Internships/Residencies?

Internships and residencies are not required unless you want to specialize in a certain area (surgery, cardiology, etc).

You technically can open your own practice immediately after graduation, but the advice that I've heard is to work under a more experienced vet for a few years first. The first couple years after graduation are supposed to be the toughest, and I'm not sure you'll really want to deal with the stress of running a practice while also learning how to translate 4 years of education into actual practice.

Internships are generally one year in length and residencies are 3 years (if I recall correctly) and internships have to be completed before you can apply for a residency.

I hope that was helpful!

Tco87 said:

Internships and residencies are not required unless you want to specialize in a certain area (surgery, cardiology, etc).

You technically can open your own practice immediately after graduation, but the advice that I've heard is to work under a more experienced vet for a few years first. The first couple years after graduation are supposed to be the toughest, and I'm not sure you'll really want to deal with the stress of running a practice while also learning how to translate 4 years of education into actual practice.

Internships are generally one year in length and residencies are 3 years (if I recall correctly) and internships have to be completed before you can apply for a residency.

I hope that was helpful!

Click to expand...

Correct Residencies may be anywhere from 2 to 4 years depending on where you go and what you are specializing in.

Most graduates go work for another practice for the first few years out of vet school to sort of get a mentor relationship until they feel confident on their own. Then they either go to another practice, or may open their own. Very few graduates stay in the same practice they joined when they first graduated

Also, not all residencies require formal internships...some accept clinical practice / experience in place of formal internships

sumstorm said:

Also, not all residencies require formal internships...some accept clinical practice / experience in place of formal internships

Click to expand...

That's good to know. Thank you!

Its pretty dependent on the residency however. Like, I know some Therio residencies will allow you to go right in. But a surgery residency will certainly NOT accept you without a rotating internship and possibly even a surgical internship.

Yep, hence words like 'not all' and 'some'...and some of those will require 2x the practical experience with explicit documentation indicating coverage of particular experience etc. And some use match and some don't.

It is also very common for vets to apply multiple times for certain residencies. For example, if you want to go into any kind of surgery you should be prepared to apply for a residency at least a few times. Some vets at the teaching hospital where I work applied 4 or 5 times for surgery positions because its so competitive. They were excellent candidates but there is a lot of interest in their field as far as board certification.

Overall though, it seems like most people get matched fairly quickly with one of their top two choices for residency locations. This was a great thread that isn't discussed a lot but probably should be. Thanks, Doggiepoo!!

What do people do when they are turned down for a residency? Do they go into general practice while they wait to apply again next year or what?

Yes, that would be a common scenario. Alternatively, they may go "outside the match" and take an unmatched position somewhere else. For example - a person who is completing a rotating internship applies for several oncology residency positions through the match. S/he doesn't match. Another institution may have an oncology internship that they failed to match a candidate for. They may offer the position to the unmatched doctor, who may accept it hoping to strengthen his/her residency application for the following year.

when applying for an internship, how much does it matter the school you graduated from? if you had the same gpa as another applicant and all other factors were the same except for the fact that he went to a higher ranked school, would he get chosen?

This thread goes into something that I've been wondering about (might be a stupid question)..why are residencies so competitive?? Are obtaining residencies in other medical professions as nearly competitive? It just seems like the problem is the lack of veterinary (and other medical) specialists.

With matching interns, it is a "big picture" scenario. School ranks matter very little if at all. The only way I could see it possibly coming into play would be differentiating between an AVMA accredited school and a non-accredited school. But even then, they're essentially choosing a co-worker for the next year or three. If it's a clinical position, your clinical skills are what will influence their decision, along with other factors such as team fit and whether their program is your first choice. If where you went to school comes into play at all, it would probably be from someone preferring applicants from their alma mater. US News rankings are pretty much meaningless.

zuneski said:

This thread goes into something that I've been wondering about (might be a stupid question)..why are residencies so competitive?? Are obtaining residencies in other medical professions as nearly competitive? It just seems like the problem is the lack of veterinary (and other medical) specialists.

Click to expand...

Lots of factors here--the basics come down to simple economics--supply and demand. There are relatively few residencies out there for those who want them, and so they are very competitive.

Why are there so few? It costs money to have the facilities and certified people that are required in order to meet the requirements to offer a residency program. Academic residencies are decreasing in number and/or selling residency slots to veterinary corporations (such as VCA) because of massive budget cuts.

Why do so many people want residencies? Well, personally I think the profession attracts a lot of the best and the brightest who are likely to become passionate about a particular area and have a sincere desire to know as much as humanly possible about that area. With medical advances, there's so much more to know--so it's very stimulating. Even as a resident/specialist, you never feel like you know ALL there is to know about one thing! Financially, more people are turning to specialty certification because it's perceived as one of the few relatively-reliable ways to even think about paying off student loan debt.

As a case study: My particular desire to specialize isn't financially-based. I am extremely passionate about my chosen field and find it incredibly mentally and emotionally stimulating and rewarding. Plus, I'm the type of personality who would like to do one thing really, really well and feel very competent/excel in one area rather than do a bit of everything. However, I do get bored fairly easily, which is readily solved by the fact that my chosen field is very dynamic and requires lots of medicine and lots of surgery--so it would be perfect for me all the way around. Some people prefer variety and seeing fewer absolute numbers of a higher number of different types of cases. For me, there are certain types of stuff (like dentistry) that, although very important, I just find incredibly unfulfilling. I could go my entire life after vet school without doing a dental and be totally happy--but others love their dental days! To each his own!

But again, supply and demand is what competition comes down to. Just my $0.02. Enough rambling!

lol well now you got me wondering. what field do you want to do?

zuneski said:

This thread goes into something that I've been wondering about (might be a stupid question)..why are residencies so competitive?? Are obtaining residencies in other medical professions as nearly competitive?

Click to expand...

Alliecat pretty much cited all the factors. One other thing to understand is the MD residencies in the US are funded by medicare. Teaching hospitals get a specific amount of money from medicare for each residency position they have. So there are enough programs that essentially everyone that wants a residency can get one -- in fact they have to fill a lot of the slots with foreign graduates. Certain specialties are much more sought after than others so those can be very competitive -- derm's a good example -- but overall there are enough slots for all graduates.

There's nothing like the medicare program that for vet. med. And training residents is very expensive. So there just aren't enough slots for the number of people who want a residency.