Frequently Asked Questions

Qualified applicants must hold either a baccalaureate degree (BA, BS) or a professional degree (DVM, MD, etc.) from an accredited institution in the United States. Applicants trained outside the U.S. should hold equivalent degrees from a recognized institution whose requirements for the baccalaureate or professional degrees are substantially equivalent to those at Iowa State University.

Our department offers multiple and diverse areas of expertise around population sciences in animal health including, but not limited to:

• Veterinary Epidemiology
• Antimicrobial resistance
• Infectious disease modeling
• Swine infectious diseases
• Clinical swine medicine
• Zoonotic disease transmission
• Milk quality
• Animal welfare & behavior
• Infectious reproductive diseases
• Beef production medicine
• Toxicology
• Food safety and antimicrobial resistance
• Clinical pharmacology
• Vaccines and immunotherapeutics
• Precision Swine Health & Production Management
• Monitoring and Surveillance Systems
• Disease Control & Elimination programs at the herd, production system, regional & national levels
• Biosecurity programs
• Economic impact of diseases affecting animal populations
• Development and validation of diagnostic tests for food animal populations

Yes, to both MS and PhD students.  A Research Assistantship includes a stipend beginning around $2000 per month, a tuition scholarship covering 50% of the cost for MS students and 100% of the cost for PhD students, plus paid single health insurance.  Selection is based on faculty interest in your application.  Additional information on graduate assistantships, tuition and fees, and health services is available on the Graduate College website.

Current Tuition and fees for graduate programs can be found here.  All students on an assistantship are charged resident rate tuition.  Please see this link for Expected cost of living.  When students are on a Research Assistantship there is the expectation that they will work towards coursework as well as on specific research projects in which the funding come from with major professor's guidance.

We utilize a two-step application procedure.  The phase one pre-application is free and testing (TOEFL) scores are not required.  Students that are approved to move on to phase two are assessed an application fee to formally apply for admission to Iowa State University.  Fees for applying are non-refundable; it is $60 for US citizens and US permanent residents; a $100 fee will be assessed for all international applicants.  Access the application.

We first invite you to identify a potential mentor from our VDPAM Graduate Faculty and reach out to them providing a brief letter of intent with professional/academic background and areas of interest to inquire as to whether they are accepting graduate students at the present time.  You will want to update your CV and, if International, prepare and set up for the TOEFL exam.

Access the two-phase application.  The phase one pre-application is free and testing (TOEFL) scores are not required.  Students that are approved to move on to phase two are assessed an application fee to formally apply for admission to Iowa State University

We accept applications throughout the year with entrance into the program all terms (Fall, Spring and Summer).  To allow review of your complete application we suggest that your application be completed by mid-June for Fall admission, mid-October for Spring admission and mid-March for Summer admission.

MS Thesis requires 30 total credits with these requirements. MS Creative Component option requires 36 total credits with these requirements. PhD requires 72 credits with these requirements.

The Graduate Certificate in Veterinary Preventive Medicine is designed to be a distance program and all courses are taken online.

Yes, with approval it may be possible to transfer credits from a Graduate Certificate towards a Masters degree in Veterinary Preventive Medicine or a Doctorate degree in Population Sciences in Animal Health.