Ron Hines DVM PhD

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I come from a family of German urban-dwellers who had no hands on experience or interest in animals. My grandfather - who never learned English well enough to work in the USA, was delegated as my baby sitter and we spend endless hours wandering through the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The animals fascinated me. When I was nine in 1952, I began working for Virginia Moe at a Chicago wildlife rehabilitation center, the Trailside Museum of Natural History. My pay was permission to read every book in her library.

Veterinary medicine is a rewarding career for individuals who have empathy for both animals and the clients who own them. You can have terrific animal empathy and not be happy in private veterinary practice and you can have great human empathy and not be happy in practice. You must have them both.

Approximately two thirds of the graduates of U.S. veterinary colleges go into private practice. The rest teach, conduct scientific studies, work for pharmaceutical houses, state and federal animal agencies or the armed forces . there is an option there for you if you want the close relationship with animals without the inter-personal skills required in general practice. More than half the current graduates of U.S. veterinary schools are female. Men went on to more lucrative careers. Also, the number of veterinary graduates that go on for advanced specialty training is increasing steadily.

The trade organization for veterinarians is the American Veterinary Medical Association AVMA . It represents about 70,000 veterinarians in the United States. There are approximately twenty-seven accredited schools of veterinary medicine in the United States, four in Canada and thirty-one in Mexico. All U.S. and Canadian veterinary curricula are four years long. Admission to veterinary college in the U.S. usually requires a four-year degree in the sciences or a satisfactory number of courses in the sciences. High grades are required for admission - especially in the areas of biology and chemistry.

Competition for student class positions is keen because there are always more candidates than slots. Because of this competition, many students elect to study abroad. Common destinations are offshore veterinary schools in the Caribbean such as Ross University. Students that attend U.S. veterinary schools must pass a clinical competency test upon graduation as well as a national board examination. Those graduating from foreign schools other than Canada and a few select European schools must also take a special examination for foreign graduates as well as a test in English proficiency. Most veterinarians earn between sixty and one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year. Most of us carry our medical and malpractice insurance through the A.V.M.A. We tend to be conservative in our habits, self-motivated achievers who are people oriented, perfectionist, and work-a-holics. These traits do not; of course characterize the whole of the profession. But they are characteristic of all the medical professions.

If you are considering becoming a veterinarian, I suggest that you work for a veterinarian for a number of years. Most veterinary students worked summers or after school in veterinary hospitals. The cost of a degree in veterinary medicine (D.V.M. or ?) is high and it is hard to justify the cost of our education based on a return of investment. But return on investment is not something most veterinarians consider early in their careers. Since few of us have this money readily available, I suggest that pre-veterinary students get their undergraduate degree in a field such as registered nursing. This allows them to generate income as they go to pay for veterinary school tuition. It also gives them an excellent profession if they do not complete veterinary school.

I have never regretted the career choice I made.