HELP! Is it possible...

[FLPrincessDoc]

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Hello SDNers,
I am a freshman in university and want to be a vet. However, as a high school student I did dual enrollment. I did so many courses that I have 3 years to complete my Bachelor's instead of the traditional 4 years. I often wonder if it possible to complete 1000 veterinary hours, 1000 animal hours and take the GRE without taking a gap year. Is it possible or realistic? Also, I don't have any veterinary or animal hours from high school, unfortunately.🙂 Any help is appreciated

 

[Cobyology]

Hello SDNers,
I am a freshman in university and want to be a vet. However, as a high school student I did dual enrollment. I did so many courses that I have 3 years to complete my Bachelor's instead of the traditional 4 years. I often wonder if it possible to complete 1000 veterinary hours, 1000 animal hours and take the GRE without taking a gap year. Is it possible or realistic? Also, I don't have any veterinary or animal hours from high school, unfortunately.🙂 Any help is appreciated

It is possible. It will just take a lot of dedication and hard work. I just finished my masters and was working full-time during that. I logged ~40 hours per week over those 2 years, only downside is that I am now dead inside from the school/work time commitment. I figure I'm just getting a head start on vet school!

 

[DVMDream]

Definitely possible, but I also want to encourage you to please gain some veterinary experience soon. The last thing you want to do is spend a bunch of money on an undergrad degree with the thought of going to vet school only to find out later that you actually don't like veterinary medicine and don't want to be a vet.

So ask around to see if you could maybe shadow a vet for a day. Start it off as one day because that is a much less time commitment to the clinic initially. If it goes well, then you can ask about coming back.

 

[Lupin21]

Hello SDNers,
I am a freshman in university and want to be a vet. However, as a high school student I did dual enrollment. I did so many courses that I have 3 years to complete my Bachelor's instead of the traditional 4 years. I often wonder if it possible to complete 1000 veterinary hours, 1000 animal hours and take the GRE without taking a gap year. Is it possible or realistic? Also, I don't have any veterinary or animal hours from high school, unfortunately.🙂 Any help is appreciated

From your posting history, it seems like you are also considering dentistry and podiatry. They are all extremely different, so definitely get experience, and from a variety of places if possible before deciding this is the career for you.

 

[PrincessButterCup]

If you aren't ready to apply in three years, don't fret about it. Gap years are awesome. I'm a much better student now because I took time off between undergrad and grad school. It wasn't my plan, but it gave me experience and a break from the school environment that was really beneficial for me.

 

[ajs513]

Hello SDNers,
I am a freshman in university and want to be a vet. However, as a high school student I did dual enrollment. I did so many courses that I have 3 years to complete my Bachelor's instead of the traditional 4 years. I often wonder if it possible to complete 1000 veterinary hours, 1000 animal hours and take the GRE without taking a gap year. Is it possible or realistic? Also, I don't have any veterinary or animal hours from high school, unfortunately.🙂 Any help is appreciated

I worked just over 20 hours a week for a little over 2 years. I recommend doing that if you can. It wasn’t too much to impede my schoolwork or social life/extracurriculars. But I also gained tons of experience. It’s not too hard to manage.

 

[Smeece_]

I took a gap year and worked full time at a clinic, and got a great LOR from one of the vets. Gap years are great honestly, I couldn't imagine going straight from undergrad to vet school without a break in there. Like posted earlier though, working part time through undergrad to get more hours is a good idea if a gap year isn't something you're interested in.

 

[ajs513]

Mrsblk just reminded me of something I want to add to what I said. I did work through undergrad and had around 2,000 hours by graduation, but I also took a gap year. I highly recommend one for the ability to gain more experience without the worry of school, and I also think it helps to mature you and expose you to the real world before jumping back into school. So if you want to just get experience, do it in undergrad. If you want to gain other life experience, take a gap year. Especially if you feel like you won’t be ready for vet school in three years.

 

[CoffeeQuestionMark]

If you aren't ready to apply in three years, don't fret about it. Gap years are awesome. I'm a much better student now because I took time off between undergrad and grad school. It wasn't my plan, but it gave me experience and a break from the school environment that was really beneficial for me.

YUP!

I am such a different person now after needing to take 2 gap years, which was never the plan. But, I have a different view on everything. I used to think life experiences at every moment in time was more important than making good, practical decisions. I had every hesitation about attending my IS school, and now am very excited about all the money I'm saving. Not to mention the lab where I have been working the past 1.5 yr is one of the best experiences I think any prevet student could get. Excellent networking opportunities, good money, and good references/relationships for the future.

 

[mmmdreamerz]

I finished my degree in 3 years and didn’t start getting vet experience until I was in college. I had about 1500 vet hrs when I applied. Definitely possible.

 

[MAD MIKE O7]

It is definitely possible but I recommend that you start now to make sure this is really the path for you. I worked 30-35 hours a week for the last 3 years of my undergrad and had several thousand hours of experience when I applied to vet school the first time around and it was rewarding/exhausting.

Please be certain that this is truly the only thing that you will be satisfied doing with your life though. You will spend a lot of money and a lot of time to become a veterinarian and I know of several veterinary students in different years who I've spoken to who feel like they are trapped in vet school because they're over $100,000 in debt already and they can't leave now even though they realized vet med wasn't what they thought it was.

So get out there and get some experience! Best of luck to you!

 

[cheathac]

I also finished my undergrad in 3 years then went straight into veterinary school. I do like school though and even plan to pursue more education after veterinary school. I had a lot of animal experience prior to veterinary school but really didn't start getting veterinary experience until undergrad where I worked 20-30 hours a week in either research or veterinary related jobs. I had at least 1500 in each area if I remember. Taking a gap year has its positives as well. Whatever works for you!

 

[SocialStigma]

It's definitely possible, I also finished undergrad in 3 years and started vet school right afterwards. I didn't have 1000 hours of vet and animal experience though (think I was already 850 hours for animal and 700 for vet).

 

[ziggyandjazzy]

It's totally possible. Another question I would be asking yourself is if it it is possible to do FOR YOU while still maintaining a high GPA. I went to a rigorous undergrad school. I was in a need based scholarship program where I had to do 10 hours of community service per week and spend 2 summers doing community service. We weren't allowed to be employed on top of this but in exchange, I had 100% of my financial needs met and graduated without debt.
During the school year, I volunteered at a nonprofit clinic and the two summers I spent at a wildlife rehab clinic. My "free" summer was spent on a neuroscience research project using a mouse model. I was able to get about 700 vet hours (prob the same animal hours?), and 300ish research hours this way, while getting a 3.9+ GPA. I know for myself personally, if I tried to extend myself further than that, my grades likely will have suffered. I am of the opinion that at least initially, GPA is more important than experiences. It can be very very hard to salvage a bad GPA, while adding experiences during a gap year is much more doable. I took a gap year before college (to hike the PCT) and considered it before vet school (because I didn't think I could finish all the pre-reqs my senior year but I did). There's no one right way to do it.
Basically TLDR don't let extracurriculars/getting loads of vet hours sink your GPA is my advice

 

[Nalra095]

Like others have said, it is definitely possible.

While I encourage you to get experience in the vet med field as soon as possible to determine if this is indeed the right field for you, I wouldn't devote too much time to getting "hours" to the point where your grade suffers. As an undergrad, it's important to maintain good grades/GPA rather than trying to meet a certain quota for "hours". Veterinary hours can be earned after you graduate or during summers if you have to, but making up poor grades received in freshman/soph year due to spreading yourself too thin, is not going to be easy because of the immense amount of accumulated units by the time you graduate college.