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I have two summers worth of experience with horses that i did when i was in high school. Does this count for animal experience when applying to veterinary schools?
High School Experience with Animals
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absolutely 🙂
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As long as it doesnt go something like "when i was fourteen, i patted the pony on his forehead" I say go for it! Sounds like you had some good experiences that put you on the right track for the coming years!
I worked with buffalo for a grand total of about 15 hours, and I mentioned that in a couple places, so if that counts, yours definitely does!
I worked with buffalo for a grand total of about 15 hours, and I mentioned that in a couple places, so if that counts, yours definitely does!
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Thanks for clearing that up. The only reason i asked was because the pre-health advisor at my college said it didn't count.
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i had the worst pre-vet advisor experience. no faith in them helping students at all. Freshman year i asked around everywhere and finally got told to go to this man who was the prevet advisor. I scheduled a meeting and he literally tried to talk me OUT of vet school. Not because of my grades or anything bad about me, but because he was a PhD and has a higher respect for them. In our meeting all he did was ask me ethical questions like "what would you do if an owner wants their dogs vocal cords removed?" remember, i was a FRESHMAN. a poor lil girl looking for support and guidance and i had no confidence in getting accepted.
I ignored him and 2 yrs later i signed up for an animal science course (i was a bio major) and my prof happened to be the same guy. Mid semester he made us come to personal appointments with him to go over our term paper and during this he asked me about my career goals (he did not remember me from years ago). Once i told him vet school he started talking trash about vets and talked about how PhD's are much more respected. omg, are you joking?? i cant believe i graduated and still chose to stick with vet med lol. Def sucked going thru college with no professional school guidance.
thanks for listening to me vent 😀
I ignored him and 2 yrs later i signed up for an animal science course (i was a bio major) and my prof happened to be the same guy. Mid semester he made us come to personal appointments with him to go over our term paper and during this he asked me about my career goals (he did not remember me from years ago). Once i told him vet school he started talking trash about vets and talked about how PhD's are much more respected. omg, are you joking?? i cant believe i graduated and still chose to stick with vet med lol. Def sucked going thru college with no professional school guidance.
thanks for listening to me vent 😀
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This was a very interesting post, BlacKAT33!
It seems like every school I have spoken to has the same issue- professors with PhD's and Master's knocking down the DVM profession. It's a very frustrating thing to be constantly battling (or ignoring). I have an unending amount of respect for professors, so why can't they have the same for us?
It seems like every school I have spoken to has the same issue- professors with PhD's and Master's knocking down the DVM profession. It's a very frustrating thing to be constantly battling (or ignoring). I have an unending amount of respect for professors, so why can't they have the same for us?
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Agreed. ive never heard a DVM knock down PhDs but the opposite seems to happen a lot. I have no clue why. I was thinking jealousy... i mean, i dont understand why they would even care so much unless they wanted to get in themselves. I did feel like the university ignored it. besides, why would they assign a PhD for a prevet advisor?!?! i hope he has been replaced since i left
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I kind of had the same type of experience with my pre-vet advisor. Here there are 2 "pre-vet" paths, one that will actually get you into vet school (organic and physics), the other that only requires general bio, general chem, and some animal science courses. When I went in before my first semester to get "advised" so I could register for class, I told him which route (the REAL pre-vet) I was taking. He told me flat out I would be better off going the other route so I could get a job at tractor supply!!!! Now, I could almost understand if he knew ANYTHING about me or my potential, but he knew nothing. 😡 Needless to say I did not take his advice, never had anything further to do with him, and refused to take ANY class he taught.
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Similar story here. My freshman advisor was a VMD, and he basically told me not to waste me time, there was no point in me being an animal science major, I'd have to work my ass off to get in and he didn't think it was the right field for me.
Now this was a man I was meeting for the first time. All he knew about me was what he saw in my record from high schools-- I graduated from HS with a 4.0, 1450/1600 on the SATs, high scores on the Bio, Chem, and English AP tests, 4 years on the equestrian team, and various other activities, etc. Based on just that, he decided that I shouldn't be allowed to go to vet school.
I wasn't allowed to switch advisers-- there were only a handful of vets who were advisers and they were all "full." So I stuck it out, pretended to listen, only went to him when I needed a signature on a registration form, etc.
Last year when I was applying, I asked if he could write me a LOR and he said no way in hell. Seriously? Whats the point of having a vet as an advisor?
In hindsight, it's probably a good thing--I'm not sure I would have wanted a letter from him anyway.
