Having earned a degree myself, I can understand the feeling of having to repay student loans after graduating from college and trying to accomplish this with a beginner’s salary in my chosen field. It’s no different in veterinary medicine. Earnings, when you are fresh out of vet school, are still much lower than other professions with similar educational requirements and skills. We’re also in the middle of an economic crisis and student debt is at an all time high. The average educational loan debt of graduating veterinary students has increased over the past decade. The educational debt for UC Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine graduates, for example, has more than doubled since 1993 when the average debt was $29,770. For 2008, it has risen to $102,395
(http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/studentprograms/subpages/admission_info/debt.html).
I think we can all agree that there’s a hefty price to pay when it comes to advancing your education. According to the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), the cost of a veterinary education has also risen about 31% for tuition, fees, books and equipment in the last four years. Don’t forget to add in room and board, personal expenses, transportation and healthcare costs. In a nutshell, vet school can be very expensive.
It’s really unfair. You borrowed thousands of dollars for school because you probably grew up with a sincere love of animals and an interest in science; you may have always wanted to teach or work in a lab or maybe equines and farm management is your thing. For whatever reason, something pulled you into veterinary medicine and now you’re just looking for some financial stability and reward for all the hard work.
Sure, you can offset the debt by working extra hours and cutting down your living expenses, but for managing your student loans right now there’s information out there. I’ve found a website called the Project on Student Debt: The Top 10 Student Loan Tips for Recent Graduates (http://projectonstudentdebt.org/recent_grads.vp.html) that provides some useful tips for staying on top of everything. Hope it helps.