Veterinary School in the US In short, we complete primary school, which is kindergarten through the12 class (or grade as we call it in the states). We receive a high school diploma, take two national examines at the end of high school (ACT, SAT) and either apply to college or university or go directly to work or the military. UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE (UNDERGRAD) Depending on your GPA (all the marks you received from the 9 th class to the 12 th class divided by the number of total classes taken in those 4 year) and your scores from the two national exams, you may or may not be accepted into different universities or colleges. Most 2-year colleges have very low requirements if any at all. Universities and 4-year colleges have varying degrees of difficulty and requirements for acceptance. Ivy league schools, for instance, are the best 7 colleges in the states (Harvard, Yale, Tufts, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Stafford and University of California Davis). The requirements and the price per year are the highest in the states ($30.000 and up). The top 20 colleges are determined every year and the list is made available around the states. The other major difference among colleges in the states is private vs. state and/or federally funded schools. The biggest difference here is the price tag. Private colleges are usually $10,000 and up per semester. Where as state and federally funded schools, are less expensive. If you reside in the state of the state and federally funded institute ( instate tuition) you pay even less (usually around $2,000 per semester). To attend a school outside your resident state the price ( out of state tuition ) is 2-3-times the instate price. All that said, the price for an undergraduate degree is any where from $8,000 to over $100,000. Quality of education and the reputation, which is usually a very important factor when applying to graduate programs, also varies among high education institutions. Every year all universities and graduate programs are ranked and published for the general public. VETERINARY SCHOOL ENTRANCE Once we have completed and undergraduate degree, we must again apply to a professional program such as veterinary medicine. These programs are very competitive. There are only 28 veterinary programs recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which means you are eligible to take the
National American Veterinary Licensing Exam (NAVLE). Twenty-five of these programs are in the states, 2 are in Canada, and one is in Australia. All the programs have the same basic requirements and only approximately 80 students are accepted per institute per year. On average, there are well over 50,000 applications for all the vet programs combined. This translates into 2240 applicants out of more than 50,000 being accepted into veterinary school. It is normal not be accepted the first or the second time applying. For example, I applied to vet school 3 times before being accepted. Acceptance is based on the applicants undergraduate GPA, the GRE (a national exam taken by all who wish to enter a graduate program) and interview or supplemental essays requested by each institution. The application process is long and expensive. It costs about $100 per institute just to apply with VMCAS (veterinary medical college application system). Each individual institute may also require an additional $20-50 application fee. Many institutes also require interviews. Therefore, traveling costs are incurred to visit each institute. The entire processes takes about 9-10 months. Vet school tuition is much higher than undergraduate tuition. It runs anywhere from $6,000 per year to $40,000. Options for paying for college and graduate school are cash, student loans from the government that you must not begin repayments until 6 months after graduation (subsidized,non-interest barring and unsubsidized, interest barring), student loans for the bank (these usually carry a higher interest rate and more strict repayment requirements or grants and scholarships which do not have to be repaid. Scholarships for undergrad are somewhat plentiful if you have the GPA to be competitive, however, for vet school they are few and far between. Maybe one scholarship be year is offered and not at every institute. VETERINARY PROGRAMS Every veterinary program is a little different but the basic structure is the same. Three years of lectures and labs with one year of clinics and externships. Cornell is one exception to this. Cornell s program is clinically-based. This means that the students are given a case with signalment, history, clinical and presenting signs from which they must work through, learning all the relevant anatomy, clinical
microbiology, surgical procedures, hematology, etc and then present the case to the entire class. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VET PROGRAM For the first -three years, our entire class of 80 has the same schedule. We had lectures and labs from 7:30 am to 4pm. Lectures for the most part a very interactive. Often the professor will select a student to present that day s lecture to the entire class our bacteriology department especially favored this. Not reading ahead or being unprepared was not an option. At the least we were expected to be able to intelligently discuss the questions we had concerning that day s topic. Some professors preferred not to formally lecture, but instead to use lecture time for answering questions and discussing topics as a group. For some lecture we were in small groups of 2-5 in which we had group projects to present. For example, in epidemiology we were given a case scenario and had to determine the infectious agent and the source while preventing further spread all within a time limit. At the end, we presented our findings as a project to the class with epidemiologic models and all of our calculations Labs were completely interactive. We had basic anatomy, histology, pathology and animal restraint labs our first 2 years. Third year we had advanced radiology lab, which was clinically based. You were expected to report on the radiographic technique, give the diagnosis, relate the diagnosis to the clinical signs, describe the syndrome or disease process, and suggest treatment. Other labs involved farms trips where we would castrate piglets, dehorn cows, trim the feet of sheep, palpate mares and cows, treat mastitis, etc. Our most interact labs are large and small animal junior surgery. In these labs, we are divided into surgery teams of 3 people (an anesthesiologist, a surgeon, and an assistant). Small animal junior surgery consisted of spaying and neutering dogs and cats from area animal shelters and then finding adaptive families for them. Large animal surgery consisted of performing laparotomies on cows from the teaching herd with displaced abomasums or other disorders. Specialized labs were also offered including orthopedics in which we casted and performed different fixation techniques on dummies and bone models.
