As a University of Findlay Pre-Veterinary student, you will have a number of different career paths open to you. Many of our students are following the traditional path to a career as a veterinarian by going on to a college of veterinary medicine after graduation. If you would like to go a different route, there are many exciting opportunities within the profession of veterinary medicine today. The majority of UF Pre-Veterinary students are following one of the courses of study below. Dr. Linda Peck and Dr. Mike Kerns can help you choose the pathway best suited to you, based on your individual talents and career goals.

Regardless of which path you choose, here are some of the career options open to you:

Clinical Practice 

• Small animal
• Large animal / Food animal
• Equine
• Mixed
• Exotics
• Companion animal

Industry

• Research and development in fields of nutrition and pharmaceuticals
• Product development in the animal industry
• Laboratory animal medicine
• Zoological medicine

Public

• Air Force Veterinary Corps
• Army Veterinary Corps
• Governmental Public Health programs: local, state, federal levels
• Biosecurity programs

Other

• Wildlife/species preservation
• Marine biology

Admission to a College of Veterinary Medicine
• It usually takes four years of undergraduate study and four years of  professional school to earn a doctorate of veterinary  medicine.

• More than 60 percent of our current juniors and seniors having at least a 3.0 GPA will be accepted to one or more of 27 out of 28 accredited veterinary programs in the United States.

• UF students may be accepted as a three-plus-one student and finish their bachelor’s degree during their first year in professional school. This means you can apply to professional school in your junior year and finish your bachelor’s of science degree while in veterinary school.

• Many students are also accepted upon graduation with their bachelor’s degree.

• Most students currently graduate with a dual major in pre-veterinary medicine and biology. With the new animal science major beginning in the fall of 2007, students will be provided with another strong option for a second major.

Admission to Graduate School
• Many students choose to broaden their career opportunities by entering a master’s program. This gives students much more flexibility and marketability. UF students have entered master’s programs in theriogenology, nutrition, genetics, reproduction, animal behavior, public health and immunology.

• UF students have used their degrees to teach at colleges and universities or work for human and animal pharmaceutical companies as field representatives or as researchers. They are employed as researchers in private industry, or as animal care specialists and managers in agriculture, zoological parks and research facilities.

• The Ohio State University has created a Master’s of Public Health with a specialization in Veterinary Public Health specifically designed for students like UF’s, who might wish to add a preventive medicine specialty to their degree or enter the field of public health without a doctorate of veterinary medicine. Dr. Armando Hoet, Coordinator of the program, feels UF Pre-Veterinary students are well suited for this program. Some UF students are using this program to add to their knowledge of zoonotic disease (that which can be transmitted from animals to man) prior to going on to veterinary school. 

• Students may also use their master’s to further enhance their doctorate of veterinary medicine degree or as a second career option.