Animal experience

[catnips]

Hey everyone!
First of all good luck to everyone who applied this cycle! I can't imagine the anxious wait... :/

Since I am not there yet, I am still trying to pass orgo and get more experience... Ugh orgo. Anyway I have a question about animal experience.

Living in the city, most of my animal experiences have been with small animals and horseback riding. Anyway, to get more experience with animals I applied to volunteer at a zoo and got it, but here is the thing. There is no animal contact at all. You just give tours and answer questions... Thus, I am not too excited about this. It is a year long commitment (a day every two weeks). Is this a valuable experience as a pre-vet? I would prefer volunteering at a shelter but I am worried that my experience is not diverse enough. So basically my question is, is it worth it to volunteer at a zoo when you don't have animal contact? Does not even count as animal experience, or not?

Thanks for any input!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ChittyBang]

It's a great experience, but it's not animal or veterinary experience. Are there any farm animal sanctuaries near you? Stables?

 

[TooLove]

Hey everyone!
First of all good luck to everyone who applied this cycle! I can't imagine the anxious wait... :/

Since I am not there yet, I am still trying to pass orgo and get more experience... Ugh orgo. Anyway I have a question about animal experience.

Living in the city, most of my animal experiences have been with small animals and horseback riding. Anyway, to get more experience with animals I applied to volunteer at a zoo and got it, but here is the thing. There is no animal contact at all. You just give tours and answer questions... Thus, I am not too excited about this. It is a year long commitment (a day every two weeks). Is this a valuable experience as a pre-vet? I would prefer volunteering at a shelter but I am worried that my experience is not diverse enough. So basically my question is, is it worth it to volunteer at a zoo when you don't have animal contact? Does not even count as animal experience, or not?

Thanks for any input!

I would say that it wouldn't count as animal experience. It's still something to include in your application though as docents in zoos spend almost all of their time interacting with the public. Being able to effectively communicate information to clients is an important part of vet med, and this would be a great way to demonstrate that ability on something like a PS

Another thing is that zoos tend to hire people they know or have some experience with. So if you're looking for zoo animal experience, this would be the way to get your foot in the door. Many zoos hire part time, seasonal keepers, so if you make a good impression now they might be willing to take you on for the summer.

Lastly, docents often get involved in research. When you aren't interacting with the public you may have the opportunity to take behavioral data for research which can improve the lives of zoo animals. And having research experience on your app is a good thing.

I would say do it. Twice a month isn't too much of a commitment and it could open up a lot of doors for you.

 

[TooLove]

I would say that it wouldn't count as animal experience. It's still something to include in your application though as docents in zoos spend almost all of their time interacting with the public. Being able to effectively communicate information to clients is an important part of vet med, and this would be a great way to demonstrate that ability on something like a PS

Another thing is that zoos tend to hire people they know or have some experience with. So if you're looking for zoo animal experience, this would be the way to get your foot in the door. Many zoos hire part time, seasonal keepers, so if you make a good impression now they might be willing to take you on for the summer. EDIT: along these lines, you may be able to ask to shadow in the hospital as well. Again, they will be more willing to let someone they know behind the scenes than a random student who cold calls and asks to shadow. And that would count as veterinary experience.

Lastly, docents often get involved in research. When you aren't interacting with the public you may have the opportunity to take behavioral data for research which can improve the lives of zoo animals. And having research experience on your app is a good thing.

I would say do it. Twice a month isn't too much of a commitment and it could open up a lot of doors for you.

 

[catnips]

It's a great experience, but it's not animal or veterinary experience. Are there any farm animal sanctuaries near you? Stables?

Not really, they are all an hour away by car and I don't have a car Although I would absolutely love to do farm sanctuary work. I got to shadow a farm vet for a day though!
There are some stables, (ok, like 2 lol) but I have equine experience from high school. So zoos, exotic pets, and farm animals would be the best, I think.

 

[catnips]

I would say that it wouldn't count as animal experience. It's still something to include in your application though as docents in zoos spend almost all of their time interacting with the public. Being able to effectively communicate information to clients is an important part of vet med, and this would be a great way to demonstrate that ability on something like a PS

Another thing is that zoos tend to hire people they know or have some experience with. So if you're looking for zoo animal experience, this would be the way to get your foot in the door. Many zoos hire part time, seasonal keepers, so if you make a good impression now they might be willing to take you on for the summer.

Lastly, docents often get involved in research. When you aren't interacting with the public you may have the opportunity to take behavioral data for research which can improve the lives of zoo animals. And having research experience on your app is a good thing.

I would say do it. Twice a month isn't too much of a commitment and it could open up a lot of doors for you.

