experience technicality....

[katryn]

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So I'm looking at my experience and wondering:

Will school possibly consider SA specialities (internal med and neurology) as a separate type of experience from SA general practice? Or will my year with the two specialist just get lumped in as another year in SA experience? I'm trying to decide whether to apply at places that suggest 3 or more different fields of experience.

 

[Willowhand]

From what I've heard, they seem to be talking about different types of animals and/or different settings -for example, working on a research study with cats and working in a feline clinic might count as two different areas of experience. In your case, I would suggest that you check with your schools of choice so you know exactly what they're looking for in terms of varied experience.

 

[ReadyBeVet]

I would think that you could list them separately. If you've worked in another animal hospital, I'd list that as small animal. I would list the specialists under small animal but select "other" and put specialists. I think that this is definitely a different setting and deserves it's own spot to be recognized. Just like "Emergency" falls under small animal but is definitely unique compared to a general SA clinic.

 

[OncoBanana]

I worked in several small animal specialty practices for a considerable length of time (~4 yrs) in surgery, neurology, oncology, and internal medicine. I listed them all on VMCAS as small animal but specified with the "other" checkbox the specialty. I'm not sure how any of the schools considered that - when I interviewed with Davis, they basically only asked about my experience to make sure that i wouldn't be a "nightmare when you get into clinics" (direct quote from one of my interviewers). 🙂 I'd say that it doesn't hurt to give them all the information, and specialty medicine is incredibly different form general practice work, in my experience.

Having said that, it is all still small animal medicine - if it is a school that really wants to see a variety of different things in your past, they might not consider that to be diverse enough. See if there are any volunteer opportunities with exotics, or large animal, or wildlife. I'm lucky enough to live near the coast in northern california, where the Marine Mammal Center offered awesome hands on experience and a lot of fun too. Try shelters or wildlife rehab places too. Even if they would consider your specialty work as different categories, you're going to be competing against people who most likely have taken that more literally, you know?

Best of luck in your application.