How respectable is veterinary medicine in America?

29 comments

1. Veterinarians are relatively well respected. Like doctors, they are going to have some jerk patients who don’t like them. But in general, if you tell your parents you want to be a vet, they aren’t going to tell you to “get a real job.” They may just be concerned about the costs of schooling and so on.

2. When I first got to college I wanted to be a veterinarian and my mom used to brag about that to people. Then after sophomore year I completely gave up on school, barely made a C average and spent two years working retail and service jobs. She would have been proud if I had accomplished that though.

3. It’s respectable, because they can make good money. But the “reapect” is below everyone in the human medical field.

4. Because there aren’t enough school seats, becoming a vet is more difficult than becoming a human doctor while having worse pay and typically being self-employed (with all the lifestyle challenges that entails). Think dentistry but with worse chances of success and dealing with almost as insane a client population as pediatricians (you’ll be just as bad when it’s your baby limping).

5. Very respectable. The programs are difficult to get into and income is high.

6. >Just wondering how prestigious/respected veterinary medicine is considered in your guys’ households?

   I hold them in the highest regard. There is no way i could do what they do.

   >How would your parents react if you wanted to be a veterinarian/veterinary doctor?

   Well I’m 40 so my remaining parent would probably be a bit confused.

   Now if my son wanted to be a vet, I would be very encouraging of that but as soon as he was old enough I would let him know, in no uncertain terms, that a big part of that job is putting animals to sleep, and in most cases those animals are people’s pets, just like his dogs.

   My wife, on the other hand, would be ecstatic.

   If my son became a vet I imagine my wife would expand our collection of dogs to between 6 and 8.

7. It’s well respected as a career choice. They make good money and they do genuine good for animals.

   They wouldn’t be taken very seriously in a medical discussion by anyone RN or above though which is kind of unfortunate. They go through very thorough and rigorous education and let’s be honest, the anatomical and physiological differences between all mammals is pretty minimal when you really think about it

8. I feel like Americans effing love their dogs and cats these days more than ever. So sure it’s not like being a people doctor, but people still really like their pets to not die. So such people recognize their necessity, making it reasonably prestigious and respected.

9. Large animal vets are well respected by the farming community for their horses, cows, sheep, etc.

10. I always wonder what the base assumption is for this question.

    If you’re at the grocery store, the post office, or even at a resort on vacation, how does anyone know what you do for a living? Or is this in the context of pleasing your parents and older relatives? Or is it about attracting a spouse by virtue of your occupation?

    My friend group has engineers, teachers, baristas, and retail associates. Every profession is legitimate. Respect is earned through good actions.

11. Very respected

12. Very well respected – they’re doctors. It’s a difficult profession and hard to get into/graduate from vet school, so most people would be very proud if their child became a vet.

13. It’s respectable. I’d say it’s probably on par with nurse practitioners, though it’s less prestigious than being a doctor.

    My parents would have gladly supported me if I’d gone into that instead of engineering.

14. They’re very well respected, but it’s a really, really tough job. At least in the past few years, it had one of the higher suicide rates of any profession.

15. As a child, I wanted to be a vet when I grew up. My mother did not try to convince me to do something else when I got older. In 8th grade I decided that being a vet wasn’t for me, and I ended up in a completely different profession.

16. Very respectable, but high cost of tuition for relatively low income comparatively to other white collar careers – particularly human medicine.

17. It’s a rough job, and has a high suicide rate. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266064/

18. They get a lot of respect, but their education is extremely difficult – worse than most medical doctors, and their income is much more limited.

    You would absolutely have to LOVE the idea of working with animals to make that choice.

19. My dad wanted my sister to be a vet so it’s pretty well respected lol. It isn’t an easy job and having cattle and other large animals we know how hard it can be and how few large animals vets there are now.

20. Among the most respected careers in my mind. Caring for creatures that can’t provide anything in return in an extremely stressful environment? Vets are among the very best people. I’ve had wonderful experiences with mine.

21. I mean I can respect what they do.

    I also hate how the bill is always high as fuck lol. Sometimes I feel I’m getting ripped off, in the way mechanics can do, because what the fuck do I know about dogs health.

22. I’m a human doctor, but my undergraduate grades weren’t competitive enough for vet school.

    So, yes, I have a huge amount of respect for the profession.

23. It’s pretty respected profession.

24. I feel like a lot of the ppl in this thread don’t actually grasp what is meant by “respectable field of study” in the sense its used in other parts of the world. Here “respect” and “honor” and “dignity” and “integrity” are fairly separate concepts and not as intertwined as in Asia and Africa.

    That said, veterinary medicine as a field of study that is very highly respected. Everyone is aware of the difficulty of the subjects and the strength of will and discipline required to attain an education in the field.

    As a practicioner I’d say it’s a very respected profession generally, though some small populations of elitists might feel it to be “overrated”, and that caring for an animal should be from experience and to a degree instinctual, this is usually in rural settings where farmers have family farms passed down generations (and even the it is not the norm.)

25. In a rural setting, highly respectable.

    I’d say on par with a Humand Doctor.

    Rural people appreciate Veterinarians alot.

26. Wife is a veterinarian.

    People generally respect veterinarians.

    Vet school admissions are more competitive than medical school.

    I would not encourage my child to be a veterinarian. It’s an expensive degree, salaries are poor for the level of education, and it’s emotionally draining. High suicide rate. I earn more money than my wife, when she’s got twice the education, spent far more money for that education, and has a much more challenging job.

27. Very well respected.

28. I think they deserve a lot of respect having to know a lot of different animal anatomies and conditions, not just needing to know a human’s

29. They make more money than me, get to hang out with animals all day…. so I, and my parents, would be fine with that occupation.