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Projection

22 11:16:38

Question
I am a 21 y/o undergraduate student almost finished with my degree in Marine Biology/Wildlife Rahab/Pre-Vet, all the way until last year I was the go to guy for "Shark's" on the eastern seaboard even a high school drop-out was accepted to Duke out of pure word of mouth. Now I have developed a love for inland wildlife droping the call's to study Marine Life. My I saw you are the Rabbit lady but have a Ph.D. in Biology. I have been accepted to both Vet School at NC State and Graduate School at Duke for Biology. I want to keep my options open in my further studies and career options. Do you have any suggestions that will keep my options open without limiting and having to attened further schooling so I can do both rather than one or the other.  

Answer
Dear John,

Congratulations on your acceptances to both vet school and grad school!  You do have a tough decision ahead of you.  But truthfully, I think it would be better to get the Ph.D., and *then* the DVM, since the Ph.D. is a higher degree, and will allow you more freedom to "write your own ticket".  You also will get a broader education in the graduate program, though less practical.

Duke is a member of the Organization for Tropical Studies (in fact, it's the Flagship Institution), and if you're interested in inland wildlife, this is *definitely* something you'll want to check out.  OTS offers various graduate courses in field ecology over the summer in Costa Rica, and they will change your life.  It's a much richer experience, in my opinion, than going to vet school where you'll be doing pretty much classroom and lab work for several years.

It will very likely be easier to get into vet school with a Ph.D. than the other way around, though either one is possible.

I may be biased, but in my opinion you would remain more versatile by getting the Ph.D. first.  It's a lot of work, but it makes you incredibly marketable (as long as you publish!), and you can use that degree as a springboard to just about *anything* else.

Don't know if that helps you, but that's my opinion.  Good luck!

Dana