The CSU supplemental aka Why are you unique?

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IHeartGoldens

IHeartGoldens

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Based on your past experience(s), what unique qualities will you bring to the veterinary program and profession

Is anyone other than me having a really hard time answering this? Especially in 100 words?
Those of you with an explanation statement, did you reference anything from there or something new altogether?
:scared::scared:
 
That's interesting..I wrote something about that as well.

How.. unique 🙂
 
Had to go back to double check what I wrote for CSU.

I wrote about an interest in studying abroad and seeing how the veterinary profession differs in other countries. Then I noticed that it completely lopped off a portion of my last sentence! Doh....

Wonder if they'll automatically discard my application lol.
 
I wrote about how working as a body piercer/funeral director/metal musician all taught me different things that will apply to vet med. If somebody else wrote the same thing, I'm screwed. 🙂
 
TrocarKarin said:
I wrote about how working as a body piercer/funeral director/metal musician all taught me different things that will apply to vet med. If somebody else wrote the same thing, I'm screwed. 🙂
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lol i think you've got it covered!
 
I wrote about being homeschooled.
 
wrote about how working as a body piercer/funeral director/metal musician all taught me different things that will apply to vet med. If somebody else wrote the same thing, I'm screwed.
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Ok, you've piqued my interest. I get the first two but, what did you learn from a metal musician that applies to vet school?
 
HopefulAg said:
Ok, you've piqued my interest. I get the first two but, what did you learn from a metal musician that applies to vet school?
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Mostly working as part of a team. (Have you ever been around musicians? Its like tiptoeing through a minefield.) I also mentioned some of the business/marketing skills I've gained from managing bands.
 
TrocarKarin said:
I wrote about how working as a body piercer/funeral director/metal musician all taught me different things that will apply to vet med. If somebody else wrote the same thing, I'm screwed. 🙂
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i'm impressed that you fit all of that into 100 words or less 👍 🙂
 
Mostly working as part of a team. (Have you ever been around musicians? Its like tiptoeing through a minefield.) I also mentioned some of the business/marketing skills I've gained from managing bands.
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Ah, I see. Yah musicians can be kind of....emotional some times.

Well good luck getting in. I'm sure your application will certainly stand out at the least. And that's never a bad thing.
 
TrocarKarin said:
I wrote about how working as a ....metal musician all taught me different things that will apply to vet med. If somebody else wrote the same thing, I'm screwed. 🙂
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UH OH! :scared: I wrote about something very similar because I was a musician for years and quit while I was on tour. Good thing I'm not applying to CSU, but I did apply to Iowa and they asked almost an identical question. And I can vouch for everything you;ve said about musicians...they can occasionally be difficult to deal with. I hope that helps set us apart a little bit.
 
Minnerbelle, I like either the first one or the last one best. Did you talk about the last one in your PS and stuff? Then maybe talk about the first one, since it's new information and will allow them to get to know you even better.
 
i like the first one!!! i would be most intrigued by that one. that would definitely set you apart i think. 🙂
 
=_o! I just signed on because I was stuck on the exact same thing! Haha. Sounds like you all have some great stuff to talk about, I've got the same problem where I have some unique stuff but it's not THAT unique. Mind giving me a hand too?

  • I have always had this intense innate interest in pathology, and had the opportunity to work under a pathologist as an undergrad. I can bring innate curiosity, intense passion. This is hard to explain, because it's a very House M.D. fascination I've always had but he had to go ruin in with the cane, misanthropy and pills. Lol.
  • I was raised in a household affected by substance abuse. I really discussed this in my Disadvantaged Circumstances to greater detail, but it's given me a lot of self-sufficiency, determination and a sense of self worth now.
  • I worked on a pretty much free range cattle ranch for a summer. Animal experience, more down to earth aspect of vet med, more self-reliance and the only respect you get is the respect you earn stuff.

I dunno. I am so stuck. I wrote my PS on the Pathology stuff, so I don't want to be too redundant.
 
I'd...probably go with the second one. If you do the first one, you may want to leave out the 'lol' and potentially the House part, because maybe they'll think you think that real practice is like that?
 
HopefulAg said:
I'd...probably go with the second one. If you do the first one, you may want to leave out the 'lol' and potentially the House part, because maybe they'll think you think that real practice is like that?
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😀 Obviously, I would never say "Lol" anywhere in a real application. I would say "Giggles!" instead. Just being sarcastic again. And the House part, I added for clarity on the forum. Once again, I'm trying to avoid negative image implantation. 😉 Life is not TV.

