Did you ever struggle to decide between pre-med and pre-vet?

[sharksarefriends33]

I am a current sophomore in college on the pre-vet path, but since before even high school, I have often gone back and forth between pre-med and pre-vet. I think I would be happy doing both and have made many pros and cons lists, and I will choose for extended period of times one or the other, but then I will switch between the other again, even doing work and shadowing for both paths. Did you have any clarifying factor or feeling for you to help make you decide?

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[frosty42]

I definitely struggled with this! I felt like I’d be happy doing both and actually felt like my passion was more in vet med (been around horses my entire life and wanted to be an equine vet).

I chose human medicine bc I decided that I wanted to keep animals as my hobby and not as my job. I want to have pets and spend time at the barn as my happy place, not my workplace. You can be a physician who owns pets, but you can’t really be a vet who dabbles in human medicine!

Honestly, every vet I spoke to told me that if there was any chance I’d be happy in human medicine, I should do that instead. The burn out and the debt to income ratio of vet med just didn’t seem worth it to me.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but vets do not get paid enough for the debt they go into. I feel much more comfortable taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans knowing I’ll be an MD than I would as a DVM. It sucks, but that was a huge factor for me and the vets I spoke to confirmed it.

Feel free to DM me if you wanna talk about this! I went back and forth on this decision throughout college so I feel your pain.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Honestly the reimbursement for vet doesn't seem worth it to me, even if I had a huge passion for it. Weirdly, I also have far more empathy and sympathy for animals then for non-peds patients, so I doubt I could handle what vets go through.

 

[sharksarefriends33]

I definitely struggled with this! I felt like I’d be happy doing both and actually felt like my passion was more in vet med (been around horses my entire life and wanted to be an equine vet).

I chose human medicine bc I decided that I wanted to keep animals as my hobby and not as my job. I want to have pets and spend time at the barn as my happy place, not my workplace. You can be a physician who owns pets, but you can’t really be a vet who dabbles in human medicine!

Honestly, every vet I spoke to told me that if there was any chance I’d be happy in human medicine, I should do that instead. The burn out and the debt to income ratio of vet med just didn’t seem worth it to me.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but vets do not get paid enough for the debt they go into. I feel much more comfortable taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans knowing I’ll be an MD than I would as a DVM. It sucks, but that was a huge factor for me and the vets I spoke to confirmed it.

Feel free to DM me if you wanna talk about this! I went back and forth on this decision throughout college so I feel your pain.

Thank you so much! This was definitely a very helpful response, and I will be sure to reach out if I have further questions.