Veterinary Medicine

Hasn't everyone at some time in their life wanted to be a vet? One thing I have learned to appreciate since taking over as pre-health professions advisor is how competitive getting into vet school can be. There are simply too many applicants and not enough seats available. But if this is your dream, it can be a reality. Study hard and get those straight A's. Work with animals. A lot. And generally prove yourself worthy of this calling.

Stuff I learned about vet school at the 2004 NAAHP meeting:

GRE is the standardized test you take, rather than MCAT, the mean score for admissoin is around 1230  (1600 maximum score)

Admission is currently about 75% female.

There is a need for more large animal vets, which typically is the field chosen by men, for some reason.

There is a strong demand for government research/public health-type vets.

Large conglomerate farms are hiring vets as full-time staff.

Note: The application process for Vet school is also different than that for Medical School in the following ways- It is more automated, and the letters of evaluation are sent directly to the VMCAS (application service). Tufts has it's own system and slightly different requirements. Generally a composite letter is not desired by veterinary schools.

Links

Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges - aavmc.org

American Veterinary Medical Association - www.avma.org

Center for Vererinary Medicine (FDA) - www.fda.gov/cvm/default.html

Cornell Veterinary - www.vet.cornell.edu

Tufts Vet School - www.tufts.edu/vet/