American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology (ACVCP): How to Become Board-Certified

ACVCP certifies veterinarians in the specialty of veterinary clinical pharmacology — in the college's own wording, the discipline built around the factors that constitute rational drug therapy in animal patients.

AVMA recognizes the college but names no individual specialty under it, so the diplomate count covers the field as a whole: 75 active ACVCP diplomates as of December 31, 2025.

Each holds the same title, Diplomate of the ACVCP.

There is no per-specialty breakdown to consult and no separate credential tracks — the two-phase examination and the manuscript requirements below apply to every candidate.

ACVCP's stated prerequisite is practice qualification: candidates must be legally qualified to practice veterinary medicine in a state, province, territory or possession of the US, Canada, or another country.

To sit Phase I, a candidate must be enrolled in — or have already completed — a training program (residency) that the ACVCP Education Committee has approved.

Note what the candidate, Phase I and Phase II pages on file do not spell out: a length for the training program; for further information on approved programs, the candidate page points readers to the college's 'Potential Residents' section.

The planning unit is therefore not a fixed number of years but the sequence itself — practice qualification, an approved residency, then the two exam phases.

Anyone arriving from a residency completed elsewhere should confirm its ACVCP approval status before counting it toward eligibility.

The Diplomate Certifying Examination has two parts.

Phase I is gated by logistics the college sets in advance: the application is due by October 1 of the year before the planned exam, the $200 examination fee is due before sitting, and the exam itself is 200 multiple-choice questions — a 100-question morning session and a 100-question afternoon session.

Phase II is credentials-led: candidates submit two peer-reviewed manuscripts that embody the research and clinical aspects of veterinary clinical pharmacology, the factors that constitute rational drug therapy in animal patients, published or accepted for publication — with evidence such as a letter from the journal editor — by February 1 of the exam year.

At least one manuscript must carry the candidate as first author.

The title at the end of both phases is Diplomate of the ACVCP.

Approval to take either phase of the Diplomate Certifying Examination is granted for a period of 5 years, beginning with the first year the candidate is eligible for the examination.

The window therefore opens at eligibility, not at the first sitting — a candidate who becomes eligible and then delays spends the same 5 years.

Plan both exam phases inside it, and the manuscripts with them — Phase II needs them by February 1 of the exam year.

One more wrinkle: the $200 fee and the October 1 application date come from the college's current web pages and can change from year to year, so re-check ACVCP's own pages when mapping out a timeline.