Best time to tour vet schools?

[Charlie Rollin]

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Hi all! I am a sophomore undergrad and have been thinking a lot about my 4 Year Plan a lot, specifically about experiences in shadowing and volunteer work.

Most schools want relevant, diverse experiences- but from what I have been reading, different schools look for different types of experiences. To get the most up-to-date advice, would it be too ambitious to tour vet schools during my sophomore year? Or better question, when is the ideal time to tour vet schools?

Thanks!

 

[JaynaAli]

I used to give tours for my school (admittedly this was 11-13 years ago) but tours were more for showing off the school’s amenities and not really intended for advice on experiences and applications. I mean we would give advice if asked, but we were just students leading the tours, not the actual admissions staff. I only say this so you have reasonable expectations about what you may get out of a tour. Other schools may handle things differently than my school did, but if you’re wanting advice on how to improve your app and hearing stats from other students, you may get better information by emailing the schools admissions departments directly and doing lots for reading on social media and SDN.

With that said, to actually answer your question, if you are wanting to see a place in person and tour, I don’t think it really matters. Early on you may learn something and be able to target your app a little better, but later on or even during the application process you may have better idea what you’re looking for and what your priorities are and you should know by then if you even meet their admissions requirements. I remember being excited to tour when I was a high school student so I’m not saying it’s silly to do a tour, but now that I’m on the other side I don’t think it’s all that important other than for enthusiasm. A school’s website should have all requirements.

 

[pp9]

Echoing what Jayna said...there really is no specific time you should/should not be touring. If anything, getting an early start may give you more time to decide what schools you actually want to apply to. @battie gave tours at our school, so she may have also have some input on what to expect. Some vet schools also have 'open houses' where the public are invited and anyone can go, too. Those often have a lot more going on/things to see, but might give you less opportunity to have a conversation with a student or staff member (I think my school had admissions presentations during our open house, though?).

If you have more specific questions, it might be more worthwhile to schedule an appointment with the admissions office (if the schools you're looking at offer those).

 

[battie]

Yeah, I was the student coordinator for the ambassadors at my school. Set up tours and admissions meetings for before/after the tour. Ambassadors were just there to show you the school and talk about their journeys. Could not give any specific "this is what you need to do" to get in cause there's no one set path to get in for any school. Schools also do not want to get backed into a corner of a rejected applicant saying that "so-and-so student ambassador told me if I did a, b, and c, I would be a shoe in". So any admissions advice you'd get from a tour would be purely low key with no guarantees or expectations that's how it will actually play out.

Likewise, there's no good or bad time to do tours. During the school year, you can see more of what's going on. However, there's a strict timeline cause the student giving the tour is doing so during their lunch hour or a break in their schedule. So there's no flexibility there. During breaks, it's more chill because there is more flexibility and the guide may be able to take things slower and spend more time with you. It depends on how things are set up.

Whether or not it's necessary, I honestly don't think so. With how competitive vet schools admissions are becoming, determining if you're going to attend a school based on a tour is short sighted to me. Unless something major is said, done, or seen on a tour, they're all going to be the same with the same purpose: convince you to apply and potentially attend that school. I would honestly rather an applicant save that money to either apply to more schools or save for interviews.