DVM/MBA Program
Combined DVM and MBA Degree ProgramJustifications
Current poor business preparation of veterinary graduates
Increasingly, veterinary practitioners need good business skills to succeed in practice. In 1999, KPMG completed a study of the veterinary profession, an executive summary of which was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The study found that while 73% of veterinary practice owners rated business skills as required for veterinarians, 60% of them rated new graduates business skills as marginal and 32% rated them as inadequate or poor. The study also found that most veterinary practices do not take advantage of standard good business practices, and that those that did were much more profitable.
The gender shift
Veterinary medicine has experienced a tremendous gender shift in the last 20 years, from being a male dominated profession to a female dominated one. Currently, 83% of the students in the College of Veterinary Medicine are women. In 2005, the number of practicing veterinarians will transition from a majority of males to a majority of females. This will quickly shift to a high majority of females as older males retire or die and are replaced by female new graduates. This is important to this proposal because surveys have found women veterinary graduates have lower confidence in their business skills than male graduates.
College debt
The amount of college related debt is also increasing quickly for veterinary graduates. Improved business knowledge would allow these students to participate in more profitable business practices and help to address the increased debt levels.
The need for high-level business skills for veterinarians entering the agribusiness and pharmaceutical industries.
Many veterinarians are employed in agribusiness or in the pharmaceutical industry. Having both the DVM and MBA degrees would substantially improve their potential for advancement in those industries beyond the herd health, animal welfare and research roles. Veterinarians in these industries deal with the same business concepts needed in manufacturing industries.
Competitive admission of highly sought non-resident students
The College of Veterinary Medicine competes with other similar colleges for the top non-residents in our applicant pool. Because the need for business training has received a lot of emphasis in veterinary journals, students are increasingly seeking opportunities for that training in their veterinary programs. Three of the 28 US Veterinary Colleges have associated MBA programs. These programs are at Colorado State University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Pennsylvania. The Veterinary College at NC State competes with these universities for the same highly motivated, business oriented students.
Application Process
Interested applicants must apply to both the DVM Program and the MBA Program. This includes submitting GRE scores for the DVM Program and GMAT scores for the MBA Program.
Current Degree Programs
The Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program
The DVM is a four-year professional degree program. In each of the first five semesters the students take a 13 week core curriculum followed by two weeks of electives. The electives give the students the opportunity to tailor their education toward their intended post-graduate career goals. The senior year begins just a few days after the end of the junior year, and consists of 24 rotations, approximately two weeks in length. (longer rotations occur over holiday periods).
The current curriculum is as follows:
Year 1, Fall semester |
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| Course | Credits (Lecture – lab) |
Instructor |
| VMB 911 Anatomy I | 4(2-8) | Hudson |
| VMB 914 Histology & Cytology. | 3(2-4) | Sannes |
| VMB 913 Physiology I | 5(4-4) | Peters |
| VMP 914 Path.Bacteriology/Mycology | 3(2-2) | Carter |
| VMP 912 Evidence Based Medicine | 2(2-0) | Levine |
| VMP 916 Health Main. & An. Prod. I | 1(0-4) | Wages |
| Electives: | 2 credits | |
| Total Credits:20 | ||
Year 1, Spring Semester |
||
VMB 921 Vet. Comparative Anatomy |
4(2-8) |
Smallwood |
VMB 922 Vet. Embryology & Teratology |
2(1-1) |
|
VMB 923 Physiology II |
5(4/4-5/0) |
Keene |
VMP 924 Virology |
3(2-2) |
Fuller |
VMP 925 Immunology |
3(2-2) |
M. Tompkins |
VMC 927 Intro to Comp Animal Behavior |
1(0-2) |
B. Simpson |
Electives |
2 credits |
|
| Total Credits: 21 | ||
Year 2 Fall Semester |
||
VMP 931 Pathology I |
4(3-3) |
Cullen |
VMP 932 Parasitology |
5(4-3) |
Hammerberg |
VMB 933 Pharmacology |
5(4-2) |
Fleisher |
VMB 930 Anesthesiology |
2(2-0) |
Swanson |
VMC 932 Principles of Surgery |
3(1-2) |
Hardie |
Electives |
2 credits |
|
| Total Credits: 21 | ||
Year 2, Spring semester |
||
VMP 941 Pathology II |
5(4-3) |
Meuten |
VMP 942 Clinical Pathology |
3(2-2) |
Grindem |
VMP 945 Population Medicine |
2(2-0) |
Cowen |
VMB 943 Pharmacology/Therapeutics |
3(3-0) |
Papich |
VMB 965 Veterinary Clinical Nutrition |
2(1-2) |
|
VMP 936 Hlth Maint & Animal Prod II |
1(0-4) |
Wages |
VMC 937 Intro to Physical Exam Skills |
1(0-4) |
Stoskopf |
Electives |
2 credits |
|
| Total Credits: 19 | ||
Year 3, Fall Semester |
||
VMC 951 Comp. Animal Med. & Surgery |
5(4-4) |
Jackson |
VMC 952 Equine Medicine & Surgery |
4(4-0) |
Breuhaus |
VMC 953 Lab Animal & Sp. Species Med. |
3(2-2) |
Lewbart |
VMP 951 Theriogenology |
3(2-4) |
Whitacre |
VMB 954 Toxicology/Poisonous Plants |
3(3-0) |
Brownie |
VMP 958 Public Health Issues in Vet Practice |
2(2-0) |
Cowen |
Electives |
2 credits |
|
| Total Credits: 22 | ||
Year 3, Spring semester |
||
VMC 962 Ethics, Jurisprudence, Professional Development and Practice Management |
4 (4-0) |
Bristol |
VMP 962 Ruminant Medicine and Surgery |
3(3-0) |
Anderson |
VMC 961 Comp. Animal Med & Surgery II |
4(3-4) |
Munana |
VMP 964 Swine and Poultry Med |
3(3-0) |
Ley/McCaw |
VMC 965 Advanced Principles of Surgery |
1(0-4) |
Bowman |
VMB 960 Radiology and Radiobiology |
3(3-0) |
Thrall |
VMP 956 Hlth Main & Animal Prod III |
1(0-4) |
Wages |
VMC 957 Intro to Clinical Practice |
1(0-4) |
Ford |
| Total Credits: 20 | ||
The VMC 962 course is a new course planned to be taught the first time in Spring 2007. The focus is on business and career related skills. Credits earned in this course are counted towards the MBA degree.
