I am just about to finish up my first year of vet school in Australia. I have recently received emails from a couple of people asking me what it takes to become a vet, and since the topic is also being discussed on the FML I thought I would just respond here. To those of you who emailed me directly, I apologize for not getting back to you directly but if you have more questions after reading this post, please email me again. I will respond as soon as I can but as Sukie correctly stated you have to work your tail off in vet school; since exams are on the horizon I really should be studying right now! To get into vet school in North America the pre-vet requirements generally include successful completion of at least two years of university including english, chemistry, physics, biology, math, genetics, microbiology, biochemistry, organic chemistry, and a number of electives. Some vet schools now require their applicants to write the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), the same exam required for entry into med school. Some vet schools expect their applicants to have a Bachelors degree. In the US, applicants must write the GRE and the process is a bit different than Canadian schools. Go to http://www.aavmc.org/vmcas/vmcas2.htm for more information. The best way to determine each vet school s requirements is to visit their website. While it is possible to obtain credit for some classes taken as part of a vocational program, including animal health tech/vet tech programs, these are usually determined on an individual basis and from what I understand there is a credit limit to what some universities allow. Some schools state vet-related and animal-related experience are not necessarily required (but it is), while others base part of your admission on this experience. If you are interested in going to vet school (and heaven knows we need more ferret vets!!) then get yourself some vet related experience (large, small and mixed clinics) and animal-related experience (companion animal or wildlife shelters, zoos, breeding facilities). First, to see if you really like it, and second, to help your application. The competition is tight, grades have to be high, and the process can be tedious, but if a career in vet is what you want to do, then do it! >But how much of Veterinary study is focused on nutrition? It baffles me >that a lot of vets recommend crappy food. It makes me wonder how much >they really know. While I am not a vet yet, I will make this statement and any vets out there that want to expand on, or contradict my statement, please do so. Vets don t come out of vet school knowing everything they need to know for their careers. We are taught principles, and are expected to rely on these principles in our later clinical years and our careers. We learn everything human doctors do, but in a number of species. At my uni, we learn the basics and then learn all of the species exceptions to the rule. The species we cover? Horse, cow, sheep, dog, and pig. What have I learned about ferrets? Not much. What have I learned about nutrition? TONS! Nutrition of sheep, horses, dairy cattle, beef cattle, birds, camelids (alpacas, llamas, camels), goats, and pigs. This is what I have learned (word for word) about ferret nutrition. Carnivorous. Nutritional requirements not exactly known, presumed to be similar to cat and mink. Can be fed cat food and table scraps once or twice daily. Obviously, this is not the best summary of ferret nutrition. I did learn quite a bit about ferret nutrition because we were allowed to choose our own topic for a term paper. I will be posting the paper on my website as soon as I can get my Adobe working correctly. Hope this helps! Back to the books! Shelby Kimura "Shoot for the moon. If you miss, you'll still be among the stars." [Posted in FML issue 3946]