Anyone manage to get internships/residencies with C's in your first year?

[pirateyoho]

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Hi all,

I've been really stressing about my grades during my first year of veterinary school, mainly because I'm interested in pursuing either research or a specialty post-DVM, and I know that internships and residencies require an impressive GPA. It's looking like I'm going to finish my first semester of vet school with at least 2 C's (and certainly not from a lack of studying/trying... ), and I was wondering if any of you managed to land internships or residencies after a rough first year? Do you have any advice, or should I just go ahead and start getting used to the idea of going into private practice instead of the competitive process of specializing?

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

What specialty are you looking at, are are these Cs in relevant courses to said specialty?

 

[pirateyoho]

What specialty are you looking at, are are these Cs in relevant courses to said specialty?

There are a few specialties I'm interested in, but lab animal, clinical pathology, and anatomic pathology are probably closest to the top. The courses I'm struggling the most with this semester are anatomy and physiology; I'm doing just fine in histology, cell bio, and neuroscience.

 

[JaynaAli]

I just got accepted into a clinical pathology residency for 2016 and had Cs in anatomy and physiology first year, so it can be done. With that said, those courses were my only Cs in vet school. I worked hard to raise my GPA from a 2.8 to a 3.2 and had a solid upward trend. I wouldn’t say to abandon all hope now, but you will need to work hard to make it happen. Do your best from here on out and get experience to make yourself stand out.

I definitely feel like I immediately got rejected when applying for some programs because of my GPA (more so for internships than residencies). I think it’s important to have other strong portions of your application when your GPA is lower so people will take a chance on you. For my internship, I visited this clinic and kept in touch with the intern director. For residencies, who writes your letters of recommendations is very important, so start making those connections now. Get a job in a clin path/histology/necropsy/research lab, go to conferences and consider presenting a poster, shadow specialists. Dedication to the field is important. Visiting programs (like during 4th year externships or summer vacations) is a good idea whenever possible. Visits longer than 1 day are best in my opinion, because you get a better feel for that program and how you would fit in there. It also gives the faculty a chance to get to know you aside from your paper application.

That was my long-winded version of saying don’t give up yet if you really want it.

 

[jmo1012]

Hi all,

I've been really stressing about my grades during my first year of veterinary school, mainly because I'm interested in pursuing either research or a specialty post-DVM, and I know that internships and residencies require an impressive GPA. It's looking like I'm going to finish my first semester of vet school with at least 2 C's (and certainly not from a lack of studying/trying... ), and I was wondering if any of you managed to land internships or residencies after a rough first year? Do you have any advice, or should I just go ahead and start getting used to the idea of going into private practice instead of the competitive process of specializing?

you can absolutely get a good internship with a few Cs. you have to be spectacularly unattractive (from an application standpoint) or be exceptionally picky to not get an internship. there are plenty of places that have spots available for scrambling if you don't match. you may not be competitive with the top programs in the country, but thats not the end of the world. see above advice for residencies.