Ross Vet School—Worth the debt?

[futuredogtor222]

Writing as a 3rd time applicant who is exhausted with rejection. Was waitlisted at my instate (virginia-maryland) #10 on the MD list and i honestly don’t foresee me getting a spot. My only acceptance was Ross for January start date. Feeling really conflicted as i don’t have the energy in my soul to go through applying again and again at the chance for my instate but also extremely concerned about the debt Ross comes with. Any advice or input welcome😩

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[MixedAnimals77]

I think this is going to be a very personal decision. For me that number was no more than 200k in tuition. Math wise what I was expected to make postgraduation and estimated student loan payments and be able to actually live comfortably that was my number. Imo if you're having reservations I'd encourage you to really dig deep and consider if this is really the end all be all of things vs being happy in another career field. There's nothing wrong with moving on

 

[futuredogtor222]

I think this is going to be a very personal decision. For me that number was no more than 200k in tuition. Math wise what I was expected to make postgraduation and estimated student loan payments and be able to actually live comfortably that was my number. Imo if you're having reservations I'd encourage you to really dig deep and consider if this is really the end all be all of things vs being happy in another career field. There's nothing wrong with moving on

So for me the only reservation with that is hearing debt of 400k which i’m like scared of having a lifetime of debt. have spent the past year wondering if i could see myself in another career and i just couldn’t

 

[JaynaAli]

I would not pay 400k for a veterinary education. I love my job, but it’s not worth the current exorbitant costs, imo. Salaries aren’t high enough to justify that much debt, and I really worry what the incoming glut of new programs will do for the job market down the line (aka when people applying now are looking for their first jobs or are 1-2 years out and entering repayment for these insane loans). Income based repayment does make things doable for many folks, but you’ll have the debt looming over you for 20-25 years until forgiveness which can be difficult mentally. I graduated nine years ago and things were cheaper then, so I was lucky. I feel like 150k debt is probably what would have been my max though I may have stretched a little to 200ish. I realize that’s lower than even the cheapest schools nowadays, and luckily I only borrowed less than half of that myself, if faced with more debt, I’d choose another career…one with higher income potential or lower costs or ideally both. I remember being a prevet and wanting to be a vet more than anything, but as I’ve aged I know that I could have been just as happy/fulfilled doing something else. It’s just a job.

 

[battie]

Couple of points from my perspective as someone who applied 3 times and then ended up repeating first year (so five years of OOS vet school costs).

i don’t have the energy in my soul to go through applying again and again

I had a hard limit of three applications after my first cycle of rejections and one wait list. I had a lot of other things in my life that I wanted like becoming a wife and mom. I wasn't going to have kids during or before vet school, and I personally couldn't delay having kids deep into my 30s.

So continuing to reapply comes down to your *life* priorities. To be honest, I'm a vet 36-48 hours a week. I'm a mom 48 hours a week (as in directly interacting with kiddo) on my 4 days off. I'm a wife a hodgepodge of hours cause we do a lot of stuff together and it obviously overlaps with kiddo time. And then there's me doing the things I love also. Vet med is honestly not a lot of my life now that I'm on the other side.

To that end, I think the concept of visualizing ourselves doing some other kind of work is a limited thought exercise. Kind of like doing an initial work-up. There's so much else in the world, it's impossible to know how we would feel otherwise without some pros/cons lists, exploring other paths, and prioritizing things. My BIL didn't go through college picturing himself working for JCP for 15 years and working his way up in management. But here he is, the manager of a JCP. It pays the bills so that the other hours of the week he's not working, he does what he wants.

So what do you want from life? Don't build your life around your career; build your career around your life. Sometimes that means setting boundaries on careers that may or may not work out. A career is so that you can do what you want outside of work

lifetime of debt

That's the thing. You don't get a lifetime to pay this off. You get 10-25 years, after which you owe the IRS taxes on whatever is left and forgiven at the end. You'll never pay off 400k as a vet. You'd live under a forgiveness plan with the goal of saving for 100k-ish in taxes while paying smaller student loans for 25 years. So consider you'll be playing a financial long game where the government comes calling eventually.

And also consider that **** goes sideways. I repeated first year, which added around 70k to my total in the end of what I have and will ultimately pay (plus the interest!!!). Consider that Ross has one of the the highest anecdotally reported repeats per cohort, that's concerning (reasons why still pending since no one is required to report their attrition rates). And **** can go sideways after graduation.

In hindsight, there are a lot of careers I didn't know about until after I graduated vet school that I would have been well suited for and wish I had the opportunity to consider. But since I had the tunnel vision of "follow your dreams", I never knew they existed. I would be a really good ultrasound tech making almost what I make now with less than a quarter of the debt.