I'm sure a lot of people do get into it without really understanding the profession, but honestly... vets have a very high suicide rate. A female vet is 7x more likely to commit suicide than a member of the general population. There is a lot of burnout within the profession, and I think that's very difficult to understand until you get further in. That's probably why so many vets are telling you to go into something else. I mean, you could go into engineering, finish your degree 2-4 years earlier, and get a better starting salary with better hours. Burnout is definitely an issue and something that you have to think about, but if you're proactive in managing it, you should (hopefully) be ok. WCVM is starting to address some of these issues now - in third year, one of the elective choices is Mindfulness and taking that elective was definitely one of the best choices I could have made at the time. Third year was seriously burning me out and making me hate school in general and that elective did a lot of good for my mental and emotional health. I do think that if you know this is what you want to do, and you wouldn't be happy in another career, then absolutely go for it, but do keep in mind that obviously a lot of the vets you've already met possibly have some depression and/or burnout and that you're not immune to that, either, and that it's important to pay attention to your mental health and make sure you're happy.
