Advice for Newcomer

[NStarz]

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Hi all! I've been lurking for a few weeks, but I've decided to post!

I'm a junior in college and have JUST become interested in pursuing a career in veterinary medicine (read: last week). I have a lot of animal experience (worked at aquarium, adoption counseling at a shelter, behavior modification in dogs to make them more adoptable, fostering, etc.) but have little in the way of veterinary experience. My GPA is pretty competitive (3.83) and I'm pretty sure I'll do okay at the GREs. I also have research experience and quite a few honors/awards.

I will be trying to gain experience over the next year to add to that portion of my application, but probably will not be able to accumulate the 1000s of hours and diversity of work that everyone on here seems to have. Probably, I'll at most be able to gain 1000 or so hours shadowing a vet at a SA clinic. In order to be a vet tech in my state (NJ), you need to be licensed, so the possibility of gaining 'hands-on' experience is unlikely. Will I be SOL in applying for vet schools next year? Any advice would be extremely appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Minnerbelle]

Especially if you're applying straight out of college, I wouldn't worry too much about racking too many hours. A lot of schools will understand, and it looks like you're rock solid academically so if anything, apply to schools that weigh your academics as >70% of your application package.

Plus, even like 500 hrs is nothing so sneeze at. That's working 40 hrs/wk for over 3 months. If anything try to diversify it a little bit. Especially if you're only planning to shadow, why not do like 500 hrs with SA, and another 500 with a zoo, food animal, lab animal vet? Plus, are you sure that in NJ you need to be a vet tech to work at a clinic? Are you sure that you can't just work as a vet's assistant? Shadowing's nice and all, but I'm not sure just sitting and watching for 1000 hrs in a SA clinic shows very much about your potential to become a vet. There's nothing wrong with shadowing, but if you can, maybe you could try and do something a little bit more involved. The vet that you'll be getting your LOR from will have to rate you on your animal handling skills, etc...

Maybe try to volunteer/work at a vet dept in a large shelter? They're not nearly as freaked out about liability/insurance coverage for volunteers and many will let you do a lot of stuff.

If you have research experience in some biomedical field with a PhD or an MD, that also counts as vet experience too. At any rate, I think you're doing just fine!