Do WE even know what we're doing?? VMCAS experience classification questions!

[nyanko]

Hey all, I had a question and was going to post a thread, then I realized that it's a pretty common question that people tend to have when filling out the VMCAS application, so maybe we can keep these kinda questions to here, yeah?

I recently got a new job and have no idea what to put it down as in VMCAS. I was hoping others with similar positions as pre-vets would be able to weigh in too.

Now, in my experience it doesn't matter much where you put something on VMCAS for some schools - they'll read it and classify it as what they think anyway. But I'm applying to more than one school this year, and I'm sure all of them have different ideas about it which makes the central application a bit frustrating. The little matrix on the VMCAS site doesn't help much either. What is a "health professional?" Technically RVTs are health professionals too. It used to say DVM or PhD scientist. PhD scientists, even some that do research directly applicable to veterinary medicine, aren't health professionals, though, so where does that leave research like mine? My professor teaches at the school of vet med, but doesn't have a DVM. My research is on feline genetics, so pretty squarely in the realm of vet med I'd say. My undergrad research was with Drosophila, what about that? Professors here at UC Davis say heck yeah this counts as veterinary, research is an important part of vet med! I tend to agree , but VMCAS is very vague and ambiguous about it, and other schools may interpret it differently or disagree.

Personal rant/derail notwithstanding, my question is actually not about my research. I'm putting that down as vet experience and that's that. It's about a clinical microbiology position that I've been working in for about a month at the vet med teaching hospital. It's in the diagnostic lab, mostly intake and deciding what media to use/setting up cultures for inpatients, outpatients and other clinics that send us stuff, but some identification as well. I feel like I've already learned a lot about infectious disease in species I knew nothing about before (equine and food animals, mostly) and think that this is very relevant to veterinary medicine. However, does my supervisor here count as a "health professional?" I don't think he has a PhD even.

Has anyone else had a position like this one, in a diagnostic lab? If so, what did you put it down as just for the purposes of VMCAS? Any other nagging questions about experience you have? Feel free to post here~!

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[Poochlover11]

Hey all, I had a question and was going to post a thread, then I realized that it's a pretty common question that people tend to have when filling out the VMCAS application, so maybe we can keep these kinda questions to here, yeah?

I recently got a new job and have no idea what to put it down as in VMCAS. I was hoping others with similar positions as pre-vets would be able to weigh in too.

Now, in my experience it doesn't matter much where you put something on VMCAS for some schools - they'll read it and classify it as what they think anyway. But I'm applying to more than one school this year, and I'm sure all of them have different ideas about it which makes the central application a bit frustrating. The little matrix on the VMCAS site doesn't help much either. What is a "health professional?" Technically RVTs are health professionals too. It used to say DVM or PhD scientist. PhD scientists, even some that do research directly applicable to veterinary medicine, aren't health professionals, though, so where does that leave research like mine? My professor teaches at the school of vet med, but doesn't have a DVM. My research is on feline genetics, so pretty squarely in the realm of vet med I'd say. My undergrad research was with Drosophila, what about that? Professors here at UC Davis say heck yeah this counts as veterinary, research is an important part of vet med! I tend to agree , but VMCAS is very vague and ambiguous about it, and other schools may interpret it differently or disagree.

Personal rant/derail notwithstanding, my question is actually not about my research. I'm putting that down as vet experience and that's that. It's about a clinical microbiology position that I've been working in for about a month at the vet med teaching hospital. It's in the diagnostic lab, mostly intake and deciding what media to use/setting up cultures for inpatients, outpatients and other clinics that send us stuff, but some identification as well. I feel like I've already learned a lot about infectious disease in species I knew nothing about before (equine and food animals, mostly) and think that this is very relevant to veterinary medicine. However, does my supervisor here count as a "health professional?" I don't think he has a PhD even.

Has anyone else had a position like this one, in a diagnostic lab? If so, what did you put it down as just for the purposes of VMCAS? Any other nagging questions about experience you have? Feel free to post here~!

For sure! I don't have an answer to your question but I have another questions to add. Is it ok or not ok to add stuff you have done for a class (even if it independent study?)? I took two classes of pet grooming while in high school and they have helped my comfort level with animals immensely. It also taught me basics such as nail cutting, anal gland expressing, etc. But since it was a class would that not be okay to put under-say animal experience??

 

[VAgirl]

Nyanko, I'd put your new job under vet experience. It's in the VMTH, etc. Seems right to me.

Pooch, I think the people who say don't put down stuff you've done in classes mean in college classes because the adcoms will have your college transcripts, so putting something in experience that was on your transcript might look like double dipping. But they won't have HS classes, so by all means I'd put that down as experience somewhere.

That being said, I did put an internship that I did in my grad work (which I got credit for) down as experience despite the fact that it appeared on my transcript. It was a hugely important experience for me and I was absolutely not going to let them overlook it. So I don't think they'll penalized you for that kind of thing (I didn't seem to get penalized).

These are just my opinions, but I stand by them.

 

[david594]

Personal rant/derail notwithstanding, my question is actually not about my research. I'm putting that down as vet experience and that's that. It's about a clinical microbiology position that I've been working in for about a month at the vet med teaching hospital. It's in the diagnostic lab, mostly intake and deciding what media to use/setting up cultures for inpatients, outpatients and other clinics that send us stuff, but some identification as well. I feel like I've already learned a lot about infectious disease in species I knew nothing about before (equine and food animals, mostly) and think that this is very relevant to veterinary medicine. However, does my supervisor here count as a "health professional?" I don't think he has a PhD even.

Sounds like good experience. I would personally love a job like that. Those diagnostics are crucial to veterinary medicine and they are things you could be doing as a future practitioner. Just because those procedures are common in the diagnostic lab doesn't take them out of the scope of a vet.

Its not the most uncommon thing for people to do inhouse cultures to see if anything grows. And if the culture is positive to send off the organisms for identification and sensitivity. Its painful to send off an $80 urine culture + MIC only to have it come back "No growth." So you do it in house first for a couple bucks only send of the positive cultures.

 

[meadow36]

That job is definitely vet experience, no doubt about it. I was told by UF's dean last year that the employment section is for NON animal related jobs only.

 

[EqSci]

For sure! I don't have an answer to your question but I have another questions to add. Is it ok or not ok to add stuff you have done for a class (even if it independent study?)? I took two classes of pet grooming while in high school and they have helped my comfort level with animals immensely. It also taught me basics such as nail cutting, anal gland expressing, etc. But since it was a class would that not be okay to put under-say animal experience??

Animal experience for sure! I put all of my coursework where I worked directly with animals into experience. The title 'Horse Breeding Management' on my transcript does NOT explain that I did all the care for a broodmare both pre- and post-parturition, foaled her out, performed neonatal tests, etc. I had several classes like that and put them all under animal experience with details about what I personally did. However, I grouped all the horse experience classes into ONE animal experience entry, not a separate entry for each class.

 

[nyanko]

Sounds like good experience. I would personally love a job like that. Those diagnostics are crucial to veterinary medicine and they are things you could be doing as a future practitioner. Just because those procedures are common in the diagnostic lab doesn't take them out of the scope of a vet.

I totally agree, just wanted some other perspectives on it.

And yes, I love it and it is really, really fun!