Vet Tech Programs in California

Twenty of the 21 entries award an associate degree; the exception is California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, whose Animal Health Technology Program in Pomona awards a bachelor's.

Six entries carry the Carrington name — Carrington College-Pleasant Hill, Carrington College-Sacramento, Carrington College-San Jose, Carrington College-San Leandro, Carrington College-Stockton and Carrington College-Ontario (formerly San Joaquin Valley College-Ontario), whose printed former name helps if an older transcript uses it — and 4 carry the Platt name: Platt College-Alhambra, Platt College-Anaheim, Platt College-Ontario and Platt College-Riverside.

Two more share the Pima name: Pima Medical Institute-Chula Vista and Pima Medical Institute-San Marcos.

Every entry's city, degrees, dates and accreditation line appear on its card below.

What the list cannot tell you is what a program charges, how its calendar is built, or where it places students — put those questions to each school.

3 of the 21 entries carry an accreditation line other than plain FULL ACCREDITATION.

AVMA lists Mount San Antonio College in Walnut as PROBATIONARY ACCREDITATION (w/ deficiencies in Standards 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11), and Yuba College in Marysville as PROBATIONARY ACCREDITATION (Standards 4, 5, 9, 10) — two slightly different wordings.

AVMA's definition says a probationary program is still officially accredited, that deficiencies are listed after the line, and that its graduates count as graduates of an accredited program.

Standard 11, named on the Mount San Antonio College line, is CVTEA's outcomes-assessment standard — the one that asks a program to track and publish its first-time VTNE pass rate against the national average — so ask Mount San Antonio College for its published figure.

The other standards AVMA names are not described on its list; put those questions to the program.

Ventura College in Ventura is listed as INITIAL ACCREDITATION, AVMA's term for newly accredited programs in their first five years — not punitive — with the initial date August 25, 2022 and next evaluation 2027.

California State Polytechnic University-Pomona is the only California entry on AVMA's list that awards a bachelor's — the degree line reads Bachelor in Animal Health Science, inside a program AVMA names the Animal Health Technology Program.

Note the wording: neither the degree nor the program title uses the words veterinary technology, even though this is AVMA's veterinary-technology list, so read the entry carefully when comparing programs.

The Pomona entry has been accredited since April 1996, and AVMA gives its next evaluation as 2030.

Every other California entry awards an associate degree, in several AVMA printings — Associate in Science, Associate of Science and Associate of Applied Science all appear, and San Diego Mesa College's line spells out Associate of Science in Veterinary Technology.

None of the 21 California entries appears on AVMA's separate distance-education list, so the only online route for a California resident runs through one of the 13 distance programs AVMA lists under their home states — the page renders all 13 lower down.

AVMA maintains that list separately from the by-state list, and the two can disagree about a program's accreditation, so read both lines for any program you consider.

For a California resident, two questions go to the school before anything else: whether it admits students living in California, and how it arranges the supervised clinical hours every accredited program requires at a practice near the student.

California's credentialing body is the California Veterinary Medical Board, and the credential is the Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT).

The Board's application page lists 4 routes to eligibility: a degree from an AVMA CVTEA-accredited program, a certificate from an Alternate Route program, the PAVE assessment, or registration held as an RVT in another U.S. or Canadian jurisdiction.

The accredited degree is the first pathway, and every program on the list above counts as AVMA CVTEA-accredited, whatever its accreditation line says.

After graduating, every applicant applies directly to the AAVSB for the VTNE before applying to the Board — no separate California state exam appears in the sources the requirements page read.

The same page carried an alert reading “CVTE No Longer a Requirement to Obtain RVT Licensure” with no effective date while still listing the accredited degree first, so the requirements page tells readers to confirm pathways with the Board.

Registration is required to hold and use the RVT designation; whether the credential is needed to work as a technician was not settled in the sources read.