And I think I am going to do the second one as well. It's really given me a lot of character. *chuckle*
 
So one needs to have good grades/exp AND be unique to be admitted to vet school? 🙄
 
http://www.despair.com/individuality.html

This reminds me of a thought from a med student I saw a long time ago -- I think it was from a blog, but unfortunately I don't remember the source. She said something along the lines of
In order to get into med school, you have to show them that you are bright, optimistic, and well-rounded. Once you get in, they spend the next 4 years beating the well-roundedness out of you.
 
I just looked what I wrote. i dont think I sound special, but it's what i'm really interested in:


At California State Polytechnic University, Pomona I have had the opportunity to work with a variety of animals. I have learned the importance of Herd Health Management and what is required to run a livestock farm. At the animal units we have processed pigs, sheep, goats, and bovine. I am currently working on a research project with poultry and as a research assistant I am in charge of ensuring the animals’ health and safety.

If you all want to know what else i wrote, i wont mind cutting and pasting it. I wish everyone luck and in the end....it will all work out. 🙂

GOOD LUCK!
 
Is everyone answering the multi-cultural question below? I feel like even though this question is optional, it will hurt to not answer it.
 
I'm answering the multi-cutural Q, but only because I spent part of the summer studying Animal Science in Central America this summer. An optional question is optional, it shouldn't hurt you not to answer it.
 
I answered it because my sophomore year I lived in the international students dorm. I met a lot of really cool people from all over the world. If it is optional it shouldn't hurt you.
 
I am talking about my time working for a general manager in the construction industry. I used to work in home interior finishes and definately walked away with some life lessons. I also now have a better understanding of how buildings are built which is actually kind of cool since it was something I had no previous understanding of.

I will say it is almost impossible to write something even kind of coherent in 100 words.
 
I'm answering #2 talking about growing up half Chinese/half white. I considered writing about studying abroad in Italy, but I tried to talk some about that in #3 and in my PS.

It's just #1 I'm having trouble with. I've never felt less unique in my life.
 
DVMDream said:
I like the first one, but you could also use the first one for the multicultural experiences question that comes right after the unique experiences section.
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Touche!

doh... and i was thinking, awesome, i will write about that!

poop... and now back to square one...

oh oh oh... i do have another one that's kind of unique, especially for my situation! lemme know if it's terribly dumb and i should refrain from using it.

i have 2 large parrots in long term foster care in colorado that i went through many many hoops to get them there. this is one of the biggest reasons why i haven't just said "pssht, there's no way i'm getting in oos" and am still applying to CSU. there's no way i am ever giving up on taking them back at some point, and going to CSU is the only way i can actually regularly see them until i graduate. i've already been away from them for 2 years and i miss them dearly. they really are my toddlers that will never grow. (note... i won't be saying much of what i just said in my statement)

because of them, i understand the plight of exotic birds in the pet industry, and my experience handling large birds really helped me improve the lives of parrots at the wildlife sanctuary i interned at. also, as one who is super passionate about shelter medicine, i also understand through my experience with my birds what it feels like to be on the surrender side of things.
 
Minnerbelle said:
Touche!

doh... and i was thinking, awesome, i will write about that!

poop... and now back to square one...

oh oh oh... i do have another one that's kind of unique, especially for my situation! lemme know if it's terribly dumb and i should refrain from using it.

i have 2 large parrots in long term foster care in colorado that i went through many many hoops to get them there. this is one of the biggest reasons why i haven't just said "pssht, there's no way i'm getting in oos" and am still applying to CSU. there's no way i am ever giving up on taking them back at some point, and going to CSU is the only way i can actually regularly see them until i graduate. i've already been away from them for 2 years and i miss them dearly. they really are my toddlers that will never grow. (note... i won't be saying much of what i just said in my statement)

because of them, i understand the plight of exotic birds in the pet industry, and my experience handling large birds really helped me improve the lives of parrots at the wildlife sanctuary i interned at. also, as one who is super passionate about shelter medicine, i also understand through my experience with my birds what it feels like to be on the surrender side of things.
Click to expand...

