Hi! Sorry if this has been answered before. Just wanted to quickly ask about externships and stuff in the summers between school years. Are those generally paid things? Or do we have zero hope of any summer income? Thank you!
Paid Summers?
- Thread starter cheval12
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It really depends on the externship! There are some programs/opportunities out there that will pay (I think the Banfield program does?), but in my experience I would say don't count on it. Most of the ones I see are unpaid.
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You can also see about working as an assistant at a vet clinic for the summer too or even jobs through whatever school you’re at. It doesn’t have to be labeled as a “veterinary student externship” to be something you can do over the summer. Most schools also have summer research programs and I think they generally give you some kind of stipend.
Thank you 🙂
Gotcha. Thank you!
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It’s specific to my school, but I had the best externship everrr last summer. Incredible experience and awesome pay. So there’s definitely opportunities out there!
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Yea smaller vet clinics are also a good way to make some summer money. The clinic I work at now wants me to come back if I can during summer break. I know the last hospital I worked at was cool with hiring vet students for the summer.
lol care to share which externship that was?? 😀
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Most of the externships available I have seen are paid, but not well. You could make enough to pay for living expenses and possibly a bit more. It really depends on what you want to do!
I got accepted to a program in Costa Rica this summer. I'm paid 3k but I will likely just break even because of travel expenses.
Thank you! That's encouraging. At least it's something. Jealous you'll be in Costa Rica
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Lots of clinics will pay you to tech/assist for a summer. We have a job fair in the fall and lots of people find opportunities through that. The Banfield program is compensated (pretty well too, I’ve heard). Also if you’re interested in research a lot of schools have summer research opportunities for vet students that are paid!! That is what I am doing this summer 🙂
Sweet! Thanks for the info
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I did the summer research scholars last summer and got paid $5000 for the summer. This summer I'm working at contract research organization and will make around $6000. I try to find things that tailor to what I want to do as well as get paid. Most vet students have degrees... we deserved to get paid, but again it's what you want to do. My philosophy is that I have enough education where I want to get paid during summer because loans matter to me and I'm taking out less than the average vet student.
Never a guarantee it will work out, but there are definitely opportunities to make some money during the summer. (Many people also choose to be a potato during the summer, which if that saves your sanity, go for it!)
Here's some examples from my own experience of summer job opportunities:
The summer before vet school I worked for the federal government and was paid well ($21/hr in DC). The federal government will pay you generally as a GS-7. Some GS-9 positions are possible too depending on the position and the level of education you have.
VMCVM has funded research opportunities at the school during the summer - students who do that get about a $5K stipend, I think, and don't have to worry about moving elsewhere for the summer if they want to stay in Blacksburg. No idea what other schools have going for them, but I'm sure at least some of them have similar research opportunities.
Lots of my classmates are sticking around Blacksburg and working at the school teaching hospital or at local clinics over the summer; some with full time hours if they could find it, some with more relief style hours. There are more opportunities if you're willing to work during the school year too - several of my classmates work for the teaching hospital at the school and are required to stay here during the summer to hold that job. There are also more clinic opportunities if you're willing to commute outside of the immediate area, especially at emergency clinics. If you go to school in a more populated area, in theory there will be more clinics to apply to.
Both Banfield and VetCor clinic have summer opportunities geared toward vet students. (Banfield has national reach; VetCor isn't nation wide, but has over 300 practices in many states). Banfield is more standardized because of the way the company is set up, I think, and pays what I consider a living wage based on what I've seen. The VetCor clinic wages are more dependent on the clinics themselves, I think, because their structure isn't set up the same way. It seems like they offer about what they would pay their vet assistants.
A few nearby humane societies have also been looking for seasonal summer hires here; if I hadn't gotten a clinic job for the summer I probably would have applied to them so I could stay at home. Pay isn't great at humane societies, but the hours are a little more consistent imo and there's an understanding that it's a seasonal job so you aren't expected to stick around once school starts again.
Based on my experience and my classmates experience, I think you should definitely be able to at least break even for living expenses during the summer. Depending on the type of job and location, you should be able to bank some money too if you are working full time and keeping your living expenses as low as possible.
Here's some examples from my own experience of summer job opportunities:
The summer before vet school I worked for the federal government and was paid well ($21/hr in DC). The federal government will pay you generally as a GS-7. Some GS-9 positions are possible too depending on the position and the level of education you have.