Now this was a man I was meeting for the first time. All he knew about me was what he saw in my record from high schools-- I graduated from HS with a 4.0, 1450/1600 on the SATs, high scores on the Bio, Chem, and English AP tests, 4 years on the equestrian team, and various other activities, etc. Based on just that, he decided that I shouldn't be allowed to go to vet school.
I wasn't allowed to switch advisers-- there were only a handful of vets who were advisers and they were all "full." So I stuck it out, pretended to listen, only went to him when I needed a signature on a registration form, etc.
Last year when I was applying, I asked if he could write me a LOR and he said no way in hell. Seriously? Whats the point of having a vet as an advisor?
In hindsight, it's probably a good thing--I'm not sure I would have wanted a letter from him anyway.
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well, I would guess that its not necessarily PhD vs DVM...I do know a lot of PhDs that are slightly frustrated at MDs, DMDs, DVMs (I guess, I've never heard anything negative said about DVMS from a PhD before) because there doesnt seem to be real understanding about how research/science works but MDs, DMDs, DVMs (I guess) do sit on grant funding boards and can give PhDs a hard time when (in the scientists mind) they don't really know what they're talking about (because the experiments they suggest are not good etc, or they reject the grant when its an excellent idea with tons of supporting preliminary data).
Its all very silly, this doctor hating that goes on. MDs don't think vets or dentists work as hard or are as prestigious as they are. Dentists and vets get riled up and retaliate. Podiatry students that wish they had gone to med school come onto forums and aggravate pre-vets. Its all a big mess.
Needless to say, ever since people (PhDs) in my dept have found out I'm shifting my focus and applying to vet schools this year they've been very supportive and happy about it. but I am sorry about your experiences.
My undergrad pre-med/vet/dent advisor was awful. She didn't even have an advanced degree and just told everyone they were never going anywhere. Which was strange because most kids in my school who applied to professional programs got accepted, so I'm not sure what her deal was. She's since been fired.
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To the original question: on some supplemental apps (for example PEI/ AVC) they say animal experience within the last 5 years-so basically Sr. year of high school or so if you are a traditional student.
To the PhD/DVM thing: Last month I attended a mastitis conference with my thesis advisor. Practically everyone there was either DVM/PhD or PhD, and most of the students were masters or PhD. The one kid who was a vet student made sure that they made an extra effort to make it clear he was a VETERINARY student and NOT PhD/MS. Basically, the opposite tone. Of what you were talking about. And I get the impression my advisor (PhD/DVM) feels she is better than other vets or other PhDs becuase she has both degrees.
To the support of your veterinary goals by your advisor: I totally feel you all there. Our First-year intro to college class, there were maybe 40 first-year animal science students there, most pre-vet. The department chair (a vet) told us the first day that we weren't getting into vet school and here are other options. If you still want to try, go to Ross or move to another state with a vet school.
When filling out applications this year, I felt moderatly prepared as far as academics went, but know NOTHING of the application. I discoved in August that it was due Oct 2, that I couldn't apply to some schools because my GRE was too late, and one vet I had worked a lot with didn't have time to write me an eLOR. I realize I am a responsible adult that should have been looking at this earlier and figured it out, but an email or two from the department would have been nice, or any guidence from the intro to college class.
There is a pre-professional advisor for all the pre-med, pre-law, pre-anything people at my university, but her info is focused to Pre-med students.
The end.
To the PhD/DVM thing: Last month I attended a mastitis conference with my thesis advisor. Practically everyone there was either DVM/PhD or PhD, and most of the students were masters or PhD. The one kid who was a vet student made sure that they made an extra effort to make it clear he was a VETERINARY student and NOT PhD/MS. Basically, the opposite tone. Of what you were talking about. And I get the impression my advisor (PhD/DVM) feels she is better than other vets or other PhDs becuase she has both degrees.
To the support of your veterinary goals by your advisor: I totally feel you all there. Our First-year intro to college class, there were maybe 40 first-year animal science students there, most pre-vet. The department chair (a vet) told us the first day that we weren't getting into vet school and here are other options. If you still want to try, go to Ross or move to another state with a vet school.
When filling out applications this year, I felt moderatly prepared as far as academics went, but know NOTHING of the application. I discoved in August that it was due Oct 2, that I couldn't apply to some schools because my GRE was too late, and one vet I had worked a lot with didn't have time to write me an eLOR. I realize I am a responsible adult that should have been looking at this earlier and figured it out, but an email or two from the department would have been nice, or any guidence from the intro to college class.
