Vet School or Med School?

[ml222]

I need to decide between vet school and med school. I have been accepted into both and don't know what I want to do. I have 2 days to decide and I am completely neutral. Has anyone had the same issue? How did you decide?

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[Putkernerinthehall]

Wow, you're like the dog that caught the bus and now what to do? I don't have similar experience.

Which can you see yourself doing for 30 years ?

How did your clinical experience with patients (in both settings) inform your interests / desires ?

 

[ml222]

Honestly, I could do either for 30 years as long as I get into the specialty I want.

 

[Tenk]

If you like money: med school.
If you like not money: vet school.

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

I made a similar post about such things recently in the psych forums. When you have an even 50/50 split then take the route that is going to give you more advantages, flexibility, and opportunity. This can take many forms.

All things equal, finances give you freedom to start businesses, do free clinics, donate to charity, fund research, or anything else that might strike your fancy 10-20-30 years from now.

For example, if you wanted to switch careers later in life, or even practice both, going med first would put you in a better position. There's nothing saying you can't go to vet school or open an animal shelter or anything else later on

For me, I was going to regret either decision of my split because I only have one life to live but more ambition that can fill ~75 years. My choices had a ton of overlap (such as yours do!). So it's not as if we are leaving either behind for good. You can think of this as there being no wrong decision, but there isn't necessarily a right decision either.



With that said, one common thought experiment is to switch the salaries of both jobs. If being a vet paid ~300k and med paid ~100k would you do vet over med? If the answer is a big yes, then you should probably do vet school.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Med school has more options. Did you shadow any vets? My PERSONAL opinion is I could not do vet medicine. It has a very unique relation with the animal and their owner. They spend a lot of time euthanizing animals as well as caring for them and their owners. I see the vet option as more limited where medicine is more diverse with research, public health, multiple specialties, etc.. I have owned several shelter animals over the years. Corporate vet medicine, i.e., private equity companies buying local vet practices, has invaded our area. They clearly practice profit over care, meaning lots of un necessary tests to boost income, shabby service and care, I could go on.I have been reimbursed hundreds of dollars when I have called them out, reminding them they practice concierge medicine, (I'm paying cash), and expect concierge service. I'm not trying to say all vet medicine is like this, just pointing out what has happened in our area and where I see vet medicine heading. Good luck and best wishes!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Private equity has changed health care quite a lot. You'll learn in Becoming a Student Doctor how it is involved in the closure of so many rural hospitals and how they are also affecting dentistry (and similarly vet med).

I think you've had a great chance talking to current professionals in medicine and vet med. Med schools has more options but also takes quite a bit longer to be "independent." You can be on the path to owning your own practice faster with vet med, and thus your work-life COULD be a little easier.

It boils down to what your professional vision is.

 

[supershorty]

I see the vet option as more limited where medicine is more diverse with research, public health, multiple specialties, etc.

I do want to step in and correct this misconception, though OP has also posted in the pre-vet forum and is getting advice from us vettie people over there. Vet med has all of these things as well - the main difference being that vets do not HAVE to specialize the way human practitioners do. You can graduate from vet school and be a practicing veterinarian on D1. But internships, residencies, and fellowships all exist in vet med too, though our specialization doesn't get as niche as human med (i.e. surgery is a super competitive specialty and has some subspecialties like surg onc, but we don't break things down quite as much as y'all do). Public health is an enormous component of vet med (One Health matters!), and as a veterinary scientist, the research opportunities are immense, particularly if you have translational interests. The field is a whole lot more than "go to vet school for 4 years and then graduate as a general practitioner"

OP, I am curious to know what you've done in the last year since you posted these questions in 2022 as well, so what have you been up to in the past year? Did it help illuminate a career choice at all?

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I do want to step in and correct this misconception, though OP has also posted in the pre-vet forum and is getting advice from us vettie people over there. Vet med has all of these things as well - the main difference being that vets do not HAVE to specialize the way human practitioners do. You can graduate from vet school and be a practicing veterinarian on D1. But internships, residencies, and fellowships all exist in vet med too, though our specialization doesn't get as niche as human med (i.e. surgery is a super competitive specialty and has some subspecialties like surg onc, but we don't break things down quite as much as y'all do). Public health is an enormous component of vet med (One Health matters!), and as a veterinary scientist, the research opportunities are immense, particularly if you have translational interests. The field is a whole lot more than "go to vet school for 4 years and then graduate as a general practitioner"

OP, I am curious to know what you've done in the last year since you posted these questions in 2022 as well, so what have you been up to in the past year? Did it help illuminate a career choice at all?

Seconded, speaking as a veterinarian who did specialize and who currently straddles the academic medical, clinical veterinary, and translational research worlds. There are dozens of veterinary specialties - they just aren't required post-degree like they are in the MD/DO world to practice. You can do general practice work right out of school, but if you want to do more you can opt to specialize.