VMCVM has funded research opportunities at the school during the summer - students who do that get about a $5K stipend, I think, and don't have to worry about moving elsewhere for the summer if they want to stay in Blacksburg. No idea what other schools have going for them, but I'm sure at least some of them have similar research opportunities.
Lots of my classmates are sticking around Blacksburg and working at the school teaching hospital or at local clinics over the summer; some with full time hours if they could find it, some with more relief style hours. There are more opportunities if you're willing to work during the school year too - several of my classmates work for the teaching hospital at the school and are required to stay here during the summer to hold that job. There are also more clinic opportunities if you're willing to commute outside of the immediate area, especially at emergency clinics. If you go to school in a more populated area, in theory there will be more clinics to apply to.
Both Banfield and VetCor clinic have summer opportunities geared toward vet students. (Banfield has national reach; VetCor isn't nation wide, but has over 300 practices in many states). Banfield is more standardized because of the way the company is set up, I think, and pays what I consider a living wage based on what I've seen. The VetCor clinic wages are more dependent on the clinics themselves, I think, because their structure isn't set up the same way. It seems like they offer about what they would pay their vet assistants.
A few nearby humane societies have also been looking for seasonal summer hires here; if I hadn't gotten a clinic job for the summer I probably would have applied to them so I could stay at home. Pay isn't great at humane societies, but the hours are a little more consistent imo and there's an understanding that it's a seasonal job so you aren't expected to stick around once school starts again.
Based on my experience and my classmates experience, I think you should definitely be able to at least break even for living expenses during the summer. Depending on the type of job and location, you should be able to bank some money too if you are working full time and keeping your living expenses as low as possible.
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At MSU, we've found out about a lot of summer opportunities through the clubs we're in since they tend to have connections and relationships with veterinarians/organizations in the area. For example, I'm in the Shelter Medicine Club and got the opportunity to interview for a paid position with the Michigan Humane Society because of that connection. Certainly, there are going to be opportunities through your school and local clinics, but I'd definitely recommend joining the clubs you are interested in for the special and exclusive opportunities they offer!
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A lot of jobs are available in the vet school here that extend into the summer. We give tours year round, so the tour guides that are in town get paid for that. I work in our diagnostic lab and can go up to 40 hours a week during the summer, and there are many VDL jobs across different departments. There are on-call positions across the hospital, including surgery tech (large and small animal), ICU assistant, ER assistant, clin path student, client assistants at the front desk of the small and large animal clinics. If you look around, you can find a ton of low key jobs in the vet school.
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I’m doing the veterinary summer scholars program this summer and I’m getting paid $8000 for about 10-12 weeks of work which is pretty good money! They also are flying me to the VSSP conference at Tufts in July and paying for my hotel. It’s a great opportunity to lock down a summer job, get some research experience, and have practice presenting your research and you get a free trip out of it 😀
Sounds awesome! Is that through CSU specifically?
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Illinois does this too
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Yeah, I did this two summers in a row. Can't remember if that was the amount, but every school has it. The number of accepted students depends on funding though.
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My school has a realitively unique program geared towards those interested in general practice. It involved a month of hands on training at school (surgery/imed/communication/etc.) and then a month spent at a clinic elsewhere to basically practice everything they taught us in a clinic setting. It was an awesome experience and involved a stipend comparable to summer research plus they paid for me to stay in a hotel for a month as well as food and travel expenses.
Do you mind me asking which school you go to?
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Not specifically, but every school does the funding a little differently I think. I submitted my research application to CSU and our dean of research then applies me to all the programs my project is applicable to and then let me know which one(s) I was accepted for and I picked the one that offered the most funding. I’m assuming the other schools are the same but CSU works with the USDA, NIH, BI and FFAR among others.
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I've worked the past 2 summers as an intern with USDA-APHIS. I had the good fortune to be able to get sent out to California last summer to battle Newcastle I'm backyard chickens. It was a 3 week deployment, and I was able to extend for an extra week. With the crazy amount of OT I put in and getting paid a decent per diem I was able to make about 13k in that month.
This is probably an outlier as far as paid experiences go, but the government can pay pretty good in the GS7 to 9 range.
This is probably an outlier as far as paid experiences go, but the government can pay pretty good in the GS7 to 9 range.
Wow! That's awesome! Thanks everyone for the response
