Value of animal experience in applications?

[kittensmeow]

Hi All,

I know that experience working with a vet in a clinic is essential for vet school applications, but I’d like to know how valuable it is to also have animal experience that does not involve working with a vet. I would love to volunteer at an animal shelter and I know of two small ones that are in need of assistance, but I do not have a lot of free time away from my work and studies, so I do need to focus my volunteer time on whatever experiences will best help my application to vet schools.

I won’t be applying for a couple of years at least and I want to carefully pick a couple of places to volunteer at and then stick with them. I have worked at a bird care centre and have job shadowed a vet at their clinic for a few months already, but other than that I am starting on clean slate.
Should I volunteer at a vet clinic and an animal shelter, or would it better to just do the vet clinic but spend twice as much time there? Or alternatively I could volunteer at two separate vet clinics....?

Thanks for any suggestions!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[vkajko]

My suggestion is volunteer for two vet clinics or a vet clinic and an animal shelter. Just make them both different from each other. Like the animal shelter is for small animals and the vet clinic is in large animals.

This way you can get varied experience and just experience in general.

 

[that redhead]

Veterinary experience is more important than animal experience on the application, so the more veterinary experience the better overall. You're more likely to build a good relationship with the practice by spending more time there (and therefore likely to get a better letter of rec out of the deal). Plus it shows that you have an idea of what the actual job entails.

However, many animal experiences can be very valuable: for understanding the field, developing career interests and connecting with people. If there's an animal experience you feel very strongly about, I wouldn't turn it down just to check off veterinary hours on your application. (Something to consider about the animal shelter specifically is that they may have a vet on staff or that comes by on specific days - you could request that you shadow that vet and get two birds with one stone.) Non-animal volunteer experience can also be valuable, because it demonstrates that you have involvement outside of just the veterinary world, which I think is seen favorably amongst a sea of applicants with their time only given to animals.

If you have room for two activities, my advice at this point would be to see if you can find two different veterinary experiences - small animal, large animal, equine, research, zoo, aquarium, wildlife, shelter, etc. just to diversify your application and help you get an idea of the breadth of the field and what you might like to do. If you end up really liking a particular field, you could drop a less desirable vet experience and pick up a "regular experience" activity in your field of interest instead, but it's important to keep in mind that vet experience > animal experience on the application.

 

[wolfpackprevet]

My advisor always likes to say never leave any section completely blank, so make sure you at least have some animal experience.

 

[farmerk]

I think the answer to that also heavily weighs on what you want to do. If you're aiming more into the private practice side of things - then those clinical experiences under a variety of vets in multiple hospital setting would be more beneficial. If you're interested in mixed animal practice, then clinical experiences at different hospitals/mobile practices that see a variety of animals would be more beneficial. And if you're interested in research, then obviously research would be most beneficial.
For me, being interested in zoo animal, conservation, wildlife, and exotics, I found that a happy medium worked best for me. I shadowed/worked at a mixed animal practice, which saw cats, dogs, and a variety of exotics for a majority of my time, as the clinical hours are very heavily valued, but I also volunteered one day a week for a bit over 2 years in a sea turtle rescue and rehab facility. While this didn't give many vet hours (only had interactions with actual veterinarians at the facility once or twice a year) it gave me hands on experience in the field I wanted to go into, which is quite important.
Also keep in mind that diversity is a very good selling point for any applicant. Even though I had no career interest in research or equine medicine, I still found a way to get at least a few hours for both in on my application, and actually enjoyed both experiences quite thoroughly. And there is no harm in trying something for a bit, realizing it isn't for you, and switching. I only shadowed the equine clinician for about 8 weeks, and was asked about this on multiple interviews, and wasn't rejected from any school that asked about it, so the term isn't as important as what you garner from these experiences.
Hope this helps some!
and good luck deciding

 

[kittensmeow]

Thanks for the very helpful responses, all of you - I feel much better now about making a decision about where I choose to volunteer!