experience question

[rooshie]

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Hello everyone,

I decided very late in my collegate career that I wanted to go to vet school. I knew all my life that I wanted to work with animals but not specically as a vet. Because of this I have a decent amount of experience working with animals through a wildlife clinic (roughly 1000 hours) and at a respected zoo (roughly 400 hours) but still dont have any work with an actual vet office or research/internships. I know that I wont get accepted with the experience that I have now but I was wondering if you think that I could get in with a couple hundred hours as a vet assistant or if it will require more experience. I have a decent GPA of 3.74 but a mediocre science GPA of 3.45 and i havent taken the GRE yet. Thank you for your advise i greatly appreciate it.

 

[Skillet9886]

I would think if you do well on the GRE, you should be ok with a couple hundred hours. Make sure you branch out from wildlife/zoo and get some large and/or small animal experience. Sometimes, from what I've heard, having a large breadth of experience can make up for not having a whole lot of vet hours. Keep in mind that you probably will have to start in a kennel somewhere before being a tech/assistant at a small animal hospital.

 

[cowgirl in MO]

It depends on where you apply. What Mizzou tells students is that 300 hours total is competitive (100 with small/100 horses/100 large). As I said, it depends on where you apply though. Read the web sites of schools that you might be interested in applying to, and email their admissions office with your questions.

 

[bmichs75DVM]

Your GPA is pretty good and i'm sure you will do fine on the GRE. If you are planning on applying next year, I would start getting as many hours as you can. I would say that if you can get around 500hrs of experience, you will be a competative applicant. Make sure though, when you are with the vet(s), learn from what you see and even record it. This will help in your interview when that ask you specific health related questions.

 

[rooshie]

Thank you for all of your advise it is greatly appreciated