There is a pre-professional advisor for all the pre-med, pre-law, pre-anything people at my university, but her info is focused to Pre-med students.
The end.
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I don't think I've heard a DVM or vet student really knock on PhDs, but I have heard MDs and med students do it plenty of times, even going so far as to assume that any given grad student in the biomed sciences is only there because he or she got rejected from med school. 🙄
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Our school has a pre-health profession advisor. She was the instructor for a class that was geared towards freshmen pre-health students.
On the first day of class, she divided us up by pre-med, pre-dental, pre-vet, pre-PT, etc, etc. Pre-med and pre-dental had the most people in them about 75-100 each. Pre-vet had the next most with about 25. I believe we now have 3 people from the original 25 left that are actually still interested in going into vet school. She was a freshman advisor and was mainly geared towards pre-med students. I would go in and talk to her about the process for veterinary school applications and she would give me this look à
What was really bad was that once you became a sophomore, you were no longer able to communicate with her. The advising center she was at is for freshmen students only. I even tried to e-mail her and she would not respond. So, my school was no help at all when it came to information about vet school applications. I went about it on my own. I still have pre-vet people coming to me all the time asking about specific schools and what classes they require and how the application process works, etc, etc. Other students were actually referring people to me for help. I would give some information, but then tell them where they could go look up more information for themselves. Not only did our advising suck, but our pre-vet club was worse. I attended it for a semester and then left. The pre-vet club consisted of walking dogs at the local humane society. I began to realize, I can do more on my own than I will ever get from this pre-vet club. The club still sucks; I still get e-mails from them, but never go to the meetings. I believe there are over 100 people on the e-mail list and from talking with the president of the club only about 5-10 actually show up. Overall, it seems like there is a lack of decent pre-vet advising amongst the schools which is quite sad.
OP: I put experience from high school on my application; I even put an experience from when I was in 7th or 8th grade because it was that experience that really pushed me to go into veterinary medicine and to obtain more experiences.
On the first day of class, she divided us up by pre-med, pre-dental, pre-vet, pre-PT, etc, etc. Pre-med and pre-dental had the most people in them about 75-100 each. Pre-vet had the next most with about 25. I believe we now have 3 people from the original 25 left that are actually still interested in going into vet school. She was a freshman advisor and was mainly geared towards pre-med students. I would go in and talk to her about the process for veterinary school applications and she would give me this look à
What was really bad was that once you became a sophomore, you were no longer able to communicate with her. The advising center she was at is for freshmen students only. I even tried to e-mail her and she would not respond. So, my school was no help at all when it came to information about vet school applications. I went about it on my own. I still have pre-vet people coming to me all the time asking about specific schools and what classes they require and how the application process works, etc, etc. Other students were actually referring people to me for help. I would give some information, but then tell them where they could go look up more information for themselves. Not only did our advising suck, but our pre-vet club was worse. I attended it for a semester and then left. The pre-vet club consisted of walking dogs at the local humane society. I began to realize, I can do more on my own than I will ever get from this pre-vet club. The club still sucks; I still get e-mails from them, but never go to the meetings. I believe there are over 100 people on the e-mail list and from talking with the president of the club only about 5-10 actually show up. Overall, it seems like there is a lack of decent pre-vet advising amongst the schools which is quite sad. OP: I put experience from high school on my application; I even put an experience from when I was in 7th or 8th grade because it was that experience that really pushed me to go into veterinary medicine and to obtain more experiences.
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*shock* did u go to my school?!!? lol i'm sure you didnt, but our prevet club was exactly the same. i joined freshman year and was super excited... turns out they barely had ANY volunteering, and what they did have was really lame like helping at a shelter once every 3 months. it was rediculous. There was a TON of people on the list serve, then id go to an event and there would be no one there. The only good thing they had was someone from the va-tech vet school come to talk to us about admissions process. After one year, i realized it was a waste to even be a part of a club that never really does anything and is just in it to put on their resume. I stopped going at the end of freshman year and i even made sure to put on my VMCAS that i was only in it for 1 yr and not all of college. I think now though, it is a little better because the officers are all a diff generation of students and the president is an overachiever. I just wish the club actually did some good when i was in college.
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Sounds very similar...ours has not changed over the 4 years I have been here. I did not even put it on VMCAS; since I did very little (I think I went 8-10 times over the course of the semester and they met once a week) and I am pretty sure just being on the list serve does not count as participation. I did put the volunteer hours down though because I went both on my own as well as for the club.
