Specified Animals in Vet School?

[dyruse]

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Hi all, I'm currently on the pre-veterinary track and have a couple questions I would love answered to make me more confident in continuing on the veterinary track.

1. Is the most common career for vets starting their own practice? If so, how much business experience is required? Should I seriously consider an MBA along with my DVM? I am really not a "business" person so was wondering if there are other options than starting your own practice, and how numerous those options are.

2. Many schools I'm looking at require you in your last year to choose an animal type to "specialize" in. I am very interested in the research portion of veterinary school and if applied I would want to obtain a DVM and PhD. I would want to work with/care for large animals in wildlife (tigers, bears, etc). However, I would also want to care for household dogs/cats as a typical "vet" would. Is it possible to choose two tracks like this? I would want to research and thus care for big animals, but I want to keep my options open and be able to treat typical household dogs/cats.

3. Are there any majors that could hurt me when applying to veterinary school? I am currently majoring in Chemistry, minoring in Spanish and Biology. I know this is not the typical vet applicant, but Chemistry is the basis for Biology, so I think I should be fine?

Thank you so much in advance.

 

[Bill59]

1. There are more associate veterinarians than practice owners. Few new graduates start off as practice owners. And there are quite a few other options such as academia, industry, and armed forces.

Most practice owners don't have formal business training. Whether an MBA would help is hard to say and would probably depend on the specifics of the MBA.

2. Not all schools track but a lot do. The particular tracks available depend on the school.

3. You undergraduate major doesn't matter much for getting into vet school. What's important is fulfilling all the specific course requirements, which can usually be accomplished along with almost any degree program.

 

[that redhead]

Like Bill said, not all schools require tracking. Your interests are pretty varied and I imagine that you would, at some point, have to choose among research (although big cats and the "big" wildlife are really not used in traditional research environments), zoo (where you would get exposure to the big wildlife and the research/conservation efforts involved with their care) or small animal practice (dogs, cats). My recommendation would be to continue to seek out experiences in these fields - "traditional" research, zoo med and/or small animal practice and see if one becomes more desirable to you. Be aware that zoo med careers are extremely competitive and the more experience and connections you have in that particular field, the better off you are.