| Literature on the admission criteria and processes related to academic success of professional students at any of the twenty-eight veterinary medical schools in the United States is limited and research on what predicts students' academic success has not been regularly examined (Pappaioanou, 2010). The current study investigated the extent to which traditional academic characteristics (i.e., cumulative grade point average, science grade point average, and graduate record examination scores) and non-traditional student characteristics (i.e., communication and interpersonal skills, the essay or self-assessment survey, prior knowledge of the profession, and community service as assessed via the interview process) predicted students' academic performance at Michigan State University (MSU) College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). Several analyses were performed to determine the contribution of traditional and non-traditional factors as predictors of students' academic performance in veterinary medical school as measured by their grade point average in the veterinary school program at two points: (a) the completion of the didactic portion of the curriculum (the first five semesters) and (b) the completion of the clinical portion of the curriculum (the last four semesters).;The interpretation of the results yielded significant findings in several areas: (a) the identification of characteristics of traditional and non-traditional students that were predictive of academic performance in the veterinary school relative to students' cumulative grade point average in the clinical and didactic portion of the curriculum; (b) the identification of traditional academic characteristics that were predictive of student placement status of academic probation; and (c) support for the expectation that the cumulative didactic grade point average was predictive of the cumulative clinical grade point average. Through the identification of variables related to both traditional and non-traditional characteristics, variables that were predictive of students' academic performance in one veterinary school, administrators at other programs for health care professional programs may be encouraged to review and evaluate the strength of their admission criteria to ensure the reliability and validity of their applicant selection processes. |
