The Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Technology program was begun in 1975 and graduated its first class of 24 students in 1976.  Since that time it has graduated over 700 graduates, 13 of which have gone onto become DVMs. The AS degree program is an 18 month program that starts in June and finishes with graduation the following December.  In the 1990’s the class size was expanded from 24 to 30.  In 1995 a BS degree program was added and consisted of 1 year of a “pre-AS degree curriculum” general education year, and a 1 year “post-AS degree curriculum” in which the students take upper level VT courses and general education courses.  AS degree graduates of an AVMA accredited VT program are eligible to be considered for admission to the BS degree program at Purdue.  In 1999 the distance learning AS degree program was launched (the VT-DLP). The on-campus AS degree program is a competitive admission program requiring an on-campus interview to select from the qualified applications to fill the classes of 30.  The distance learning has the same academic requirements for admission as the on-campus program, but does not require an interview to narrow the selection field because there is no limitation on student numbers “in class” in the distance learning program.  In the spring 2008 semester there were 261 enrolled in the distance learning program, about half of which were from Indiana.