I like it. I think it will work. There are not a lot of people who have that experience with birds. There was an office bird at one of the clinics that I worked at. He was really nice at first and I started to actually like him, then he turned evil and kept trying to bite me when I would try to scratch his neck. He even tried to bite me when I was giving him his food. 😡 I think you can turn that into a unique experience. I know how hard it is to surrender a pet. My parents had to surrender my cat a couple of year ago but they didn't tell me they were doing it so I never got to say bye to him. 🙁 It was for his own good though. Good Luck!! I hope we will be classmates next year at CSU!!! :luck:
 
DVMDream said:
I like it. I think it will work. There are not a lot of people who have that experience with birds. There was an office bird at one of the clinics that I worked at. He was really nice at first and I started to actually like him, then he turned evil and kept trying to bite me when I would try to scratch his neck. He even tried to bite me when I was giving him his food. 😡 I think you can turn that into a unique experience. I know how hard it is to surrender a pet. My parents had to surrender my cat a couple of year ago but they didn't tell me they were doing it so I never got to say bye to him. 🙁 It was for his own good though. Good Luck!! I hope we will be classmates next year at CSU!!! :luck:
Click to expand...

Awesome! I'll get on it. well... even if CSU doesn't think it's "unique" at least i'm multicultural right? :laugh: I was originally not going to put down a multicultural statement because Asian people are considered "overrepresented" minorities in a lot of the places I've been. Usually, it's like "oh... you're another Asian kid with good grades and extracurriculars... NEXT!" But I realized that Asian people are acutally underrepresented in a lot of vet schools (especially coming from my particular nationality)!

sorry to hear about your cat... that's tough stuff. glad to hear that at least it was in the best interest for your cat.

to keep my birds i seriously considered not going to college. i was thinking i would work as a vet tech at the shelter i worked at, gain my RVT license, and then find a position at a sanctuary that would allow me to bring my birds along. that was a lot to think about as a 17 year old! because of the avian flu, my birds weren't allowed to leave this country to go to Asia with my parents (not that it would've been a good idea to bring them anyway).

it's still tough... knowing that i can't take them back until i have a stable job with appropriate housing for a screaming 'too. i have no idea when that will be, but i do know they're happy where they are, and the org has been so super supportive of my pursuing my dreams and wanting to keep my babies!
 
Minnerbelle said:
Awesome! I'll get on it. well... even if CSU doesn't think it's "unique" at least i'm multicultural right? :laugh: I was originally not going to put down a multicultural statement because Asian people are considered "overrepresented" minorities in a lot of the places I've been. Usually, it's like "oh... you're another Asian kid with good grades and extracurriculars... NEXT!" But I realized that Asian people are acutally underrepresented in a lot of vet schools (especially coming from my particular nationality)!

sorry to hear about your cat... that's tough stuff. glad to hear that at least it was in the best interest for your cat.

to keep my birds i seriously considered not going to college. i was thinking i would work as a vet tech at the shelter i worked at, gain my RVT license, and then find a position at a sanctuary that would allow me to bring my birds along. that was a lot to think about as a 17 year old! because of the avian flu, my birds weren't allowed to leave this country to go to Asia with my parents (not that it would've been a good idea to bring them anyway).



it's still tough... knowing that i can't take them back until i have a stable job with appropriate housing for a screaming 'too. i have no idea when that will be, but i do know they're happy where they are, and the org has been so super supportive of my pursuing my dreams and wanting to keep my babies!
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I am glad that the organization is very supportive of you and your efforts to get them back. I hope you can get them back very soon.
 
I appear to have written (I had to go look it up haha) about how my background in engineering and horse training has made me a good problem solver and how I will apply that in vet school. Yawntastic, but only being able to do 100 words makes it difficult to form complete and coherent replies.
 
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I wrote about my general approach to problem solving, because it's been pretty off the wall and different in study groups I've participated in and it's helped me to teach things to others, as well as been useful in research.

I guess that's kind of more "how my brain works is unique" and then applying it to experiences though, rather than how my experiences make me unique. Maybe I need to delete it and start over again. 😕 I have pink hair, I'm obviously a special snowflake, why do I have to write about it!!!?
 
