Interview help, please!

[bettypix]

Does anyone have any advice on interviewing for vet school? There are only a couple months left until my possible interviews, so I'd like to start preparing. If you've already gone to vet school interviews, what questions were you asked and how were the interviews structured? I've only heard from med, dental, etc students, so I'm not sure how different the vet interviews are. I'd appreciate any help any of you can give me!

Thanks!

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[cudvm2005]

Hi
I only had one interview (at Tufts) when I applied to vet school three years ago, but I can try and help you out. The interview was very laid back and not stressful at all. They asked some questions about my background and some ethical ones, nothing intense. I had a list of questions in my head to ask them also, so that took up a lot of time. They didn't ask about any current events. They did ask me the hard one "what do you do in your spare time?" Didn't really stress grades or anything. I know it's different at different schools. I think someone told me UPenn had an essay component of their interview (but UPenn is good because something like 1/2 the class is accepted without interviews!)

I would recommend dressing well, of course, but bring an extra pair of shoes for the tour part to be prepared in case you are walking through "farm areas". I didn't, and at Tufts, the large animal hospital is not separated from the small animal hospital and I had so much crud on my dress shoes, and of course my interview was AFTER the tour!

There is a website/forum on about.com much like SDN, but completely devoted to vet medicine. The address is www.vetmedicine.about.com, You have to hunt a little to find the pre-vet forum, but it is well worth it. I would suggest going there and posting your question since I know that it's been addressed before, there's more action over there, and there are a lot people there who are currently applying to vet school (some for the second or more time)
Good luck
Joanne

 

[shocker682]

Hey bettypix,

I have yet to go through an interview, but the vet school to which I am applying is very specific in the questions that they ask duing the interview. We have been told to expect questions ranging from information we provided on ourselves in our background information, all the way to issues/ethics involved with veterinary medicine as a whole. They compiled a VERY useful package in order to prepare yourself for the interview. The link is as follows:

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~fvc/events/minutes/dvminterview.html

Other vet schools may have different interview processes, and may focus on different areas when they are asking you questions, however I feel that this package was quite comprehensive, and forces you to evaluate yourself, your attitude, and your knowledge about the profession.

Hope this helps!
Shocker

 

[loo]

Make sure you review your VMCAS application, essay, etc. Learn to relax and enjoy your interview and interviewers. Don't spout out "rehearsed" lines. Know your motivations and definitely be able to answer the inevitable question "why do you want to be a vet". I interviewed at Virginia-Maryland Regional and UT. Alas, I did not get in, though.

loo

 

[southerncomfort]

When I interviewed at LSU (unsuccessfully! although I did well on the interview), it was "closed"--meaning the 3 interviewers knew nothing about me and had never seen my app. So the first question was "Tell us about yourself", which I find difficult, but it gives you a chance to tell them about your experiences, what you've done to improve yourself as an applicant, etc. There was the inevitable "Why do you want to be a vet?"--I've heard "because I love animals" is the kiss-of-death answer! There were also quite a few ethics questions, one dealing with terminal surgery labs (at most schools--but check out the Tufts program on their website), "convenience euthanasia" ("The dog doesn't match the furniture, would you do it? But they're really good clients..."), cheating ("A classmate has a copy of the test...")
I think what it boils down to is that they want to know that you've thought about these things because you will face them in school and practice. Take a stand! There's not necessarily a right or wrong answer (okay maybe a few!). Think of it as a time to show off YOUR strengths--tie in your experiences, what you've LEARNED (I'm talking empathy, client communications, etc.--not clinical skills). And research the ethical stuff to be prepared. For my question about terminal surgery labs, I said that I knew some things can only be learned by doing, I work at a research facility so I'm quite familiar that we can only gain knowledge through sacrificing in some cases, BUT I thought the Tufts surgery courses were a very creative way to handle the situation (they do LOTS and LOTS of spays to get Sx practice--a non-terminal option). When I said that, I could tell my interviewers hadn't heard that one before. And I'm not bragging but I did get top scores on my interview, so it's "okay" to say something different!

 

[slfamzie]

I have an interview at LSU coming up and I was wondering if they ask any specific "knowledge" questions. I've read that some schools ask things like, "What do you know about tularemia?" or "What does the Coggins test screen for?" I can answer both, but I wonder if there are going to be questions like that.

 

[hopefulinva]

I interviewed at Illinois and VMRCVM and did both successfully. VMRCVM's process is very, very different, but neither ask clinically-based questions and instead focus more on what sort of a person you are, your critical thinking & basic problem solving (to the best an interview can address these things), etc.

In general I focused on why I had decided on becoming a veterinarian, what challenges I anticipated, etc. Also knowing something about the school at which you're interviewing (what they like to see in an applicant, what sort of a student culture they aim for, their research emphasis and important researchers, what they're known for, etc) is helpful.
I'd also recommend looking up hot topics in vet med today (OneHealth is a huge buzzword, the importance of vets in emerging zoonotic diseases, international vet med, the recently formed caucus addressing vet student tuition, etc) just enough that you're conversational in them and aren't going to be caught open-mouthed if they work them into a question. And if they don't, you've got some pretty hefty information that you can work into your answer.

 

[slfamzie]

Thanks so much hopefulinva! That helps a lot.

 

[equineconstant]

Check out SDN's interview feedback section. You can look at previous interview questions and experiences, and it's specifically by school. It was really helpful for me in preparing for my interviews.

http://schools.studentdoctor.net/?view=veterinary

 

[LetItSnow]

I have an interview at LSU coming up and I was wondering if they ask any specific "knowledge" questions. I've read that some schools ask things like, "What do you know about tularemia?" or "What does the Coggins test screen for?" I can answer both, but I wonder if there are going to be questions like that.

Just as a tangent comment ... that seems really lame to me. You come to vet school to learn those things. You shouldn't punish people for not knowing them. I'm a small animal person; I wouldn't have known what a Coggins test is before vet school. Big deal.

I'm glad MN didn't ask that kind of nonsense.

 

[trayloal]

I interviewed at LSU last year also and had very similar questions. Closed interviews suck. Having to talk about yourself and summarize your personality in one tiny entrance statement is not easy. Also I didn't know it was going to be closed. But, they did ask why I want to be a vet (an oddily difficult question because it's so open-ended) and asked a lot of ethical questions as well as current topics. I think the most helpful thing is to learn to talk about how you would deal with situations, what you have learned, etc. They asked what kind of vet I thought I wanted to be but that was easy...any kind of vet.