Hello! I’m new to this website but glad I found it. I am currently a Junior in College and I’m planning to apply for the upcoming cycle for veterinary school this year but I need advice on how important is how many veterinary hours on the application is? I currently have 42 vet hours due to finding one that’s closer and the past summers, I had to take summer classes and work which I didn’t have time to fit into my schedule. I haven’t taken the GRE yet but will begin to take it over the summer as well as increasing my hours. I've also gained more animal experience than vet hour due to being an active member of my pre-vet club for two years. Has anyone had low veterinary hours when applying? Did you get accepted or rejected? Would I be a good candidate? Should start looking for alternatives if I don’t get accepted into veterinary school?
How much is enough for Veterinary Hours???
- Thread starter LadyVet
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Lady and Cinco
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Hi LadyVet,
This is definitely a worthwhile question. In my experience, I certainly felt as though I was on the lower end of the spectrum for vet hours but I ended up doing just fine in the application process, got into a few places, and am so excited to go to OSU next year. I had 200 hours with a veterinarian and 500 animal experience hours without a veterinarian. Though I thought that this is not a lot of hours others may disagree with this. Despite what I thought was not a lot of hours, I feel that I did well in the application process because I was well rounded with a lot of extracurricular involvement, research hours, and good grades. I would definitely work on getting your vet hours up ASAP because schools want to make sure that you know what you're getting into.
It also isn't a bad idea to keep in mind alternatives for if you don't get in the first time applying. I know I definitely had some things in mind. Also, don't stop shadowing a vet during your senior year and during the application process not only because its good to keep going but if you don't get in you'll definitely want to keep getting more hours.
Like I said with why I thought I was a good candidate, it depends on your whole application. The schools don't just consider one thing but look at you as a whole so it all depends on your grades, extra-curriculars, research (if any), vet hours, and animal hours.
I hope that this helps!
This is definitely a worthwhile question. In my experience, I certainly felt as though I was on the lower end of the spectrum for vet hours but I ended up doing just fine in the application process, got into a few places, and am so excited to go to OSU next year. I had 200 hours with a veterinarian and 500 animal experience hours without a veterinarian. Though I thought that this is not a lot of hours others may disagree with this. Despite what I thought was not a lot of hours, I feel that I did well in the application process because I was well rounded with a lot of extracurricular involvement, research hours, and good grades. I would definitely work on getting your vet hours up ASAP because schools want to make sure that you know what you're getting into.
It also isn't a bad idea to keep in mind alternatives for if you don't get in the first time applying. I know I definitely had some things in mind. Also, don't stop shadowing a vet during your senior year and during the application process not only because its good to keep going but if you don't get in you'll definitely want to keep getting more hours.
Like I said with why I thought I was a good candidate, it depends on your whole application. The schools don't just consider one thing but look at you as a whole so it all depends on your grades, extra-curriculars, research (if any), vet hours, and animal hours.
I hope that this helps!
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Some schools have a minimum so make sure and double check with the schools you're applying to. VMCAS average 2 cycles ago was 1500 hours I think. That's average though and theres people that have way more and way less. Make sure to try and vary your experience if you can because while 1500 hours is great if it's all at small animal you're missing out on alot of the profession especially if you only stay at one hospital ever.
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Some schools also have minimum numbers of hours required. If you apply to any of those you need to meet that minimum or your application will be thrown out.
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Many schools are going the holistic route, meaning they look at your application as a whole rather than focusing on one specific part much more than others. This means that if you have lower academics, more hours and a higher GRE score will help you. If you have a very high GPA, hours are a little less important (aside from having the minimum). To give yourself the best shot, definitely get over the minimum. You’re definitely going to be below average as far as hours go, given that even if you work full time through the summer you’ll still only have a little over 500 hours. But that’s over every school’s minimum to my knowledge. But it’s more what you learn from those hours than the sheer number. If you can demonstrate that you learned a lot from 500 hours rather than having just been a body walking around following a doctor, schools will care less. I’ve known people with the bare minimum that got into 5+ schools. I’ve also known people with thousands of hours that didn’t get in anywhere. It’s about your application as a whole, and vet hours are just one piece of it.
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There's not necessarily a set in stone number, but different schools have different requirements so definitely be sure to check the websites of schools you're applying to so you'll know exactly what they're looking for!
Thank you so much this advice! I even asked one of my professors in my department who is also an Veterinarian and talked about the application process and said that if I get the minimum, I would be a strong candidate. So, I have a long to do list for getting ready for this process and some classmates who applied and got accepted into the vet schools said it was stressful during the process, but they got through it so I have a long to do list for this process and it opens this Thursday and doesn’t close until September this year. I’m also working on getting GRE Prep as well as taking it in the summer so hopefully, I will be on a wing and a prayer to be successful and get accepted into Vet School
