Veterinary Technician vs Technologist

[wolfyzheart]

I apologize if there has been a thread about this already, but I have done my research and haven't learned much about this subject. I have done about six hours of shadowing and four months of working at a veterinary clinic, and I went from wanting to be a veterinarian to wanting to be a vet tech. I'm a senior in high school and I am looking for what way to go about this... do I get a two year degree or a four year degree for this? Is there a difference in pay, job opportunities, etc? I read many different things that all said things different so I just thought I'd ask it on here, you guys have never done me wrong before xD

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[DVMDream]

I apologize if there has been a thread about this already, but I have done my research and haven't learned much about this subject. I have done about six hours of shadowing and four months of working at a veterinary clinic, and I went from wanting to be a veterinarian to wanting to be a vet tech. I'm a senior in high school and I am looking for what way to go about this... do I get a two year degree or a four year degree for this? Is there a difference in pay, job opportunities, etc? I read many different things that all said things different so I just thought I'd ask it on here, you guys have never done me wrong before xD

I am confused by your question....

Your title says veterinary technician vs. veterinary technologist... honestly I believe those are the exact same thing.
But, above it seems like you are asking if there is a difference between being a veterinarian and a veterinary technician... and there is a massive difference between the two.

 

[wolfyzheart]

I am confused by your question....

Your title says veterinary technician vs. veterinary technologist... honestly I believe those are the exact same thing.
But, above it seems like you are asking if there is a difference between being a veterinarian and a veterinary technician... and there is a massive difference between the two.

I've read that technicians and technologists are /slightly/ different. One has a two year degree in veterinary technology, and the other has a four year degree, respectively. I got this on several different websites, however I do not know their credibility. Sorry if I am misinformed ^^; My question basically was the difference between a two and four year degree for vet techs. I apologize, I did word that confusingly.

 

[xNoLongerFallingx]

Based on basic research I've done (not the most reliable source though- so don't take my word for it) there is no true difference between a two year degree and a four year degree, one just leaves you with a lot more debt...

 

[wolfyzheart]

Based on basic research I've done (not the most reliable source though- so don't take my word for it) there is no true difference between a two year degree and a four year degree, one just leaves you with a lot more debt...

Thats what I was concerned of happening, haha. Thank you I'll probably stick to the two year plan.

 

[bbeventer]

If you have decided to go the vet tech route, don't waste your money on a four year degree. A two year technical college should cut it, but be aware vet techs don't make that much money.

 

[wolfyzheart]

If you have decided to go the vet tech route, don't waste your money on a four year degree. A two year technical college should cut it, but be aware vet techs don't make that much money.

I'm aware. I'm not happy about that, especially because of the work they go through. I've seen them in action and man vet techs are miracle workers, and only making about 36k annually isn't very fair but it is what it is cx its something I really took to when I shadowed and worked at a vet office.

 

[DVMDream]

I'm aware. I'm not happy about that, especially because of the work they go through. I've seen them in action and man vet techs are miracle workers, and only making about 36k annually isn't very fair but it is what it is cx its something I really took to when I shadowed and worked at a vet office.

The veterinarians salary isn't very "fair" either... but nothing in vet med money-wise is "fair".

 

[dyachei]

The veterinarians salary isn't very "fair" either... but nothing in vet med money-wise is "fair".

clients especially think its unfair

 

[Fly Racing]

Just to be devils advocate, I would not discourage you away from a 4 year degree at this point, especially if you think you may want to do something else in your life in the future. Some vet tech programs award you an associates degrees and most don't. Would you be happy in the work force for your career as a "high school graduate" rather than a "college graduate"? Have you looked through any career/job websites? Almost every entry level job requires 4 year degree. If vet tech becomes not everything you think it will be in 10 years and you have a family with 2 kids, will you be able to go back to school? Will you be happy being "stuck" in your career or working at fastfood, walmart, janitorial, warehouse and other entry level "high school graduate" jobs?

Being one of the "older" people on this board, I've seen people when they burn out of their job and when they don't have the previous education to give them good option in the current job market where a BS is the new high school diploma. On top of that, I hear time and time again, that "I can't go back to school now", because of family, mortgages, car payments, spouses, ect. People do it, yes, but they are the exception not the rule.

Lowest debt is often the best answer, but don't not go to school to keep debt down. Rather, keep debt down while going to school. The stats are all over the internet that the people with a college degree have greater earning potential. I remember hearing something like, $1.5 million greater earning in an average person's career (including lost time/money during college).

There are many lifetime vet techs out there, but for each one of those 30 year vet techs, there were probably 20 they worked with that changed careers.The diversity in a vet tech career is fairly slim and advancement is almost nill. Those are considerations to keep in mind.

