Becoming a Vet takes a lot of hard work and is not easy. Yes you have to be really smart to become a Vet. I wouldn’t necessarily say that you need to be smarter than a doctor (by doctor, I assume you mean an M.D., Vets are doctors too), you will definately have to learn more material than an M.D. An M.D. needs to learn a lot about humans, where Vets need to learn a lot about many different animals.

To become a Vet you first need to finish an undergraduate degree, then apply to Vet school. There isn’t a specific undergraduate degree you need, but many vet students have bachelor’s degrees in biology or one of it’s subfields. Some universities have a pre-professional program for students who want to go to Med/Vet/Dental/etc school. Most undergraduate degrees take four years to finish but many people take five years or more.

Once you finish your undergraduate, you apply to get into vet school. Admission toVet school is extremely competitive. There are only 28 Vet schools in the U.S. and each school only takes a set amount of students. And yes, it is actually easier to get into Med school than Vet school. The joke around Vet schools is “What do you call someone who can’t get into/flunked out of Vet School? An M.D.” To get into Vet school, you need a high GPA (as close to a 4.0 as possible), you will need to take a standarized test called the GRE and score well on that, and you will usually have to write an essay.

Once you get in, Vet school takes 4 years. Three years of classes and one year on clinical rotations/externships. Once you graduate, you will need to take national and state boards before you are licensed to pratice.

They have about the same course requirements as med schools. Take the required list of courses and then apply to the vet school. You want to check each vet school’s list, but they’re nearly all the same. Just search for UC Davis Vet School as an example.

The only other thing is they want a certain # of hours working with animals while in college.