<p>I'm about to begin my undergrad career, and right now i'm pretty stuck between going premed and pre-vet. I would imagine that many of the requirements would overlap, and that it wouldn't be too much of a problem for me to go through my freshman year undecided. However, i wanted to know if anybody knew some of the differences between the requirements that i should take into account when making my schedule.</p>
<p>As i understand it, the acceptance % nationwide is lower for vet school than med school. I would think this is due to the small number of veterinary schools in America. Are veterinary school applicants still less qualified than those applying to med school?</p>
<p>Also, will i have an advantage being a male? It seems veterinary schools generally have a much larger number of females than males.</p>
<p>You need to do some research on your own, talk to the pre-professional adviser at your school, and talk with students who are in the pre-vet/pre-med tracks at your school. You should look to see if there is a vet school in your state or if your college or state perhaps has an agreement with a vet school in another state for their grads/residents to go to vet school there.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aavmc.org/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.aavmc.org/index.html</a> seems like a good place to start.</p>
<p>Yes, there is probably a good deal of overlap in the sequences. </p>
<p>Yes the fewer spots makes vet school difficult to get into. Qualifications look about the same, though the avg GPA for entering students is a little lower than for med school matriculants.</p>
<p>Given the overwhelmingly higher numbers of female applicants (those applying by the application service were 80/20 female/male) it would seem like it would help you somewhat. Probably not as much as you would like.</p>
<p>Off topic comment #1 - I should have gone to vet school to find my sugar momma so I can live out my dream of being a stay at home dad.</p>
<p>Off topic comment #2 - Given the huge gender skew, if you did - as a male - decide to go to vet school, it is likely that in your career you would experience what has been called a "glass escalator" effect (as opposed to a glass ceiling) pushing you towards the higher paying fields of vet medicine or towards positions of leadership which also pay better. I read an interesting book in my sociology capstone about men who were in professions that were traditionally mostly women (librarians, nursing, social work, elementary teachers), and the author found this trend of men being disproportionately more successful in these fields. Interesting stuff.</p>
<p>thanks for the info. I was looking around the internet, and apparently vets in the midatlantic area make some good money. Maybe being a male would help(according to your reading).</p>
<p>I'm just a little worried about placing all of my hope on vet school admissions when it seems so competitive. I have researched a little bit and found that Maryland and Virginia have a joint vet school where about 50 VA spots and 30 MD spots are guaranteed (i'm from MD).</p>
<p>As of now i'm reallly unsure of which direction i want to go in. Medicine interests me, and obviously my (Jewish) family is pushing me to go premed. I've always had an interest in animal care, and prevet seems like the perfect combination. Luckily i have my orientation in 5 days so i can ask all my questions.</p>
<p>Any more info is still very welcome.
thanks.</p>
<p>My understanding - and this is based on hearsay - is that prevet requirements are more specific than premed requirements - i.e. it's not just two semesters of lab bio, it's microbio and ______bio. So be careful.</p>
<p>From my research, that seems pretty accurate. The specific bio courses shouldn't be a problem because i'm entering undergrad as a bio major. I think one of the major differences between the two is that prevet requires biochem(a course that scares me).</p>
<p>Eh, you'd want that as a premed anyway.</p>