Veterinarian Loan Repayment in Texas

RVIP is loan repayment for a practicing veterinarian, not a scholarship and not a forgivable school loan.

The Texas Animal Health Commission administers the program, with a dedicated Rural Veterinarian Incentive Program Committee evaluating and scoring applications against a published rubric, and every participant signs a promissory note with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the agency that administers the program account under the Texas Education Code.

The money is educational loan repayment assistance or payment of tuition and fees, and it is forgiven one completed service year at a time.

Start with the school line, because it screens hardest.

You must be a current student or a graduate of the DVM program at Texas Tech University or Texas A&M University; graduates need to have graduated within four years of the application date and hold a license.

A student at an out-of-state accredited college of veterinary medicine can apply only with a Texas high school or undergraduate background.

Then the rest: U.S. citizenship or legal permanent residence, no other service obligation already owed under a scholarship, educational loan or loan repayment agreement, an eligible education loan covering at least 50 percent of tuition and fees for one or more academic years, and a commitment to a full-time rural year.

A final catch-all requires you to be otherwise eligible to receive payment from the funding source.

The award is educational loan repayment assistance or payment of tuition and fees of up to $45,000 for each year of full-time service in a qualifying rural Texas county, to a total of up to $180,000 over four years.

The year is the unit of account: as each obligated period is completed, the money received for it is forgiven, so what you keep is earned in increments of one completed rural year.

A participant who stops with obligations remaining repays the assistance for those periods under the promissory note, which makes the risk concrete: the years you do not finish are the years you repay.

The core obligation is at least one calendar year of full-time veterinary service in a qualifying rural Texas county, and full-time means an average of at least 32 hours of veterinary care per week.

Assistance is paid for each year of full-time rural service, up to four years, so the obligation scales with the money you take.

Living in the county is not required, and the committee may allow prior rural service to count toward the requirement.

TAHC's program reference also confirms that paid and volunteer veterinary services both count toward the hours, that part-time service does not qualify, and that participants may be self-employed or work for a clinic, practice group or entity.

Applications go by email to rvip@tahc.texas.gov or by mail to TAHC.

The commission screens each application for eligibility and completeness, then the committee scores it on the rubric published with the application.

TAHC's page listed one cycle, 2025: it opened September 22, 2025 and carried a November 30, 2025 deadline, with selections expected in February 2026.

As of September 23, 2026 the page named no 2026 dates, so before you plan a job move around this program, email TAHC and ask whether and when the next cycle will run.

TAHC's FAQ says an applicant who received financial assistance to repay loans or tuition in exchange for veterinary services, including the federal Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, is not eligible for RVIP.

The eligibility list points the same direction: you cannot hold this award while still fulfilling another obligation to provide veterinary services under a scholarship, educational loan or loan repayment agreement.

Weigh both against the same job offer before committing to either, and read the federal program's terms on our national loan-repayment page.