Experience hours for A&M?

[Hopefully2013]

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I think A&M has quite possibly the most vague thing I've ever seen on their website for experience:

"Knowledge of and experience in working with animals is critical preparation for a successful veterinarian. Appropriate preparation includes formal training and experience as well as contact with and handling of animals. Applicants to the College of Veterinary Medicine are expected to be familiar with animal and animal behavior. General agriculture knowledge is encouraged for those interested in farm animal veterinary medicine. To obtain this experience, applicants should register for the course work which provides exposure to animals or involve themselves in practical animal applications in the private sector."


I have literally NO experience hours (other than one day of shadowing an equine vet, which was probably about 8 hours). And I need to start getting some.



Is anyone shooting for A&M or maybe already goes there? How much and what kind of experience am I looking at for getting in?



I feel like a slacker. I want to get in to vet school and I know next to nothing about the application process. I think I need to go do some research.

 

[HopefulAg]

Is anyone shooting for A&M or maybe already goes there?

There's a couple of A&Mers floating around here. I'm class of '09 and will be going back for '14.

How much and what kind of experience am I looking at for getting in?

They're not really any different from any other vet school. You just need veterinary experience, varied is better of course. And at my two previous interviews (that resulted in rejections) they took note of my lack of LA experience, so evidently they like to see that.

Then you need animal experience. Are you at A&M now? If so there's a LOT of classes that can help you with that while getting animal experience.

Livestock Reproduction is really handy for repro phys IMO. You get some LA experience too, including that whole shoving your hand up a cow's ass bit. Fun. I also took a class....ANSC 322 maybe? It was called Equine Management and Training. Anyhow you train a horse throughout the semester for an hour every day. Ends up adding up to about 70 hours of pure horse experience. Doesn't matter your experience level either. You essentially get credit hours for playing with horses. Best to take it in the Fall.

Additionally you can work at the wildlife center, which ends up adding up to about 100 hours over the semester, IIRC. Real fun and easy way to get animal experience and, again, get class credit too.


But working at the animal shelter will do you just as well. I wasn't questioned too deeply about my animal experience hours.

 

[Hopefully2013]

I'm actually at West Texas A&M... And if it's equine experience hours they want, I've been riding for the past 8 years (3 of those years I actually worked in exchange for lessons). Assuming that is that that time counts for something, if it doesn't, oh well.

At WT our classes sound incredibly similar to A&M's (though it is a smaller school so there's probably less options), but I know we have a livestock reproduction class as well as a class on training horses (I have a friend who just got done with that class this past semester actually).

Will make sure to get LA experience... I don't know where to find a large animal vet who isn't specifically equine around here but there's got to be one (I'm hoping to volunteer this upcoming school year under the equine vet I shadowed so I figured it might be a good idea to get some OTHER experience this summer, either large animal or small).

 

[HopefulAg]

Well if you can find a LA vet who does the full gauntlet that's preferable over strictly equine, however strictly equine works too.

 

[Vet Engineer]

I'm Class of 2014 as well, but I thought I would give you a different perspective.

I have a couple thousand hours of small animal experience and about 15 hours at a mixed animal specialty center. So you can definitely get in without large animal experience. After talking to graduates and looking at successful applicant stats, I thought I had no chance in hell of getting in without LA experience, but it's possible.

It depends what your interests are as well. If you are interested in equine, I would suggest getting lots of equine experience and then a moderate amount of experience in some of the other areas (food animal, small animal, exotics, lab animal, etc.). Just make sure that you get a lot of veterinary experience and not just animal experience. The adcom wants to see that you understand what it takes to be a veterinarian.

 

[Pouches Rock]

I am class of 2014 as well and I didn't have any large animal veterinary experience. Also my veterinary experience was predominantly as a surgery technician. If you are having problems getting experience in a variety of veterinary concentrations....I would recommend making up for it by showing a desire to work with animals in other capacities. I do think it is important to develop a relationship and work with a veterinarian so that you can get a really great LOR.

I had thousands of hours with handling many animals as a general care technician, trainer, and research assistant. I also took the Equine Training Behavior course and got some hours with horses that way. If you are at A&M or if your school offers something similar I would recommend taking this course it was a great experience. Also there are often student worker positions as animal care takers in different science departments where you basically feed research animals.