Veterinary Medicine
What is it?
Veterinarians are equivalent to Medical Doctors who take care of health of animals. Most vets work in private animal clinics and spend their time taking care of the health of animals. Some also work at Zoos or big farms. Most vets study a four year general veterinary medicine degree (usually after a four year college BSc degree) in North America. This degree allows them to be generalists in most diseases with three or four main animals including cats, dogs, horses and cows. After the four years there is opportunity for specialization in different areas of veterinary medicine including ophthalmology (disease of the eye) or emergency care.
Admission and Academic Programs
Admission to Vet schools is challenging and somewhat difficult and competitive. One reason is that there are only 28 Vet schools in the US and three in Canada. This is in comparison to at least 158 medical schools in the US and 17 in Canada.
All North American Vet colleges offer the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM). This is a graduate degree where although not a necessity, most applicants have earned at BSc degree in a field of science at the time of acceptance. Admission is highly competitive and is based on both the GPA and the GRE (Graduate Records Examination) for about 50-60% of the final admission score. Another 25% weight is given to an applicant’s maturity, extracurricular activities specially experience with animals. Most programs also require an interview which counts for about 20% of the final admission.
The Good
For those animal lovers, this may be a highly rewarding profession.
The Bad
This is one of the most stressful health professions. A recent study has suggested that Vets have the highest rate of suicides among all health professionals.
Long hours and relatively low pay. Vets who don’t own their practice and receive salaries only make around $75-85000/year in the US.
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