How To Pay for Vet School

Becoming a veterinarian requires more than just a love of animals. If you’re interested in veterinary medicine, you’ll need to complete a bachelor’s degree before enrolling in a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program, which requires four more years of education. 

Getting your DVM can be costly. The American Veterinary Medical Association reports that the average debt balance for all vet school graduates is $147,258 — but that average rises to $179,505 if you exclude all grads who paid for their schooling without any student loans. 

If you’re considering veterinary school, here’s what you need to know about how to pay for your education.

Current private student loan rates

How much does vet school cost?

The average cost of veterinary school can vary, depending on whether you attend an in-state or out-of-state program.

“As an in-state student, vet school costs me about $20,000 to $25,000 per year,” says Kendall Moore, a third-year veterinary student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. “Out-of-state students might pay upwards of $45,000 a year.” 

Research from the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges supports this. In 2024, in-state veterinary school graduates paid between $191,000 and $395,000 for their DVM degree, depending on the school they attended. Out-of-state students paid between $253,000 and $456,000 for four years of veterinary school, depending on the institution.

These prices include the total cost of enrollment, which comprises tuition, books and equipment, and living expenses. According to Moore, “tuition itself [at Purdue] is only about $10,000. And for most students, including myself, we pay for housing and food from a federal loan for another $10,000.” 

Federal student loans for vet school

Veterinary school is eligible for federal student loans if you attend a qualifying institution. While you must repay these loans after completing your DVM degree, you won’t have to make any payments toward your federal student debt while you’re still in school.

These are the loans available to veterinary students:

Direct Unsubsidized Loans

Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to receive federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans. There are annual and aggregate loan limits for unsubsidized loans. Students enrolled in veterinary school are considered graduate or professional students. For these students, the annual loan limit is $20,500, and the aggregate limit is $138,500. If you’ve taken out federal student loans for your undergraduate degree, those are included in your aggregate loan limit.

Federal student loan interest rates are set annually and are fixed for the life of the loan. The rate for Direct Unsubsidized Loans for graduate students in the 2025-26 academic year is 7.94%. You can also expect to pay an origination fee of 1.057%, which will be deducted from your loan proceeds.

Interest on your unsubsidized loan accrues while you’re in school, although you may choose to make interest payments while in school to reduce your total cost of borrowing. Repayment doesn’t officially begin until six months after you graduate or leave school.

See Also: Compare the Best Graduate Student Loans

Direct PLUS Loans

If you have federal student loans from your undergraduate degree, the cost of veterinary school may put you over your aggregate loan limit. However, if you’ve maxed out your Direct Unsubsidized Loan limits, you can still take out a grad PLUS loan.

PLUS loans are available to graduate or professional students, as well as parents of dependent undergraduate students. With a PLUS loan, you can borrow as much as your school’s total cost of attendance, minus any other financial aid you’ve received. 

Like Direct Unsubsidized Loans, grad PLUS loans have fixed interest rates for the life of the loan. For the 2025-26 school year, the rate is set at 8.94%. Interest accrues while you’re in school, although you always have the option to make interest payments during school to reduce the total cost of borrowing. Your repayment begins six months after you graduate or leave school.

Private student loans for veterinary school

If federal student loans aren’t sufficient to cover your vet school tuition and fees, you may consider private student loans to bridge the gap. Private lenders typically allow student borrowers to borrow up to the school-certified cost of attendance, which means a private loan could help you pay for the entire cost of veterinary school.

You’ll have to meet a private lender’s minimum credit and income requirements to qualify for a loan. If you can’t meet the eligibility requirements on your own, you may need to take out private loans with a cosigner, who’ll be responsible for the loan if you fail to repay it. Some private loans also don’t offer in-school deferment, meaning you have to start repaying your student loan immediately. 

If you decide to take out private loans, make sure you compare lenders so you find the most favorable rates, terms, and cosigner options available for your situation.

