Your advisor will send an email to your @purdue.edu email to initiate an advising meeting; you will select a day and time that works best for your schedule. You will meet with your advisor minimally twice a year, once for Spring registration and once for Summer and Fall registration where you will discuss and select the courses for the subsequent semester(s).
You should plan for a 30-45 minute Zoom meeting; having a computer and access to myPurdue is very important. This meeting is required for registration.
Many classes in the program build upon knowledge learned in previous program classes. These previous classes are called prerequisites. If you have not completed the correct prerequisite class, you will not be allowed to register. For example, you may not take VM 23500 (Pharmacology I) until you have completed VM 10500 (Introduction to Veterinary Technology) and VM 13500 (Physiology I).
There are additional clinical mentorship documents that must be completed via Microsoft Forms. Once these forms are completed and received by the Veterinary Nursing office, an override is completed that will allow you to register for the clinical mentorship(s). In order for you to enroll in a mentorship, all mentorship forms must be completed and received by the Veterinary Nursing office by the Monday before classes start.
Access all required forms and more on Brightspace. If you have further questions about mentorships, please contact the Veterinary Nursing office (vetnurse@purdue.edu).
A hold signifies that a student is restricted from enrolling in classes and/or obtaining academic transcripts at Purdue University. You will not be allowed to register for classes until your holds are released. You can click this link to find information about holds.
You can access your academic and financial account information through myPurdue. You will need your Purdue Login credentials to access myPurdue.
Some of the benefits of myPurdue include:
MyPurdue Plan is accessible from the Degree Planning and Audit card in your MyPurdue account. myPurduePlan is your graduation audit and lists courses you’ve completed, course descriptions and pre-requisites for courses you still have to complete, and includes a degree planner and GPA calculator. The Office of the Registrar has degree planning tools and worksheets to help you navigate myPurduePlan.
The tuition for all VNDL courses (including mentorship courses) is $270 per credit hour. The tuition is the same for Indiana residents and non-residents. Tuition does not include textbooks or other content information required by the instructor for completion of the course.
After you are registered for your courses, your invoice will be on MyPurdue and can be located on the Student Account card. Questions should be directed to the Office of the Bursar’s at askbursar@purdue.edu. Tuition and fees are always due, paid in full, on the first day of the semester.
For directions on how to add a class, watch the following Office of the Registrar YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqSWnANeCY0. For directions on how to drop a class, watch the following Office of the Registrar YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKKLf3iX50c
Your advisor is listed in your myPurdue portal.
The program may be completed in as little as three years of continuous enrollment (nine consecutive semesters).
The average VNDL student takes an average of 5 years to complete the program.
You are also able to build your our pathway based on your needs.
Most courses in the VNDL program require the completion of pre-requisite courses before you are allowed to enroll in them. Pre-requisite courses are designed to prepare you for the material presented in a particular course. The pre-requisite summary document lists all of the courses in the VNDL program and what pre-requisite requirements they have. Your advisor sent this document in your registration appointment email. Pre-requisites are also listed in myPurduePlan.
Some pre-requisites courses may have a “CC” designation. This means that the course may be taken concurrently, or in the same semester of the course you are registering.
For example, in order to take Physiology II you need to have completed Physiology I or you need to take Physiology I at the same time as Physiology II because it is a course that may be taken concurrently.
Mentorships are task-based classes completed in a veterinary facility that is local to the student. Each of the 18 mentorship courses has a logbook that has a specific list of hands-on tasks that you must complete along with the standardized criteria that must be met to successfully perform each task.
Purdue University uses a Learning Management System (LMS) called Brightspace for delivering online courses. Once the term has started, you can access all of your courses by going to Purdue’s Brightspace clicking on the Purdue West Lafayette tile and entering your login and password (this should be the same login and password that you use to access your Purdue email account). Once you have logged in, you will arrive on a page that lists all of your courses.
There are several things that could cause your class(s) to not show up when you log into Brightspace. You may not have registered for the class (remember, completing a course request form does NOT register you for classes). If you did not pay your bill, you may be dropped from your classes. Also, while most VNDL instructors set their courses to open on the Saturday before the semester begins, some may not not open their classes until the first day of the semester.
Most instructors open their classes on the Saturday before the first day of the semester. However, some may not open their courses until the first day of the semester.
Textbooks can be found in MyPurdue on the Student Schedule card.
Textbooks are loaded into MyPurdue about one month before the start of the semester.
You may purchase textbooks anywhere it is convenient for you. Make sure to use the ISBN in order to purchase the correct edition.
