Veterinary Clinical Services

Types of Degrees Veterinary Clinical Services Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many veterinary biomedical and clinical services graduations there were in 2018-2019 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	256
Associate’s Degree	188
Doctor’s Degree	110
Graduate Certificate	89
Undergraduate Certificate	80
Bachelor’s Degree	32
Basic Certificate	27

What Veterinary Clinical Services Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to veterinary clinical services and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Veterinary Clinical Services Majors

Veterinary Clinical Services majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.

Skills for Veterinary Clinical Services Majors

When studying veterinary clinical services, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.

Abilities for Veterinary Clinical Services Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a veterinary clinical services student include the following:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

What Can You Do With a Veterinary Clinical Services Major?

People with a veterinary clinical services degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Health Specialties Professors	25.9%	$97,370
Veterinarians	18.8%	$93,830

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Veterinary Clinical Services?

This is a less frequently chosen undergraduate major. Only 32 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in veterinary biomedical and clinical services in 2019, making it rank #304 in popularity. The major attracts more women than men. About 66% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of veterinary clinical services majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	3
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	1
White	26
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	2

How Much Do Veterinary Clinical Services Majors Make?

Bachelor’s Degree Starting Salary

The median starting salary of students who graduated in 2015-2017 with a bachelor’s degree in veterinary clinical services was $41,200 per year. These stats come from the U.S. Department of Education. During this timeframe, most salaries fell between $41,200 (25th percentile) and $41,200 (75th percentile).

Note that some of these people may have jobs that are not directly related to a veterinary clinical services degree.

Salaries According to BLS

Veterinary Clinical Services majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $105,240 to $122,320 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Veterinary Clinical Services

Some careers associated with veterinary clinical services require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for veterinary clinical services careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	1.3%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	2.2%
Bachelor’s Degree	5.8%
Master’s Degree	16.7%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	12.6%
Doctoral Degree	51.8%
Post-Doctoral Training	9.7%

Online Veterinary Clinical Services Programs

In 2018-2019, 45 schools offered a veterinary clinical services program of some type. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	3	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	2	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	4	0
Bachelor’s Degree	6	0
Post-Baccalaureate	3	0
Master’s Degree	46	4
Post-Master’s	3	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	32	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	2	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Veterinary Clinical Services Worth It?

The median salary for a veterinary clinical services grad is $105,240 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 164% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $1,306,800 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Veterinary Clinical Services

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to veterinary clinical services.

Major	Number of Grads
Nursing	305,309
Allied Health & Medical Assisting Services	99,641
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants	93,192
Allied Health Professions	86,697
Health & Medical Administrative Services	82,868
Public Health	36,569
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	28,559
Mental & Social Health Services	27,743
Dental Support Services	26,183
Health Sciences & Services	25,948
Communication Sciences	21,606
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences	19,767
Medicine	19,720
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	19,354
Somatic Bodywork & Therapeutic Services	11,961
Health/Medical Prep Programs	11,279
Other Health Professions	8,168
Osteopathic Medicine	6,700
Dentistry	6,403
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	5,877
Alternative Medicine & Systems	3,576
Veterinary Medicine	3,297
Health Aids/Attendants/Orderlies	3,251
Chiropractic	2,608
Optometry	1,747
Advanced Dentistry & Oral Sciences	1,685
Medical Illustration & Informatics	1,624
Ophthalmic & Optometric Support Services	1,044
Medical Science	809
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	597
Podiatry	579
Movement & Mind-Body Therapies	444
Alternative Medical Support Services	191
Energy & Biologically Based Therapies	73

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.