Dabbling Hours?

[neocia]

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Hi, I see a few threads have been posted a while back in the pre-med forums about this but curious what other pre-vets and vet students think: By the time of my application, I'll have worked at the same SA clinic for ~1000 hrs, however, I have a lot of little "experiences" shadowing in places that I traveled or visited - for instance, I was in Indiana for a few weeks once and shadowed randomly at a clinic there for ~30 hours, have arranged to shadow for a few days at a cancer clinic, shadowing an aquarium vet for a day (probably only like 8 hours), shadowed at a cat shelter low-cost clinic briefly, etc.

Does this seem odd or fairly normal? I'm interested in a wide range of animal medicine and I like to shadow, even if only for a day or two, where I have the chance. That's not to say I can't commit though because I already have a large number of solid hours from the clinic I work at.

 

[HowIMetYourPet]

I think its probably pretty normal, I have a lot of "little" hours too, in addition to my "big chunk". I would think it would be good, showing you've tried to experience multiple environments.

 

[that redhead]

I don't think it's bad, per se, but I think it would be better to have solid hours in a variety of fields when possible. All hours at one place isn't the best way to go about it, and I have heard from others it was brought up in file reviews.

 

[orcagirl]

I put my little hours on there as well. I was part of the pre-vet club at my university and many of my cool experiences were over a weekend. It didn't seem to hurt me at all.

 

[that redhead]

I don't think it's bad, per se, but I think it would be better to have solid hours in a variety of fields when possible. All hours at one place isn't the best way to go about it, and I have heard from others it was brought up in file reviews.

 

[StartingoverVet]

I don't think it's bad, per se, but I think it would be better to have solid hours in a variety of fields when possible. All hours at one place isn't the best way to go about it, and I have heard from others it was brought up in file reviews.

This depends highly on the school.. As with most advice here, check carefully at the school(s) you are applying to.
What keeps you out of one school can get you in at another.

As for the OP's question, that is absolutely fine. You have some focused hours, and some diversity….. nothing to worry about here.
I can already see your PS explaining your focused interest in a particular area, but wanting to explore various other areas…. that sounds almost perfect.

 

[WolvesDragon55]

I did exactly that- have a large chunk in equine, but also had little and medium chunks in small animal, emergency, exotics, farm animal, breeding farms, research etc. I put it all on there and talked about how much I enjoyed seeing the correlations across the fields and just learning about the different sides to vet med. I am still waiting to hear back, but the vet schools I interviewed at told me they liked that I was " well- rounded" and aware of the diversity in the field. It is all in how you spin it!


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