Large animal experience

[lagattara]

Hey guys, so I'm currently an undergraduate student in my second year. I've been working at a small animal clinic since my senior year of high school. I know vet school wants some large animal experience as well. I'm going to South Africa this summer to volunteer at a wildlife conservation. I was wondering if this would count as large animal experience and should I still try to do some farm animal experience. Thanks!

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[TrashPanda]

Hey guys, so I'm currently an undergraduate student in my second year. I've been working at a small animal clinic since my senior year of high school. I know vet school wants some large animal experience as well. I'm going to South Africa this summer to volunteer at a wildlife conservation. I was wondering if this would count as large animal experience and should I still try to do some farm animal experience. Thanks!

Large animal generally refers to farm animals, so that would probably be viewed as wildlife experience. It sounds like a great experience and will certainly add to the diversity of your application! I recommend also getting large animal experience if you can- the more variety, the better.

 

[cellowars]

I would only count that as wildlife experience. "Large animal" usually only refers to horses, cattle, sheep, donkeys, and mules. A good way to gain large animal experience is to work/volunteer at a farm or stable.

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[Shya]

Would growing up on a farm with cattle/horses/chicken count as animal experience?

 

[battie]

Would growing up on a farm with cattle/horses/chicken count as animal experience?

Yes. I would label that as farm/large animal and equine non-veterinary experience

 

[Shya]

Yes. I would label that as farm/large animal and equine non-veterinary experience

Awesome! Thank you! Do you have any idea what kind of hours I would put on that? I've lived on that farm for 14 years haha.

 

[battie]

Awesome! Thank you! Do you have any idea what kind of hours I would put on that? I've lived on that farm for 14 years haha.

My family owns pet stores with animals, so I know your feeling! I just put down the actual number of hours I worked directly in the stores for my aunt or mom over the years. I started working all school breaks when I was ten, so we just ball parked the number of hours I worked early on and then knew I was doing 20-30 a week from 14/15 on, so just multiplied the 25 hours*number of weeks on break.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Awesome! Thank you! Do you have any idea what kind of hours I would put on that? I've lived on that farm for 14 years haha.

What bats said. Just definitely don't count 24 hours/day and come up with some ridiculous number that way. Apparently this happens and it was brought up as a no-no during an admissions presentation I went to for MSU! Plus, once they realize you've been doing something since you were a kid, they kind of assume you're estimating your hours.

 

[PrincessButterCup]

What bats said. Just definitely don't count 24 hours/day and come up with some ridiculous number that way. Apparently this happens and it was brought up as a no-no during an admissions presentation I went to for MSU! Plus, once they realize you've been doing something since you were a kid, they kind of assume you're estimating your hours.

And you're not actually supposed to include hours from before high school, unless I'm remembering that rule incorrectly. So your estimate shouldn't be something crazy that includes all of your childhood.

 

[deleted676737]

And you're not actually supposed to include hours from before high school, unless I'm remembering that rule incorrectly. So your estimate shouldn't be something crazy that includes all of your childhood.

I actually hear this a lot, but I'm not even really sure if it's a rule that is taken all that seriously. I definitely included some experiences from high school---and even before high school---and as far as I know, it never came up as an issue. Granted, those pre-high school hours were very low (and I certainly didn't grow up on a farm or anything major like that). I just included them for completion's sake. YMMV...?

 

[pinkpuppy9]

And you're not actually supposed to include hours from before high school, unless I'm remembering that rule incorrectly. So your estimate shouldn't be something crazy that includes all of your childhood.

I think it depends. Personally, I would include 4H/farm experience. I wouldn't include pet hours, though. I've also never heard of there being a rule. At least when I applied, schools said to use your best judgement without reaching to make it look like you had more experience than you did.

 

[PrincessButterCup]

I think VMCAS had a line or something about entering experiences from high school on. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

 

[vetmedhead]

And you're not actually supposed to include hours from before high school, unless I'm remembering that rule incorrectly. So your estimate shouldn't be something crazy that includes all of your childhood.

I think VMCAS had a line or something about entering experiences from high school on. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

I think this depends on the school, but I also don't remember what it said on VMCAS. When I applied I'm pretty sure I included stuff from before high school on VMCAS but not on TMDSAS, so I'm pretty sure TMDSAS has that rule. I believe Texas A&M's supplemental explicitly told you that you could include experiences from before high school though.

 

[finnickthedog]

And you're not actually supposed to include hours from before high school, unless I'm remembering that rule incorrectly. So your estimate shouldn't be something crazy that includes all of your childhood.

I think VMCAS had a line or something about entering experiences from high school on. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

VMCAS instructions says that in regards to how far back to list experiences that you should include whatever experience you think is relevant. The line about high school was specifically in the description of extracurricular activities.

 

[PrincessButterCup]

VMCAS instructions says that in regards to how far back to list experiences that you should include whatever experience you think is relevant. The line about high school was specifically in the description of extracurricular activities.

Thanks! That's what I was thinking of.

 

[Shya]

Okay, so if I average about 3 hours a day for 4 years of high school, that comes out to 4,368 hours. Is that reasonable?

 

[battie]

Okay, so if I average about 3 hours a day for 4 years of high school, that comes out to 4,368 hours. Is that reasonable?

That sounds reasonable to me. I had somewhere between 4 and 5 thousand for the pet stores, maybe more. Granted I included everything from 10-22 cause the schools I applied to said that was fine.