<p>Does anyone know anything about the usefulness of a veterinary technician license? After completing her B.S. degree in psychology in May, my daughter now wants to work with animals. (Kids! :)) A local community college offers an accredited program (associate's degree) in vet tech. I'm hoping she will place out of many of the core requirements, such as English, statistics, anthro. Does anyone have any experience with vet tech? Thanks for any info!</p>
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<p>I think it’s nice that your daughter feels free to take a step down academically, in a way, in order to do something she believes she’ll really enjoy. I’ve often said that if my son finishes his chemistry degree but then decides he’d be happy as an auto mechanic, or whatever, that I’d be okay with that. I don’t know a lot about the veterinary field, but I do know that where we take our dog only the veterinarians have anything beyond an associate’s degree; the rest are vet techs, so presumably it’s a fairly employable degree, although I don’t think the pay is great.</p>
<p>Most colleges, including community colleges, have a “residency requirement”, which means that a certain number of credits have to be earned at that school in order for them to confer a degree. My wife just finished an associate’s program, and at her school the residency requirement was 30 semester hours, or about one year’s worth of coursework.</p>
<p>I would expect your daughter’s transfer credits from her BS degree to cover most, if not all, of the general-ed requirements for the associate’s degree. It would be unusual for a two-year school not to accept transfer credits from a four-year school, but it does depend on the specific course requirements at that school. If they require, say, world history, and your daughter only has American history, then the credit probably won’t transfer.</p>
<p>With a BS, even one in a different field, she should have more opportunities as a veterinary technician than someone with the AS alone, such as supervisory positions. Good luck!</p>
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<p>I don’t know anything about vet tech, but just wanted to add that I know TONS of kids who have done this kind of path…got a well rounded university degree, then went on to get an certificate or diploma from a technical college or university that was used for job specific training (and getting employed!). For many it provides the best of both worlds.</p>
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<p>I employ a lot of kids that think they want to be a vet tech. But these are the kids that got out of high school with their head spinning not knowing what they wanted to do …</p>
<p>The pre-reqs are generally college bio and chem and you need those to be admitted to the program. </p>
<p>I would absolutely check salaries to see if it’s a reasonable career path in your area. In addition, I’d point out that a vet tech certificate or diploma would set her up for other sorts of animal related careers in the pet industry – pet food research and development, pet retail, pet supply manufacturer rep, pet product development. The hard truth is that working <em>directly</em> hands on with animals does not normally pay as well as working in the industry surrounding the animals.</p>
<p>Your D might also discover that some of the health related programs might be of interest to her and pay better — such as radiology tech and things like that. I’m going to suggest that she see if she can shadow a vet tech before she decides on that sort of program.</p>
<p>I also want to add that not every state requires <em>licensed</em> vet techs and on-the-job training used to be very prevalent and still is in some areas. Additionally, all those people you see in the vets office are not techs – some are <em>assistants</em>, some are <em>kennel help</em>, some are <em>animal handlers</em>, some are <em>office managers</em>. Our local cc offers a veterinary assistant course as well as the vet tech course. </p>
<p>Good luck to her –</p>
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<p>From what I’ve heard, there are actually bachelor’s degrees for people who want to be vet techs. There aren’t a lot of programs out there for this, but they do exist, so that a student can graduate with a bachelor’s and be a licensed vet tech. </p>
<p>Actually, our last house/dog sitter (we put our dog down in March so we no longer need her) had her bachelor’s degree as a vet tech, worked part-time in this capacity, and supplemented her income with house sitting. She was the best thing that came along for us, regarding an aging dog and I wished we’d found her sooner.</p>
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<p>I would like to echo the suggestion to be sure to throughly research the salary of a vet tech in your area. Here in the midwest in a private practice type of situation you are looking at $20000/year if you are lucky w/ limited benefits. We also have an oversupply of techs at this point in our area. </p>
<p>I would also suggest that she try to get into a clinic for observation for a few weeks (think no pay here) to be sure this is her calling. Totally different career than what many people think it is.</p>
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<p>My D expressed an interest in Vet Tech as a career. She visited Purdue and had meetings with the Vet Tech program (they offer a BA), the Vet school and the Animal Science department. It was educational. She crossed Vet Tech off. The pay is basically just above min wage in many places.
Someone suggested to my D to look at the Animal Training Program at Moorpark College.</p>
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