How long have you been working towards becoming a vet? (and adcoms' thoughts)

[cerealrhapsody]

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Hi everyone. I'm just wondering when most of you guys knew that you wanted to be vets and how long you've been pursuing your goals. I ask this because sometimes I feel like, at my school, most of the pre-vet students (or at least a great number of them) were raised on farms or horse ranches or around lots of animals and have wanted to be vets since a very young age. It's a bit discouraging because I only made the decision to pursue vet school during my sophomore year of college, so I have much less experience than most of the pre-vet students I know. Hell, I even met a middle-school girl who was volunteering for the small animal vet I shadowed one summer, and she was doing x-rays and fecals and practially everything short of drawing blood, whereas I know how to do basically nothing.

So what do vet schools think about this? Would they be more willing to overlook a very small amount of veterinary/animal experience if they knew the candidate had only been pursuing vet school for a few years as opposed to an entire high school/college career? Or would they kind of look down on a candidate or wonder about their committment to the profession if their ambition did not stem very long ago? Did anyone else decide late in life that they wanted to be a vet? What do you think are your chances of getting accepted? I don't want to think that I'm at a disadvantage simply because I was undecided for so long in terms of a career path.

 

[DVMorBust]

Short answer: It doesn't really matter when you decide to go, as long as you show dedication once making the decision.

I had a lot of animal experience (stable hand, riding instructor, etc.) and grew up riding (although not on a farm) but didn't make the decision to go to vet school until 2007. Didn't seem to hinder my application any.

When I did decide to go, I switched to a job in research (that pays much less than my previous job, but is great experience), started shadowing vets, and working my butt off to get experience when I could.

I'm sure the animal experience hours didn't hurt, but as far as strictly veterinary experience, I only had 16 months or so to get it in.

There are many reasons to become a vet - and most people don't really know much about how the profession actually works until they're older. Just have a solid reason for making the decision when you did, and get as much experience as you can until you apply.

 

[Pandacinny]

Also, don't get discouraged if other people seem more technically proficient than you. I don't really think it matters to adcoms whether you can do fecals and X-rays and etc. I think it matters more that you have good grades and varied experience.

 

[elefante7]

I have had animal experience for quite awhile but in many ways I am similar to you in that I did not begin to get any vet experience until my sophomore year of college. I went in with the knowledge that I was behind and really dedicated myself to getting as much experience as I could. I applied this cycle and I currently have 3 interviews lined up so I must have been doing something right.

 

[Emio]

they won't overlook a "very small amount" because that's simply not prudent on their part, but they can understand that if you haven't been working at a vet hospital since middle school, you won't have quite that many hours.

i decided my first year of undergrad. immediately started foal sitting and spending summers at a clinic for a few days a week. didn't get an official tech job until junior year.

you'll be fine so long as you work for it -- get the experiences now and keep the grades up. good luck!

 

[bmichs75DVM]

I didn't decide to become a vet until March of my senior year in high school when my anatomy teacher encouraged me to do so. I did work on farms throughout high school, most of my experience there came from inside of a front-end loader, tractor, or in a hay field. When I went to college, I began taking pre-reqs to go to vet school, but I had no experience. I did not get experience until the summer after my freshman year when I shadowed a equine Vet every Friday throughout the summer. After I went back to school, I began to shadow a large animal practice when I could (maybe twice a month). I began looking for summer tech jobs and found one after a long search. I worked in the clinic all summer long and shadowed with the large animals guys on my days off (I want to be a large animal vet). The vets there advised me to apply as early as possible, so I applied my junior year of undergrad (this year). Low and behold, I GOT ACCEPTED!

I have roughly 900hrs of experience that I gathered in a little under two years. So just do your best to get experience. What I really recommend is buying the Merck veterinary manual and once you learn new things from shadowing a vet, do a little bit of research and put time into actively learning about what it is that you saw. I know it paid off for me. So just hang in there and do the best that you can at getting experience. I remember a question that I asked the dean of admissions at a vet school open house one year. I asked her what the difference was between someone who has 200 hours of experience and someone who has 2000hrs of experience. She told me that the only difference was the time, but the knowledge one gets out of what they are experiencing is what counts.

So don't worry about the middle school child who worked in the clinic and gained all these hours (by the way there is no way this child would be allowed to draw blood from an animal for I believe it is against the law unless you are a trained tech). Just do what you can and actively learn about what you are seeing, for this is all that counts.

