Question About Vet School

We at VBB received an interesting letter this last week, asking for opinions on vet school.  We thought it would be most informative to take the questions to our colleagues and get some honest answers.  What you will read in the answers section are responses from real vets, out in practice, out in the "real world", uncut and uncensored.

Hi Vets Behaving Badly!

I absolutely love your blog, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry but all in all it makes me dream of one day walking in your shoes :D

Which leads to my questions: 

1. What did you think of veterinary school? Which one did you go to?

2. Was it worth it? 

3. Would you do it again? The same or differently?

And the best question of all:

4. Would you recommend it?

I am changing careers and have found my passion for animals. So in my hindsight of life, I see where I went wrong and warn people of some nasty pitfalls. 

I am hoping you can do the same for me. Thank you very much.

Responses to these questions:

1. Loved it. Penn. 

2. Yes, would not trade this knowledge for anything. 

3. Yes! Totally would do it again. I love knowing what I know, and building on my knowledge base. 

4. Would recommend the experience to anyone who loves learning about animals & medicine, but would warn them that my recommendation in no way should suggest that the VMD/DVM confers the ability to earn a living wage. That said, I suspect any such degree holder interested in working outside of companion animal practice or even in a nontraditional job (pharm, public health, teaching) can do fine.  I suspect other VBB have very different answers.

Vet school sucked on a daily basis till fourth year. I no longer use the Krebs cycle and not being able to draw the clotting cascade anymore has not impacted my career. Fourth year was fun but long days because of the amount of scut work. It was not worth the debt load that I have, and if I had to do it over again, I would look more closely at PA programs and other human health care fields. Sadly PAs make as much money as vets with half the grad school debt. That said, I love what I do and am at a good place in my career now.

Would I do it again? Yes.   Would I make better decision about how I did it?  Hells yea! The debt load is ridiculous, so you have to really love what you do so tht you are okay living very tightly budgeted for a long time. Also, make sure where you eventually want to live will actually need the kind of vet you want to be when you expect to graduate, the field is completely over-saturated in some areas and finding a good job is going to be hard. I would do this no matter what becasue this is all I have ever wanted, but I am currently trying to encourage my niece to look into other avenues.

What did I think about veterinary school? There wasn't a lot of joy to classes 8 hours a day. It was the necessary thing to get to being a vet. I didn't spend much time thinking about it at all. That said, I wouldn't do it again. I would have been just as happy as a farmer and what I spent on vet school would have allowed me to start out with very littel debt and a nice little farm. I'd still be broke, I'd still be working for myself, I'd still work with animals and I wouldn't have to deal with the public.

Vet school sucked til third year. it was like high school in that you saw the same 100 people all day, ever day-except now 95% of those people are type A women in their early/mid 20's and the added fun of booze being legal really fueled the gossip cycle. Getting into the clinical rotations was more fun, but made for much less sleep and absolute exhaustion-you know you're running your ass off when all you eat every day is a pint of Ben and jerrys once you get home, and you LOSE 10# in 3 weeks.

Was it worth it? I don't know. Today, I'm having a bad day, and I'm going to say no. Some days, I might answer yes. Would I do it again? Nope. I'd stick with public health unless I could get someone else to foot a hefty chunk of the tuition bill for me.

Year one, too many PhDs teaching who'd never examined a patient in their lives, too few DVMs. Years two and three, better, had some great DVM profs; year four, fine, should have had two clinical years instead of one, we wasted way too much time on useless stuff in year one. Way too much gossip and BS from fellow students, several people who should have washed out didn't.   No.

1) A. It was the hardest thing I've done in my life. And like anything, it was what you made it. I had a wonderful time. I most certainly do not miss the workload, and the pressure. But I do miss the people terribly. 

 1) B - LSU
2) For me, it was. It has certainly not been as financially rewarding as I thought. And I do feel that the majority of my colleagues are jerkwads. But I have found enough nuggets amongst my colleagues to make it worthwhile.
3) If I could relive my experience, I'd do it again, warts and all. I would learn a lot more about money a lot earlier. But if I had to do it today, at today's costs, no.
4) Again, with today's costs vs. income, I'd run away. I'd go into exercise equipment or welding or financial planning.

Loved vet school. It was like boot camp, a living hell, pressure/pressure/pressure. I thrived on it and on the camaraderie. I went to UGA and graduated in '85.

I loved vet school. Wish I could have stayed in academia. Looking back though I think I would have chosen another profession.

With the debt I accrued, would I do it again? No. But what else would I do? Since I can't answer that, then yes, I would do it again.

I think I would be way, way smarter with money.

I could've worked in vet school. It would have SUCKED, but I could have done it.

It did suck. I did it. I remember one night of driving home at the end of a shift at the ER (an hour from school) after working all weekend and hallucinating that the white lines on the highway were rabbits jumping at me. And I remember more than once barely making it through an 8AM exam after an overnight shift. But I was young and it didn't occur to me that what I was asking of myself was superhuman.

Year 1&2 sucked and pretty much completely changed me. I did well and love my classmates, but fuck I don't like gossip so I became a loner. Natural extrovert going in, forced to become introvert.

I change my mind daily on if I would do it again. Money wise, hell no. Not sure what I would do instead.

I'd probably do it again if I had to live life over again. Though if I was 22 and considering applying today I'd think twice now because of the money. I can't see how you can escape the crushing debt unless you put your life on hold to pay off the debt, live like a pauper as a degreed professional, or somehow have family money or win the lottery. It's not like you can work and even make a dent in the debt while in school these days.

If it was 1985, yes, I would do it again. Today? If I was bound and determined, I'd join the Army and let Uncle Sam pay for it. VS was a necessary evil. I hated the back-biting (and some of it came from the Interns and Residents). Friday night kegs kept me sane (and I usually wasn't even drinking {much}). UGA rarely gets $$$ from me, but I cover at least 1 keg at Alpha Psi each year.

I had a love/hate relationship with vet school.   I loved parts of it and hated parts of it.  There were a lot of very condescending residents and PhDs who were awful to deal with, and I realized as a fourth year student you aren't really there to learn, you are there to provide support to the DVMs on staff.  I didn't *really* learn to be a vet until I got out into private practice.   But, overall, I enjoyed vet school, despite the stress and pressures of it all.  Would I trade it?   There was never anything else I wanted to do, but now that I know what I know, I'd never go.  The profession is in decline, salaries are dropping and costs are going up, so earning a living as a vet is going to get harder and harder.  I'm just thankful I'm on this side of the fence and not just starting out.   Oh yea - LSU, 2003.