Year 4, Clinical rotations: All students are required to complete a minimum of 20 rotations at 2 credits per rotation, for 40 credits. Student requirements in the senior year depend on their selected focus areas. These requirements are outlined on the attached spreadsheet.
The Masters of Business Administration (MBA) Program
The NC State MBA program is accredited by the The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. The degree is typically completed over a two-year period for full time students and three years for part time students. In addition to completing core courses in the basics of management, students select electives and specialized concentrations: technology commercialization, information technology management, production innovation management, supply chain management, marketing, financial management and biotech/pharmaceutical management. A unique aspect of NC State’s MBA program is its technology focus.
The curriculum for the MBA varies depending on the concentration area selected. Below is the course sequence for the biotech/Pharma concentration. Students in the combined program may not take this exact combination of courses, but it provides an idea of the type of courses to be taken. Fifty-one credits are required for the degree.
Fall Year One
ACC 580 Survey of Accounting
ECG 507 Economics for Managers
BUS 530 Managing People in the High-Tech Environment
BUS 550 Statistics and Quantitative Methods
BUS 590 Managerial Effectiveness I (1.5 hours)
Spring Year One
BUS 520 Managerial Finance
BUS 560 Marketing Management and Strategy
BUS 570 Production & Operations Management
BUS 590 Managerial Effectiveness II (1.5 hours)
BUS 590 Strategic Overview of Pharma and Biotech
Fall Year Two
BUS 500 Strategic Management
BUS 506 Legal and Regulatory Issues in Pharma and Biotech
Concentration 1
Concentration 2
Spring Year Two
MB 590C Case Studies in Microbial Biotechnology
Concentration 3
Concentration 4
IT Elective or Global Elective
Combined Degree Proposal
Applicants interested in the combined degree program must be accepted by both colleges. The DVM application is handled through a national application procedure – the Veterinary Medical Common Application system or VMCAS. The CVM sends supplementary applications to qualified candidates and that application will contain questions to determine the applicant’s interest in the MBA program. Students need to be accepted into both the DVM and MBA programs in order to participate in the combined program. Once a student completes their DVM application and expresses an interest in the combined program the student will receive information from the College of Management on the admissions process for the MBA program
Students accepted to both programs will spend year one attending the College of Management’s MBA program full time. This will allow completion of most of the required courses for the program with completion of 27 credits toward the MBA degree. During their first summer they will take one more MBA course, putting them at 30 hours. At the end of the summer they will take part in the CVM orientation exercises. Years two through four will consist of the courses required in the DVM program during daytime class hours in the fall and spring. The VMC 962 Ethics, Jurisprudence and Practice Management course in the DVM program will count as a 4 credit elective in the MBA program. The MBA program also will accept 6 hours of DVM courses as MBA electives, following the practice of the joint MBA/MMB degree. The additional 11 hours of MBA courses will be completed by distance education, during the evenings, and during the summer sessions. We also anticipate the development of some management-oriented electives that will be taught during the last two weeks of the first five semesters in the DVM program. The MBA degree would be granted by no later than the end of the fourth year.
Year five will be primarily DVM clinical rotation requirements. During this year students will complete a 6-week, 6 credit business internship at either an Agribusiness or Pharmaceutical firm.
The following display illustrates how the two degrees would be completed within five years:
Year |
Curriculum |
MBA credits |
DVM credits |
Year One |
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Fall |
MBA required courses |
13.5 hours |
|
Spring |
MBA required courses |
13.5 hours |
|
Summer |
MBA elective |
3 hours |
|
Year Two |
|||
Fall |
DVM required courses |
20 hours |
|
Spring |
DVM required courses; one course counts toward both degrees |
3 hours |
21 hours |
Summer |
MBA electives |
6 hours |
|
Year Three |
|||
Fall |
DVM required courses; one MBA short course |
1 hour |
21 hours |
Spring |
DVM required courses; one course counts toward both degrees |
3 hours |
19 hours |
Summer |
MBA elective |
3 hours |
|
Year Four |
|||
Fall |
DVM required courses; one MBA short course |
1 hour |
22 hours |
Spring |
DVM required courses; VMC 962 counts toward both degrees |
4 hours |
20 hours |
COMPLETE MBA |
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Year Five |
DVM rotations |
43 hours |
|
COMPLETE DVM |
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