Your curriculum provides education and training that emphasizes experiential learning during all four years. Start by building on your biomedical foundation, reinforcing essential concepts each semester with a “spiral” approach that revisits and builds on previous topics to improve retention. Apply clinical concepts to case examples, hands-on lab exercises, simulations, and team-based problem-solving efforts. Put your learned skills into practice during clinical rotations starting the summer after your second year, continuing on through the end of the program.
Over 130 faculty, veterinary technicians, and additional staff members participate in delivering course content and supporting D.V.M. students. Specially trained in team-based learning and equipped with lesson planning and instructional design support, faculty craft course content to engage students in classrooms, labs, and clinics.
Student success in the D.V.M. Program requires accountability, collaboration, and passion. Students should be prepared to engage actively and take responsibility for both individual and team success. Strong communication, leadership, and professionalism are essential for fostering a supportive and effective learning environment and cohesive community. This approach to health education not only enhances your learning but also equips you to thrive in an array of future professional roles.
Curriculum Overview
Years one and two: Building a biomedical foundation
Begin your veterinary education with a 10-week unit called “Biomedical Building Blocks,” where you’ll develop a fundamental working knowledge of normal structure and function and the body’s response to threats. Once you’ve built your biomedical foundation, you’ll learn about specific organ systems (cardiorespiratory, skin and eyes, etc.) in three- to six-week blocks for the remainder of the first two years of the program.
Three “streams” run concurrently for the entirety of the first two years, supplementing foundational knowledge with hands-on learning, clinical skill building, and professional development:
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- Veterinary Doctoring: Provides training in block-relevant skills and longitudinally builds core skills such as physical exam and surgical tissue handling.
- Applied Clinical Medicine: Models clinical reasoning and problem solving through weekly team-based learning exercises relevant to the material being taught within the content block.
- Veterinary CALL (Culture, Advocacy, Leadership, and Livelihood): Teaches aspects of veterinary professionalism, allows career exploration, and reinforces personal and professional well-being.
Each semester begins with an orientation to help reinforce and apply, as well as expand and deepen, upcoming topics of relevance. Take a break from your regular weekly schedule at the end of each content block with “SWIM” (Synthesis, Well-being, Identity, and Mentoring) weeks, which help you bring everything you’ve learned together, focus on well-being, and allow for coaching sessions to help inform your progress.
Summer after second year through third year: Transition to clinics
Summer after second year
Bookended by a week of vacation directly after spring semester and right before fall semester, the bulk of your summer will be spent enhancing your first two years of education with primary care rotations, surgical and anesthesia experience, and immersive coverage of additional primary care topics.
Each Transition to Clinics block is four weeks long:
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- Primary Care: Select a small animal or large animal/mixed track for your primary care experiences during Transition to Clinics. Small animal track students will spend four weeks rotating through surgery, dentistry, routine appointments, community outreach, and walk-in/urgent care appointments alongside fourth-year students. Large animal/mixed track students will spend four weeks learning primary care in focused, hands-on, controlled laboratory and field experiences.
- Surgery/Anesthesia: Gain surgical and anesthesia experience and develop tissue handling skills through spay/neuter and mass removal with rescue and shelter animals. Students spend two weeks in surgery/anesthesia and two weeks on vacation.
- Core Weeks: Through a mix of didactic and active teaching techniques and laboratory experiences, spend each week of this four-week block learning about select areas of primary care: non-traditional species, diagnostics, dentistry, and anesthesia.
Year three
There are four components of the third year: Common Content weeks, Selective weeks, SWIM weeks, and one USDA/emerging infectious disease training/certification week.
Common Content
16 weeks are broken into four unique units of four weeks each:
- Spectrum of Care: Taking a team-based learning approach to problem solving and clinical reasoning, students will use clinical material to explore not only the biomedical aspects of veterinary medicine, but also delve into ethics, spectrum of care, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
- Veterinary Doctoring III: Through laboratory sessions and near peer mentoring, students will practice hands-on clinical skills.
- Surgery-Anesthesia/Communication: This four-week unit is split into two weeks of spay/neuter surgery-anesthesia experience working with rescue/humane society partners, and two weeks immersed in our world-class Veterinary Communication for Professional Excellence curriculum, working with simulated clients in real-world scenarios.
- Primary Care: Small-animal track students spend a week on service within the primary care clinic while large-animal track students continue learning primary care principles and practices in a teaching herd/rescue animal context.
Selectives
For 11 weeks throughout the year, select week-long experiences from a menu of options. Explore areas of interest more deeply through a mix of didactic, laboratory, clinical, and outreach experiences.
USDA
Fulfill your required USDA certification for veterinarians and learn how to manage exotic and emerging diseases.
SWIM
Reengage with synthesis, well-being, identity, and mentoring concepts with four SWIM weeks in your third year. These SWIM weeks expand on learning from the first two years of the program, allowing you to more authentically dive into complex clinical problem solving.
