How Important is Animal/Vet Experience?

[11years]

Hello!

I know Animal/Vet Experience is a requirement and the more I have the better. However, due to time constraints, I don't think I'll realistically have more than a few hundred hours worth of experience. I'm currently an undergrad Sophomore, and I've only decided to become a vet a few months ago (although I am very serious about it now).

The biggest reason why I do not have enough time to volunteer is because along with eventually becoming a veterinarian, I also want to serve my country. Being a US Marine has been my dream since I was a child and I am now currently in the process of applying to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School. I will be starting to work as a Police Cadet with my local police department, and I also have an interest in interning with a government agency (Secret Service, FBI, DOD, etc.) before I graduate. Due to my current course load, taking care of my dog, and being a Police Cadet, I don't and won't have any time to volunteer. My summers, too, will be devoted to Officer Candidate School and an internship (assuming I am able to get one).

So, how important is Animal/Vet Experience? I know my measly few hundred hours is nothing compared to the several thousand competitive applicants have. How much "weight" will my Law Enforcement/Military/Government experience carry in my application? After my four year commitment with the Marines, will I realistically be a competitive applicant? Assuming the rest of my application (GPA, GRE, recommendations) are fine, how much of a disadvantage will I be at? Will I have a decent shot of being accepted or should I prepare to set aside a few months to maybe even a year to gaining more experience?

Edit: I know about the Army's Vet Corps. I respect the Army, but I am only interested in joining the Marines.

Thank you very much!

Semper Fidelis

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[goldnretrivrgrl]

Welcome to the forum! Question- do you think you will only have several hundred hours of animal experience AND vet experience by the time you apply? Or several hundred of each? (Sorry, I just woke up). Veterinary experience is critical for your application because it shows that you understand the difficult aspects of the career you will be taking on. If you can't realistically set aside some time to get more experience, how will you show the admissions committees that you are a more qualified candidate than the many other people who are applying that cycle? Your journey to become a Marine is interesting and certainly gives some insight into you as a person. It has the potential to make you a standout applicant if your other stats (GPA, GRE, AND a decent amount of vet experience hours) are up to snuff. Good luck and welcome again. This forum is a wonderful reasource

 

[twelvetigers]

Also, to make a long answer short, vet experience is also crucial because you will need a glowing letter of recommendation from at least one veterinarian, and it seems best for this to be a vet that you have worked with closely over a period of time.

 

[sumstorm]

Sounds like you may have to pursue one dream at a time. If you join the marines, you will have a committment to fullfill. That doesn't mean you can't then pursue vet med, but it means you have some extra years to get your experience. Unless I am misunderstanding your intentions.

As for Army vs Marines, I hope you realize that attitude is poor; the army supplies the vets for the marines. I'd really hate to think that a uniformed service would have that attitude towards a professional that is providing services, regardless of uniform. I am well aware of the Army/Marines/Navy/Airforce tensions since my husband is former army, and my friends husband is current marine, but when it comes to the professionals services, my understanding is that all blood is red.

Experience is important for many reasons, but the most important reason is understanding the negatives of the field and determining if your vision of vet med matches the reality, or whether the challenges and monotonies of the field will drive you insane. While your service may carry some weight in terms of life experience, it probably won't compensate for a significant lack elsewhere.

 

[breenie]

The biggest reason why I do not have enough time to volunteer is because along with eventually becoming a veterinarian, I also want to serve my country. Being a US Marine has been my dream since I was a child and I am now currently in the process of applying to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School. I will be starting to work as a Police Cadet with my local police department, and I also have an interest in interning with a government agency (Secret Service, FBI, DOD, etc.) before I graduate. Due to my current course load, taking care of my dog, and being a Police Cadet, I don't and won't have any time to volunteer. My summers, too, will be devoted to Officer Candidate School and an internship (assuming I am able to get one).

Sounds like your priorities are Marines > Vet Med.

Vet school is Kind Of A Big Deal. You have to throw as much of your resources towards getting there as you can (good grades, good experience, unique experience, MONEY). Why half-ass it? Sounds like you don't have the time for it, or the motivation to MAKE time for it. Go into the marines. Maybe think about vet med later. Those are two very large dreams that take up a little too much space to be realized simultaneously.

 

[Angelus9]

There are a few ex-military on here. Hope they chime in.

There are also plenty of people who got in with "only" several hundred hours of veterinary experience. If it's good solid experience & you have a good reference letter, I'd think that your military service would be a Plus for your application and would be to your advantage. Go for it.

Good luck!

 

[LetItSnow]

After my four year commitment with the Marines, will I realistically be a competitive applicant? Assuming the rest of my application (GPA, GRE, recommendations) are fine, how much of a disadvantage will I be at? Will I have a decent shot of being accepted or should I prepare to set aside a few months to maybe even a year to gaining more experience?

I think it would stand out on your application that your most recent vet experience is four years old, so my gut says your chances would be quite a bit lower that most candidates, who have been putting everything they can into getting into school. (Unless I'm misunderstanding when you'll be gaining experience.)

If you want to go into vet medicine after fulfilling your military commitment, you will want to find some way to continue gaining veterinary experience while in the military (if that's even possible; I've never been military and wouldn't know). If it's not possible, you probably want to get used to the idea that you will have to spend a year (or more) gaining experience after you get out of the military.

Absolutely no offense intended, but between the lines your post doesn't sound like you're really serious about vet medicine. For example, why the government agency internship? The FBI, DOD, Feds... they're all interesting and whatnot, but what do they have to do with either of your main goals? Why not use that time to gain animal experience (if you're sincere about vet school)?

There is a flip side to this: Life experience is attractive to admissions committees (so I'm told, anyway), so you can leverage some of this to your advantage down the road.

