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Kraena Pre-Health
Career Library

Diagnose & Treat

Veterinarian (DVM)

All of medicine's problem-solving — with patients who cannot tell you what hurts.

Years after high school

8

Degree

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM or VMD)

Entrance exam

GRE (varies by school)

Median pay

$130,100 national median for veterinarians (BLS, May 2025).

What the job is actually like

Appointments, vaccinations, diagnostics, and surgery — with the added work of reading an animal that cannot describe symptoms while communicating with an owner who makes every decision, including whether to treat at all. Emotionally heavy: euthanasia is a routine part of the job.

The path

  1. 014 years undergraduate with heavy science prerequisites
  2. 02Hundreds of animal and veterinary experience hours — programs weigh these heavily
  3. 03GRE at some schools
  4. 044 years veterinary school
  5. 05Optional internship and residency for specialties such as surgery or oncology

Good fit if

  • You want full diagnostic and surgical authority
  • You read animals well and communicate clearly with anxious owners
  • You would rather own a practice than be employed

Think twice if

  • The debt-to-income ratio worries you — it is the weakest of any doctoral health path
  • Euthanasia and owners declining treatment for cost would be hard to carry
  • You assume it is easier to get into than medical school — there are far fewer schools

Worth knowing

Veterinary medicine has among the highest debt-to-income ratios of any health profession, and the field has well-documented mental health challenges. Go in with your eyes open, and talk to practising vets about both.

Similar paths worth comparing

Physician (MD or DO)

Diagnoses and treats illness, leads the care team, and carries final responsibility for the plan.

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Physician Assistant (PA)

Diagnoses, treats, and prescribes in collaboration with a physician — much of a doctor's scope, in a fraction of the training time.

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Pharmacist (PharmD)

The medication expert — catches dangerous interactions and dosing errors that would otherwise reach patients.

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All salary figures here are median annual wages from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 — the most recent full national dataset. 'Median' means half of workers earn more and half earn less. Three things to keep in mind: (1) pay varies enormously by state, city, setting, and experience — a nurse in California and a nurse in rural Alabama earn very different salaries; (2) training lengths are typical, not guaranteed, and programs differ; (3) these numbers change every year. Always verify current figures at bls.gov/ooh before making a decision. For context, the BLS median wage for all U.S. occupations was $50,980, while healthcare practitioner and technical occupations had a median of $86,530 — one of the reasons health care is such a stable field.