If she wants to spend 4 years of her life and almost a quarter of a million bucks on a science/health-related degree, why is she going to vet school and not med school? Have you guys looked into the economics of being a vet? I googled it and saw a somewhat scary article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/high-debt-and-falling-demand-trap-new-veterinarians.htmlQuote: "Nor is there much in the curriculum about the prospects for graduates or the current state of the profession. Neither, say many professors and doctors, looks very promising.
The problem is a boom in supply (that is, vets) and a decline in demand (namely, veterinary services). Class sizes have been rising at nearly every school, in some cases by as much as 20 percent in recent years. And the cost of vet school has far outpaced the rate of inflation. It has risen to a median of $63,000 a year for out-of-state tuition, fees and living expenses.... This would seem less alarming if vets made more money. But starting salaries have sunk by about 13 percent during the same 10-year period, in inflation-adjusted terms, to $45,575 a year....
“It’s not a sustainable model,” he says of vet school economics. “For the long-term success and health of the veterinary practice, we’ve got to look at every end of it.”
That is a common sentiment among
working vets, many of whom say the job market is the worst they have seen."
Here's something about suggestions on how to save money as a vet student:
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/ansc/undergraduate-programs-1/files/suggestions-on-minimizing-veterinary-educational-debtBut I would urge you guys to really look at this and imagine what it would be like to live with a bare minimum of $30k a year in debts and an average starting salary of... well let's just say, probably half her income (and way more than half of her take-home pay) will go straight back out the door to her student loan servicer.
In 2012, "The average starting salary for all students accepting employment was $45,575, down 3 percent from $46,971 in 2011. When excluding graduates entering advanced education, the average starting salary was $65,404, down 1.6 percent from the average starting salary of $66,469 in 2011."
And notice the phrase "for all students accepting employment": less than 2/3 of graduates actually got job offers right out of school, it seems: "At the time of this year’s survey, 61.5 percent of veterinary students seeking a position in 2012 received an offer of employment or advanced education, down from 74.3 percent in 2011 and from 78.9 percent in 2010. The average number of job offers the students received was 1.6 in 2012, the same as in 2011."
https://www.avma.org/news/pressroom/pages/Veterinary-school-graduates-see-drop-in-job-offers-starting-salaries.aspx