Evaluators

[rileyroo]

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Did anyone apply without a veterinary-related evaluation? i had hoped the doctor who i had worked one-on-one with for 2 years, would write me a letter but that's not going to work out as planned. my other veterinary related experience was short term or a long time ago. so i'm wondering if a letter from an advisor of an organization i was in for 3 years (held executive offices, served on committees, etc) would be a strong alternative or if i should try to work closely with another vet for the next few months and ask them last minute to write a letter based on my short term work with them? any suggestions?

 

[bunnity]

I know Penn required a letter from a veterinarian; I wouldn't be surprised if most other schools did too.

 

[DVMorBust]

Yeah, definitely check with the schools you're applying to. It may be necessary.

 

[rileyroo]

One of my evaluators is from the PhD who I'm doing bio research with. I know that some have mentioned that research under PhD's in bio/medical count as veterinary experience, but would this count for the LOR as well?

 

[david594]

I wouldn't count on it, but again check with the school. Most specify that at least 1 has to be from a Veterinarian(which is no surprise since we are applying to veterinary school). Some places like Ohio actually require 2 from vets, so definitely look into it for every school you are applying to.

 

[rileyroo]

Most specify that at least 1 has to be from a Veterinarian(which is no surprise since we are applying to veterinary school).

From the schools that I'm applying, 2 have specified that one must be from a veterinarian and 1 said an LOR from a vet is recommended. Also having an LOR from a number of veterinarians doesn't mean you have or haven't been involved with a lot of veterinary experience - or whether 5 hours or thousands of hours of vet experience is valuable. You can rack up thousands of poor quality hours just to have hours in the field but when it's time to talk about those experiences, the actual "experience" will be obvious. Some people just may have stronger evaluators in other areas than from the veterinarians they have worked for. So I find your parenthetical comment to be a little offensive. Almost as if it's obvious - mandatory that you have an LOR from someone in the field of the professional program you are applying to - which certainly isn't the case. Although ideal, it doesn't always work out for everyone. I'm sure you've been on the successful applicants thread as you are one from this past cycle...I know of at least one individual who posted to that thread as a successful applicant who didn't have ANY veterinary experience. Not ripping your head off, but if someone who is lurking on this thread sees this, they shouldn't be discouraged by your statement if their circumstances changed as well in the middle of the application process.

 

[david594]

Best of luck with it then.

 

[rileyroo]

do whatever makes you happy david. this isn't the first time someone has been offended by your comments and you came back with some smart comment. the point of the post is for suggestions based on a given situation. not asking if i should check school requirements - asking if others have had this experience. this forum isn't for people like you to talk down to others, it's for suggestions, recommendations, and support. thanks for your suggestion of checking all the schools, but my question was regarding an either/or situation, neither of which you addressed.

everyone's experience and situation is different. that's what this forum is about. not to be discouraged.

EDIT: not to mention, in my original post - i addressed a question regarding another vet.

 

[TSUJC]

I would suggest working for another veterinarian and trying to get a letter from a short amount of experience. Like David mentioned, all the schools that I applied to required at least 1 recommendation from a veterinarian. Without an evaluation from a veterinarian I don't think your application will be as strong.

 

[twelvetigers]

I wouldn't apply without a LOR from a vet, personally. I think it's way, way important.

It stinks when evaluators flake out!

 

[rileyroo]

I wouldn't apply without a LOR from a vet, personally. I think it's way, way important.

It stinks when evaluators flake out!

i guess it's better to flake out now, while i still have time to possibly do something about it. 🙂

 

[thereservoirdog]

It will probably look really bad on your application to have hundreds, or thousands of hours of clinical experience and not have any veterinary LORs. It seems odd that your vet isn't writing you one. I would try to fix whatever issue there is between you guys or find a new job very quickly, because honestly, you don't have much time to establish another relationship with a brand new vet.

 

[sumstorm]

Did anyone apply without a veterinary-related evaluation? ... so i'm wondering if a letter from an advisor of an organization i was in for 3 years (held executive offices, served on committees, etc) would be a strong alternative or if i should try to work closely with another vet for the next few months and ask them last minute to write a letter based on my short term work with them? any suggestions?

My IS school strongly recommended 2 letters be from veterinarians or PhDs with whom the applicant has worked in a vet or research setting. The third could be a supervisor, advisor, etc.

I personally wouldn't go for an advisor of organization unless there was something amazing about the organization and activities you did within it. Just my personal opinion. That is the only way I could see it as a strong alternative.

I started shadowing with one of the LOR's in March as an observer only... hired on in August. she attended my IS. So sometimes a short term, high quality experience can yield results. I did ask her 'last minute' for the LOR.

 

[rileyroo]

It will probably look really bad on your application to have hundreds, or thousands of hours of clinical experience and not have any veterinary LORs. It seems odd that your vet isn't writing you one. I would try to fix whatever issue there is between you guys or find a new job very quickly, because honestly, you don't have much time to establish another relationship with a brand new vet.

lol there wasn't an issue, she hasn't written a letter for anyone (which i'm finding out now) - she has her own personality and i'd rather a veterinarian who isn't interested in writing letters of recommendation be honest and say so than write one that would be subpar. i have worked with other veterinarians, so i'm in the process of trying to work with them again. it would be re-establishing a relationship, not creating a new one.

 

[rileyroo]

My IS school strongly recommended 2 letters be from veterinarians or PhDs with whom the applicant has worked in a vet or research setting. The third could be a supervisor, advisor, etc.

I personally wouldn't go for an advisor of organization unless there was something amazing about the organization and activities you did within it. Just my personal opinion. That is the only way I could see it as a strong alternative.

I started shadowing with one of the LOR's in March as an observer only... hired on in August. she attended my IS. So sometimes a short term, high quality experience can yield results. I did ask her 'last minute' for the LOR.

that's what i'm going to try to do, hopefully it'll work out. if not, i'm getting a jump start for next year. 🙂 one of my recs is from a PhD with whom i have been doing research with.

 

[twelvetigers]

At least you can explain why you don't have an LOR to go with those experience hours, I guess. Wonder why she won't write LORs at all?

 

[gone2dogs]

...

 

[bunnity]

I didn't read the unedited version of David's second post, but I found nothing out of line in his first post. Since veterinary admissions weigh experience fairly heavily (as compared to say human-medical admission), it does make sense that admissions people like to see evaluations from veterinarians. And a letter from a vet absolutely would address the quality of the experience you had and the amount of time you spent there. The vet that wrote my LOR asked me how many hours I'd worked there before she wrote mine.

It is of course possible to get accepted to vet school without vet experience, but it is definitely rare. JustCats comes to mind, but I believe (s)he ran a rescue which is a pretty awesome and unusual experience (and shows an understanding of one of the more emotionally difficult aspects of vet med). If a school says they require a letter from a vet though, then they require a letter from a vet.

 

[rileyroo]

this wasn't a post of me trying to apply to vet school without an LOR from a vet. it was a freak out post, more like wth am i gonna do b/c my biggest vet experience LOR fell through?