Veterinary Introduction profession

A doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM or VMD) degree can be a passport into a wonderful array of professional opportunities in the medical sciences.  Veterinarians are able to work with a large variety of species in a diverse array of jobs ranging from clinical practice to research to wildlife conservation to academia to government and regulatory medicine, to name just a few.   That said, veterinary medicine is not for everyone who is interested in working with animals.  It is the aim of this guide to prompt you to consider the major issues and consider if a veterinary medical education is right for you, and to help you be a successful applicant if you chose to apply.
What follows is not meant to be an all-inclusive guide; rather, it is a starting point for further exploration and planning your undergraduate education and extra-curricular experiences in preparation for admission to American veterinary schools.  

The profession

 Veterinary medicine is a broad discipline, and its practitioners work in a wide array of clinical and corporate fields. 
Veterinarians in clinical practice provide medical care to a large range of animals in a variety of settings to diagnose animal health problems, create preventative medicine programs, manage the treatment of a variety of diseases, perform surgery, and advise owners about the care of their animals.  According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA, www.avma.org), approximately 80% of licensed veterinarians in this country work in private clinical practice.   Of those, around 77% treat pets (cats, dogs, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds), approximately 16% work in food animal practice, and about 6% treat horses exclusively. 
Clinical veterinarians can also work in the arenas of lab animal medicine, zoo, aquarium, and wildlife medicine.  A growing and much-needed sector of veterinary medicine exists within the field of public health.  Veterinarians working in this capacity may work
in a research capacity to better understand important infectious and zoonotic diseases.  They may also work “in the field” as inspectors and consultants to help control and prevent diseases on the farm and in other settings.  Additionally, veterinarians work as educators, teaching undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students .

The job outlook for veterinarians in all areas of practice continues to be good despite the decline in the general economy in recent years.  In private practice and research, the demand for high-quality medicine for all animals has led to an increase in demand
for veterinary services and research to develop new drugs, products and techniques.  Additionally, the recognition of the interrelationship between human, animal and environmental health (“One Health”) has expanded roles for veterinarians in the areas of
conservation, public health and regulatory medicine.  The importance of veterinarians in the production of a safe and humane food supply underlines a strong need for more veterinarians working in food animal medicine.  The need for safe and effective feeds, drugs and equipment for humans and animals also underlines the need for veterinarians working within regulatory agencies.  Despite the demand for veterinarians in all of these fields, the number of veterinarians graduating from veterinary school in the US each year has not changed significantly over the last couple of decades.  There are currently 28 colleges of veterinary medicine in the US, 3 in Canada and 2 in the Caribbean which, according to the AVMA, graduate about 2600 veterinarians each year.   The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked veterinary medicine 18th on its list of the 30 fastest-growing occupations from  2008 through 2018. It is estimated that jobs for veterinarians will increase by 33 percent in the next several years

Regardless of the species or the setting, veterinarians work with people and animals, and should enjoy doing both.  Veterinarians are often confronted with health issues that are further influenced by the needs of animal owners, society and government.  Furthermore, while a veterinarian may one day chose to specialize in the care of one or a few species of animals, the training requires knowledge of many species and settings of animals.

Does it sound like a career in veterinary medicine is right for you?  Do you want to know more?  Talk to veterinarians who practice in the areas that interest you.  Ask them about their pre-veterinary experiences, what school they attended, what experiences they had during school and after that have helped them, and what advice they have for those trying to enter the profession.  Everyone will have a different point of view and different advice to give, so talk to many veterinarians (they’ll be a great network for you once you have graduated and need a job).

Veterinary Universities, Colleges:

Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology
Newberry College
Augustana College
Iowa State University
Louisiana State University
Schoolcraft College
Amarillo College
Hope Medical Institute
Washington State University
Springfield College in Illinois
Butler County Community College
Muskegon Community College
Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville