Experience questions

[zenarcade]

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Hi, currently in my junior year of my undergrad here, I've been considering a career in the veterinary field for a little while now, but didn't get really serious about figuring out all the requirements needed for vet school until recently, and I've been a little overwhelmed, particularly with how to get animal and vet experience. I already feel like I'm kind of "behind" everyone else for being a junior at this beginning stage. A few questions:

1. I did volunteer work at an animal shelter throughout my time in high school, but I've been told this won't count for vet school, is that correct?

2. I feel like I already have limited time between my classes, plus I have a part-time job. How does everyone else balance their time doing their undergrad while also getting experience? Part of my problem here is that there seems to be really limited volunteer opportunities near me, and the only things I can find would require long commute times, which really strains my schedule.

3. Is any type of experience more important to have than others? So far I've mostly looked into volunteering at animal shelters/rescues again, but should I first be looking into shadowing a vet?

4. Is there any special/official way you're supposed to record your hours, for your vet school application, or do you just keep a personal log, and the school takes your word for what you've done?

Basically I'm just feeling a little lost here...if anyone else was in a similar situation that can offer advice about how they got experience, I'd be very grateful, and thanks to anyone who took the time to read.

 

[SkiOtter]

Hi, currently in my junior year of my undergrad here, I've been considering a career in the veterinary field for a little while now, but didn't get really serious about figuring out all the requirements needed for vet school until recently, and I've been a little overwhelmed, particularly with how to get animal and vet experience. I already feel like I'm kind of "behind" everyone else for being a junior at this beginning stage. A few questions:

1. I did volunteer work at an animal shelter throughout my time in high school, but I've been told this won't count for vet school, is that correct?

2. I feel like I already have limited time between my classes, plus I have a part-time job. How does everyone else balance their time doing their undergrad while also getting experience? Part of my problem here is that there seems to be really limited volunteer opportunities near me, and the only things I can find would require long commute times, which really strains my schedule.

3. Is any type of experience more important to have than others? So far I've mostly looked into volunteering at animal shelters/rescues again, but should I first be looking into shadowing a vet?

Basically I'm just feeling a little lost here...if anyone else was in a similar situation that can offer advice about how they got experience, I'd be very grateful, and thanks to anyone who took the time to read.

I changed my mind the beginning of senior year of undergrad. Took an extra semester to finish prereqs and graduated in December 2016 and am now a first year vet student. It’s possible. Lots of people also start out in a completely different career and then go back and take the prereqs and get experience. You’re not behind, you’re just starting the path at a different time.


1. If it wasn’t supervised by a vet or working directly with a vet, it doesn’t count as vet. It’s animal experience.
2. Plenty of people get experience during the summers only. I did until I graduated undergrad. And lots of people take a gap year to get experience. You could also see about getting a part time job as a vet receptionist or a vet assistant or doing that once you graduate.
3. VET EXPERIENCE IS MOST IMPORTANT. Whether it’s paid work, volunteering, or shadowing, it doesn’t really matter, but vet schools will not accept you without any vet experience. They need to see that you have explored the field and know what you’re getting yourself into. You will also need at least one letter of recommendation from a vet so you want to make sure that is a strong relationship so they can write you a great letter.

Also, make sure to look up the average starting salary, the average debt, and the debt to salary ratio for vet med. it’s scary how much debt you’ll be going into. Make sure you understand the realities of it before you commit fully.

 

[zenarcade]

I changed my mind the beginning of senior year of undergrad. Took an extra semester to finish prereqs and graduated in December 2016 and am now a first year vet student. It’s possible. Lots of people also start out in a completely different career and then go back and take the prereqs and get experience. You’re not behind, you’re just starting the path at a different time.


1. If it wasn’t supervised by a vet or working directly with a vet, it doesn’t count as vet. It’s animal experience.
2. Plenty of people get experience during the summers only. I did until I graduated undergrad. And lots of people take a gap year to get experience. You could also see about getting a part time job as a vet receptionist or a vet assistant or doing that once you graduate.
3. VET EXPERIENCE IS MOST IMPORTANT. Whether it’s paid work, volunteering, or shadowing, it doesn’t really matter, but vet schools will not accept you without any vet experience. They need to see that you have explored the field and know what you’re getting yourself into. You will also need at least one letter of recommendation from a vet so you want to make sure that is a strong relationship so they can write you a great letter.

Also, make sure to look up the average starting salary, the average debt, and the debt to salary ratio for vet med. it’s scary how much debt you’ll be going into. Make sure you understand the realities of it before you commit fully.

Thanks for the response! So, just to clarify, I can report my high school volunteering as animal experience? An advisor at school told me nothing from high school would count, which is why I asked.

Good to know that I'm not starting too late though. I'll definitely work on getting a lot of experience during the summers, and I'm already anticipating that I might need at least one gap year before applying.

The debt is very intimidating to me, I'll admit...I'm hoping I can attend my in-state school to cut down the debt a little.

 

[SkiOtter]

Thanks for the response! So, just to clarify, I can report my high school volunteering as animal experience? An advisor at school told me nothing from high school would count, which is why I asked.

Good to know that I'm not starting too late though. I'll definitely work on getting a lot of experience during the summers, and I'm already anticipating that I might need at least one gap year before applying.

The debt is very intimidating to me, I'll admit...I'm hoping I can attend my in-state school to cut down the debt a little.

Nope it definitely still counts as animal experience. Your advisor is completely wrong. They WANT to see your stuff from high school, both animal/vet related and academic(honors/awards)/extracurriculars too. They say to include everything from the past 10 years, but non trads have included further back than that, with some including high school.
Definitely make sure you shadow vets a lot or work somewhere where you get to see all aspects of the job, to make sure this IS the path for you.

 

[M&D]

2. I feel like I already have limited time between my classes, plus I have a part-time job. How does everyone else balance their time doing their undergrad while also getting experience? Part of my problem here is that there seems to be really limited volunteer opportunities near me, and the only things I can find would require long commute times, which really strains my schedule.

I don't know how important your part time job is to you, but if it isn't super important you could consider finding a job as a veterinary assistant. A lot of people start shadowing a veterinarian, which in many cases will lead to a job. This way you can combine valuable veterinary experience with a part time job. I recommend putting on some nice clothes, and dropping off your resume at the various veterinary clinics around where you live. If possible, speak to the manager/veterinarian so they can put a face to the name. If they don't get back to them you can call them and ask a few days later.

 

[zenarcade]

My current part time job is not important to me at all, just a way to make some money. If it's possible to do part-time work as a vet assistant, I'd definitely prefer to be doing that. I think there are some vet clinics near my university, so I'll look into asking about shadowing.

 

[CoffeeQuestionMark]

Hi, currently in my junior year of my undergrad here, I've been considering a career in the veterinary field for a little while now, but didn't get really serious about figuring out all the requirements needed for vet school until recently, and I've been a little overwhelmed, particularly with how to get animal and vet experience. I already feel like I'm kind of "behind" everyone else for being a junior at this beginning stage. A few questions:

1. I did volunteer work at an animal shelter throughout my time in high school, but I've been told this won't count for vet school, is that correct?

2. I feel like I already have limited time between my classes, plus I have a part-time job. How does everyone else balance their time doing their undergrad while also getting experience? Part of my problem here is that there seems to be really limited volunteer opportunities near me, and the only things I can find would require long commute times, which really strains my schedule.

3. Is any type of experience more important to have than others? So far I've mostly looked into volunteering at animal shelters/rescues again, but should I first be looking into shadowing a vet?

4. Is there any special/official way you're supposed to record your hours, for your vet school application, or do you just keep a personal log, and the school takes your word for what you've done?

Basically I'm just feeling a little lost here...if anyone else was in a similar situation that can offer advice about how they got experience, I'd be very grateful, and thanks to anyone who took the time to read.

1. Reiterating Ski. Perhaps your advisor meant it wouldn't count towards vet hours? Animal hours are not nearly as important, however.

2. I worked at a clinic while I was getting my associates at a community college. When I was at the university, I would not have had time for a clinic job but nor did I enjoy general practice haha

What I was able to do was gain experience on campus. If your university does research, there should be ways to gain experience. I was in the department of comparative medicine working for veterinarians... We do not even have a vet school, but still had veterinarians. I also did husbandry for a zebra finch colony.

3. The most important thing is experience supervised by a veterinarian. The second most important thing is variety. I have under my belt small/equine/bird/lab/marine vet experience and additionally vet pathology experience. From what I have heard during application reviews, breadth is more important than depth-who knew.

4. I didn't.

 

[LyraGardenia]

To answer #4, there's no official method required for recording your hours, you can keep track of them in an Excel document or whatever other method you prefer. Then when you apply you'll enter all your experiences into VMCAS, it's just on the honor system. Schools may contact your experiences if something seems fishy.

 

[SkiOtter]

To answer #4, there's no official method required for recording your hours, you can keep track of them in an Excel document or whatever other method you prefer. Then when you apply you'll enter all your experiences into VMCAS, it's just on the honor system. Schools may contact your experiences if something seems fishy.

And op, if you’re not applying soon, I’d recommend also writing a little description of what you did/saw/learned and whatnot because there’s a little spot for “experience details” on vmcas.
I personally just kept a different note on my iphones notes app for each one and wrote the dates and hours in there and then added it all up at the end. Would’ve been MUCH simpler if I had been able to just auto sum it in excel.

 

[zenarcade]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will look into possible relevant research offered on my campus and also into shadowing a vet over the summer if possible. My school's pre-vet club is meeting soon so I will try to get more advice specific to my university there.