Veterinary Experience?

[NStarz]

Research is a definite yes for vet experience

They changed the rules for this recently. I would call and ask VMCAS. I did research under a PhD and was only able to list it as animal experience because it was not under a health professional (MD/DVM). That being said, as long as it's somewhere on your application, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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[bipolarbear123]

Research is a definite yes for vet experience

Seriously? I thought it was kind of vague wording from VMCAS. My PI has a PhD in chemistry and our research focuses on modifying proteins; however, these modifications can be used for cellular imaging (in cancer, for example) or for drug delivery. I thought that this kind of qualified him as a health professional, but wasn't sure. Vet experience?

When I asked Cornell, they said it sounded like my research would fall under "Research and Teaching," but I didn't fully explain what the group was about.

 

[dyachei]

Seriously? I thought it was kind of vague wording from VMCAS. My PI has a PhD in chemistry and our research focuses on modifying proteins; however, these modifications can be used for cellular imaging (in cancer, for example) or for drug delivery. I thought that this kind of qualified him as a health professional, but wasn't sure. Vet experience?

When I asked Cornell, they said it sounded like my research would fall under "Research and Teaching," but I didn't fully explain what the group was about.

I would list it under vet experience. If they disagree they may reassign it but even now most schools are looking for research in experience. I would think that calling the schools would be a good idea, but I would list it as vet, personally.

I did research under a phd and it counted 5 years ago for my schools.

ETA: the justification for vet experience is that you would finding out more about the profession. If a veterinarian/veterinary medicine could be involved in the research, it is my understanding that it counts.

 

[Trilt]

Seriously? I thought it was kind of vague wording from VMCAS. My PI has a PhD in chemistry and our research focuses on modifying proteins; however, these modifications can be used for cellular imaging (in cancer, for example) or for drug delivery. I thought that this kind of qualified him as a health professional, but wasn't sure. Vet experience?

When I asked Cornell, they said it sounded like my research would fall under "Research and Teaching," but I didn't fully explain what the group was about.

I would quite honestly just put it under veterinary and let the individual schools you apply to sort it out if they want to. That was my philosophy with a couple ambiguous parts on my application; for example, I put TAing a class about animals under "animal experience," which I'm sure some people would disagree with. It obviously didn't hurt me too much.

VMCAS should just get a research tab and fix all of these problems, but changes tend to be quite slow with them. ;p

 

[bipolarbear123]

Coooool, thanks for all the information! My application just got so much stronger!

 

[RadRadTerp]

I guess if it at least involves numbers or funny-smelling chemicals, you can just list whatever you want as "vet experience" at this rate.

 

[pigsatuga]

I found this on the VMCAS for the 2011 application. "Veterinary experiences should relate to any veterinary clinical, agribusiness, health science, or research experiences that you have had with veterinarians, other health scientists, or other health professionals."

https://portal.vmcas.org/applicants2012/instructions/ins_veterinary.htm

I have research that involves animal surgery, but MOST of my time is spent with the PhD who is not a vet, so I was going to count the pre/post-op and during op stuff as vet and the rest of it as animal. So far, nothing I have read suggests that it should be counted as ALL vet, but I will most likely call to be sure.

 

[2CatMatt]

I found this on the VMCAS for the 2011 application. "Veterinary experiences should relate to any veterinary clinical, agribusiness, health science, or research experiences that you have had with veterinarians, other health scientists, or other health professionals."

https://portal.vmcas.org/applicants2012/instructions/ins_veterinary.htm

I have research that involves animal surgery, but MOST of my time is spent with the PhD who is not a vet, so I was going to count the pre/post-op and during op stuff as vet and the rest of it as animal. So far, nothing I have read suggests that it should be counted as ALL vet, but I will most likely call to be sure.

The way I read the VMCAS description is that the key to whether hours can be counted as veterinary research is if that research is either conducted on/with animals or is directly related to the healthcare of animals. The focus here isn't really on who is supervising, because if the research is veterinary in nature, it would have to be a veterinarian, MD, PhD, etc.

So, pigsatuga, based on your description, I would count the whole thing as veterinary experience because the research itself is vet related.

Bipolarbear though? Not so sure.

My PI has a PhD in chemistry and our research focuses on modifying proteins; however, these modifications can be used for cellular imaging (in cancer, for example) or for drug delivery. I thought that this kind of qualified him as a health professional, but wasn't sure. Vet experience?

Are you saying the modifications you're doing could theoretically be used on animals for cellular imaging or drug delivery, or that you're actually obtaining animal proteins, modifying them and then using them on animals for cancer research? If it's the former, to me, that doesn't sound like vet experience at all. Just my opinion, obviously feel free to take it or leave it.

 

[bipolarbear123]

Are you saying the modifications you're doing could theoretically be used on animals for cellular imaging or drug delivery, or that you're actually obtaining animal proteins, modifying them and then using them on animals for cancer research? If it's the former, to me, that doesn't sound like vet experience at all. Just my opinion, obviously feel free to take it or leave it.

I'm pretty sure it's geared more towards humans, but my project wasn't even doing cellular imaging. My project was working on a reaction that modifies tyrosine, so that you can modify tyrosine residues on a peptide or protein. There are many applications to this, but it's not really "vet related."

Pretty confused on what type of research counts as vet hours, and which ones don't. Depending on who you talk to, you get a different answer. VMCAS didn't really answer my question directly. I suppose I'll have to call them and try to get another answer.