Thank you so much! I haven't thought of it that way - I could ask to shadow at the hospital after getting to know people! Hmm, that is great advice - I think I will consider it more seriously. Twice a month really is not that much
I am glad I asked SDN lol, I tend to always look for that perfect opportunity and miss out on others.

 

[LetItSnow]

Why wouldn't count as animal experience? It certainly sounds like it to me.

 

[twelvetigers]

Why wouldn't count as animal experience? It certainly sounds like it to me.

If I didn't get to count working in the lab at a teaching hospital entering and helping with bloodwork, they don't get to count giving tours at zoos.

However, you can put it under whatever and the schools will likely decide what they want to count it as, anyway. So it's not worth arguing about. We can probably agree that it's not really sufficient... but vet experience is what matters the most. So if you haven't gotten to that, OP, I would make it a priority - get your butt in a vet clinic. That's what will help you the most. (app-wise and experience-wise, plus you need that letter of recc.)

 

[Minnerbelle]

I dunno, my feeling is that if this is something that doesn't excite you, and you're just doing it for brownie points for admission purposes, I wouldn't do it at all... Esp for something like this that will only get you the tiniest of points...

 

[equineconstant]

I dunno, my feeling is that if this is something that doesn't excite you, and you're just doing it for brownie points for admission purposes, I wouldn't do it at all... Esp for something like this that will only get you the tiniest of points...

This is my opinion as well, but it sounds like the OP got more excited about it after reading some earlier responses. I would say you'll probably get something out of it regardless--if you want to do it, go for it regardless of admissions, but if you really don't want to do it, it's not worth it for the adcoms.

 

[catnips]

I dunno, my feeling is that if this is something that doesn't excite you, and you're just doing it for brownie points for admission purposes, I wouldn't do it at all... Esp for something like this that will only get you the tiniest of points...

You're right, this is usually how I choose what to do/where to volunteer etc. and not for admission points. However, I was just worried about having too many hours at the small animal shelter - and not many hours anywhere else. I do want experience with animals other than small animals as well, so I did get excited about this experience after reading the earlier posts. Because getting to shadow at the zoo hospital does sound exciting! And I don't think they would let me shadow without knowing me. (I did try to ask to shadow at the aquarium and another zoo - the answer was no )

 

[catnips]

If I didn't get to count working in the lab at a teaching hospital entering and helping with bloodwork, they don't get to count giving tours at zoos.

However, you can put it under whatever and the schools will likely decide what they want to count it as, anyway. So it's not worth arguing about. We can probably agree that it's not really sufficient... but vet experience is what matters the most. So if you haven't gotten to that, OP, I would make it a priority - get your butt in a vet clinic. That's what will help you the most. (app-wise and experience-wise, plus you need that letter of recc.)

That is my eventual goal - I really need that vet experience. Right now I'm working to get a volunteer vet assistant position at the animal shelter by next year.
Thank you for this though - I think I am going to focus on vet experience than anything else. But now I'm thinking this might be a good step to get to that zoo vet experience. Then again I don't want to try to do too many things at once and sacrifice my grades... Ahh.

And wow, I thought that would be counted! Still sounds like a good experience though!

Thank you everyone! This really helped - I am one of the few pre-vets at my school so it really helps getting hearing some input from others!

 

[Minnerbelle]

You're right, this is usually how I choose what to do/where to volunteer etc. and not for admission points. However, I was just worried about having too many hours at the small animal shelter - and not many hours anywhere else. I do want experience with animals other than small animals as well, so I did get excited about this experience after reading the earlier posts. Because getting to shadow at the zoo hospital does sound exciting! And I don't think they would let me shadow without knowing me. (I did try to ask to shadow at the aquarium and another zoo - the answer was no )

Definitely go for it if it's exciting you! If it makes you feel any better though, the only actual "vet experience" I had when I applied was at one shelter. Never stepped foot in a private clinic. And I don't think any of the vet schools I applied to really cared. I just made sure I was unique in other ways (and it certainly wasn't my average-ish GPA or GRE that wow'd anyone).

 

[catnips]

Definitely go for it if it's exciting you! If it makes you feel any better though, the only actual "vet experience" I had when I applied was at one shelter. Never stepped foot in a private clinic. And I don't think any of the vet schools I applied to really cared. I just made sure I was unique in other ways (and it certainly wasn't my average-ish GPA or GRE that wow'd anyone).

Oh yayy wow that does make me feel better actually I really like shelter medicine experience so far, (although I am not a vet assistant yet) but I really want to focus on that I shadowed at a private clinic just for a couple of days and I feel vet experience definitely is the weakest part of my future application as of now. (Although GPA is not too impressive either... ) Private clinic was all right but at the shelter they need more help so you get to do stuff as oppose to shadowing. I didn't like "doing nothing" and feeling like I am in the way of what doctors are trying to do with shadowing.