Externship decisions

[DPolaris]

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Hi SDN,

Was hoping to get a little bit of advice on where to choose for fourth year externships. I'm from a Canadian vet school and in fourth year we have four weeks total for externships (two two-week blocks), and a little under 8 weeks total of vacation time (December and two two-week blocks of holiday time). I'm personally interested in pursuing a small animal rotating internship after I graduate, preferably at a large city (I'm a city person), but obviously open to anywhere!

I currently am approved for Angell and Tufts for two weeks each, and my rationale for choosing these places were because my faculty mentor absolutely loved his residency time at Tufts and highly recommended it, and Angell is a very busy private practice, so I could get some insight on the pros and cons of a private practice and a university setting.

However, I was also interested in checking out places like Cornell, AMC, BluePearl (NY, etc.), VCA West LA, etc. I was planning on maybe using one of my two-week holiday block to visit Cornell since I assume a university isn't as "flexible" to one or two day "visits" as private practices, and then maybe use my December time to fly down to NY, visit some hospitals, then maybe fly over to California and visit some places on the west coast. Unfortunately like most people, I am a very poor university student, and although this could work out it would definitely put a strain on my finances!

I was wondering how people narrowed places down for externships! I also wanted to ask for some opinions because considering grades, I'm probably smack average in my class and aside from a few publications (which I heard aren't useful for internships and matter more for residencies, and more so for university residencies), I don't know if I am even competitive enough to go to a place like Angell, AMC or Cornell. With that in mind, should I basically count myself out from these places, and use my time to go to some more "realistic" places that might actually take me?

Thank you so much!

 

[CalliopeDVM]

Not much help for you here.......I used my 4th year external placements for private practices, because I never wanted to do an internship or a residency.

 

[pp9]

Hi SDN,

Was hoping to get a little bit of advice on where to choose for fourth year externships. I'm from a Canadian vet school and in fourth year we have four weeks total for externships (two two-week blocks), and a little under 8 weeks total of vacation time (December and two two-week blocks of holiday time). I'm personally interested in pursuing a small animal rotating internship after I graduate, preferably at a large city (I'm a city person), but obviously open to anywhere!

I currently am approved for Angell and Tufts for two weeks each, and my rationale for choosing these places were because my faculty mentor absolutely loved his residency time at Tufts and highly recommended it, and Angell is a very busy private practice, so I could get some insight on the pros and cons of a private practice and a university setting.

However, I was also interested in checking out places like Cornell, AMC, BluePearl (NY, etc.), VCA West LA, etc. I was planning on maybe using one of my two-week holiday block to visit Cornell since I assume a university isn't as "flexible" to one or two day "visits" as private practices, and then maybe use my December time to fly down to NY, visit some hospitals, then maybe fly over to California and visit some places on the west coast. Unfortunately like most people, I am a very poor university student, and although this could work out it would definitely put a strain on my finances!

I was wondering how people narrowed places down for externships! I also wanted to ask for some opinions because considering grades, I'm probably smack average in my class and aside from a few publications (which I heard aren't useful for internships and matter more for residencies, and more so for university residencies), I don't know if I am even competitive enough to go to a place like Angell, AMC or Cornell. With that in mind, should I basically count myself out from these places, and use my time to go to some more "realistic" places that might actually take me?

Thank you so much!

Others may feel differently, but just because a place has a big name doesn't mean it's the best training in all of the land. I have a lot of friends in private practice/lesser known internships who are absolutely loving it.

Personally, I have externships at zoos I'm hoping to stay connected to and a Blue Pearl back home that I'm hoping to match at. Nothing big for me, but I've already done a ton of summer stuff that cost me a lot, so I'm trying to cut back on spending. I realized I kind of stuck to the zoo vets/zoos I've already developed relationships with, so I'm not sure if that's good or bad....but they're all within driving distance of my fiance's house.

I'm towards the end of my class with no publications yet (my current project probs won't be done in time for the match) and know many recent grads with stats nearly identical to mine/no publications, all who matched somewhere. Some had to scramble, but that's not the end of the world. I'd make sure you can get really good letters of rec. I've heard that the top 50% of a class are the ones who tend to match with no issue, so if you're in that neighborhood, maybe you'll be just fine. I've also been told to try to match at a place where there is a boarded specialist in the specialty you hope to go into, since their letter of rec would supposedly hold more weight in the residency match.

 

[SocialStigma]

I used my 4th year external rotations to visit potential internship places and also to obtain some more unique experience (zoo/wildlife, behaviour, alternative therapies, etc). I ended up doing a 6 week externship (2 weeks each of surgery, derm, and ophtho/ER) at the private practice I ultimately matched to for an internship. One of the surgeons at that practice actually wrote one of my LORs for my internship application. Grades are more important when applying to residencies, less so for an internship. You will match with an average GPA/class rank as long as there are no other red flags in your application and you don't limit yourself to only Angell, AMC, etc. Completing an externship at the places you are most interested in will definitely help, particularly if one of the specialists there are willing to write you a LOR.

 

[KCgophervet]

I would also just add that visiting potential internship places is also important for you to see how their programs are run and if you would be a good fit/happy there. I've heard too many horror stories of people who match to places they'd never visited or talked to the previous interns about who ended up being miserable / quitting before the year was up it was so bad. Not saying that's necessarily going to happen, but something to keep in mind that it's not just about getting your face out there so they like you, but making sure you also like them.

 

[DPolaris]

Thank you for the replies and advice everyone, I appreciate it! I guess I'll make a list of some places I really want to check out and then see if I can narrow that list down based on cost, timing, etc. Like you said SocialStigma, aiming for only AMC/Angell/similar might be limiting myself a bit too much, so I'm still debating whether to ditch my two-week block at Angell and use it for another place because I'm a little bit doubtful of myself. I'd also really like to visit you guys over at Guelph as well, heard great things about your school! There's a bunch of busy practices over in California that some of the upper years have gone to from my school and they seemed to enjoy it, so I might see if they can recommend some as well! I just want to get back to Angell earlier rather than later if I wasn't going to take their externship slot so someone else can have my spot!

 

[LetItSnow]

I mean, you can only do so much. I would use your externships to target where you see yourself going after school. If you really want an internship, target those places. If you're like Calliope (and me), target places or geographical regions you might want to work.

FWIW, I got my job straight out of school at a place that avoids hiring straight out of school in part because I did an externship there and the staff feedback was good. I sent them thank-you email after the externship and said "Hey, I'd love to do some relief work" and a few days later they called me and said "Well, would you be interested in applying for this full time job we have?"

So. Hard to say precisely where you should do them, but I'd use them to target your anticipated future plans.