Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM)

The UMES SVM Doctor of Veterinary Medicine curriculum is designed as a three-year, nine-semester professional program: Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters run in each of the first two years, followed by a full year of clinical rotations. Semester 1 begins in June of the first year, and graduation takes place in May of the third year.

The first six semesters (Years 1 and 2) combine didactic instruction, team-based learning, and laboratory instruction, with digital learning and immersive technologies incorporated throughout. Required and elective coursework build systematically from foundational science toward species-specific clinical medicine and surgery. Semesters 7, 8, and 9 (Year 3) make up the clinical year, delivered through a semi-distributed model in which UMES SVM faculty and a network of trained clinical affiliate sites jointly educate, supervise, and evaluate students across required and elective rotations.

Threaded throughout all three years are parallel skill-building sequences in Clinical Skills (I–VI), Personal & Professional Skills (I–VI), Clinical Reasoning (I–V), Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine and Research (I–III), and One Health (I–III) — ensuring that hands-on technique, professional communication, diagnostic reasoning, research literacy, and a One Health perspective develop in step with the core science and clinical curriculum.