Would you take your pink-haired self for an interview? Or would be more of the less unique (brown,blonde,black etc) variety?:laugh:
 
nyanko said:
Maybe I need to delete it and start over again. 😕 I have pink hair, I'm obviously a special snowflake, why do I have to write about it!!!?
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A very special snowflake. Pink is good but they may like green better to go with their "go green" way of sending out notices on acceptances, denials, and alternates. 🙂
 
^^Oh green did NOT look good on me! :laugh: (for the record, I was going for teal, but didn't tone my hair before applying it, so green it was!)

IHeartGoldens said:
Would you take your pink-haired self for an interview? Or would be more of the less unique (brown,blonde,black etc) variety?:laugh:
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At Davis? Maybe. I mean, I work and do my research at the vet school and am all over the place here, so it's entirely likely that any professors who are interviewing me would have seen me around with it anyway. Everyone who says anything about it here loves it! Plus it's California... 😉

However, if I have to go to any other interviews this year (and most likely even for Davis if I get an interview depending on what feedback I get when I actually ask about it), temporary black dye will be applied over it. My natural hair color is dark brown-auburn so it won't look terribly off base if the black blends with the reddish tones in the dye. And I know from experience that the Manic Panic black dye fades before I even get used to it being there, so it won't be permanently screwed up.
 
Manic Panic! I got a big negatory when I asked the boss about coloring my hair. Maybe during vet school I can do it, but probably not before.

I'm a special snowflake because my hair is about 3 inches long at most... but I'm not sure the adcoms want to hear about our hair. 😉
 
I'm a special snow flake because I'm double jointed and quite dexterous with my toes. Shame I'm not a few years younger, used to be able to fit through a coat hanger but my shoulders have broadened since then 🙁
 
twelvetigers said:
Manic Panic! I got a big negatory when I asked the boss about coloring my hair. Maybe during vet school I can do it, but probably not before.

I'm a special snowflake because my hair is about 3 inches long at most... but I'm not sure the adcoms want to hear about our hair. 😉
Click to expand...
That's a shame about your boss. One of the licensed techs at my job recently gave herself purple/blue highlights on a black background. It looks really good, and she's gotten compliments from a lot of the doctors. What can I say, maybe horse people are more laid back. Maybe it's the layer of grime everyone gets coated in anyway that makes them care less about hair. 😛
 
HopefulAg said:
I'm a special snow flake because I'm double jointed and quite dexterous with my toes. Shame I'm not a few years younger, used to be able to fit through a coat hanger but my shoulders have broadened since then 🙁
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oh wait... now that you mention it, maybe i'm unique too! i have ehlers-danlos syndrome so i'm a bit of a circus freak. i'm half way between rubber girl and contortionist! no joke, i used to sleep with a split... like the whole 180 degrees, and at one point, i even got my head stuck between my legs as a kid trying to immitate a picture on Ripley's believe it or not. luckily, i have a pretty mild form of the disorder so the only negative effects i have are really mild scoliosis and super cavity prone teeth. (and FYI there's no such thing as double jointedness. just hyperextensibility/flexibility of the joint or something like that).
 
Oh oh oh! I can juggle! And pop my right shoulder out of its socket! And I'm somewhat ambidextrous!

Actually, I'm trying to go with something about living in San Diego (aka coastal scrubland), but the more I work on it, the less I like it.
 
(and FYI there's no such thing as double jointedness. just hyperextensibility/flexibility of the joint or something like that).
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Yah but every time I tell people I'm hyperextensive they draw a large blank.

"Double jointed." "Oooooooh, why didn't you say so?"
 
Minnerbelle said:
(and FYI there's no such thing as double jointedness. just hyperextensibility/flexibility of the joint or something like that).
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i have hyperextensive elbows
 
I just remembered, between the ill-fated cross-country jump and the surgery to fix it, I had the best party trick! I could make the peroneal tendons on my left ankle pop up over the lateral malleolus. After the first dozen times of doing it accidentally, it didn't hurt. Awesome trick to show friends at the time, but leaving it long term would have caused further damage and been a pain.
 
eventualeventer said:
I just remembered, between the ill-fated cross-country jump and the surgery to fix it, I had the best party trick! I could make the peroneal tendons on my left ankle pop up over the lateral malleolus. After the first dozen times of doing it accidentally, it didn't hurt. Awesome trick to show friends at the time, but leaving it long term would have caused further damage and been a pain.
Click to expand...

Ouch! Due to recent ankle sprains, I can crack my ankle joint by putting the tops of my toes on the ground and pulling forward, but I can't imagine having tendons slide around. 😱
 
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