explicitly states that score level doesn’t matter for the priority benefit — even a modest GRE score triggers priority review status. Ross has framed this approach around the idea that applicants willing to invest in GRE preparation demonstrate commitment to the academic preparation required for vet school success.
For applicants whose target school list includes Ross University specifically, this policy creates a strategic decision: Is the GRE worth taking for the Ross priority benefit alone? The answer depends on the applicant’s overall school list. If Ross is one of 10-12 target programs and the GRE wouldn’t benefit applications to any of the other 11, the GRE prep investment for Ross priority review specifically may not be worth it. If Ross is a primary target or one of the few accessible programs based on the applicant’s stats profile, the GRE may be worth taking despite not being strictly required.
St. George’s University (SGU) School of Veterinary Medicine does not require the GRE for admission to its DVM program. SGU’s admissions process emphasizes overall GPA (3.25 minimum cumulative), prerequisite GPA (3.0 minimum, no F/D/C- grades in prerequisites), letters of recommendation, and demonstrated commitment to veterinary medicine through experience hours and personal narrative.
St. Matthew’s University School of Veterinary Medicine does not require the GRE for admission. SMU’s admissions process focuses on prerequisite completion, GPA, letters of recommendation, and applicant background.
| Caribbean GRE summaryRoss University: GRE “highly recommended” — submitting any GRE score triggers priority review status. Not strictly required. St. George’s University (SGU): GRE not required. St. Matthew’s University: GRE not required. Strategic implication: Only Ross University’s priority-review policy creates any meaningful GRE incentive among Caribbean programs. For applicants without Ross as a top target, Caribbean program applications proceed without GRE consideration. |
The widespread elimination of the GRE across US veterinary education didn’t happen randomly. Two specific concerns motivated the policy changes, and understanding them clarifies why the trend is unlikely to reverse and why applicants who already have GRE scores from previous test attempts shouldn’t worry about score weight in admissions decisions.
The GRE test costs $220 per attempt as of the 2026 test cycle. Quality test preparation materials (Magoosh, Princeton Review, Manhattan Prep, Kaplan) cost $200-$1,500 per applicant. Tutoring with experienced GRE instructors runs $100-$200 per hour, with most applicants requiring 20-40 hours of instruction. The total financial investment for competitive GRE preparation typically reaches $1,000-$3,000 per applicant.
Applicants from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, first-generation college students, applicants from rural geographies with limited test prep infrastructure, and applicants supporting families while pursuing vet school all face structural disadvantages in GRE preparation. The required investment of time and money for competitive GRE scores correlates more strongly with socioeconomic background than with academic capability — which is the predictive failure mode admissions committees increasingly recognized as inconsistent with their stated holistic-review priorities.
UC Davis’s November 2022 senate faculty vote to eliminate the GRE explicitly cited equity concerns. Per the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine admissions criteria page: “The GRE is no longer a requirement as of November 2022, following a senate faculty vote.” The UC Davis published rationale described the GRE as a “barrier to entry” that disadvantaged applicants from underrepresented backgrounds without meaningfully improving the program’s ability to predict applicant success in vet school. This rationale, when articulated by a top-tier program, gave other programs structural cover to follow with their own GRE eliminations.
Multiple internal studies at US vet schools through the 2018-2022 period examined whether GRE scores predicted DVM program success. The general finding: GRE scores correlated weakly or not at all with academic performance in vet school, NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Examination) pass rates, or post-graduation career success. Undergraduate science GPA, prerequisite course performance, and demonstrated veterinary experience all predicted DVM program outcomes substantially better than GRE scores.
Programs that examined their own admission data found that GRE-based admission decisions sometimes excluded applicants who would have succeeded in vet school while admitting applicants who struggled with the academic rigor. The signal-to-noise ratio of the GRE for veterinary school prediction was too low to justify the equity costs and applicant burden of maintaining the requirement.
Three structural factors make GRE return at US vet schools unlikely. First, programs that dropped the GRE have generally reported smooth admissions cycles without quality degradation in admitted classes — there’s no evidence base for restoring the requirement. Second, the equity rationale that justified elimination remains as relevant in 2026 as it was in 2022, and reversing the policy would require programs to publicly walk back the equity commitments. Third, the trend is now industry-standard — restoring GRE at one program while peers remain GRE-free would create a competitive disadvantage in applicant volume and quality. The barrier to re-introduction is structural, not just policy.
The applicant who would have spent 100-200 hours preparing for the GRE plus $220 on the test fee plus $300-$1,500 on prep materials now has a meaningful pool of resources to redirect. The most strategically valuable reallocation: prerequisite coursework. Unlike GRE preparation, which (until recently) produced a test score that may or may not have helped applications, prerequisite coursework directly improves the science GPA, demonstrates current academic capability, and addresses requirements that every US vet program does count.
