Experience hours/Recording hours?

[futurevet_11]

I'm currently a senior in high school and my plan is to go pre-vet in the fall.
I have a few questions regarding the experience hours needed for application to veterinary school. I know animal experience and vet experience can be required, but I was wondering when this starts.
I'm currently an intern at a veterinary clinic, and have been since September, is this an experience I can add in my future applications? If so, I'm not working under an actual DVM, but instead I work under the head-technician but occasionally help or shadow the doctors. Would this mean these hours are just considered animal experience?
Also, how do you or do you have to record your hours? Do they need to be verified somehow? (I want to make sure I get anything I need as I go in the future years).
I'm also considering working in an wildlife sanctuary in Africa this summer or next, and was wondering if this time would count. If so, once again, how would I record this so any future schools know of my experience?

Thank you so much.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Gwenevre]

Yes, your intern experience counts.
Yes, it would all be vet experience, because you're working in a veterinarian-supervised environment.
Some people record every hour in an excel file (highly suggested) some people who work regular hours give a ballpark estimate (what I did/do). The application will ask for a supervisor's name and a phone number if available.
The wildlife sanctuary hours would count, but unless it's with a vet or in a veterinarian-supervised environment, that would be animal hours. But good varied experience for sure!

 

[neocia]

1. Feel free to count things from high school - I did. Probably don't count anything much longer ago than that, unless it was a highly significant experience (ie shadowing at a vet clinic since you were 10 years old or something)
2. Pretty much if you're in a clinic, doing or observing veterinary things, it's vet experience. If you're strictly 100% just cleaning cages and walking dogs - and never see the vets - it's more likely animal experience. The lines are blurred in that situation. Go with best judgement.
3. Record your hours on excel or paper/notebook. You just type them into VMCAS application - its essentially the honesty system, but you do list the place's phone number so POTENTIALLY they could call them if they felt you were fudging your experience --- but I've never heard of this happening. Just be realistic/honest with your hours and experience

Sounds like you're on the right track. I didn't start shadowing at a vet clinic until I was a junior in college - and I still got into vet school.

 

[LivesintheLibrary]

I recommend writing down what you did each day as well, so you can use it in interviews, personal statements, and later on in life. You never know when that strange case you saw as a freshman in high school may show up again. It's also really cool to be sitting in even undergraduate classes and hear the professor say "unicorns can carry animalisnotexistus" and you think "oh my gosh when I was 15 I saw a unicorn with animalisnotexistus bacteria in its blood!"

 

[deleted498041]

I didn't write everything down when I started getting experience, and I remember wishing that I had. I came up with ballpark figures for all of my animal/veterinary experience. If it helps, the only "veterinary" experience I counted was a few hours here and there when I shadowed my equine vet and then when I worked at a Banfield as VA.

Be 100% honest about your experience when you apply. I've heard some advice given to pre-vets in regards to fudging the numbers. I remember being asked about mine because they did the math for hours/week of my animal experience and it came out to almost 40 hours/week with horses and they actually asked if I expected them to believe that figure. I said, well, yes... Not only did I have four horses and go to the barn every day but I cleaned other peoples' stalls, I groomed other peoples' horses, I helped little kiddies tack up and walked them around on a lunge line but I also was out of town Th-Sun most weeks having 16 hour days at horse shows.

 

[deleted498041]

3. Record your hours on excel or paper/notebook. You just type them into VMCAS application - its essentially the honesty system, but you do list the place's phone number so POTENTIALLY they could call them if they felt you were fudging your experience --- but I've never heard of this happening. Just be realistic/honest with your hours and experience

Sounds like you're on the right track. I didn't start shadowing at a vet clinic until I was a junior in college - and I still got into vet school.

I was asked about fudging the numbers on my application They never called anyone to confirm, as far as I know, but this was a school that rejected me so who knows?

 

[Puffins]

I have a crazy spreadsheet where I have my experience hours listed by category. After each day of shadowing/volunteering, etc, I added a new line to my spreadsheet and listed the date, how many hours I worked, with whom, and any memorable experiences. When I had a regular gig, I just added in the hours to my spreadsheet each time I got paid.