Also consider that in general your "time cost" is much lower after you graduate from high school than later in life. Therefore, this is the cheapest, most economic time to get a 4 year degree. I've known people that have stayed at home or in a pretty cheap, multiple roommate home, drive a car their parent bought for them, gone to their instate for 3-6K per year and been able to pay off tuition and daily expenses through part time work and summer work. Compared to taking out loans in 10 years to cover house payment, car payment, insurance cost, your expensive baby, and working parttime to cover tuition and your personal daily expenses. That will leave you with much more debt!

 

[PppermintTwist]

I apologize if there has been a thread about this already, but I have done my research and haven't learned much about this subject. I have done about six hours of shadowing and four months of working at a veterinary clinic, and I went from wanting to be a veterinarian to wanting to be a vet tech. I'm a senior in high school and I am looking for what way to go about this... do I get a two year degree or a four year degree for this? Is there a difference in pay, job opportunities, etc? I read many different things that all said things different so I just thought I'd ask it on here, you guys have never done me wrong before xD

I have been a licensed technician since 2006.

Technically there is a difference in amount of education but in the real world pay is the same. Unless you become a laboratory technician maybe?

I personally would say do the two year program and get licensed. Experience and skill and the license will get you better pay. Jobs for emergency, overnights and specialists will pay best.

The majority of my loans are from finishing my bachelors degree. So if you're thinking that tech is what you want to do save yourself some financial woes and just get your associates.

 

[PppermintTwist]

Just to be devils advocate, I would not discourage you away from a 4 year degree at this point, especially if you think you may want to do something else in your life in the future. Some vet tech programs award you an associates degrees and most don't. Would you be happy in the work force for your career as a "high school graduate" rather than a "college graduate"? Have you looked through any career/job websites? Almost every entry level job requires 4 year degree. If vet tech becomes not everything you think it will be in 10 years and you have a family with 2 kids, will you be able to go back to school? Will you be happy being "stuck" in your career or working at fastfood, walmart, janitorial, warehouse and other entry level "high school graduate" jobs?

Being one of the "older" people on this board, I've seen people when they burn out of their job

Not sure where you are getting the information that techs don't get a degree. In order to sit for the national exam you have to have graduated from an accredited tech program.


So you'd get an associates.

I do agree that once you're married and have a mortgage and kids its harder to return to school, but also think about if classes you've taken to get a bachelors may age out if you wait a while to pursue something else.

 

[DVMDream]

Just to be devils advocate, I would not discourage you away from a 4 year degree at this point, especially if you think you may want to do something else in your life in the future. Some vet tech programs award you an associates degrees and most don't. Would you be happy in the work force for your career as a "high school graduate" rather than a "college graduate"? Have you looked through any career/job websites? Almost every entry level job requires 4 year degree. If vet tech becomes not everything you think it will be in 10 years and you have a family with 2 kids, will you be able to go back to school? Will you be happy being "stuck" in your career or working at fastfood, walmart, janitorial, warehouse and other entry level "high school graduate" jobs?

Being one of the "older" people on this board, I've seen people when they burn out of their job and when they don't have the previous education to give them good option in the current job market where a BS is the new high school diploma. On top of that, I hear time and time again, that "I can't go back to school now", because of family, mortgages, car payments, spouses, ect. People do it, yes, but they are the exception not the rule.

Lowest debt is often the best answer, but don't not go to school to keep debt down. Rather, keep debt down while going to school. The stats are all over the internet that the people with a college degree have greater earning potential. I remember hearing something like, $1.5 million greater earning in an average person's career (including lost time/money during college).

There are many lifetime vet techs out there, but for each one of those 30 year vet techs, there were probably 20 they worked with that changed careers.The diversity in a vet tech career is fairly slim and advancement is almost nill. Those are considerations to keep in mind.

Also consider that in general your "time cost" is much lower after you graduate from high school than later in life. Therefore, this is the cheapest, most economic time to get a 4 year degree. I've known people that have stayed at home or in a pretty cheap, multiple roommate home, drive a car their parent bought for them, gone to their instate for 3-6K per year and been able to pay off tuition and daily expenses through part time work and summer work. Compared to taking out loans in 10 years to cover house payment, car payment, insurance cost, your expensive baby, and working parttime to cover tuition and your personal daily expenses. That will leave you with much more debt!

Honestly, I have never heard of a 4 year degree that awards a veterinary technician degree at the end, I am sure there are some, but most veterinary technician degree programs that I know of are 2 years. Even with the 4 year degree, the length of time isn't what matters with your post, it is the degree awarded at the end. So basically you are telling the OP that they should get a 4 year bachelor's in "something" just to "have it" and then STILL have to go get their veterinary technician degree to work as a certified/licensed/registered tech... that is making them take 6 years of school, not 4.

What you are saying is that "time" doesn't matter, they should get a bachelor's degree, which depending upon the OP's goals might not be a bad thing, but if they just want to work as a vet tech, that is a ridiculous waste of 4 years and who knows how much money.

Yes, I get it, people might decide they don't like that job suddenly, blah, blah, blah, but not sure that is a reason to spend time NOW on getting a bachelor's just because "maybe" in 10 years they don't want to be a tech anymore. And even if that happens and they quit vet tech 10 years from now, that bachelor's they obtained 10 years ago is basically worthless because they haven't been working in that field.