However, for the OP....if you are truly neutral on it in terms of subject matter, go "human med". Your wallet will thank you. I also went back and forth a LOT between DVM and MD, and ultimately chose DVM because I loved the species diversity. However, the debt to income ratio is nothing to sniff at.

And lastly....there is never any guarantee of getting into the specialty you want, in any medical career. Just keep that in mind. Have backup plans and alternative pathways. Internships and residencies can be very competitive in both the MD and DVM world.

 

[battie]

Med school has more options. Did you shadow any vets? My PERSONAL opinion is I could not do vet medicine. It has a very unique relation with the animal and their owner. They spend a lot of time euthanizing animals as well as caring for them and their owners. I see the vet option as more limited where medicine is more diverse with research, public health, multiple specialties, etc.. I have owned several shelter animals over the years. Corporate vet medicine, i.e., private equity companies buying local vet practices, has invaded our area. They clearly practice profit over care, meaning lots of un necessary tests to boost income, shabby service and care, I could go on.I have been reimbursed hundreds of dollars when I have called them out, reminding them they practice concierge medicine, (I'm paying cash), and expect concierge service. I'm not trying to say all vet medicine is like this, just pointing out what has happened in our area and where I see vet medicine heading. Good luck and best wishes!

As a corporately employed emergency veterinarian (with two of the largest corporations), this is a very generalized statement. I've never been asked by any level of management to perform x number of tests or y dollars in tests. I can see why it looks like it from the outside; but the majority of us have integrity and practice appropriate medicine. If you are located in the Denver metro area, I can certainly talk to my management to invite you to spend the day with us and see the opposite side.

Of the cases I saw on Tuesday, only one cat had bloodwork run. One cat where I recommended bloods belonged to a woman I sent to low cost because the $110 consult fee was a stretch. The 15 year old dog's owner didn't want to do bloodwork with me cause I'm more expensive than her GP. Two dogs came in for a grade 1/6 limping. Did I recommend radiographs for them? Absolutely! Did I push it? No, cause 1/6 lameness is highly unlikely to be a bone tumor or fracture. But I offered because I have friends who already have board complaints for not offering "gold standard" medicine and we graduated in 2021. God forbid the dog doesn't recover in the next week, he gets rads, and they find a small osteolytic lesion that turns out to be osteosarcoma. That's not a board complaints I need in my life.

To the OP, a struggle in vet med is the difference in respect vet med as a profession has compared to the past. When I was in general practice, the number of clients that argued about prevention such as vaccines, flea/tick, heartworm, etc. was ridiculous. There are plenty of claims of recommending a $25 vaccine every 3 years is a crash grab (rather than the 6-8k hospitalization for parvovirus). I'm positive human medicine deals with this as well. But the average veterinary GP is making somewhere between 100-120k/year vs the average human med GP being 223k. I'd listen to people deny parvo or heartworm all day for 223k.

 

[alapeds]

I had exactly the same choice in 1985. I had wanted to do veterinary medicine for my entire young life, and because it was so difficult to get in, elected to do an MPH in infectious disease epidemiology to bolster my application. While doing the MPH, my mentors, three of who were double boarded in veterinary and human medicine, all strongly recommended that I do MD rather than DVM, based on their experience that the MD degree opened many more doors in research and elsewhere than the DVM degree did. Of course, double boarding does allow one to go into high levels of public health and zoonotic disease, but the DVM degree alone may not. The joke is that I chose MD and then chose to do Pediatrics, and, of course, everyone says it’s just like veterinary medicine! You have to deal with the parents and the patients can’t tell you what’s wrong and like to bite, lol. Not far off. Those who were double boarded did say that their training in veterinary school was far and above the training in medical school in terms of anatomy, infectious disease, etc, but that the degree itself just didn’t open the same doors. It was a gut wrenching choice for me at the time, and I’m sure it’s similar for you. Best of luck!

 

[Angus Avagadro]

As a corporately employed emergency veterinarian (with two of the largest corporations), this is a very generalized statement. I've never been asked by any level of management to perform x number of tests or y dollars in tests. I can see why it looks like it from the outside; but the majority of us have integrity and practice appropriate medicine. If you are located in the Denver metro area, I can certainly talk to my management to invite you to spend the day with us and see the opposite side.

Of the cases I saw on Tuesday, only one cat had bloodwork run. One cat where I recommended bloods belonged to a woman I sent to low cost because the $110 consult fee was a stretch. The 15 year old dog's owner didn't want to do bloodwork with me cause I'm more expensive than her GP. Two dogs came in for a grade 1/6 limping. Did I recommend radiographs for them? Absolutely! Did I push it? No, cause 1/6 lameness is highly unlikely to be a bone tumor or fracture. But I offered because I have friends who already have board complaints for not offering "gold standard" medicine and we graduated in 2021. God forbid the dog doesn't recover in the next week, he gets rads, and they find a small osteolytic lesion that turns out to be osteosarcoma. That's not a board complaints I need in my life.

