Getting letters of recommendation

[Xebras]

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I've finished my undergrad degree and still don't have any letters of recommendation for vet school. I generally keep to myself and don't tend to visit profs during office hours or outside of class (which I regret 🙁 ). I'm going back for one more semester to boost some grades so I'm planning on building a relationship with one of the profs to ask.

While I've had years of experience working with animals, mostly wildlife, I don't have much clinic experience except for this volunteer position I've had once a week for the past 4 months. Other than that, I don't know any vets to get letters from. Now, my volunteer position is coming to an end as I go back to school in another week (they turn over volunteers every 3-4 months to make room for new ones). I've done work with the assistants and techs, but I rarely get to see the vets, as they are often working in other areas of the clinic. I've restrained animals for one of the vets a few times, but only for a few minutes so I'm not sure if this counts enough as "working" with a vet.

My question is, should I bother trying to get a reference from the vet at this clinic? Or should I try to get a job elsewhere at another clinic where I might work more directly with a vet? This vet knows my name and has seen me working around the clinic but hasn't done much actual work with me, so I'm not sure that he would be able to provide me with a strong reference. How long should I try to get to know and work with someone before asking them for a reference? I'm planning on taking about a year off before applying to vet school to give me time to get references!

 

[CoffeeQuestionMark]

I've finished my undergrad degree and still don't have any letters of recommendation for vet school. I generally keep to myself and don't tend to visit profs during office hours or outside of class (which I regret 🙁 ). I'm going back for one more semester to boost some grades so I'm planning on building a relationship with one of the profs to ask.

While I've had years of experience working with animals, mostly wildlife, I don't have much clinic experience except for this volunteer position I've had once a week for the past 4 months. Other than that, I don't know any vets to get letters from. Now, my volunteer position is coming to an end as I go back to school in another week (they turn over volunteers every 3-4 months to make room for new ones). I've done work with the assistants and techs, but I rarely get to see the vets, as they are often working in other areas of the clinic. I've restrained animals for one of the vets a few times, but only for a few minutes so I'm not sure if this counts enough as "working" with a vet.

My question is, should I bother trying to get a reference from the vet at this clinic? Or should I try to get a job elsewhere at another clinic where I might work more directly with a vet? This vet knows my name and has seen me working around the clinic but hasn't done much actual work with me, so I'm not sure that he would be able to provide me with a strong reference. How long should I try to get to know and work with someone before asking them for a reference? I'm planning on taking about a year off before applying to vet school to give me time to get references!

I personally would not ask for a letter from a vet who is not able to give an opinion on if you would be a good candidate or not.

That is the point of getting one from a veterinarian-they can see your potential.

As far as how long it takes, I believe that is dependent on your individual relationship. If you are working somewhere full-time vs shadowing once a week obviously you are spending very different amounts of time with the veterinarians.

Sorry. Wish it could be a more concrete answer. For the record, I have never used a reference that I have not known for a full school year or very close to a full school year.

 

[Pistachio556]

I've finished my undergrad degree and still don't have any letters of recommendation for vet school. I generally keep to myself and don't tend to visit profs during office hours or outside of class (which I regret 🙁 ). I'm going back for one more semester to boost some grades so I'm planning on building a relationship with one of the profs to ask.

While I've had years of experience working with animals, mostly wildlife, I don't have much clinic experience except for this volunteer position I've had once a week for the past 4 months. Other than that, I don't know any vets to get letters from. Now, my volunteer position is coming to an end as I go back to school in another week (they turn over volunteers every 3-4 months to make room for new ones). I've done work with the assistants and techs, but I rarely get to see the vets, as they are often working in other areas of the clinic. I've restrained animals for one of the vets a few times, but only for a few minutes so I'm not sure if this counts enough as "working" with a vet.

My question is, should I bother trying to get a reference from the vet at this clinic? Or should I try to get a job elsewhere at another clinic where I might work more directly with a vet? This vet knows my name and has seen me working around the clinic but hasn't done much actual work with me, so I'm not sure that he would be able to provide me with a strong reference. How long should I try to get to know and work with someone before asking them for a reference? I'm planning on taking about a year off before applying to vet school to give me time to get references!

Is there any chance that you could ask the clinic you are volunteering at if they have positions open? It would help if they knew you wanted to go to vet school, so I’d mention that. Definitely not the place to get any kind of recommendation from since it would be a “cookie cutter” type of rec letter if they write one at all, in your current situation.

It’s definitely best if one of the classes that you are taking this next semester is a prerequisite so you can get a letter. Choose a class you are interested in getting to know the professor more... do they do research? (Spend time asking about it) Do they have office hours for questions? (Go to office hours to ask questions and clarify things and get to know them) Do they have study sessions before exams? (Go to them and participate) This should be an easy letter to get now that you know what you need to do.

Best way to get the vet letter is to get a job working in some capacity with a vet, ideally one where you work with them regularly. Ask around at all your local SA practices or find an internship somewhere or find a hospital where you can go and shadow for a day

 

[PrincessButterCup]

I've finished my undergrad degree and still don't have any letters of recommendation for vet school. I generally keep to myself and don't tend to visit profs during office hours or outside of class (which I regret 🙁 ). I'm going back for one more semester to boost some grades so I'm planning on building a relationship with one of the profs to ask.

While I've had years of experience working with animals, mostly wildlife, I don't have much clinic experience except for this volunteer position I've had once a week for the past 4 months. Other than that, I don't know any vets to get letters from. Now, my volunteer position is coming to an end as I go back to school in another week (they turn over volunteers every 3-4 months to make room for new ones). I've done work with the assistants and techs, but I rarely get to see the vets, as they are often working in other areas of the clinic. I've restrained animals for one of the vets a few times, but only for a few minutes so I'm not sure if this counts enough as "working" with a vet.

My question is, should I bother trying to get a reference from the vet at this clinic? Or should I try to get a job elsewhere at another clinic where I might work more directly with a vet? This vet knows my name and has seen me working around the clinic but hasn't done much actual work with me, so I'm not sure that he would be able to provide me with a strong reference. How long should I try to get to know and work with someone before asking them for a reference? I'm planning on taking about a year off before applying to vet school to give me time to get references!

Did you build a good relationship with your degree advisor? Can they write you one of your academic letters? What wildlife organizations have you worked with? Can a boss or supervisor there write a letter for you? The professors I had the strongest relationships with in undergrad were people I TA'd for, and people whose classes I really struggled in (since I was in their office pretty frequently). You can see if you can volunteer in someone's lab (some places only allow payed employees for liability problems) and build relationships that way - though you will likely be working more with the grad students than the professor. Just some ideas.

If this shadowing gig is your only vet experience to date, and you didn't really work with the vet much, that's a bigger issue than just not having a strong LOR. You need to spend more time either shadowing or working with a vet in order to build good relationships for LORs, but also to see what their profession is like and decide if you really want to do that. You don't need thousands of hours, but I'd be really wary of jumping feet-first into vet school with the limited experiences you have now.