No! The Department of Veterinary Sciences is an academic unit within the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Our department is dedicated to advancing research and outreach in food animal health and well-being, and offers a Master's Degree in Animal Health and Industry. It is often confused with the TTU School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo, Texas. We do not offer a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM).

A step-by-step guide entitled How to Apply to TTU Graduate School is available here or from the veterinary science business office.

No, a student must be accepted by a professor and work directly with them to complete the research hours and thesis hours necessary to graduate. These students are chosen by the individual professor before their master's degree program starts. The process for a student to become a thesis student is above the regular program application process. You must contact the veterinary science department before you begin your master's program if you are interested in the possibility of a thesis option for your degree.

A step-by-step guide entitled How to Find and Register for Courses is available here or from the veterinary science business office.

A degree plan is a list of all courses you will take to fulfill the 30 hours required for your degree. Yes, each student MUST have a degree plan on file to graduate. The degree plan should be completed during a student's first semester of coursework. The degree plan can be updated throughout the program if needed but MUST be correct and complete before graduation.

At the beginning of each semester, a group meeting will be arranged to answer questions and get all students new to the program ready to enroll in VSCI courses. You must meet with your advisor before signing up for courses so that any registration holds for the department you may have can be removed. If you are considering an internship to meet your degree requirements, you need approval from your advisor before enrolling in the course. This meeting will help you get started and provide some additional information to complete your degree plan, which is due during your first semester of coursework. This will ensure you are completing everything to graduate on time. You may make an appointment to meet with your advisor at any other time if you feel you need to update your degree plan or share any changing circumstances involving completing your degree program.

A full-time graduate student is considered 9 hours for the fall and spring semesters and 6 hours for the summer semester. If you take less than this, you are no longer considered a full time student. A graduate student should plan on taking between 9 and 14 hours during a semester. Anything over 14 hours is considered an "overload" and will need special permission from the graduate school and the department.

To maintain the status of your visa students MUST be enrolled in at least 6 hours of face-to-face coursework during the semester. Foreign/international students may not take the internship in their last semester of coursework without prior approval from the international student affairs office as it can have repercussions for them on future travel to the US. Since the internship is only offered as a "distance" course students should be mindful of this while planning their coursework pathway to complete the degree.

If you meet these four criteria you might be eligible for an online tuition rate. To qualify students must:

• Be either Non-resident or Foreign
• Be enrolled in an approved (THECB) fully online degree program – GR-MS-ANHI has been verified and is a qualifying program
• Be enrolled in only TDE online campus courses
• Not have any Texas address on file in Banner – only students who are NOT physically located in the state of Texas may qualify for NRDE

To find out for sure you can contact the Student Business Services Office for more information. They offer a knowledge base, AI generated chat, live chat during business hours and the ability to submit a question that will be tracked and immediately routed to the correct area. All responses are sent within 24 hours (business days) and usually sent on the same day.

Student Business Services portal

Texas Residents are billed in-state tuition rates

• Bordering County (OK and NM) have access to a waiver that reduces their bill to in-state. Contact Student Business Services to discuss this waiver and the necessary paperwork to apply for it.
• Bordering State (OK and NM) have access to a waiver that allows a reduction of out-of-state tuition to just $30/SCH over the in-state tuition rate. This is currently available to undergraduate students and will become available to graduate students starting Fall 25-26. Contact Student Business Service to discuss this waiver and the necessary paperwork to apply for it.

Non-Resident and Foreign

• State of Texas sets this rate every year, but it is generally about $400 - $420 per Semester Credit Hour higher than in-state tuition.
• For a full list of non-resident tuition waivers that the student may be eligible to receive, students should visit the SBS Customer Service Portal.

Student Business Services portal

Elective courses are housed in separate departments and are not part of the Veterinary Science Department. These courses are determined and directed by each individual department. You will need to contact the instructor or department of the elective course directly to discuss your options and determine if the course is available or appropriate for you to take. That department will then need to provide an override and allow you in the course if that option is determined to be appropriate for you. Each department can only place students in their own courses. For example, only the veterinary science department can enroll students into veterinary science courses. The same is true of the other departments. Each department can only take care of their own courses.

Yes, all graduate students should complete the Responsible Conduct Training in their FIRST semester of coursework. The TTU graduate school will send out an email reminder and a link to complete the training if it is not already completed. Additional information can be found here: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/gradschool/training/responsible-academic-conduct-training.php 

This message shows up when a student's beginning date to start school or ending date to graduate are not correct. The computer thinks you will not be taking courses for the current semester and will not give you a time ticket to make you active to register. Your start date and end date will need to be fixed with the graduate school office so that the time ticket can be issued by the computer.

If you are just starting you have not "completed" any courses, so it is showing as zero. Once you finish a course and have your degree plan in place those hours will start appearing for you.

