Just an FYI.
We live in SF Bay Area, of course a VERY HCOL area. Our family knows someone who’s a part owner in a multi-location vet company. In talking with her a while back, she mentioned that salaries for vets, from starting out to experienced, was from around roughly $100,000-$250,000 (+/-) with potential bonuses and 4-day work weeks.
One more item.
I realize that you’re located in Alabama, but maybe a program similar to this one exists elsewhere, maybe closer to you.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) has a partnership with the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. It’s a 7-year program, with 3 years of undergrad at SLO and 4 years in Edinburgh, for a total of 7 years of school instead of the usual 8 years.
A friend of the family has a kid there now.
One of my cousins got his veterinary degree in Edinburgh. I’m pretty sure it was a five year degree. Similarly, a friend of my daughter’s is somewhere in the UK for a five year veterinary degree. I don’t know much about veterinary studies but it would seem to be a cost savings overall to study abroad? My cousin works in Europe so I’m not sure about the licensing practices in the US. If the student in question has strong AP scores (I don’t remember if they were mentioned) maybe it would be a consideration.
I hope the student you know is enjoying Edinburgh. It’s a lovely city!
In addition to the debt issues, a concern I have with vet med practice is what I call corporatization of the practice. It has happened in other professions and the results often are less flexibility in how to practice as you want and less income. Happened with pharmacy. Aren’t many independent drug stores anymore. They are pretty much all corporate where keystrokes are often being tracked for efficiency, vaccinations are tracked/pushed, etc.
You see it already with some corporate owned vet practices. Private equity firms are buying many of them. Ones I have used push all kinds of procedures, medications, etc. Its how they are evaluated. There are some benefits because they often handle marketing, accounting, etc. But there is a trade-off for that.
That does seem to be the way the world is going, but we aren’t seeing too much here yet. We have two independent pharmacies in town and multiple independent vets within 30 miles or so. Also multiple general practicioner practices and a couple of dentists. I could see the switch to corporate owned practices as a trend being a problem though.
Consolidation or “realignment” seems to be wave of the future for many industries, including college football. 
We had to take our dog to our family friend’s multi-location vet hospital one late night/early morning and I was very impressed with the communication, organization, facilities and care.
Just in case I was too negative in my last two posts: Today we got a short video of a baby alpaca, no more than a week old. A few days ago it was near death. Today it appears to be fully recovered and was walking around and then licking my daughter’s hand (with alpaca mom carefully looking from afar, but apparently not too concerned). It is gorgeous.
There are plenty of good moments in the veterinary drop-in clinic!
A friend’s daughter really wanted to go to Tufts, but wasn’t accepted. She attended Colo State and it was a very good choice for her. She got to take her horse with her (parents live about an hour away so could make the arrangements), got a job with the vet hospital as a receptionist but through that got a lot of contact with the vet school people and all kinds of opportunities for volunteering, for surgeries, for research.
It really couldn’t have worked out better. Now she’s in the vet program and still loving it. Being close to home allowed her come home for Christmas dinner but still be back to work her shift at the hospital. Although she could have gone to any undergrad and still been accepted to vet school, going to undergrad at CSU gave her a lot of opportunities she wouldn’t have had at another school (working at the hospital). She didn’t need to work for the money (she’s lucky in that respect), but she did it for the experience and opportunities.
Jumping on here to second Mizzou, that’s where I’m headed in the fall 
It ended up costing about the same as my in state options (AZ) and their vet school allows you to attain in state residency for tuition purposes, and if you do this in undergrad you can get all in state tuition for all 4 years of vet school. Both Mizzou and Mississippi State have early entry veterinary programs she can apply for as a high school senior, which means she can have a guaranteed spot in their vet school if she follows certain requirements during her undergrad at the university
Kansas State and Purdue have early admit programs as well. Its my understanding that those programs are limited in terms of spaces available and are very competitive.
She is definitely applying to Mississippi State. We will take a look at Mizzou. Right now her ACT super score is one point short of the threshold to apply for the early entry at MS State. She is taking the ACT tomorrow and really hoping to raise her score. Also, she is trying to arrange some job shadowing/volunteering with our local vet so that she will have experience. I think it is the combination of the competitiveness of the programs combined with the need for major financial aid that is most concerning to me, trying to bring all the pieces together. The only thing with the early admission to vet school at State is that her non-residency status will be locked in for the entire time, but it looks like out of state tuition at their vet school is only a little higher than in state at Auburn.
You have not asked for additional college suggestions. But, if you’re trying to make college as affordable as possible, have you thought about these options?
For reference, Auburn’s cost-of-attendance (COA) for in-state students is $33,650 per year with about 24k undergrads, and it dos not appear your daughter would qualify for any of its automatic scholarships.
Alabama A&M (HBCU) has a COA of $24,234. If your daughter’s GPA is over a 3.25 then she would qualify for the AAMU Merit Scholarship which would cover full tuition here.
