I notice when I meet people they'll try to politely compliment me by saying ohhhh you're in vet school?? thats WAY harder than med school!
And I gently disagree with them by saying that:
a. Dude, I would probably manage to score a negative value on the MCAT ;P
b. Even though the acceptance statistics are slightly lower for vet school, its just different. Med students have to have higher GPA's and MCAT scores - which is no joke, while vet students have to have more extracurricular experiences.
And the acceptance statistics can be explained by comparing applicants to seats available.
The shortage of seats and subsequent sky high % of rejections is nearing a crisis. Texas A&M is building a new vet school (& med school) to increase capacity, but it won't be ready for a few years. Most veterinary & medical schools haven't increased their capacity since the 80's, because they predicted a surplus of doctors in the millennium. They obviously used an abacus.
There are more lawyers in DC than veterinarians in this country, with
90,000 vets total in USA, 2,600 graduating each year, 1,000 retiring each year. 1600 net gain each year. The pressing need is in food animal medicine, laboratory animal medicine, public health and biomedical research.
Aaaand according to the AMA publication Physician Characteristics and
Distribution in the U.S. - 2004 Edition there are
853,187
physicians in the United States, 130 medical schools, & roughly 25,000 graduates each year, with 20,000 retiring each year.
Jeebus.
DVMs only have a 1600 supply to fill the gap and on top of that, vets are less efficient than MDs. 1 primary care physician sees what, 30-40 patients a day? Private practice small animal vets only see about 10 a day.
In short, I will have no problemo finding a job after graduation - and if I want to practice large animal medicine in a rural setting for a few years afterwards I get my tuition paid, now thats saying something about demand.
