JUNIOR HIGH AND HIGH SCHOOL
Junior High is the time when sciences seem to overtake other subjects on your roster. This is just fine. Take what is offered and you'll find this knowledge becomes the cornerstone of your senior high school science curriculum. High school science courses-biology, mathematics, chemistry, and physics-are musts. Although you may think they are difficult, they are merely a lighthearted introduction to the rigorous science program college pre-vets must face.
Although this chapter is mainly about the necessary academics, there are some other important preparatory steps for a veterinary career. Caring for neighbors' pets, attending local and state animal fairs and school science fairs, joining the local 4-H Club or Future Farmers (see Chapter 4 for more on this) and visiting a veterinary school open house if you live near one of the schools of veterinary medicine, will all help you in your chosen career. In addition to giving you a taste of your future work, activities such as these will be looked on favorably by the colleges to which you apply.
CHOOSING A COLLEGE
You should take ample time to choose a college that will prepare you for veterinary school. It may be helpful to consider the possibility of attending a college with a veterinary school. Also, some colleges have pre-veterinary programs-usually the colleges with veterinary schools. Your high school counselor will know which ones these are. You will have access to the veterinary school faculty (they sometimes teach undergraduate science courses) and to animal care clubs. The science courses you take as an undergraduate will very likely reflect the philosophy of the veterinary school. But if you cannot attend a college or university with a veterinary school, your chances of entering veterinary school will be diminished little if at all. Your grades, your college's academic standards, and that important consideration, your personality and affinity for the field, will ultimately decide the issue.
Colleges offer you a great opportunity to turn aspirations into accomplishments. In short, study hard. Top grades do count because of the tremendous pressure to get into veterinary school. Extracurricular activities begun in your high school years should be continued and expanded; pre-veterinary club work, SPCA work (paid or volunteer), summer work on a farm or in a veterinary hospital will help increase your chances of admission to veterinary school.
COLLEGE CURRICULUM
Besides a well-rounded program in communications skills and social sciences, pre-veterinary students should spend a large segment of undergraduate time in the sciences. Zoology, botany, physical chemistry, and physiology coupled with extensive lab periods will provide a concentrated undergraduate experience in the sciences.
Pre-veterinary students generally complete their undergraduate studies and receive their Bachelor of Science Degrees before entering veterinary school for another four-year program. But there are variations on this pattern that you might want to consider. Some colleges connected with veterinary schools offer a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pre-Veterinary Medicine that is awarded after three years of undergraduate work and completion of the first year of veterinary school. For some students this degree may be sufficient for animal care careers that do not need the credentials of the full-fledged DVM.
It is very important to get some type of experience with your local veterinarian. Some schools of veterinary medicine will not accept you if you have not had hands-on experience. Try to get a summer job in a veterinarian's office. Even if she or he will not pay you, you will have the experience that many veterinary schools demand. It will also acquaint you with the realities of the field-including cleaning cages!
CHOOSING A VETERINARY SCHOOL
The number of schools offering veterinary medicine has increased over the years to a more equitable 27 (with 3 in Canada). Fifty percent of qualified applicants are now accepted into veterinary colleges. This is an impressive figure-but "qualified" means superior. Therefore, although the acceptance figures are encouraging, the grade point averages and aptitude for the field must be outstanding.
Geographical limitations can pose problems that you should investigate. Many states have no veterinary schools. Under a contract system, veterinary school applicants in these states apply to schools in neighboring states. Seldom is a resident of a state accepted by a veterinary school that has no admissions contract with that state. Because veterinary schools must accept qualified students from their own states and honor contracts with adjoining states, the whole acceptance procedure can be as complex as a chess game. However, there has been an easing of restrictions in this area. Be aware of any restriction that may apply to the state in which you live, or the veterinary school you wish to enter.
Although the fact remains that you must generally choose the veterinary school in your state (or a state nearby that considers yours a contract state), there are some exceptions. If you are an Easterner and want to go to a college out of your "territory," you may be able to get into your first choice school if: (1), you are highly qualified (with not only good grades but also with an all-around personality that fits the pattern of the ideal veterinarian); and (2), the college or university has room for you-that is, if they have not been able to fill their freshman class with qualified in-state and contract state applicants. If, for instance, Iowa State University has filled its freshman class with eligible Iowans and those from Iowa's contract states, there would be no room for you. Often, your choices depend on the year for which you are applying. Some years are better than others for different veterinary schools.