 

[JustCats]

Short answer: It doesn't really matter when you decide to go, as long as you show dedication once making the decision.

Agreed!

 

[sambone]

Originally Posted by DVMorBust
Short answer: It doesn't really matter when you decide to go, as long as you show dedication once making the decision.

Agreed!

Double agreed!
I had NO previous animal related experience, started ~3.5 years ago* (1 year after graduating from college!), and made every week count since then. I'll be going to vet school this fall, along with all those people who knew what they wanted to do 20 years ago.

*BTW I think you could do it in less, but I've really enjoyed the scenic route 😀

 

[david594]

For me it was only 18 months between the day I decided I wanted to pursue veterinary medicine and the day I was accepted to a US veterinary school(to start this coming fall). I decided to pursue it basically immediately when I graduated from undergrad with my degree in a totally unrelated field(computer science).

Prior to deciding I had no animal or veterinary experience(I don't count the parakeet or fish I had as a kid). I went back to school part time, then full time to finish pre-reqs. And started volunteering in a clinic, which became a part time job, and then added a second part time job so I was working ~35-40 hours a week in a veterinary setting. So by the time I applied I had ~1800 hours of veterinary experience and maybe 20 hours non-veterinary animal experience.

 

[cozycleo]

I'm 27, and I started working on it about 7 months ago. I'm putting in the work and I'm doing my best. This is probably the most dedication I've ever put into anything.

 

[david594]

So don’t worry about the middle school child who worked in the clinic and gained all these hours (by the way there is no way this child would be allowed to draw blood from an animal for I believe it is against the law unless you are a trained tech). Just do what you can and actively learn about what you are seeing, for this is all that counts.

Thats only in silly ohio where you have to be a certified tech to do anything. Although it is quite illegal for a minor to do anything relating to X-ray. Thats a huge OSHA violation right there.

 

[bmichs75DVM]

Ya, Ohio has some prety strict rules governing just about anything you do in a work related setting. Sometimes its a royal pain in the behind.

 

[BR549]

I've known that I wanted to be a vet since I was in kindergarten (of course, I couldn't pronounce it, so I just said animal doctor.🙂) I remember getting my first kid, Baby, who I got from a cattle auction. (I was reared on a farm; fishes to ostriches to cows and everything in between) However, I am a first generation college grad and had no idea on what academic routes to follow. High school counselors were of little help. I didn't actually start working with a vet until about 4 years ago.

Either way, if you get started logging in some hours now, you'll be fine. Good luck!!

 

[168135]

I know exactly how you feel. I decided I interrested in becoming a vet tech when I was in grade 11, and decided to do pre-vet after getting accepted to university. Two years later... and well, I'm working my butt off trying to get experience, but the trend is that the people who have wanted to be vets since they were five get the volunteer and work positions... even though I'm the one who really needs it because I didn't spend my life on a farm, or in 4H or surrounded by animals. It's pretty frusterating.

 

[lunazzurra]

I didn't know until after I'd finished college with degrees in Medieval Studies and Italian Literature. I started working at a vet part time my senior year, cleaning kennels, walking dogs, answering phones. Three years later I was the head tech. I've been doing my prerequisites at night for almost 4 years and do 20+ hours of wildlife rehab on the weekends. I never thought I would have a chance, for the same reasons you did...everyone else I knew who got in had grown up on farms or had horses. I grew up in an apartment with a dog. That's it.

Anyway I've got an interview now, so...anything's possible.

 

[DVMorBust]

Piece of advice for those who are just starting/dont have much experience and hang out on SDN: Do NOT let the people on here with thousands of hours freak you out!

It's a small portion of vet school applicants, most of which are super dedicated. Can be very intimidating!

Instead, realize that you don't have much experience and need to get started now, and use other peoples' experiences and advice to help you find opportunities that you might not think of!

 

[bmichs75DVM]

Also on that note, get a variety of experience. I mean do not just get experience in one field (such as only small animal or only large animal). Go out and get at least a little experience in fields that might not interest you much. This will show adcoms that you have experienced a little bit of everything so when they ask you what kind of vet you want to be, you can tell them with confidence and they will believe you.

 

[karmapple]

Piece of advice for those who are just starting/dont have much experience and hang out on SDN: Do NOT let the people on here with thousands of hours freak you out!

On the other end of the spectrum, DO NOT let all the people on here with 3.95 GPAs freak you out. I have thousands of hours of experience, but SDN made me think I was going to get rejected for sure since I have a < 3.5 GPA. Not true!