Typical GRE prep budget for competitive scores: $1,000-$3,000 (test fee + prep materials + tutoring). PrereqCourses.com prerequisite courses cost $675-$695 each through the Upper Iowa University partnership. The GRE prep budget converts directly to 1-4 additional prerequisite courses depending on prep intensity. For example: $1,400 in GRE costs converts to two PrereqCourses enrollments — possibly Biochemistry I (CHEM 330) and General Genetics (BIO 282), both upper-division science courses that strengthen the science GPA at programs that weight it heavily.
The time math is similarly favorable. 100-200 hours of GRE preparation maps to one self-paced PrereqCourses course completed in 8-12 weeks (at typical 10-15 hours per week pacing), or two courses completed over 16-24 weeks. The recovered time and money produce concrete prerequisite transcript additions — exactly what admissions committees evaluate substantively, unlike GRE scores that no longer factor into admissions decisions.
For applicants with existing strong prerequisite profiles (most core requirements completed), the recovered GRE prep budget is best directed toward upper-division advanced science courses that demonstrate continued capability with rigorous material. Biochemistry I (CHEM 330) is the highest-value option — it’s required at multiple programs (UC Davis, UF, others), it’s upper-division at four-year institution Upper Iowa University, and it strengthens applications across virtually all US target programs.
For applicants with gaps in core prerequisites, the recovered budget addresses the gaps directly. Microbiology with Lab (BIO 210) is required at most US vet programs and frequently missing from career-changer applicant profiles. Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 251) through Upper Iowa University delivers the OChem prerequisite that virtually every US vet program requires.
For applicants whose previous cycle was unsuccessful and who are reapplying, the recovered budget supports prerequisite refresh strategies that directly address rejection drivers identified through file reviews. The PrereqCourses.com course catalog offers the full prerequisite stack at flexible monthly enrollment — substantially more strategically valuable than GRE prep that no longer benefits applications.
Some applicants come to the 2026-2027 cycle with GRE scores already in hand from previous test attempts (taken during previous application cycles, taken as part of preparation for other graduate programs, or taken speculatively before the GRE elimination wave). The strategic question: Should you report these scores to programs?
At every US AVMA-accredited DVM program, GRE scores are no longer evaluated in admissions decisions. Reporting GRE scores doesn’t benefit applications at these programs — at best, the scores are ignored; at worst, attention to test performance distracts from the application factors that actually matter (GPA, prerequisites, experience hours, letters of recommendation, personal statement). VMCAS allows applicants to skip the GRE reporting section entirely; for applicants without target programs that require or value GRE scores, skipping this section is the correct choice.
If your target school list includes Ross University, reporting any GRE scores you have triggers Ross’s priority review benefit. Per Ross’s published policy, even modest GRE scores activate priority review — you don’t need to achieve a specific score level. For applicants with previously taken GRE attempts and Ross on the target list, reporting these scores produces a small but real benefit at no additional cost or effort.
ETS retains GRE scores for 5 years from the test date. Scores older than 5 years cannot be reported through ETS even if you want to use them. For applicants with GRE scores from 2019-2020 application cycles, scores are still reportable for the 2026-2027 cycle; for applicants with scores from 2018 or earlier, the scores have expired and cannot be reported regardless of policy preference.
Programs that have eliminated the GRE will not bring up GRE scores in interviews. If an interviewer asks about test scores at any program currently marked as GRE-eliminated, this would be an unusual deviation from stated policy — appropriate to answer briefly if asked, but not something to prepare anxiously about. Interview preparation should focus on the application factors programs actually evaluate: clinical experience, academic preparation, motivation for veterinary medicine, and fit with the specific program’s culture and values.
Applicants who took the MCAT (typically because they considered medical school before veterinary medicine, or because their undergraduate pre-health advising recommended MCAT) sometimes ask whether MCAT scores can substitute for GRE requirements at vet schools. At programs that have eliminated GRE entirely, there’s no substitution question — no standardized testing is evaluated. At Ross University specifically, MCAT scores are an acceptable substitute for GRE for the priority review benefit. For applicants holding MCAT scores from previous medical school application attempts, Ross treats MCAT as equivalent to GRE for application priority purposes.
Several US vet schools offer combined DVM/PhD dual degree programs targeting applicants interested in veterinary research careers. These programs sometimes maintain different admissions requirements than the standalone DVM admissions. As of the 2026-2027 cycle, no US DVM/PhD program requires the GRE — the elimination policy has extended to the dual degree applications consistent with the standalone DVM policy at each institution.
International applicants to US vet schools face different testing requirements than US-resident applicants. Most US programs require TOEFL or IELTS scores for applicants whose primary instruction language is not English (with minimum acceptable scores typically in the 100-105 TOEFL or 7.0-7.5 IELTS range). These English language proficiency requirements are unrelated to GRE policy and remain in effect at programs that have eliminated GRE. International applicants should verify TOEFL/IELTS requirements at each target program — these are typically more strictly enforced than the GRE requirements that have been eliminated.
