Veterinary School Debt: Current Landscape

The "average" vet school debt is irrelevant, and sheds little to no light on your individual path.

Class of 2025: average DVM debt of $212,499 among graduates who carry debt. $174,484 if you average in the ones who don't.

The AVMA calls the debt-to-income ratio manageable at 1.4:1.

On paper, fine.

Now break the average apart.

18% of the class graduated with zero DVM debt.

40% owe $200,000 or more.

Nearly 20% owe more than $300,000.

6% owe more than $400,000.

That isn't one profession with a manageable average.

That's two professions wearing the same coat.

One graduates free and can consider ownership in their early thirties.

The other graduates owing more than a house, and spends a decade servicing it before anyone will discuss a practice loan.

Vet school debt rose 13% between 2022 and 2025.

The gap isn't closing. It's widening.

And it matters beyond the individual.

The profession needs that second group to buy the practices the retiring generation is trying to sell.

If they can't get financed, those practices don't go to associates.

They go corporate. Or they close.

Averages hide the people the number was meant to describe.

At Capital4Healthcare, we've financed veterinary practice acquisitions nationwide since 1996, including for buyers that lenders called too leveraged.

If you graduated with debt — how long before ownership even felt like a real option?