If you, one of your friends, one of your children, or one of your students, want to be a veterinarian, this book will help. It describes a rewarding career that requires careful planning, dedicated preparation, and hard work. Becoming a veterinarian is a challenging goal. Careers requiring less education are available as veterinary assistants, veterinary technicians, or veterinary technologists.

Many people think that all veterinarians do is neuter cats and dogs and treat sick or injured pets. Beyond that, few individuals have knowledge of the career opportunities, lifestyles, and earning capacities of veterinarians.

“So You Want to Be a Veterinarian” offers suggestions for aspiring doctors of veterinary medicine and those who support them. It addresses common perceptions about veterinary medicine and offers strategies for pursuing the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree. This book describes the veterinary medical profession and the many career choices open to recipients of veterinary degrees.


The Veterinary Profession

There are over 85,000 veterinarians in the United States. This compares with over 500,000 physicians and millions of other people working in the human health professions. Veterinary medicine is a unique career. While inspired by the love of animals, it expands into a vast array of interests, occupational opportunities, and professional challenges.


Colleges of Veterinary Medicine

There are 28 accredited U.S. colleges of veterinary medicine which award the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM) or Veterinary Medical Doctor (VMD) degree. They are carefully monitored by the Council on Education (COE) of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which accredits colleges based on acceptable facilities, faculties, and curriculums. The COE conducts periodic site visits and reviews self-study reports prepared by each college.

Most states require a degree from an accredited college of veterinary medicine to qualify for a license to practice within their boundaries. Licenses are usually awarded after applicants pass required state or national board examinations. There are nonaccredited veterinary colleges in the Caribbean, the West Indies, and elsewhere whose graduates can qualify to practice in some states after passing a designated examination for foreign veterinary graduates. After passing it, most states still require national or state board examinations for licensure.


Strategies for Potential Applicants

Once you decide you want to be a veterinarian, it is time to begin plotting a course of action to increase your odds of admission to a veterinary college. If started early enough, this plan will launch a new lifestyle that will raise your grades, improve your academic standing, elevate your standard test scores, assure acceptance into a variety of colleges, and make you a competitive applicant for colleges of veterinary medicine.


Preparing for Application

Because of the competitiveness of admissions to veterinary colleges and the degree of excellence required of applicants, preparation should begin in grade school, expand into middle school, blossom in high school, and continue into the first four years of college. Some individuals who choose the profession later than this succeed, but the sooner you start preparing, the better your chances will be.


The Application Procedure

The procedures and prerequisites for application vary slightly among the 28 US veterinary colleges and the multiple foreign schools to which aspiring Americans apply. They all require credible scores on standardized tests and from two to four years of pre-veterinary college-level training involving basic sciences and general education courses.


Veterinary College Curriculums

Most North American veterinary colleges have intense four-year curriculums. These curriculums vary from school to school depending on their geographic location, the faculty specialists available, the number and kinds of animals in the area, the species of animals the college emphasizes, and their research focuses.


Veterinary Careers

There are multiple occupations for veterinary graduates. These include private, corporate, and public practice, and species- and discipline-oriented specialties. Fifteen years after graduation, almost half of veterinarians are involved in areas that differ from their expressed focus as students.


Animal Health Organizations

Potential applicants to colleges of veterinary medicine will be interested in the vast array of veterinary and animal health organizations in which members of the profession participate to keep current in their chosen practice areas.


Animal Health Challenges

The fields of animal health and animal-related human health—like most other occupations—are undergoing changes that produce both opportunities and challenges. Before undertaking veterinary medicine, it is advisable to learn about the profession’s dynamics. It will require flexibility and study to remain current and to adapt to changing technology, emerging diseases, and the continual need for the new skills that are required for success.


This Book

“So You Want to Be a Veterinarian” describes the veterinary profession and the varied opportunities it offers. It details many unheralded—but extremely rewarding—non-practice veterinary careers that are available and the contributions veterinarians make to society.

“So You Want to Be a Veterinarian” encourages and supports potential applicants to veterinary colleges and offers suggestions for their mentors. It has chapters on the veterinary profession, veterinary education, veterinary careers, veterinary specialties, and veterinary organizations. The book urges aspiring applicants to address the challenges of admission to veterinary colleges and suggests that aspiring veterinarians undertake academic and extracurricular activities as early as possible. These endeavors will help you develop attitudes, habits, and practices that will serve for a lifetime and expedite the achievement of many kinds of career goals.