Effectively no. Every AVMA-accredited US DVM program has either eliminated the GRE entirely or made it optional with no admissions weight as of the 2026-2027 application cycle. Tuskegee University historically required the GRE — applicants targeting Tuskegee should verify the current cycle policy directly with the program, though the broader industry trend strongly suggests Tuskegee has aligned with the consensus elimination. Always confirm current requirements directly with each target program before making test-taking decisions.
No. The structural factors that motivated GRE elimination across US vet schools (equity concerns, predictive validity findings, industry-wide consensus) make a return to GRE requirements unlikely within the next 5 years. Speculative GRE preparation “just in case” misallocates time and money that could produce concrete application improvements through prerequisite completion or experience hour accumulation. The recovered resources from skipping GRE prep are better invested in factors that demonstrably improve current-cycle applications.
No. Programs that have eliminated the GRE simply don’t evaluate the scores during admissions review. Reporting scores doesn’t help applications at these programs, but doesn’t hurt them either. For applicants holding existing GRE scores and uncertain whether to report, the safe approach is to skip the GRE section in VMCAS for US programs and report only to Ross University if Ross is on the target list.
As of 2026, the official GRE test fee is $220 per attempt. Additional costs include score reporting beyond the four free score recipients ($35 per additional report), rescheduling fees ($50), late registration fees ($35), and test prep materials or tutoring ($200-$3,000 depending on intensity). Total realistic cost for GRE preparation and testing: $500-$3,000 depending on prep approach. This investment produces no demonstrable benefit at any US vet program in the 2026-2027 cycle and a modest priority-review benefit at Ross University only.
GRE Subject Tests in Biology and Chemistry are separate from the General GRE and were historically not required by US vet schools even when the General GRE was. ETS has discontinued the GRE Biology Subject Test entirely. The GRE Chemistry Subject Test remains available but is not required or evaluated by any US vet program. Subject Tests can be safely ignored for veterinary school applications.
For US programs: no, the scores aren’t evaluated. For Ross University: yes, if scores are still within the 5-year ETS reporting window, reporting them triggers priority review status. The reapplicant’s strategic focus should be on the factors that actually drove rejection in the previous cycle — prerequisite refresh strategies, experience hour expansion, and personal statement revision approaches that consistently produce stronger reapplications than maintained GRE focus. The PrereqCourses.com course catalog identifies the specific prerequisite courses that address common reapplicant gaps.
The GRE’s analytical writing and quantitative sections do exercise skills relevant to graduate-level work — research analysis, quantitative reasoning, and academic writing. However, the same skills are exercised more effectively through actual prerequisite coursework. Statistics (MATH 220) develops quantitative reasoning more directly than GRE quantitative section preparation. Substantial writing through prerequisite course essays, research papers, or personal statement drafting develops academic writing more directly than GRE analytical writing preparation. The skills are real, but the development path is through real coursework rather than test preparation.
Reassess based on your target school list. If your target programs are all US AVMA-accredited DVM programs that have eliminated the GRE, complete only as much preparation as you’ve already invested, take the test if you’ll get reasonable value from a finished score (Ross University priority review, MCAT-equivalent demonstration for personal satisfaction), and redirect remaining preparation hours to prerequisite coursework or experience hour accumulation. If you’re 80% through preparation, finishing the test makes sense; if you’re 20% through, redirecting now produces better return on remaining time.
For the 2026-2027 application cycle and the foreseeable future, the GRE has effectively disappeared from US veterinary school admissions. Every AVMA-accredited US DVM program has either eliminated the test entirely or made it optional with no admissions weight. Among Caribbean programs, only Ross University Veterinary School maintains any GRE incentive — and even there, the GRE is “highly recommended” for priority review rather than strictly required.
For prospective applicants, the strategic implications are clear. The time and money previously allocated to GRE preparation (typically 100-200 hours and $1,000-$3,000 in total costs) is now available for reallocation to factors that genuinely affect admission outcomes: additional prerequisite coursework that strengthens the science GPA, expanded veterinary experience hours that demonstrate clinical commitment, refined personal statement drafting that improves the application narrative. Each of these investments produces concrete application improvements; GRE preparation no longer produces measurable admissions value.
Browse the PrereqCourses.com course catalog to identify prerequisite courses that match your specific target school list and current preparation gaps. Verify current GRE policies for each target program directly through the AAVMC Veterinary Medical School Admissions Requirements (VMSAR) database — the consolidated reference that confirms current cycle requirements for every program. The era of GRE-driven vet school admissions has ended. The applicant who recognizes this and reallocates accordingly enters the 2026-2027 cycle with a meaningful strategic advantage over applicants still allocating time and money to a test that no longer matters.
