I decided to pursue veternarian after graduating college (last spring). I want to apply this cycle. I have started shadowing and volunteering at the shelter. But is it possible to fit in all the animal/vet hours in by this cycle? Is it worth giving it a try?
Is it worth it?
- Thread starter katetu2
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Depends on your Grades, whether you have the pre-reqs each school requires, your letters of recs, and previous experiences.
If you have great grades you may be able to get by with minimum amount of hours needed to apply, but otherwise you are likely to be better off next cycle.
If you have great grades you may be able to get by with minimum amount of hours needed to apply, but otherwise you are likely to be better off next cycle.
If you can get at least 500 hours under a veterinarian it could be, as long as you have previous animal experience or at least research
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So, having applied for two rounds when I really shouldn't have probably applied the first round...I would say wait. I very strongly believe that 1) taking 1-3 gap years is incredibly important & formative for most people who are going into vet/grad/professional school, and 2) you should only be applying when you have the BEST POSSIBLE application you can realistically compile. This is too expensive and important and time-consuming to just apply for the sake of applying early & not wasting time. Take at least the year to work on improving your experiences & develop good relationships with your letter-writers, and honestly, it takes many more hours & varieties of experiences to actually know if this is the field you want to pursue. It's easy to feel like everything is perfect & you love this field within the first 6 months to a year, but it's worth knowing how you'll handle being faced with the realities every day. I ended up having to postpone my application a year the first time, then didn't get accepted because I rushed my initial app to just not have to wait a year. You're less than a year out from graduation - YOU HAVE TIME! I didn't enter vet school until age 32, and won't be graduating until I'm 37. There's no rush!
mondakroopa
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I second this so much. My first cycle I applied I had only shadowing hours so I also didn’t have super strong recommendations. If I could go back I wouldn’t have applied the first time and I would have just focused on getting a job at a clinic and forging a good relationship with the doctors and THEN applying. After doing that this cycle I have been way more successful and I wish I hadn’t wasted the money the first time around.
