A Look at Internship Match Statistics for Veterinary Students

Are the odds in your favor? 

If you’re a senior vet student wondering whether or not you should apply to an internship, it’s important to get the facts. Apply to internships through the VIRMP is not an easy task. The application process calls for an essay, letters of recommendation and careful selection of programs, among other requirements.

It is also not an inexpensive task, depending on the number of programs you plan to apply to. Naturally, you may want to know if the odds of matching to a program are in your favor.

An excellent resource for this is to check out the VIRMP Statistics. ⁽¹⁾ By following this link, you can see a wealth of helpful quantitative information by year. Because it is a match process between applicants and programs, the information is generally separated into these two categories. This link offers information about total applicants, applications withdrawn, unmatched applicants and matched applicants by category (either institution or private practice).

From an applicant’s point-of-view, you are probably wanting to know – are the odds of matching in my favor?

Per the 2019 statistics, the internship match rate was 65.50%. And this statistic seems to be fairly stable over the years. For 2018, it was 64.12% and in 2017, it was 61.57%.

If you’re on the fence about applying due to the concern of not matching, stay positive and consider giving the match a try– the odds are in your favor! 

References:

1. Match statistics. VIRMP.