Good luck.

 

[nohika]

To be honest, directly out of the marines, I doubt you have a chance in admissions. It's nice you served and whatnot, but if you don't have recent experience hours (and quite a few), you won't be able to demonstrate that you have seen the incredibly nasty side of vetmed and that you can handle it. That's what admissions committees are looking for. That you know how crappy this whole thing gets and that you can handle it.

Also, I'm with the others - you don't sound very committed to vet med. You sound like marines is your absolute, 500% passion and that vet med is an afterthought. It is a ridiculously competitive random crapshoot. Plus, even after the marines, you'd be pulling in quite a bit of debt for a crappy salary. Nothing like the military.

Anyways. Sorry, I've only been up a half hour, so I'm a little out of it, too.

 

[awaring1]

Vet school is Kind Of A Big Deal.

I like how this is capitalized.


But yes, I agree with what everyone has said. To most people that apply to vet school veterinary medicine is a passion. It is their #1 career goal and they have been tailoring their entire life to look appealing to admissions committees. Since you have only recently decided to become a vet you would need to kick yourself into overdrive to be competitive. I am assuming you do not have animal/vet experience from high school or earlier so you would really need to crunch. 40 hours/week at a vet hospital each summer you may be competitive but even that could be a stretch.

Sorry so shoot you down. I say pick one goal and put your entire heart into it. Especially when both of your paths are very time demanding!

 

[Pelagia]

If vet med is your passion, you need to do things that show admissions committees that you're serious about vet med.

If you truly can't rack up hundreds of hours, try getting experience in less common/less traditional areas like veterinary public health or laboratory medicine. And still get experience in SA and LA. Show the admissions committees that you are making a serious effort to explore the field.

The road to vet school is itself a long and stressful one, full of hard classes, tons of animal/veterinary experience hours, tests, late nights, and even some tears (at least for me, haha, stress gets to me sometimes). You've GOT to be passionate about vet med to keep on going. Make sure that you have the time, work ethic, and passion to devote to vet school, because it's a huge investment.

 

[Coquette22]

I think it would stand out on your application that your most recent vet experience is four years old, so my gut says your chances would be quite a bit lower that most candidates, who have been putting everything they can into getting into school. (Unless I'm misunderstanding when you'll be gaining experience.)

Agreed. And I'm not sure, but wouldn't no experience for 4 years strongly diminish letters of recommendation? I don't think you can use letters that are 4 years old (I don't know, happy to be corrected) and I don't know if a vet would feel comfortable writing a letter for someone they haven't worked with for 4 years.

 

[that redhead]

You say that you're "very serious" about pursuing vet med and then say that you don't have the time to put together a quality application. The reason animal and veterinary experience (veterinary especially) are so crucial to the application is not because they just want to create another loophole for you to jump through. It's because by spending quality time with a veterinarian, you are demonstrating to the admissions people that you are invested in the career and also have been able to develop a realisitic understanding of what it means to be a veterinarian.

The decision to serve your country is admirable and it sounds like its something you are far more serious about than vet med, at least right now. Veterinary medicine isn't something you can mosey into - people on this forum are good examples of exactly how much time, dedication, money, heartache and stress it takes to even apply, let alone be accepted. Part of your post makes me think that you think that being in the military/government/police academy will somehow boost your chances and that isn't necessarily true. If after completing your service you still want to pursue vet med, THEN find vets to shadow, etc and put together your application. At this point, it's either one or the other.

 

[nyanko]

You also have to remember that there is a requirement for veterinary experience for a REASON - getting experience in some aspect of the field of veterinary medicine is really the ONLY WAY that you can understand what it's all about, and that's what schools want to see. You can get in with a limited # of hours if those hours were a high quality experience that made a significant impact on you, but my feeling is that leaving the field entirely for some period after them and then trying to come right back won't do a good job of conveying that if it's the case.

 

[11years]

Thank you everyone for your input.

First, I would like to apologize if I came off as rude in any way. I understand that my newly found interest (passion) for Vet Med is nothing compared to many of you who have wanted to become veterinarians for as long as you can remember.

Although I have always wanted to be a Marine, I have never wanted the military as my career. I know that it is impossible to be a Marine and a Veterinarian at the same time. I understand that both have very distinct goals and requirements. Although at this time, my priorities are Marine > Vet, it doesn't mean that my passion for becoming a Veterinarian is any less strong than it is for becoming a Marine. I simply understand that I will need to fulfill my service first before applying to Veterinary school.

It's not that I am "half-assing" my application or that I underestimate how difficult the application process is, and, again, I apologize if it seems so from my previous post. The bottom line is, there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to do both at this current time.

Why am I pursuing a government internship? It's not that I'm not serious about Vet Med. It's just that there are a few things in life that I would be honored if I can be a part of and I do want to experience them before settling down as a veterinarian for the rest of my life.

As for the Army vs Marines issue, I'm... confused? I'm sorry but I don't know where you got the idea that I don't like the Army? I stated in my post that I do respect the Army and I do respect anyone, male or female, or Army/Marines/Navy/Air Force/Coast Guard, that is willing to make the sacrifice. All I'm saying is that for me, personally, I am more interested in becoming a Marine than a soldier in the Army. What made you want to pursue a career as a veterinarian? Are you saying that you don't like or respect human doctors because they aren't veterinarians? Just because I like the Marines better doesn't mean that I look down upon the other branches.

I wanted to have an idea of what I need to do in the future as I feel that I am already behind. Add on my four year commitment and you can see why I'm trying my best to plan ahead and not waste anymore time. It seems like I will have to realistically take a break (a year, maybe longer) between my future service and my future application to gain valuable insight into this demanding profession.

Thank you again for your advice.

Semper Fidelis