Forth year is the specialized year. It is called tracking. We separate from the group of 80 set our own schedules and track one of four plans: (1) Large animal Medicine, (2) Small animal medicine, (3) Mixed (both large and small) (4) other (including exotic animal, laboratory animal and zoo animal medicine). Although we are all required to do all rotations in the hospital at least once, you have the option to spend more time in surgery or at a zoo, if that is your specific interest. Fourth year clinical rotations consist usually of about 6 students, one to two clinicians and one to three residents. Every morning is started with rounds, in which each patient is visited and the attended student must present the patients history, presenting signs, diagnosis, test results, and the plan for future treatment. When a client comes into the hospital, the student takes the history, records the clinical signs, performs a physical exam and creates a problem list, a list of differential diagnosis, a plan that is what test, procedures or medication should be performed or given. All this should happen in about 30 minutes for a normal non-emergency case. Emergencies are handled together with the clinician and residents, during which the student is constantly quizzed and questioned as to what should happen next. Daily care, medication, test, procedures, and record keeping is all the responsibility of the student. Days start at about 5 am, rounds are at 8 am and all patients must be attended, weighed, feed, medicated, evaluated and all records must be filled out by 8 am rounds. We use the SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) record keeping method. If we are done by 8 pm, it was a light day. Normally, 10 to 12 pm is the normal end. Students are required to be on-call for all after hour emergencies and must work over night shifts in both the large animal clinic and the small animal critical care unit. Depending on how many other people are on that 2 week rotation, it could be a few as one shift per 2 weeks or a shift every other night. GRADUATING AND WORKING Upon learning how to live without sleep and functioning on a nutritional diet of coffee and pizza, we graduate. We receive the title doctor with graduation from veterinary school. This is a DVM, a clinical doctorate. The equivalent does not exist in Germany. The PhD doctor title is a 5-year research or philosophical title that is more similar to a German doctor title. In order to work after graduation, you must first decide which state you in which you want to work. You must pass a state board exam at the beginning of the fourth year to be eligible to take the national board
exam. You must graduate in good standing, pass the state board exam and the national board exam to be eligible to practice medicine. What exactly are the state and national board exams? The national board exam is a standardized test that examines one s knowledge of basic veterinary medicine of cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats, fish, lizards, rabbits, etc. The state board exam varies from state to state. New York you are required to take an oral exam, Wisconsin you take a written exam over the state laws and regulations relating to veterinary medicine.
Kindergarten (age 5) Grade school classes1-6 (age 6-11) Junior high classes 7-8 (age 12-13) High School classes 10-12 (age 14-18) *at the age of 16 one can choose to drop out of school but receive no diploma Work or military Community /Vocational or Junior college University/4-year College These are 2-year colleges where one can learn a trade or a job or improve their marks to qualify for 4-year university Diploma = associates degree Examples are veterinary technician or lab assistant Are either individual liberal arts or science colleges or a University implies a collection of colleges within one institute with one or more graduate programs of PhD, MS and MD/DVM. As an undergraduate diploma = Bachelor s Degree, Work University PhD, M.S., DVM or MD Graduate school: law school, med school, vet school PhD and MS programs in any subject as a graduate diploma = M.S or PhD or Dr.