Year four: Clinics and electives
Spend the bulk of your last year (28+ weeks) on the clinic floor in specialty rotations at the small animal specialty hospital, livestock hospital, and/or Johnson Family Equine Hospital. Eight weeks will be dedicated to primary care at the small animal primary care clinic and/or large animal ambulatory services, with another 12 weeks allotted to all students for elective rotations or vacation.
Your clinical experience takes place on campus, where you’ll learn from more than 130 faculty who bring comprehensive, in-depth medical knowledge from four different departments within the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Rotate through our hospitals’ 25+ veterinary specialties, practicing care alongside our board-certified experts.
Facilities: Built for education
The Veterinary Health and Education Complex (opening May 2026) brings students from all four years of the program into the same space, providing opportunities for enhanced learning and community building. While first- and second-year students build the foundation of their veterinary education and prepare for their transition to clinics, third- and fourth-year students participate in rotations and deliver care to patients.
Opportunities to learn primary and specialty care techniques for small animals and exotics happen at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital while students work with equine and livestock animals at the Johnson Family Equine Hospital and livestock hospital at the same campus, just down the road.
Building highlights:
- 196-person wet lab divided into three smaller spaces makes subjects like anatomy and pathology more personalized for students and instructors
- Team-based learning classroom facilitates discussion and engagement activities during class
- Simulation labs and a maker’s space optimize clinical skills curriculum while reducing reliance on live animals for teaching; these spaces are also available to students before and after classes to practice their skills
- Eight simulated exam rooms for clinical simulation and scenario-based learning experiences
- Common area with kitchenette and food pantry, group seating, sleeping pods, study spaces, meditation rooms, and a landscaped outdoor plaza with seating
- The first WELL-certified veterinary teaching facility, promoting the well-being of students, faculty, and staff
- LEED certification ensures sustainability-minded design
Learn more about the Veterinary Health and Education Complex
Your future of caregiving
Whether you want to become a private practitioner, improve access to care for underserved communities, promote conservation, work with animals in the military, serve the agriculture industry, or work at a biotechnology company protecting animal and human health, your curriculum will help you prepare for a variety of roles within the veterinary profession.
Tailor your training by selecting courses that align with your professional interests in clinical practice, public health, research, education, and beyond.
Make your clinical experience your own:
- Customize your clinical experience with in-house clinical rotations; local, regional, or international externships; or a combination of both.
- Gain exposure to diverse animals and professions through local partnerships with the CDC, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, USDA, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, National Wildlife Research Center, Dumb Friends League, dairies and feedlots, wildlife animal rescues and sanctuaries, and small animal shelters. Students participating in the collaborative program with the University of Alaska Fairbanks have the unique opportunity to work with arctic wildlife and sea animals.
- In your third year, choose from a menu of over 40 week-long selective courses to customize 11 weeks of your education with experiences that interest you
Program highlights
CSU’s well-rounded curriculum promotes clinical, professional, and relational skills, with unique course offerings.
- Client communication: Courses designed by the internationally recognized Veterinary Communication for Professional Excellence program develop student confidence and skills needed to build partnerships with colleagues and clients.
- Companion Animal Euthanasia Training Academy certification: Core training that culminates in certification designed to improve the euthanasia experience for the animal, caregiver, and veterinary team.
- Fear Free® Veterinary Certification Program: Required Fear Free training for incoming students that demonstrates how to facilitate veterinary visits that reduce fear, anxiety, and stress and create an experience that is better and safer for animals, caregivers, and veterinary healthcare teams.
- The Healer’s Art Course: centers on four topics – Wholeness, Grief and Loss, Mystery and Awe, and Service – to explore student experiences, beliefs, and values related to working as a veterinary medical professional. CSU was the first veterinary school in the country to offer this course.
- RECOVER CPR Basic and Advanced Life Support: Earn your certification as a Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support rescuer through a combination of online training and an in-person skills lab. RECOVER was spearheaded by a team of veterinary emergency and critical care specialists with the goal of developing and disseminating the first true evidence-based veterinary cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines.
- Spanish for the Veterinary Professional: Graduate certificate program helps students break the Spanish-English language barrier to improve client relationships and expand access to animal care. Specifically for veterinary students, the program was created as a partnership between the D.V.M. Program and the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Program content and design is informed by data gathered from a comprehensive language needs analysis conducted alongside veterinary professionals in predominantly Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S., Colombia, and Mexico.
- Surgical skills training: Students receive surgical training during every semester of the D.V.M. Program. Core principles and surgical skills are established in years one and two through classroom and wet lab learning that focus on repetition of skills with immediate performance feedback to facilitate growth towards competency. Students will continue to apply and develop these skills in years three and four through additional hands-on opportunities including entry-level surgeries on models, cadavers, and live patients. Students may also take clinical or laboratory electives that align with their professional interests and future career goals, including species-specific advanced procedures and surgical decision making in field settings.
Licensure
The Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program at Colorado State University prepares students to pursue professional licensure in Colorado. Students seeking licensure in other U.S. states or territories beyond Colorado are strongly encouraged to work with the academic department and the applicable professional licensure board in the state in which they intend to pursue licensing prior to enrollment at CSU to ensure all licensure requirements are satisfactorily met. Please review the Professional Licensure Disclosure for more information.