The best place to find contact information for your course instructors is to look on your course syllabus. All of our instructors include their email on their syllabi.
All students are required to use Respondus Lockdown Browser (RLB) and Respondus Monitor for exam proctoring.
Contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at Student Success at Purdue. Once the accommodations have been determined, the DRC will provide you with a letter for you to present to your instructors. Accommodations cannot be granted without official notification to the instructor. This process can occur at any time during a term and must be completed each term.
You should always try to contact your instructor as soon as you experience any technical issues while taking an exam. If during business hours, you should call the instructor. If you cannot reach your instructor via phone, send an email. Sending an email will document the time you were having trouble. You may also contact the veterinary nursing office (765-496-6579) to see if they can help you reach your instructor.
The Academic Calendar is the University Calendar that provides students a list of important dates and deadlines for each semester. Some of these important dates include: first day of school, drop/add deadline, and breaks.
You can find your current GPA in myPurdue or myPurduePlan.
The GPA Calculator is intended to give students the ability to estimate their GPA.
To enroll and participate in classes online, you must use a desktop or laptop computer (PC or Mac) with at least:
Because Brightspace, the Learning Management System (LMS) that Purdue University uses is mobile responsive, students may use mobile devices such as tablets (e.g., iPad), mobile phones, and notebook computers (e.g., Chromebooks) to perform some academic activities and thereby supplement the use of a desktop or laptop computer. However, a desktop or laptop computer must remain your primary device for completing VNDL courses. A high-speed Internet connection with a minimum bandwidth of 8 Mbps upload/download speed is also required.
The VNDL program does not recommend using the Brightspace Pulse app to complete entire courses. The tool is limited in its uses, and our program does not have control or the ability to change anything within the app. The Pulse app is meant to be a quick and easy mobile reference and is not intended to be an outlet for completing an entire course.
We recommend using either Chrome or Firefox as the browser to navigate Brightspace.
All students are required to have Microsoft Office 2013 or a more recent version such as Microsoft Office 365, which is available for free for enrolled students at Purdue University. Students can install Microsoft Office 365 by accessing the following website: https://www.it.purdue.edu/services/microsoft-office-365.php
Students must also have a current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available as a free download from the following website: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/pdf-reader.html
This may occur if you have not changed your password as required by the University. If your password has expired, you may change it. If you require additional assistance, please contact Purdue IT at 765-494-4000.
When you accepted your admission to Purdue University you consented to conduct business electronically including, “...you understand that e-mail serves as the primary means of communication between the University and enrolled students, and the University communicates using only this method of communication for most administrative processes.”.
All university communications will be sent to your @purdue.edu email address. In order to check that you have set this up correctly, go to the New to Purdue web page and and then expand the section titled "Getting started with your @purdue.edu email account (for students)."
Do not forward this email account as forwarding email is inherently problematic and can result in lost important emails. Students in the past have missed critical milestones because of forwarding their @purdue.edu email account. For instance, students have not received their first email from their advisor about scheduling their appointment.
The program offers clinical workshops in May/June each year. The workshops allow for a limited number of students to come to campus for the opportunity to complete hands-on skills related to large animal and laboratory animal.
There is no requirement that you come to campus to attend these workshops. However, many students who only work with small animals have taken advantage of the workshops in order to complete their large animal and laboratory animal tasks.
Due to limited space, supplies, and faculty/staff, the program does not offer any other opportunities to come to campus to complete hands-on skills.
Purdue Veterinary Nurse and Veterinary Medicine gear and gifts are available at the Vet Shoppe. You can order online at Vet Shoppe.
Purdue University and the College of Veterinary Medicine's VNDL Program both have academic standards for students. The VNDL Academic Standards are higher than those of the University. Purdue recently changed the terminology used for probation and dismissal from the University. Instead of the term probation, students will be placed on academic notice. Instead of being dismissed from the University, students will be separated from the University. Please thoroughly review both using the links below.
Yes! Click here to view the Student Handbook.
No, the VNDL program does not require students to be vaccinated for rabies. Our program strongly encourages all students to receive the rabies pre-exposure vaccine, but it is not a requirement. The one exception to this is for any students who elect to participate in workshops on the West Lafayette, IN campus or any other off-campus fast-track labs. Students participating in these activities must be vaccinated for rabies, as we cannot guarantee that the animals used will be rabies vaccinated. Participation in fast-track labs or on-campus workshops is NOT required for program completion. Students in the VNDL program who are not rabies vaccinated will not able to work with unvaccinated animals when completing clinical mentorship tasks.
Learn more about rabies pre-exposure vaccines and working with unvaccinated animals
