MPH/DVM

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fingermonkey

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Is it worth it/ do-able to get a MPH at the same time as your DVM? Will it make it easier in the long run when applying to residency for zoo med?
 
It's doable, but "worth it" depends on what your ultimate goal is. You have to pay additional tuition to do an MPH. I don't know that there's benefit to doing it if you're not actually interested in staying in the public health/OneHealth sphere - if you're interested in zoo med, I don't think having an MPH is going to give you a leg up in getting there.

Tagging @vampyrica for MPH stuff and @pp9 and @WildZoo for zoo stuff.
 
Agree, it's do-able for sure, there are several dual DVM/MPH programs. Worth it? If your goal is zoo med, I don't really think so. Both from a time and financial perspective, you'd be better served getting zoo and wildlife related experience and/or getting involved in zoo and wildlife related research. Certainly if you are interested in public health I never discourage pursuing things you're interested in and that bring some level of joy to your brain, but I wouldn't do it specifically with the idea that it would help you on the road to a zoo residency. It would be more like a side quest.
 
fingermonkey said:
Is it worth it/ do-able to get a MPH at the same time as your DVM? Will it make it easier in the long run when applying to residency for zoo med?
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Advanced degrees generally are not going to help you get a residency. Having zoo-med publications already by the time you apply can help, but you don't need an advanced degree to accomplish that.
 
I’m glad someone made this thread. If I am interested in being a professor in my future, would this be a good idea?
 
WildZoo said:
Certainly if you are interested in public health I never discourage pursuing things you're interested in and that bring some level of joy to your brain, but I wouldn't do it specifically with the idea that it would help you on the road to a zoo residency being a professor.
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I modified Dubz's excellent advice here to answer your question.
 
(my first ping in this context? wow i’ve truly made it in life)

hello! as others have said, it kinda depends on what you want to do. if zoo med is your ultimate goal, i’m not sure how much an MPH can assist with obtaining opportunities related to that goal. as our site zoo vets have mentioned, it may not have much of an impact at all. now i can see how an MPH would be beneficial if you’d like to do conservation work or spend majority of your career as a wildlife veterinarian.

there’s lots of different programs available. majority are formatted where the MPH and DVM are completed concurrently and tuition classifications will vary from school to school. some may let you pay IS tuition for the MPH classes, some may require you to pay OOS tuition for both. my program is a 1+4 program, so 5 years total. a bonus for this format is during that MPH year, i established domicile as an OOS student so all 4 years of my DVM are IS tuition.

for me personally, i knew i wanted an MPH because i’m very interested in one health, public health, government work, disease surveillance etc. if any of these things are of interest to you, then an MPH may be a great choice! but if you’re looking into it for the sake of trying to boost your chances in zoo med, not sure if it’s suited for your goals.

edit: ignore my typos, i was walking my dog while typing this 😞
 
SkiOtter said:
I know @awesomenessity is a professor (did a residency in anatomic path) and has a PhD from that as well as her DVM. and WTF also but I don’t remember her actual username apparently if someone else can 😂
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There's another academic anatomic path person?! Yay! @awesomenessity hit me up let's chat!

For the actual topic - yes, most faculty jobs (in anatomic pathology) also want you to have some sort of research-oriented degree. This is because the vast majority of intro assistant prof positions have a research component to the FTE (faculty time effort) agreement, and you are more likely to be successful getting grants with a research degree on top of your DVM/specialty than without one. Research grants, projects, papers, etc. bring prestige and $$ to the vet school in question, so they want people who are more likely to be successful in getting them.

Is is "fair"? Eh. Especially if the job is heavy diagnostic/teaching with research only as a side hustle, I think lowkey forcing faculty to have a PhD is a bit silly, even more so when you see other specialties not having that same assumed requirement. However, its still the rule rather than the exception and I did my PhD after my residency to be able to have as much flexibility as possible in my career down the road. I do see more teaching/diagnostic heavy jobs not necessarily requiring it, but having one is still the rule rather than the exception in academia.

This does vary by specialty somewhat (e.g. I don't see nearly as many surgeons etc. at vet schools with a PhD, or professors on the clinical track) - but I can speak to pathology.
 
WhtsThFrequency said:
This does vary by specialty somewhat (e.g. I don't see nearly as many surgeons etc. at vet schools with a PhD, or professors on the clinical track) - but I can speak to pathology.
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This is very very true, even within pathology it can vary a lot. For example, most academic clinical pathologists where I'm at have a Masters degree not a PhD, but do very little research. When looking at applying for anatomic path jobs, they wanted a PhD for sure.

It really depends on what you want to *do* as a prof. The only benefit I could see to doing an MPH if you are not wanting to go into public health is if you wanted to teach at a vet school in public health. Otherwise just do whatever residency and if you want to teach afterwards you can probably find a job doing so with a residency in hand. Even if you decide you want to apply for a clinical professor-type job where no advanced research degrees/residencies are required, the MPH won't help you much there either. Most of those roles have a DVM with maybe some additional training and experience in practice.

For zoo medicine you would be far better off spending your summers working in zoos/aquariums/wildlife rehab etc than doing the MPH I would think!
 
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