 

[KCgophervet]

This is all hearsay, but I work with a vet tech who got her 2 year degree, started working as a tech, and then took night classes to finish a Bachelor's. Her tech classes must have contributed to her Bachelor's degree because she did not do a full 4 years after that to finish. It was really expensive and she's still working on paying off the loans from the Bachelor's but she told me that she wanted to have options for advancement and alternate work in the future, should she ever "burn out" of being a tech.

 

[derwent2052]

For long term growth as a vet tech, there are options out there. You don't have to do the same exact role for 30+ years if you don't want to, and don't necessarily have to completely change careers to do something different. The hospital supervisors for the clinics I worked at were vet techs, they ended up taking on management roles in addition to their tech duties (and could potentially stop teching altogether, I've heard of techs moving into practice manager roles and similar). There are also opportunities to specialise after you get your license. I knew a tech who became a dental specialist, and she did all dentals for her practice (iirc including extractions etc, not just cleanings) and dental consultations with clients. There are also specialties in emergency medicine, behaviour, internal medicine, and others, so that's a possible route. ( https://www.navta.net/specialties/specialties lists recognised ones). Some of the company reps that visited our hospital were former technicians as well (but I don't know what/if any additional study they might have had, though some companies may simply have in-house training for certain roles). I'm sure there are other options out there too. There's also other areas you could work in like lab animal research if you get tired of private practice.
You'd certainly have to be active in seeking out or jumping at opportunities for some of those things, maybe think outside the box a bit, but there are options out there if you want to try something a bit different.

For those sorts of things (excluding companies eg pharma or food like Hill's as I don't know their requirements) the 2 year associate's and your tech license should be sufficient degree-wise. The specialties will have their own specific requirements for work and training and I think require case reports and things, but don't require a BSc.
If you have a reputable BSc vet technologist programme, I'd think the main potential gains in it would lie in the additional courses you could take. If they have good science courses you could potentially take things like microbiology or organic chemistry or genetics, so if that's something that interests you it might be worth investigating. You could potentially also take pre-vet science courses if you want to keep that option open if you decide you'd like to pursue a DVM.
It would be very important to suss out whether or not the programme is reputable with quality teaching and to make sure that it would qualify you to sit the VTNE (easy check on https://www.avma.org/ProfessionalDe...Pages/vettech-programs-all-programs-list.aspx ), and not just a crappy programme trying to get 2 extra years of money.

Also consider whether those extra 2 years would be worth it for you - if you don't have an interest in taking those extra science courses, and potentially other courses if they include 'general education' type classes in things like humanities etc, then it's not worth paying for 2 years of it. If you think you might like to take the extra courses for possible pre-vet requirements, you should also check to make sure the courses available would fulfill the pre-vet requirements. But if you'd rather just focus on the courses you need for your license and get out there and start working, I'd say just go for the associate's.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Just to throw it out there, here is a list of all schools in the country that offer a 4 year vet tech program: https://www.avma.org/ProfessionalDe...grams/Pages/bachelor-of-science-programs.aspx

As you can see, it is not very expansive. So now you're looking at OOS tuition (potentially). I can tell you that the Michigan State program is 4 years, but the first two years are just gen-eds (humanities, writing, lower level science courses). So those first two years could be done at community college (aka your pre-reqs). Here's a list of pre-reqs for Michigan: http://cvm.msu.edu/student-informat...technology-program/prerequisite-course-work-1 if you wanted a four year degree. Michigan State also offers just a "certificate of completion" if you do not want to earn a degree. http://cvm.msu.edu/student-informat...technology-program/bachelor-of-science-degree vs. http://cvm.msu.edu/student-informat...-technology-program/certificate-of-completion

That's just one school, but it offers you some perspective on the program. Do your research and find out the best financial options.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Yes, I get it, people might decide they don't like that job suddenly, blah, blah, blah, but not sure that is a reason to spend time NOW on getting a bachelor's just because "maybe" in 10 years they don't want to be a tech anymore. And even if that happens and they quit vet tech 10 years from now, that bachelor's they obtained 10 years ago is basically worthless because they haven't been working in that field.

This. It is poor advice to tell someone to get a bachelor's just because most jobs require a 4-year degree. No one is going to hire someone just because they have a 4-year degree....you need experience in the field you are applying for. Particularly if the OP chose to leave the veterinary field, but still wanted to work with animals. Zookeeping for instance: I usually see that a 4 year degree + 2-3 years PAID experience OR 5+ years paid experience /no degree as a keeper are required to qualify for a job. And that's entry level keepers too, not even for managerial positions. The OP got the theoretical degree in zoology, but still cannot use it. And don't ask me why they require previous paid experience for entry level jobs

If the OP left the veterinary field and wanted to start a career in something totally different....DVMD hit the nail on the head. The degree is useless.