Curriculum: Coordinating the Two Degrees
Students in the Veterinary Scientist Training Program (VSTP) are enrolled in the DVM curriculum of the School of Veterinary Medicine and a Ph.D. program administered by Graduate Studies.
The DVM program at UC Davis extends for four years. The first two years, largely preclinical, start in the fall of the entering year and proceed for four semesters, until May of the second year. The third year is devoted to track specific clinically related courses. Fourth year begins immediately at the end of the third year (May) and is composed of core and elective rotations.
DVM students in years one and two (V1 and V2) are highly encouraged to apply for the Student Training in Advanced Research (STAR) fellowship program. This fellowship program provides students the opportunity to participate in research over the summer between V1/V2 and V2/PhD1. More information on STAR can be found here. The 10-week STAR fellowship program can be counted as a part of the participating graduate group’s rotation requirements. Students may choose the STAR faculty mentor as his/her/their Ph.D. advisor. Together, substantial time is saved to make the time to the Ph.D. degree within ~4 years.
The student's Ph.D. program is guided under the mentorship of the dissertation advisor, participating graduate program advisors, and the student’s dissertation committee, along with mentoring input from the VSTP Director and VSTP Advisory Board. The average time to degree of all 43 trainees who have graduated from VSTP is 7.9 ± 1.7 years.
To ease the transition from graduate studies to the last two clinical years (V3 and V4) of the VSTP, VSTP students have an opportunity to take a 2-week intensive clinical rotation at our Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital each summer, which has proven to be very helpful to our past VSTP students. Additionally, peer assistance is particularly helpful as VSTP students in DVM year four (V4) have just completed this transition and are able to provide a practical guidance to students in DVM year three (V3). Figure 1 below shows the typical progression in the DVM-Ph.D. program, along with related training and milestones each year. Upon completion of both degree programs our students successfully move on to internships, residencies, postdoctoral research positions, and career appointments.