For example, if you take 9 hours in the fall and pass them, at the end of the fall it would say you have completed 9 hours of the required 30 if your degree plan has been submitted and approved during your first semester of coursework.

Professors have a limited knowledge of most students to provide an accurate reflection of their abilities or goals. They mostly know them as a student from their course or through helping you choose classes. Their personal knowledge of your individual work ethic, abilities and knowledge base are minimal. There are certain individuals with whom they work closely enough to be familiar and provide this information for, but in general they do not have enough familiarity to provide an accurate recommendation letter for most students. When in doubt, feel free to ask!

Students must request this update to their graduation date themselves. It cannot be done by department personnel. Follow these steps.

1. Log in to your Student Dashboard (https://db.reg.ttu.edu/ttustu)
2. Select Registrar Forms
3. Click the red button for New Registrar Request
4. Select Graduation Date/Term Update from the dropdown menu
5. When the request opens, select a new graduation term, provide a reason for the change, and then submit the form

Once this has been updated you should be able to see it reflected in your dashboard.

If you have completed all the courses on your approved degree plan with a passing grade, and have a 3.0 GPA or higher, then you have completed the requirements to graduate. Your degree plan courses and the courses you have taken MUST match. If you need to make any changes or updates to your degree plan, you will need to get those completed before you can graduate. You must get a new degree plan approved, and the department must file it with the graduate school during the semester at least a couple of weeks prior to your graduation.

ALL students MUST apply to graduate so that the graduate school can compare the courses taken against the degree plan the student has on file. The graduate school must verify that the course work matches the degree sought by the student. This intent to graduate form can be found on the graduate school website along with due dates and other helpful information.

Much of the information you will need to move efficiently and successfully through your graduate degree program can be found on the Texas Tech University Graduate School website. Becoming familiar with it will help you meet deadlines and complete paperwork promptly.

An internship should consist of 25 clock hours per semester credit hour of work with animals (e.g., 150 clock hours for 6 student credit hours). Office/reception positions are not acceptable. The course hours for the internship should be changed upon registration to reflect the 6 hours of credit for the class. See How to Change the Hours for Variable Hour Courses for assistance.

An internship can be either paid or unpaid by the intern's employer. Your internship is separate from any work you do at Texas Tech. It is like a second job for you. You are responsible for finding your own internship location. Be mindful if you have restrictions as to how many hours you can work per week or where your work must occur if you are an international student.

You will need to have your internship approved by your advisor prior to enrolling in the course. This form is available here or from the veterinary science business office. Once you have approval you will keep a daily journal log which will be turned in at the end of the course. At the end of the course, you will use your daily journal to write a summary paper about your experiences and what you learned during your internship. We are looking forward to reading about your learning experiences, not how nice the people were during your time. This paper will be turned in with your daily journal log.

Finally, you will provide your direct internship supervisor with an evaluation form that they will complete and send directly to your Veterinary Science Department Advisor and to the designated Veterinary Science business office person. Don't forget a thank you letter to your supervisor for allowing you to have the opportunity to learn and grow.

Once these are all turned in everything will be assessed, and a grade given for the course.

Yes, but it is not encouraged and needs to have extraordinary circumstances and permission from the advisor for this to occur. Summer internships work the best for our students as they are usually paid, and it is easier to work longer hours without worrying about other course work.

You may begin work once your EPAF (hiring paperwork through HR) has been applied in the system. Starting work before this time should not occur.

The tuition waivers are not applied to your account until the 20th class day. You will need to arrange a payment plan to bridge the gap in time or you can pay your entire balance and wait until the waiver is applied; at which time you will receive a refund for any overage in your account balance.

Students who have a tuition waiver through the department and/or DGSA (Distinguished Graduate Student Assistantship) should schedule a payment plan through the Student Business Services office. Tuition waivers are applied to the student's account on the 20th class day. You will begin paying your tuition and/or make a payment plan. When the tuition waiver is dropped in your account the remaining balance will need to be paid by you. The other option is to pay your entire tuition bill and then when the tuition waiver is dropped into your account you will be reimbursed for any overage in your account balance. Reimbursements are done each semester so that the account balance owed will be zero at the close of each semester. The University does not hold extra funds in your account.

Fellowships and scholarships are not applied until the day after tuition is due. As above, you may need to set up a payment plan to ensure you are not dropped from courses before the semester starts. Fellowships and scholarships are NOT a part of your pay. They are applied toward your tuition and fees only. They are separate and additional to the pay from your job. Fellowships and scholarships are paid out in a lump sum through the Student Business Services office directly into your tuition account.

The university will provide a one-time payment of $1361.00 in November and a second one-time payment of $1885.00 in the spring (this increase is to cover both spring and summer) in March provided the appointment continues for the whole semester. This will be through the same process as your paycheck disbursement.