>> Definitely start early volunteering as early as like high school,
volunteering at animal shelters or your local veterinary hospital.
Just getting hands on experience with animals is a big part of it.
But also just getting actively involved in your community where you're dealing
with people on a day-to-day basis.
Because so much of the profession is actually customer service and dealing with people.
A lot of people thing that being a veterinarian is just hanging out with animals all day.
But really you're talking to people all day.
So just getting involved in the community.
And in terms of academics you have to really be a very good student.
You have to try to have a high grade point average over 3.5 I would say.
So just really focusing on your studies.
And doing a lot of extracurricular work always is helpful when you're applying
to veterinary school and college in general.
The application process is pretty intense.
Every school requires different things.
So if you know you want to state in state there's only
about 28 vet schools in the whole United States.
So you might not be in a state that has a veterinary school.
But a lot of states have affiliations with schools in a nearby state.
So once you get into that school which not everybody does, even if you're very,
very qualified, a lot of people still have
to apply multiple times which is important to realize.
So if you get rejected don't feel awful because it happens and you just try again.
After vet school your options are if you want to be a general practitioner which is what I am,
or do you want to specialize and go further.
Some people do an internship, and then they go
and do their residency so that they can specialize.
So there's really a lot of options for a veterinarian.
You can work for the government, you can be in the military.
You can do pharmaceuticals.
You don't have to see animals on a day-to-day basis.
So that has a lot to do with it.