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (GA) has a COA of $22,633 for out-of-state students and I would not be surprised if your daughter was to receive additional scholarship money. About 4k undergrads.
Tuskegee (AL, HBCU): If your daughter’s GPA is over a 3.5 unweighted, she qualifies for a full tuition scholarship + $800 for books. That leaves room & board for grants to cover. Tuskegee has a veterinary school.
Lincoln Memorial (TN): Based on the chart, your daughter seems likely to receive at least $9-10k in scholarship money. This would bring the cost of attendance to about $30,050, and there is a veterinary school here, too. About 1800 undergrads.
The most important factor for getting into vet school is going to be grades - there are vet schools that will not advance you in the application process if you do not meet the GPA cut off in the first instance - and she will need high grades in advanced math and science classes. You mentioned your daughter has a 4.0 - does that GPA include AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics - how did she do in the science/math portion of the ACT? Because vet schools require Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Physics - and you cannot just “pass” these courses, most vet schools require a minimum of C, some a C- but none will take a D. Of course loving animals, animal experience, finances etc. are important BUT she needs to go to an undergraduate school where she is happy and can be successful because she will have to be successful in very challenging STEM classes. She may walk into a college orgo class and decide this is NOT for her - so I would chose an undergraduate college that will offer options for other career paths just in case.
We live in a small rural town, our school does not offer AP classes. She has taken the highest level classes taught at our school. Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry, and will be taking Physics this year. Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II & Trigonometry, and will be taking Pre-Calculus this year. She took the ACT again last Saturday and doesn’t have those scores yet, but on previous sessions has a 25 in science, 22 in math, 30 in English, 25 in reading, and 6 in writing.
She will be applying to a few schools that have the potential for good scholarship money and likely admittance. UNA will probably be her safety school, where she is likely to be admitted and also to get enough financial aid to attend.
I’m going to send you a private message!
First I think you should see how she does in those required - very challenging - science & math courses in college. If she can get through those THEN start worrying about where to apply to vet schools. Depending where she goes to college she will be in classes with students from all over the state and country who may have had a more rigorous curriculum and will do well in those classes - setting a higher bar and curve. She will have opportunities to gain animal hours in college so I wouldn’t sweat that now - some kids count pet sitting and dog walking on the vet school application as animal hours - even working at a shelter. Maybe if she shadows a vet now it will give her a better idea what the profession is like, but she is still going to have to make those grades. FYI Auburn was one of the vet schools my daughter applied to and they seemed to take a good number of students from Berea. She should check out Student Doctor Network to see what the vet school competition looks like Successful Applicants c/o 2026 | Student Doctor Network
I do not think that I would be concerned about this at all.
In terms of admissions to universities, admissions expects you to do well at whatever high school you attended. They do not expect you to fix your high school.
In terms of doing well at university, again I do not see any big issue here. I attended a high school that had no AP classes at all. The only implication is that I needed to take calculus as a freshman in university. Okay, I took one less elective compared to most students where I was attending. One daughter attended a high school that did not offer any AP classes. She started freshman year “biology for biology majors” with some other students who had already taken AP biology. It did not seem to matter. She still did very well in the class.
I think that a strong student can figure out how to catch up on the small amount of stuff that they did not get from not taking AP classes.
I agree that you need to see how your daughter does in the tough university pre-vet/premed classes. Then figure out the next step.
My daughter got her scores for the July ACT. The composite for that test was an increase and her super score composite increased as well. She made a 27 on that test and now has 29 super score. I realize that doesn’t sound very good compared to what I see posted on this site, but it is actually really good compared to other students at her school. She was right when she said she thought she did badly on the math section, her math score went down a few points. I am hoping she can pull her math score up on the next test. Her highest section scores at this point are 33 in reading, 30 in English, 29 in science, and 22 in math.
She also submitted her application to Berea and UNA, though she still needs to have transcripts sent, and have guidance counselor and teachers submit rec forms and letters. She already has a resume but needs to review it and make sure everything is up to date and in good order before submitting it. Most of the schools applications open August 1st, as well as the common app. I will probably have her take a look at the common app and possibly use that instead of submitting separate applications. She also needs to have the counselor fill out the fee waiver form. I am not sure what her chance of being accepted is like, but she at least now has the required score to apply for Mississippi State’s early admission to vet school.
I feel like she has a good chance of being accepted at the schools she is interested in, but I am less certain about them giving her enough money to make attendance a possibility. She needs basically a full ride and the only ones that I think right now are likely to offer that are UNA and Berea.
From what I have heard lately that score meets the minimum for the early admit program but those they are accepting have higher scores so don’t count on it. Full rides are had to come by so if you get one take it and have her work hard to get the highest grades possible undergrad and get experience.
I realize that it is a long shot, but worth a try anyway.