Keep in mind, though, that if you choose a state college (and 24 of the 27 veterinary schools are state colleges or universities), your tuition will be almost triple what you would pay at your own state college or the one serving you if you live in a contract state. This often stops the most ardent wanderer! Another word to Easterners: forget about applying to the four Western university veterinary colleges: University of California, Colorado State University, Oregon State University, and Washington State University. The reason is, these four colleges must accommodate veterinary students for the entire western part of the United States.
COST OF VETERINARY SCHOOL
Specific questions concerning pre-veterinary requirements, the cost of education, and availability of financial aid should be directed to the college or colleges of your choice. And if you wish a compilation of admissions requirements for all of the veterinary colleges, write to:
Betz Publishing Company, Inc. P.O. Box 34631 Bethesda, MD 20817 Phone (301) 340-0030.
They will send you a booklet entitled Veterinary Medical School Admission Requirements. Please contact the publishing company for the current price.
Veterinary school tuitions continue to be high. They have increased more rapidly than the costs of other products and services. On the other hand, scholarship aid in the last ten years has held its own. Government loans are available as well as other loan and grant money. Ask your high school (or more likely) college counselor to guide you to these financial aids.
The following figures represent some tuitions and fees of America's 27 colleges of veterinary medicine. Remember, these figures do not include room, board, textbooks, or laboratory equipment. The University of Pennsylvania tops tuition and fee requirements at $19,625 per year. Lowest on the tuition ladder is North Carolina State University at $2,142. The average for 1991 to 1992 for all veterinary schools is $6,006. Unfortunately, the colleges with lower tuitions may be far from where you live. You may be facing a high-tuition university simply because it is the only one that will accept you, geographically.
It doesn't take a math whiz to see that the return on your investment will be a long time in coming. A new DVM, with thousands of dollars in educational debts, who takes an entry-level job in the field, will be paying back loans for quite a few years. If you're beginning in private practice, the amount of your school debt could be at least doubled by your start-up costs.
It would help, of course, if you could meet undergraduate payments and start your career free of debt. But as Dr. Donald Abt mentions, you do not go into veterinary medicine for the money. It is a profession that attracts a specific kind of person for a most unusual field. That is not to say that ultimately it cannot prove financially rewarding.
Dr. Robert Marshak, former Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, defends the high costs. Medical school clinics, he explains, enjoy revenues from patients and reimbursement from health insurers. Veterinary medicine has no such remuneration. Dr. Marshak further explains that veterinary medicine is more complex and thus more costly. This is because it deals with different species. Human medicine does not confront animals who differ in the number of stomachs they may have (the cow, for instance, has four stomach-like compartments). Such variations require different kinds of equipment, a greater diagnostic ability and even different kinds of hospitals.
YOUR VETERINARY SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
Assuming you're accepted and confident that you can make it financially, what is in store for you in your four years? For most veterinary students, graduate school is an exhausting, exhilarating time that can only be eclipsed by work in the actual field itself. It is not for the student who has difficulty with academic work. Veterinary school is extremely difficult and should not be considered unless you are a high-achieving student (other animal fields are less demanding academically).
The first two years are mostly spent in class as the veterinary student comes to grips with the basic medical sciences. Anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, and pharmacology are among the scientific mainstays. Students learn the normal characteristics of the many types of animals as applied to these disciplines and then study the changes that come from disease and injury. This introductory period could aptly be called "Noah's Ark in Sickness and in Health." (For summer experience, get in touch with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They regularly hire veterinary students during the summer months.)
The final two years offer hands-on experience. Animal clinic work, laboratory periods, and classes in life-work areas such as veterinary law and public health services prepare the veterinary student for the real world of animal medicine. Although they prepare you to be a veterinarian, vet schools also ready you for animal-related careers in industry, government, the military, and zoos. In the next chapter, you will read about these options that have only recently become a part of the core curriculum.
The typical day of a fourth-year student may go like this: clinical work in a college-affiliated veterinary hospital starts the round of activities; beginning as early as 7:30 a.m. Life can be frantic in this post-dawn period as cases are admitted, histories are taken, and blood work is prepared. Later on, things may quiet down, but surgery often highlights the afternoon agenda. Evenings may be free (for study, of course), but the student who started at 7:30 a.m. may have night duty as well.
Not all days are equally hectic. Class work and library research-many students take dogs under their care into the library!-provide the student with more contemplative work. Both the excitement and the scholarly calm add up to a veterinarian in the making. When the four years are over, the hard-working veterinary student becomes a qualified (and equally hard-working) Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.
Those who plan to go into private practice must pass a very difficult examination-something the renowned veterinarian, James Herriot, did not have to consider in his day. But then today's veterinarian has tools and expertise that Herriot as a youth never dreamed of.
