VETERINARY MEDICINE

An abiding interest in animals is the most obvious requirement for someone aspiring to be a veterinarian. There are 92,500 active veterinarians in the United States; the majority of them find employment in the private sector, as an owner of a solo practice or as an associate in a group practice. There are veterinary talent shortages in the areas of food safety, in governmental work, and for non-practice (academic and research), certified specialist, and rural practitioner veterinarians. Employment at zoos, breeding farms, racetracks, humane societies and animal welfare organizations is also possible. Veterinary schools are looking for a more diverse applicant pool than they have in the past.

There are twenty-eight veterinary schools in the United States; they enroll a total of 11,600 students each year. All of the schools have a preference for accepting applicants who are residents of the state in which the school is located. Most schools have contracted with states (usually without a veterinary school of their own) to accept a limited number of students from the contracting state and all accept a limited number of non-resident, non-contract "at-large" students; there are approximately 450 such "at-large" positions in veterinary schools in the United States at the present time. Competition for admission to veterinary school varies tremendously from school to school; some routinely receive a number of applications equal to ten to twenty times the number of positions in their entering class; others have fewer than five applicants for each first year position.  A total of 2,900 students gain admission to veterinary school each year from a pool of about 6,300 applicants.  Female students make up 80% of the students enrolled in veterinary school; in 2010, women became the majority of practitioners. Minority enrollment has increased steadily in the last several years and stood at 10% of the total enrollment in 2011. Over 90% of the graduates from veterinary schools in 2011 received job offers or had procured opportunities for continuing education before graduation; 87% of veterinary school graduates in 2010 had educational debt; median indebtedness was around $ 150,000 at the time of graduation.  The average gross income for new graduates was $ 46,900 per year in 2011.  Average income for all veterinarians is $ 98,000 per year; 65-70% of veterinarians’ earnings in 2011 came from treating pets; spending on pet care rose to $ 11.1 billion in 2001, from $ 6.9 billion in 1991 and the market may bear higher veterinary fees than what it currently does.  Mean annual expenditure on veterinary care by dog-owning households exceeded $ 350 in 2007; for households with cats, expenditures exceeded $ 190.

Additional information can be obtained from the American Veterinary Medical Association,  http://www.avma.org.  The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, http://aavmc.org is another excellent resource.  Anyone who is seriously considering applying to veterinary school should obtain a copy of the book “Veterinary Medical School Admission Requirements in the United States and Canada”, which is available from Purdue University Press http://www.thepress.purdue.edu, phone 800-247-6553.  This book is the official American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges handbook and it is updated each year, with the new edition available in August; total cost is around $ 20.  General information about careers in veterinary medicine is also available at http://www.explorehealthcareers.org.