Dr. Catherine Havemann, DVM, cautions against taking out too much debt for a veterinary medical degree, since it can be tricky to pay it back if you don’t earn as much as you expect to. 

“I’m a specialty surgeon. I’m fortunate that I’m in one of the highest-paid fields in veterinary medicine,” she says. “Most of my colleagues make around $120,000 to $150,000 per year, depending on where they live and how much they work.”

Check Out: How To Apply for Student Loans: Federal & Private

Scholarships and grants for veterinary students

Scholarships and grants are financial aid that you don’t have to repay. It’s smart to apply for all the veterinary scholarships and grants you’re eligible for, which may include these options:

National scholarships

The American Veterinary Medical Foundation offers a number of scholarships to veterinary students, with varying eligibility requirements. These include the $10,000 Merck Animal Health Scholarship, the $5,000 Embrace Pet Insurance Scholarship, and the $4,400 Hoveida Family Foundation Scholarship in Research.

State scholarships

There are also several state-specific scholarships and grants available, such as the Mildred Sylvester Scholarship, which is awarded to a student who has a connection to New Jersey, and the Arkansas Health Education Grant, which provides money to Arkansas residents to offset tuition costs for health care careers, including veterinary medicine.

Institutional scholarships

Your school may offer you a number of grants or scholarships to help cover the cost of attendance as part of your financial aid package. For example, Kyndall Norris, a third-year DVM student at Purdue University, says that she received the following six scholarships without having to apply for the money:

• Frank W. Buckley Scholarship: $1,000/semester
• General University Grant Vet Medicine: $1,600/semester
• Michael Gutwein Memorial Scholarship: $500/semester
• Rebar and McLaughlin Scholarship ICM: $750/semester
• SVM Class of 1968 Scholarship: $1,000/semester
• Donald and Mary J. Stanley Scholarship: $1,000/semester

“These scholarships were automatically applied for me when I came to school and they’re tacked on every semester,” says Norris. Scholarships like these are typically awarded because the student demonstrated financial need as determined by their FAFSA.

Loan forgiveness and repayment options for veterinarians

If you’re concerned about repaying your federal student loans for veterinary school, there are several loan forgiveness and repayment options available that may help make repayment easier. These include:

• Income-driven repayment (IDR) plans: With income-driven repayment, your monthly federal student loan payment is set based on your income and family size. If you opt for an IDR plan, you’ll need to recertify your income and family size every year in order to remain eligible. At the end of the repayment term (20 to 30 years, depending on the plan), any remaining balance will be forgiven. 
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): If you use your DVM degree in a not-for-profit or government job, you may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness after 120 qualifying student loan payments.
• USDA Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment program: This program offers up to $40,000 in annual student loan repayment to veterinarians who agree to work in a veterinarian shortage area for 3 years.

How to manage vet school debt after graduation

The median annual salary for a veterinarian is $119,100, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While a six-figure salary can be more than enough to cover living expenses, it may not be sufficient to handle a high level of veterinary school debt.

Havemann offers several suggestions for managing vet school debt after receiving your DVM:

• Front-load your debt payments: If it’s an option for you, consider living with your family and paying as much of your salary as possible toward your loans for 2 to 3 years. This may allow you to get out from under your loans altogether.
• Plan for IDR forgiveness: You might also consider making the minimum IDR payments for 20 to 30 years until you can get the remaining balance forgiven. “You’ll need a financial plan or an investment account at the end of those years to handle the potential tax bomb, though,” says Havemann. Since the forgiven debt will be considered income in the year you receive loan forgiveness, you may have a large tax bill, depending on the size of the balance forgiven.
• Refinance to more favorable terms: Depending on your loan terms, it may make sense to refinance when your income and credit stabilize. “Last year I refinanced my loans [from 6.8%] to 4.15%,” she says. “I plan to pay them off in the next 2 to 3 years. I graduated in 2010, so it will end up taking me 18 to 20 years total to pay off my loans.”

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