Advice on Preparation

[georgie339]

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[twelvetigers]

If you look at this thread:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=589279

You can see how you stack up. You look about average, though I would try and get some more experience hours, especially veterinary experience. 🙂

 

[georgie339]

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[twelvetigers]

The more experience, the better - really focus in it it, since your other stats are pretty good. Make yourself stand out, and get those good letters of recommendation!

Also, you'll want to double and triple check the pre-reqs and requirements for Illinois. Make sure you have everything you need, or you might regret it later.

 

[david594]

I'm not sure what your plans are for the rest of your summer, but I would be shooting for gaining 500+ hours of experience this summer instead off ~130.

If your plan is to practice clinical medicine then your lack of experience will be one of the biggest areas of your application that you can improve upon.

 

[georgie339]

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[SaintSamson]

Hey,

So I was just passing by this thread and found it pretty helpful. I'm gonna go a tad off topic, but not totally off topic!
I won't be applying for 2014, but 2015 (hopefully!)
I had a pretty big setback at my first college in which it took 3 years and multiple professionals to diagnose me with ADD. Because I have an extremely strong short term memory, I never had to learn how to study.... until I got to college. I have a lot of ugly marks on my record, but since I've transferred, most of them have been erased at my new school. I'll probably have to submit my records from my first college, though, won't I? Is there a good way to explain it? Or just tell the truth? I feel as though I sound like I'm making an excuse, since many people have ADD and have learned to manage just fine. As it stands, my grades are ever improving and from here on out, I'm confident in my abilities... I worry my past will follow and haunt me, though...

For experience, how is the best way to go about accomplishing it? I work part time at a small animal clinic and plan to apply to shadow an equine veterinarian in the near future.... because I'm a bit behind in everything, though, I will be taking courses during the summer until graduation in about 2 years. I have a lot of animal experience with goats and horses, but only a couple hours of veterinary experience with larger animals. Should I work on finding a large animal vet to shadow and gaining that spot? Or should I look more into volunteering with various places (such as humane societies, spay/neuter clinics, emergency clinics, etc.?)

 

[david594]

I had a pretty big setback at my first college in which it took 3 years and multiple professionals to diagnose me with ADD. Because I have an extremely strong short term memory, I never had to learn how to study.... until I got to college. I have a lot of ugly marks on my record, but since I've transferred, most of them have been erased at my new school. I'll probably have to submit my records from my first college, though, won't I? Yup Is there a good way to explain it? Not really. Or just tell the truth? Probably I feel as though I sound like I'm making an excuse, since many people have ADD and have learned to manage just fine. As it stands, my grades are ever improving and from here on out, I'm confident in my abilities... I worry my past will follow and haunt me, though...

Your past will haunt you. Schools have minimum GPA requirements that you have to meet and that can be the hardest part for people with poor GPA's early on. Some schools say they will throw out all apps with a GPA below 3.0 or something like that. Its important though to look at how schools evaluate your GPA. Many schools will also look at your science(or pre-req) grades and that from the last 45 credits. So those are 2 areas that anyone can shine in even if they had a rough start.

 

[david594]

For the rest of the summer, I will be shadowing at random places (i am not sure how many hours though)... and I will be doing animal-related research full time. I am either interested in pursuing veterinary research or veterinary internal medicine as a career...

I will see what I can do in terms of gaining hours of experience! I should be able to rack up something like 200 hours of clinical experience, 250 hours of research, and 40 more hours of LA experience if I work every day... I hope I can get enough hours! 500 is a lot, but I can try!

My comments were kind of assuming that you were more interested in clinical medicine than research. So if your main focus is intending to go into research then that is where you should probably try and get the majority of your experience. Having lesser hours in the other aspects of wont be as big a deal.

 

[chagheill]

Your past will haunt you. Schools have minimum GPA requirements that you have to meet and that can be the hardest part for people with poor GPA's early on. Some schools say they will throw out all apps with a GPA below 3.0 or something like that. Its important though to look at how schools evaluate your GPA.

Not necessarily, depending on how long ago SaintSamson did those classes. I know of at least several schools that do not consider any classes older than a specific period of time, usually 5-8 years.

A professor I had at Cornell in my freshman year told us on the first day that his class was going to be hard - not everyone would pass, but that failure should not discourage anyone. He went on to relate his own story about his time as an undergrad, when he failed out not once but twice within as many years. He returned to university a few years later and eventually went on to obtain a PhD. From there he became a tenured professor at an Ivy league school, wrote a textbook used widely across North America and is acknowledged as one of the world's foremost experts on animal physiology. Moral of the story: don't give up.