How to Put Experience in the VMCAS

[Rebeki]

I have heard other people on this board say that they had animal experience from classes or riding lessons and added this to their VMCAS application. I have this same experience, but am wondering how to include this. Do I simply put it under the animal experience section?

Also, in the box that asks you to describe your experience, how are you listing the info? A bulleted list or in a more narrative way? Have you listed it formally like you would on a resume or elaborated more?

Thanks in advance!

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[pressmom]

I haven't taken riding lessons or anything like that, but to weigh in on the box--I just put my explanation in resume form. For example:

XXX Animal Hospital
Prepared animals for surgery. Gave injections. Took patient history. Restrained animals for examination. Received payments and closed register for the night. Performed lab tests including.... etc.

You get the idea.

 

[kate_g]

XXX Animal Hospital
Prepared animals for surgery. Gave injections. Took patient history. Restrained animals for examination. Received payments and closed register for the night. Performed lab tests including.... etc.

Mine were like that too. I had a lot to say for most of the experiences and I found that the boxes were *way* too small to write something narrative in complete sentences.

My only thought for the riding lessons and things would be to emphasize the animal handling aspects. