How many hours a week did/do you spend doing extracurricular stuff?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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puppyloomp

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This includes shadowing, animal/vet stuff, part time or full time job, volunteering not animal related etc! I'm just wondering about how many hours a successful prevet student/someone who was accepted to vet school spends or spent doing things not related to studying. And how many hours a day/week do you study to go along with that?

I currently have one day a week devoted to getting vet experience and also work part time on weekdays as well as volunteer as a tutor for young kids and I'm thinking about adding more hours for tutoring but I'm not sure if I'd be overwhelmed! I know it's different for everyone and some people need to spend more time studying than others for various reasons but I'm just wondering about how many hours of non school stuff you guys do in an average week and if you think it was too much or if you could handle it! Information from current vet students would be cool too since I know you guys don't have a ton of extra time but I see that a lot of you still are involved in extracurricular things!
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In undergrad, I don't even remember.

I did some volunteering at an animal shelter nearby for a couple of years... it really wasn't that often... maybe 5 hours a week.

I did some PT work at an animal hospital my sophomore and junior years... I would often also work at the vet clinic back in my home town on the weekends too. Maybe 15-20 hours a week between the two... that is just a rough estimate though.

And I don't remember how much I studied... a lot freshman year apparently (well, my roomie at that time said that I did, I didn't think so), then it slowly wilted away as the years progressed... I studied until I felt prepared(ish).

Just try to balance things out and see what works for you, it will be different for every person.
 
I picked up work (vet experience) in my sophomore year of undergrad, on campus. I pretty much worked between classes (and some weekends). Depending on my course load, I'd stay I worked anywhere from 5-20hrs per week. I also spent a year of that time as a research assistant person working probably another 10hrs per week give or take. I spent a semester as a TA, probably maximum of 5hrs per week. I can't remember various other odds and ends.

That being said, my grades definitely suffered. I don't know if it was because I had a lot going on or I had a lot going on because I didn't want to study, haha. I would add things slowly, see how you feel but do your best to avoid that pre-vet syndrome where you feel obligated to do a million things and feel stressed and miserable but too proud to lessen your load. It isn't worth your grades.
 
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I did a lot in undergrad during the school year, but most was non vet related. I was on a couple of competitive dance teams, so that took up most of my time (that I should have spent studying tbh), and then maybe 5 hours or a week or so as well on random animal activities. I racked up the majority of my animal and vet experience hours during summers or winter breaks by working full time at clinics or interning etc. My last two years I also worked in a research lab during the year, and was there 5-10 hours a week (spent more time towards the end when I was getting more responsibilities & doing my own work). I did study, but I was more of a crammer and just did a lot in the week before an exam versus a steady stream of studying all semester, and would temporarily cut down on dance hours on those weeks.

During my masters, I had a lot less free time because classes were demanding and I was focused more on getting good grades to help my apps out. Probably went to dance only around 6-9 hours a week, and then didn't have any extracurricular animal activities except occasional paid pet sitting/dog walking. I did have a part time job for part of the year, but ended up quitting due to it just taking up too much time and I was lucky enough not to need the money at the time. And I studied a LOT more than I did in undergrad.

Not in vet school yet.. but if (when?) I'm there, I'm planning to continue dancing at least occasionally to keep myself sane, and planning to try to keep up the study habits I started in my masters since I know it's going to be challenging, and my grades certainly were better for it!
 
During undergrad, I worked PT on campus between classes as a bio lab assistant. I usually put in between 15-20 hours a week. I also did two club sports for 3 years. Both sports practiced twice a week for 2 hours. So most week day nights, I didn't start homework until 7 or 9 PM. I usually only studied the night before/two days before exams. Weekends were my free time to do whatever I wanted except during senior year. I picked up an internship at the zoo from Oct -March and spent my weekends there working with penguins and reptiles. My vet experience I got during the summer or breaks. I also did a service trip my freshman and sophomore year which had weekly meetings and took place during my spring break.

Junior year was an exception since I studied abroad. I still had a typical course load, but no homework. I did some studying throughout the week, but I mostly travelled, started getting in shape and hung out with people. For exams, mine were nicely spaced and I studied like 4-5 days before each exam and it worked out really well.

In vet school, I try to stay on top of my lectures but always end up falling behind a bit. First year I went out more, but this year I've cut back to save money. I've been getting more involved with clubs and have been spending a number of weekends at shelters volunteering and getting castration certified. I've also been volunteering in our exotics department since I'm interested in companion exotics. I've also taken on co-responsibility of coming up with funding for the Special Species Symposium that takes place in April.


However, as long as you're getting the grades you need and the experience, you should be fine. I personally work better under a more full schedule, so I made sure I was busy when I was in undergrad. If I have free time, I slack off. There were definitely times I felt everything was too much, but I got through it and it was usually because other things were going on in my life that were a distraction. I definitely still made room for fun (movies, shopping, clubs, etc), otherwise I would have totally gone insane.
 
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I'm not in vet school (yet), but during my post-baccs (mostly FT) I worked 25-30 hours/week, volunteered at 3 different places about 24 hours/month (collectively), studied about 2-3 hours most days, and ran a house. Phew! :p Lol
 
At my busiest, I was shadowing at a clinic every Friday afternoon (and some Wednesdays) for about four hours and volunteering at a stable two nights a week and Saturdays (by "volunteering" I mean "learning to put a halter on and buying lessons by mucking stalls" ;)) Senior year, I added a couple hours a week as a department tutor and backed off from working at the barn. I usually had a some random club or other one or two nights a week. It didn't really seem to impact my study habits, but I am and always have been a crammer. I was lucky in that, aside from summers and the one tutoring gig, I never had to have a money-making job in college.

I got a recommendation out of the shadowing experience, but in retrospect I'm not sure how much the barn work helped my application. I did go from almost no large animal experience to being able to list about 100 hours of horse handling, but the school I ended up choosing doesn't seem to prioritize breadth of experience as much, and I probably couldn't have gotten in at a school that wanted real experience outside of dogs and cats. Mostly, getting "animal experience" was an excuse for me to finally learn how to ride without dealing with parental accusations of wasting time and money. :rolleyes:
 
In undergrad I worked 10 hours a week in a lab under supervision of a veterinarian. I volunteered at a shelter 10-12 hours a week, many times more. Those hours included some time spent shadowing the vet, but mostly walking dogs, running the front desk, processing adoptions, etc. I was in prevet club, as an officer one year. I was a recruiter for our ag college's animal science department as well, which was at least two hours a week. I was in a few other clubs as well. When I (rarely) went home I worked at a clinic. However, I didn't need to study an awful lot in undergrad to do well. Now that I'm in vet school and the classes require me to do lots of studying, there's no way I could be doing so many things. That said, in vet school I DO study a lot, to the tune of 3-4 hours a night 4 nights a week. I still have the 10 hour a week job, and Imm president of our pathology club. That's about all I do though, extracurricular wise.
 
In undergrad, I usually had extracurricular activities everyday. I practiced a sport, volunteered, and held multiple jobs. The hours I spent doing these things ranged from 5 hours on slow weeks to 28 or more hours (I didn't work every week, but I did work most weeks). The average was probably around 10-15 hours. I didn't study much, but I usually studied or did my homework late at night.

In vet school, I probably also spend about 10-15 hours in extracurricular activities a week depending on if there are vet school club meetings. I practice two sports now, and total practice time a week (if I stayed the whole time at every practice) comes to 9.5 hours. I study more, and still usually study at night.

I like to be involved with a bunch of stuff. Some of my experiences were to improve my application, but most of it was because I enjoyed what I did. Now, some of my vet school club memberships are to help make connections, but still most of it is because I enjoy being involved. I also have some very diverse interests. I'm a member of over half of my vet school's clubs. For some, that would be overwhelming, but the clubs only meet a few times a semester. It's worked out fine for me especially since most meetings are during our lunch break or over dinner.
 
twelvetigers said:
Where the title says 'did/do' I keep on reading 'dildo' and it's seriously messing with my head.
Click to expand...

