Becoming a Veterinarian
Read about the education and career steps involved in achieving a profession as a veterinarian or animal doctor, including veterinary schooling, training, and experience requirements for practicing veterinary medicine. You'll also learn about entrance requirements for veterinary colleges and common veterinarian salaries and specializations.
Table of Contents
Veterinarian Education, Training and Experience Requirements
Veterinarian Job Description
Veterinarian Salary and Employment Information
When you think of veterinary medicine, your friendly local vet may come to mind, but veterinarian careers are actually as diverse as the wild kingdom itself. Vets are animal physicians that perform clinical research, teach at veterinarian schools and are employed by government agencies. You'll even find vets at horse racetracks, zoos and farms. One of the most famous veterinarians was "country vet" James Alfred Wight, who wrote the bestseller All Creatures Great and Small.
Just like a doctor for humans, today's veterinarians use high-end medical equipment such as surgical instruments, stethoscopes, x-ray machines and even ultrasound. They also need to have sensitivity towards animals and be able to diagnose an ambiguous wet nose or a pained "meow."
Veterinarian Education, Training and Experience Requirements
Almost all veterinarian schools require that you complete a 4-year Bachelor's Degree before applying. A few may not require an actual Bachelor's Degree, but all expect you to complete 45-90 undergraduate hours at a minimum before you can attend a college of veterinary medicine.
Completing a Bachelor's Degree is highly recommended though, because the competition to get into a vet school has become more intense. The popularity of veterinary careers has been steadily increasing for years, but the number of U.S. veterinary colleges has stayed pretty much the same since 1983, at fewer than 30 schools.
There is no particular undergraduate degree that veterinary colleges require. But some sources, such as the Princeton Review, recommend earning an undergraduate degree in pre-veterinary medicine. Other strong options would be animal science or zoology.
Any actual animal work and/or training experience with veterinarians in clinics, private practices, agricultural businesses or research labs can also weigh heavily in your favor. This type of training experience would also include working on a farm, stable, ranch or local animal shelter.
The most important factor is to have coursework in physics, chemistry, animal nutrition, genetics, general biology, zoology, biochemistry, animal biology, cellular biology, microbiology, vertebrate embryology, systemic physiology and several other "ologys." Some veterinarian colleges require you to take undergrad math classes like calculus, statistics, and trigonometry as well. You should contact the vet schools that you may want to attend to find out their exact requirements.
When you finish your undergrad college degree, you will need to take one or more of the following assessment tests to qualify for entrance to a veterinary college. Which test(s) you need depends on the specific schools that you want to attend, so make sure you find out a school's specific requirements before submitting an application.
- The Veterinary College Admission Test (VCAT), which is administered by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC).
- The Graduate Record Examination (GRE), which is administered by a nonprofit organization called Educational Testing Service (ETS)
- The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), which is administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Once you get into a veterinarian college, you must complete a 4-year medical program and earn your Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M. or V.M.D.). Finally, before you can actually begin practicing veterinary medicine, you have to pass the North American Veterinary Licensing Exam.
If you want to get board certified, then you need to enroll in a residency program for 3 to 4 years. This is where you'll study a specialty such as exotic small-animal medicine, oncology, dentistry, surgery, dermatology, cardiology, or one of the other 20 veterinary specialties.
Veterinarian Job Description
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, about 70% of veterinarians work in private practice caring for domestic pets like dogs and cats. A smaller percentage of veterinarians focus primarily on the treatment of exotic animals in zoos and aquariums, horses at racetracks, or cattle (or other livestock) on farms.
Veterinarians who work on farms or ranches (large-animal practices) usually spend quite a bit of time driving to their patients. A rural animal doctor helps injured or ill animals, vaccinates for diseases and advises farm owners how to care for their livestock. These country vets also set fractured bones, perform surgery and birth animals ("Congratulations, you've given birth to a cow!").
Other types of vets that work in the great outdoors are livestock inspectors. They keep the food chain safe by checking animals for diseases (like Mad Cow). They inspect processing plants, slaughterhouses, and enforce government laws. Want to work on the U.S. border? There are vets who work as animal and plant health inspectors - screening exports and foreign imports.
For those prefer working indoors, there are veterinarian careers in nice clean labs. These brainy research vets conduct clinical research on both human and animal health problems. Did you know veterinarians helped solve diseases such as malaria and yellow fever? A research job is perfect for vets who like working more with people than animals.
Veterinarian Salary and Employment Information
Veterinarian employment is expected to increase 35% from 2006 to 2016, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With Americans spending billions on their pets and the advances in veterinary medicine (hip replacements, organ transplants, etc), the job outlook is strong for private vets who care for companion animals.
While employment projections are good in the cities, opportunities are even better in country areas because fewer vets want to work in rural areas. Jobs for large-animal veterinarians (those who care for cows, horses, etc.) may grow slower than jobs for companion vets, but they pay very well.
Based on a BLS report published in May 2006, the median annual income of veterinarians was $71,990. Of that salary survey, the middle 50% had an income between $56,450 and $94,880. The lowest 10% brought home less than $43,530, while the top 10% earners made more than $133,150.
An American Veterinary Medical Association survey puts the average starting salaries of veterinary medical college graduates in 2006 at:
| Large animals, exclusively | $61,029 | Small animals, exclusively | $56,241 | Private clinical practice | $55,031 | Mixed animals | $52,254 | Equine (Horses) | $40,130 |
Salary.com states that the median "expected" salary for a veterinarian is $66,127. It also says that the "typical research veterinarian" earns a median base salary of $90,030. Fifty percent of these vets earn between $76,033 and $104,511.
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