To the OP, a struggle in vet med is the difference in respect vet med as a profession has compared to the past. When I was in general practice, the number of clients that argued about prevention such as vaccines, flea/tick, heartworm, etc. was ridiculous. There are plenty of claims of recommending a $25 vaccine every 3 years is a crash grab (rather than the 6-8k hospitalization for parvovirus). I'm positive human medicine deals with this as well. But the average veterinary GP is making somewhere between 100-120k/year vs the average human med GP being 223k. I'd listen to people deny parvo or heartworm all day for 223k.

I really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you. I live in the Northeast, and have had some bad experiences with the For Profits in our area. I have had close to $1,000 reimbursed to me from several vet hospitals in our area due to shabby care. What I find bothersome is that these clinics are staffed by very kind people dedicated to the care of animals who are understaffed. They have expressed their frustration to me. My vet of nearly 30 yrs sold to one of these for profits and I have noticed a noticeable decline in quality. My N=1. So as not to derail OPs thread, I'll not comment further. Thanks for your thoughtful response.

 

[chssoccer7]

Corporate vet medicine, i.e., private equity companies buying local vet practices, has invaded our area. They clearly practice profit over care, meaning lots of un necessary tests to boost income, shabby service and care, I could go on.I have been reimbursed hundreds of dollars when I have called them out, reminding them they practice concierge medicine, (I'm paying cash), and expect concierge service. I'm not trying to say all vet medicine is like this, just pointing out what has happened in our area and where I see vet medicine heading. Good luck and best wishes!

Just out of pure curiosity (and because I am interested in hearing the physician response), do people not say this about many facets of people medicine as well?

edit- nvm I just saw your follow up response about not commenting further to not derail thread, totally understand. Will ask in an appropriate thread if this comes up.

 

[battie]

I really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you. I live in the Northeast, and have had some bad experiences with the For Profits in our area. I have had close to $1,000 reimbursed to me from several vet hospitals in our area due to shabby care. What I find bothersome is that these clinics are staffed by very kind people dedicated to the care of animals who are understaffed. They have expressed their frustration to me. My vet of nearly 30 yrs sold to one of these for profits and I have noticed a noticeable decline in quality. My N=1. So as not to derail OPs thread, I'll not comment further. Thanks for your thoughtful response.

Appreciate your response. Hopefully OP will respond to one of the threads they posted; I feel like most of us have said what we can

 

[IAskQuestionsOnly]

Obviously med school

 

[Doctor-S]

Clinical & Research PhD-MD here ...

Although I am not a veterinarian, I have published in peer-reviewed veterinary medicine journals.

Shouting out to everyone involved in One Health!

OP, If you end up choosing MD and not DVM, you can get involved in One Health matters, too.

It's your choice - have a great career!

 

[ml222]

It looks like everyone is suggesting medical school over vet school. I guess that is the most logical answer.

 

[ml222]

I do want to step in and correct this misconception, though OP has also posted in the pre-vet forum and is getting advice from us vettie people over there. Vet med has all of these things as well - the main difference being that vets do not HAVE to specialize the way human practitioners do. You can graduate from vet school and be a practicing veterinarian on D1. But internships, residencies, and fellowships all exist in vet med too, though our specialization doesn't get as niche as human med (i.e. surgery is a super competitive specialty and has some subspecialties like surg onc, but we don't break things down quite as much as y'all do). Public health is an enormous component of vet med (One Health matters!), and as a veterinary scientist, the research opportunities are immense, particularly if you have translational interests. The field is a whole lot more than "go to vet school for 4 years and then graduate as a general practitioner"

OP, I am curious to know what you've done in the last year since you posted these questions in 2022 as well, so what have you been up to in the past year? Did it help illuminate a career choice at all?

I'm in the exact same place I was a year ago.

 

[Deltasidearm]

It looks like everyone is suggesting medical school over vet school. I guess that is the most logical answer.

This is also a forum most heavily geared towards medicine, so the bias was obvious before posting. Please do some soul-searching to decide and be completely honest with yourself.

Why did you apply to both in the first place? (Which was the backup?) How important is money--is your goal just to make as much money as possible or to make a good salary and be happy? How important is your ego? These priorities and introspection are just examples and something that remains important as you continue your career and make future big decisions.

 

[supershorty]

I'm in the exact same place I was a year ago.

What did you do for the last year?

You obviously had to get clinical hours in both fields to be a competitive applicant, so think back to those experiences. When were you most excited to go in? Which cases stuck with you the most?

No one here can make the decision for you - only you can do that. Your reflection on your experiences is what will matter the most.

 

[supershorty]

This is also a forum most heavily geared towards medicine, so the bias was obvious before posting

They also posted in pre-vet, to be fair, but got very similar answers.

 

[gyngyn]

Closing duplicate thread.