Veterinarian Loan Repayment in Minnesota

This is loan repayment against qualified educational loans, not a scholarship or a forgivable school loan: the Minnesota Office of Higher Education pays an annual disbursement for each year of completed service, directly to the participant rather than to a loan servicer.

The guidelines leave it to the participant whether to pass each annual amount to a servicer as a lump sum or in monthly payments.

Selections are made by a committee of University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine faculty and administrators, and the authorizing law is Minn. Stat. §136A.1795, which the statute titles the Large Animal Veterinarian Loan Forgiveness Program — the same program under OHE's Rural Veterinarian name.

Before each disbursement, OHE verifies continued employment and that the previous funds were applied to the designated loans.

Eligibility runs to students making satisfactory progress in the DVM program at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, and to veterinarians that school awarded the DVM within three years of applying.

A degree from any other veterinary school does not meet the requirement.

Currently practicing providers may apply, but no credit is given for service before the service obligation begin date, and preference goes to applicants closest to completing their training.

The practice test then requires a practice at least 50 percent involved with the care of food animals — cattle, goats, pigs, poultry and sheep — in a designated rural area, defined as outside the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington, excluding the cities of Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, Rochester and St. Cloud.

Selection is competitive, with a maximum of five awards.

OHE pays $15,000 for each year of the five-year service obligation, and the total cannot exceed $75,000 or the principal balance and accrued interest of your qualified educational loans, whichever limit is reached first.

The yearly amount is level, so there is no back-loaded schedule to plan around — unless your remaining loan balance drops below the annual amount, in which case you receive the smaller figure.

Qualified educational loans are government, commercial or foundation loans for actual costs paid for tuition, reasonable education expenses and reasonable living expenses related to the undergraduate or graduate education of a veterinarian.

A maximum of five awards will be made, and the statute limits each year's selections to available funding.

The service obligation runs five consecutive years, working at least 30 hours per week for at least 45 weeks per year, in a designated rural area, for a practice at least 50 percent involved with the care of food animals.

If you do not complete the five years, the program requires repaying the total amount paid plus interest.

The statute requires OHE to waive all or part of that amount when emergency circumstances — conditions such as death or a total and permanent disability that make it impossible to meet the commitment — prevented fulfillment.

The guidelines allow temporary suspension of service for illness, disability or a temporary job transfer, capped at under a year in total and with the agreement end date pushed back by the time suspended, so suspended time does not count toward the five years.

Moving to another qualifying practice keeps you eligible for repayment.

OHE's guidelines, dated October 2025, describe the current cycle but publish no application dates, and as of September 23, 2026 no application window had been published.

What the guidelines do fix is timing on the other end: a participant must obtain a qualifying job and begin the service obligation no later than June 30, 2026.

Anyone considering the program should therefore ask OHE directly whether those dates govern a newer cycle before planning a job search around it.

Selection is by the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine committee, and the practical first step is checking a prospective practice's location and food-animal share against the designated rural area definition before applying.