Dissection on VMCAS?

[NStarz]

This is most likely a stupid question (so much so that it doesn't even deserve its own threat, but my search turned up nothing).

If a class included dissection of animals (ie, rat, pig, pigeon, etc.), do you include that under animal experience (or is it just assumed because it has "zoology" in the title)? Also, would you include time spent in class studying animals in their natural habitat (ie, bird watching or something to that effect) as animal experience?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[PrimalMU]

In my opinion, animal experience is only hands on experience working with live animals. There's no way I would consider listing my comparative vertebrate anatomy class as animal experience due to the dissections.

 

[cowgirla]

Personally, for dissections, I wouldn't include it. Kind of a given, I think?

I would say the same thing for bird watching, too, but that one might be debatable. I'd stick to the more hands on stuff though, rather than just observing, if your going to list it as experience.

I had one class where on some supplementals, I included it as animal experience.... That was a repro management class, and I did it mostly because it would add to my otherwise limited bovine experience for the schools that looked heavily at which species you were familiar with (I want to say Mizzou and PEI apps, and maybe a few others)
I didn't bother mentioning any of my equine classes or anat/phys or anything like that, even on VMCAS. Figured they were self explanatory, and I wasn't lacking in equine experience.

 

[NStarz]

Thanks guys, that's what I thought!

 

[DVMDream]

I did not include any of the dissections we did for animal phys on mine (They weren't really "dissections" we had to do experiments with removing specific nerves, muscles and measuring the effects of drugs on the heart (piercing a beating heart is very hard)). I felt that was kind of a given that students are going to do dissections for classes. I was really debating adding on the experiment that we had to create on our own for that class. We measured the differences in oxygen capacity between land hermit crabs and marine hermit crabs. But, I decided not to because it wasn't really "research" as in we worked on it for 3 weeks and then presented the results. So, I felt it was not necessary to add.

 

[cuitlamiztli]

Also, would you include time spent in class studying animals in their natural habitat (ie, bird watching or something to that effect) as animal experience?

Some schools don't want you to list experience you got in a class, so I would contact those you're interested in.

 

[NStarz]

Some schools don't want you to list experience you got in a class, so I would contact those you're interested in.

Just curious, but isn't that how a lot of animal sci/food animal people get their large animal experience?

 

[rileyroo]

Just curious, but isn't that how a lot of animal sci/food animal people get their large animal experience?

not sure what you mean, but i wasn't an animal science major. i am a large animal person though and all of my experience comes from riding with large animal vets/working on farms/shadowing surgeons at equine hospitals/volunteering at equine organizations. so none of my LA experience came from a classroom.

 

[BlacKAT33]

Just curious, but isn't that how a lot of animal sci/food animal people get their large animal experience?

i always thought it was the opposite. My thinking is, most ansc majors or food animal ppl already have LA experience. Most of my ansc major friends had experience on farms or family on farms, ride horses, etc etc

I was a biology major and have no experience on farms with LA. I did list some LA experience from my ansc classes but not all of them and only if i did a lot of hands on things. I made sure to say where it was from so it didn't look like i was hiding the fact that it was in the classroom. I just did it to show that i have handled LA's before and i'm not afraid to work with them. I just didnt have time between my research/lab and SA interning to also get LA experience too and it is really hard to find in my area since i live in the city.

The class i talked about was "Applied Small Ruminant Parturition: Animal Science course at UMD.
Involved with the care of sheep and raising of lambs during the semester. Tagged ears, docked tails, neutered male lambs, weighed lambs, bottle fed, provided different types of feed to sheep. Observed for abnormal behavior of mothers over gestation period. Lectures included zoonoses, basic reproductive physiology of the sheep, and breeding principles." --that is exactly what i wrote. I didn't get any complaints about it and basically the whole course was hands on so i think it was relevant especially since i had no other LA experience besides ANSC101 (i did not list this)

 

[NStarz]

Haha, that makes sense. That class sounds really interesting Blackat!

 

[marycatherine]

i always thought it was the opposite. My thinking is, most ansc majors or food animal ppl already have LA experience. Most of my ansc major friends had experience on farms or family on farms, ride horses, etc etc

I was a biology major and have no experience on farms with LA. I did list some LA experience from my ansc classes but not all of them and only if i did a lot of hands on things. I made sure to say where it was from so it didn't look like i was hiding the fact that it was in the classroom. I just did it to show that i have handled LA's before and i'm not afraid to work with them. I just didnt have time between my research/lab and SA interning to also get LA experience too and it is really hard to find in my area since i live in the city.

The class i talked about was "Applied Small Ruminant Parturition: Animal Science course at UMD.
Involved with the care of sheep and raising of lambs during the semester. Tagged ears, docked tails, neutered male lambs, weighed lambs, bottle fed, provided different types of feed to sheep. Observed for abnormal behavior of mothers over gestation period. Lectures included zoonoses, basic reproductive physiology of the sheep, and breeding principles." --that is exactly what i wrote. I didn't get any complaints about it and basically the whole course was hands on so i think it was relevant especially since i had no other LA experience besides ANSC101 (i did not list this)

Ughhhh stop making me regret my liberal arts education!! That sounds so cool!

 

[BlacKAT33]

Ughhhh stop making me regret my liberal arts education!! That sounds so cool!

lol yea it was a really fun class. but it was a pain in the butt to get in to!!! it is mostly for ANSC majors but since i took ansc101 and another ansc class i tried to weasel myself into it lol. it didn't say "only ansc majors" on the class description so they said i could go on a waitlist and then i eventually got in because i guess someone dropped it?? lucky me! lol

 

[Allthingsequine]

Personally I don't see anything wrong with including experience you got in a classroom on your VMCAS if it adds something substantial to your application (and if your schools don't have a problem with it, of course). I have limited food animal experience, so I included a meat science lab I took which involved live animal evaluation, carcass evaluation, and meat processing. Now had I had thousands of hours shadowing a food animal vet I probably wouldn't have included this, but since I didn't I included the lab to show that I had experience working with live food animals (cows, pigs, and lambs) and also had been exposed to the production side of this industry.
With that said, I didn't include the dissections I did in biology or undergrad anatomy on my application, as I didn't think they were unique or in depth enough to be worth including.

 

[that redhead]

I agree - I don't think dissections count. However, I would think listing time spent in a class working with animals from the campus farm or something similar would count toward animal experience. To me, animal experience is working with and handling a live animal. In my opinion, something like bird watching is not animal experience.

 

[sumstorm]

I agree - I don't think dissections count. However, I would think listing time spent in a class working with animals from the campus farm or something similar would count toward animal experience. To me, animal experience is working with and handling a live animal. In my opinion, something like bird watching is not animal experience.

I disagree. a student interested in pathology who has done skeletal research or worked in clin path should put that inormation out there. A behviorist will spend a lot of time doing indepth studies based on watching animals.

Having said that, I did not include any class work that had a name and description. IE Ethology Research didn't get a description in VMCAS, but my honors research did