Thoughts on Rising Veterinary Debt: In-state and out-of-state tuition

Thoughts on Rising Veterinary Debt: In-state and out-of-state tuition

I strongly believe that the veterinary profession should be controlled and owned by veterinarians.  I started this blog in part to drive a discussion about how we can encourage veterinarians to continue to own practices. One of factors driving the decline in veterinary ownership is rising veterinary debt.  The current debt load of veterinarians is rising by $4900 a year while average salaries are only rising $700/year.

In 2017, 83% of US Veterinary graduates accumulated debt.  $76,130 was the average salary for a veterinarian while the mean debt was $141000.

This rising debt to income level is unsustainable. It is one of the major factors making our profession less attractive than in the past.  In fact, in the recent Merck study, only 41% of veterinarians overall and only 24% of veterinarians younger than 34 would recommend pursuing a career in veterinary medicine.

Why is there rising veterinary debt?  

When examining the source of the debt, 71.2% is directly attributable to tuition and school fees. Thus, the majority of rising veterinary debt comes down to three factors:

1) Rises in tuition

2) Decreases in state and federal support for higher education and student loans

3) Inadequate scholarship endowments to provide help for rises in tuition

Over the next few weeks, I will examine the impact of these factors on rising veterinary debt.

Today, I want to talk specifically about one factor affecting overall tuition increases: the percentage of in-state versus out-of-state positions.

Historically, most veterinary schools in the United States have been land grant colleges that gave discounted tuition to both in state residents and to contract (RES) students from surrounding states.   In general, out of state or non-subsidized (NR) tuition has been almost double the RES tuition.

Average tuition 2018 (30 US Accredited Veterinary Schools):

RES tuition $26,727

NR tuition  $50,805 

I was curious whether the number of RES positions has changed over time.  Our veterinary schools have increased the number of students per class.  Are these increases helping students apply for RES positions?

I decided to research this question and found several resources to help.  In 2009, the Keck Science Department at Claremont McKenna college put together a summary of class spots and tuition at all accredited continental US veterinary schools.  I was able to use that data as baseline and compare to data found on the AAVMC website and on the college’s own websites for 2018.

I decided to look just at the 30 accredited veterinary colleges within the United States.

Here is a summary of my findings:

All data is based on yearly open positions and yearly tuition.

There has been a 23% increase in the overall number of veterinary school positions (3377 from 2739).   However, only 4 of those spots (0.2%) are new positions with RES tuition.  In contrast, there has been an 86% increase in positions with NR tuition.

Thus, in 2018, only 59% of available veterinary school positions were at a RES rate compared to 75% in 2009.   

If you look at the total class numbers of RES and NR students and the total tuition paid at the 28 schools for which I have full data, you can calculate an overall average tuition/US veterinary student/year.   Using this calculation, in 2009, the average veterinary student’s tuition was $23779/year.  In 2018, the average veterinary student’s tuition was $37191/year.  While inflation from 2009 -2018 was 17.5%, average veterinary student’s tuition increased 56%.

Veterinary schools must find way to balance their budgets with declining government support. However, it is important to understand the implications of these changes for incoming students.  Different approaches have been taken by different colleges as can be seen below.

For individual prospective veterinary students, looking for the best financial option, I highly recommend the VIN Foundation Interactive Cost of Education Map.

My spreadsheets showing individual college data are listed below: