Strengthening Vet school chances

[Dowell1840]

Hey!


Just a general question. If you graduated with a lower than average GPA, 3.3-3.4. Could a masters degree increases chances at a vet school if you have strong shadowing and volunteer experience? Just wondering. Or maybe if you had vet technician experience. Also, I know the answer to this is probably no but would medical experience in places like a hospital count at all.

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[WhtsThFrequency]

Vet school should not be considered a "back-up" for medical school. Given your posting history, I have a feeling that is what is behind is question. If you want to be a physician, which you said was your ultimate goal in other threads, work towards being a physician.

Anyways, to answer your questions, getting a Master's would only help you if you excel academically at it. Just getting one to add more letters after your name will not help.

Veterinary experience is essential - it is not a bonus. Most applicants have hundreds and hundreds of hours shadowing and working at clinics. Would having tons of experience make up for mediocre GPAs? Maybe, but only if that experience makes you stand out. Again, you will be competing against people who have been working and volunteering in the industry for years.

No, volunteering at a human hospital would not count at all, just as working at a veterinary clinic would not count towards medical school applications.

 

[Dowell1840]

Vet school should not be considered a "back-up" for medical school. Given your posting history, I have a feeling that is what is behind is question. If you want to be a physician, which you said was your ultimate goal in other threads, work towards being a physician.

Anyways, to answer your questions, getting a Master's would only help you if you excel academically at it. Just getting one to add more letters after your name will not help.

Veterinary experience is essential - it is not a bonus. Most applicants have hundreds and hundreds of hours shadowing and working at clinics. Would having tons of experience make up for mediocre GPAs? Maybe, but only if that experience makes you stand out. Again, you will be competing against people who have been working and volunteering in the industry for years.

No, volunteering at a human hospital would not count at all, just as working at a veterinary clinic would not count towards medical school applications.

I'm not considering it as a back for medical school? I didnt say that, I said I had a general question. I am aiming for physician but someone I know and volunteer with at the hospital was asking this question and since I am already on here I thought I would ask. We coincidentally do have similar gpas right now though. But to my knowledge I would say vet school could be more challenging to get accepted to since therr are less of them, so I wouldn't consider it a back up. Thanks.

 

[WildVet18]

No, volunteering at a human hospital would not count at all, just as working at a veterinary clinic would not count towards medical school applications.

Actually this isn't necessarily the case. As What'stheFrequency said human medical experience does not replace animal/veterinary experience, but as someone who started out university as a pre-med student before switching to vet med, I can definitely say that it does "count", at least at the schools I applied to. I had ~1,000 hours in human medicine (in-hospital research and clinical volunteering), and it was brought up at all but one of my interviews. The schools loved that I had a good basis for comparison between human and animal medicine, and I emphasized that this would help me contribute to the fields of One Health and public health. I even got a scholarship/internship from the government because of my experience in both fields! And my research experience definitely counted, as I worked with lab animals as a model of human disease! Now I also had ~1500 veterinary/animal hours by the time I applied, so the human medical experience didn't take the place of veterinary work, but it definitely strengthened my application and helped me stand out!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Actually this isn't necessarily the case. As What'stheFrequency said human medical experience does not replace animal/veterinary experience, but as someone who started out university as a pre-med student before switching to vet med, I can definitely say that it does "count", at least at the schools I applied to. I had ~1,000 hours in human medicine (in-hospital research and clinical volunteering), and it was brought up at all but one of my interviews. The schools loved that I had a good basis for comparison between human and animal medicine, and I emphasized that this would help me contribute to the fields of One Health and public health. I even got a scholarship/internship from the government because of my experience in both fields! And my research experience definitely counted, as I worked with lab animals as a model of human disease! Now I also had ~1500 veterinary/animal hours by the time I applied, so the human medical experience didn't take the place of veterinary work, but it definitely strengthened my application and helped me stand out!

This is true - I was a bit hasty in my wording. It does show you are interested in medicine as a whole and wouldn't be a BAD thing to include in an application by any means, but it is not equivalent to veterinary experience - the latter is what i was trying to emphasize.

Heck, most of my hours were animal/bio research related and not specifically veterinary either. I just did not want to give off the impression that (clinical) human medical experience would "make up for" things or be a good substitution in all cases.

 

[DVMDream]

Actually this isn't necessarily the case. As Dowell said human medical experience does not replace animal/veterinary experience, but as someone who started out university as a pre-med student before switching to vet med, I can definitely say that it does "count", at least at the schools I applied to. I had ~1,000 hours in human medicine (in-hospital research and clinical volunteering), and it was brought up at all but one of my interviews. The schools loved that I had a good basis for comparison between human and animal medicine, and I emphasized that this would help me contribute to the fields of One Health and public health. I even got a scholarship/internship from the government because of my experience in both fields! And my research experience definitely counted, as I worked with lab animals as a model of human disease! Now I also had ~1500 veterinary/animal hours by the time I applied, so the human medical experience didn't take the place of veterinary work, but it definitely strengthened my application and helped me stand out!

I would argue that it was not your human clinical hours that helped you (what we are discussing here) and your research experience that is what they really took an interest in. We all know that animals are used as human models for disease in research and research experience is looked upon really well by vet schools. However, we are not discussing research experience and we are discussing clinical experience, human clinical experience just isn't going to cut it. Sure, you might gain some good communication skills from that, but you gain those from vet experience as well. The human clinical experience isn't going to "look bad" or count you out, but it really isn't going to "count" much either when it comes to vet school applications.