Ok, glad it wasn't just me.

puppyloomp said:
I currently have one day a week devoted to getting vet experience and also work part time on weekdays as well as volunteer as a tutor for young kids and I'm thinking about adding more hours for tutoring but I'm not sure if I'd be overwhelmed! I know it's different for everyone and some people need to spend more time studying than others for various reasons but I'm just wondering about how many hours of non school stuff you guys do in an average week and if you think it was too much or if you could handle it! Information from current vet students would be cool too since I know you guys don't have a ton of extra time but I see that a lot of you still are involved in extracurricular things!
Click to expand...

Well, it kinda depends on when in my timeline for my answer. But basically... I was working full time, taking two classes per semester, having kids (ok, my wife was), and I generally spent:
o Friday evenings at the Wildlife Rehab Center
o Thursday afternoons at the hospital volunteering in canine rehab
o Tuesdays OR Wednesday OR Saturday at the clinic I shadowed at (rotating days gave me one day of dentistry, one day of surgery, and one day of client appointments).
o A few other entertainment/recreation-related things (playing Ultimate, etc.).

This all got moved around as needed for classes. And I was fortunate enough to have a job where I could work from home or work weird hours; as long as my projects were on track it didn't matter too much if I was in the office during normal business hours.

Now that I'm in vet school.... I do:
o Draw blood donors every three weeks (anywhere from 1 to 6 hours during my on-week, depending on need);
o Work in our VMC ICU Saturday afternoon/evenings;
o ... and that's it.

I mean, I'm heavily club-involved at school. But outside of school? I don't really have any activities other than family.

I'm sure it varies from person to person, but my experience has been that no matter how crazy busy you are in your pre-vet days ... time will feel much, much more tight in vet school.
 
Well, I didn't do very much on the extracurricular front during undergrad other than occasional volunteering with my sorority at local elementary schools, club tennis, and other random club events here and there. But during my post-bac (since I was a non science major), the second semester I took 15 credits (gen bio, chem, physics and microbiology and labs), worked as a vet tech 25 hours and babysat 6 hours a week and also randomly volunteered for rescues and fostered shelter animals and ran my house with my SO. It was horrible and I nearly had a nervous breakdown so I definitely wouldn't advise it although I got good grades somehow. The third and fourth semesters I took 5 credits each (orgo) and worked as a vet tech 33 hours a week and continued fostering and volunteering randomly. This was manageable, but very busy. Now I am taking biochemistry and anatomy and working 42+ hours as a vet tech which has really set me over the edge - perhaps because the vet school applications (and worrying) have consumed a lot of my time, I have major senioritis, or working over 40 hours a week is my breaking point! I barely have time to study or spend time with my SO and family. I better get used to it, because I know it'll only get worse if I get into vet school...
 
I won't lie but sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I didn't have to do any of this extracurricular/ volunteer stuff; it'd be nice for once just to focus on school, and just school only.
I enjoy my extra-curriculars but when it gets down to me coming home at 8pm and that "feeling" you have where you feel super accomplished because you've done lots of things, but you've done nothing academically, it's mentally, physically, and emotionally draining.
Its to the point where I"m literally scared out of my wits every time I drive because I am afraid I will fall asleep on the wheel (has happened once before)

Current weekly commitments (less vet/animal exp now that VMCAS are done)
-15 credit (5 course load)
- SA clinic volunteering, 4h
- PT job at university, 10-15h
- pre-vet club, 10-15h (sounds ridiculous but I tallied my hours for the past 3 weeks and they've all averaged 12-13h of work everytime)
- weekly faculty meetings 2h
-church meetings and serving 5h

So basically all of this kind of forces me into an involuntary introvert. when a bit of time comes during holidays and weekends, I just like to stay in my room and catch up on sleep :) when it may seem like i am being reclusive, really, i just need the extra sleep to stay sane =X
so I'm quite looking forward to vet school when i'll just be able to focus on that and nothing else.
 
Always ruining my own reputation :( lol

Thanks for all your input guys! I think I'm going to just keep doing what I've been doing lately and not add any more hours
 
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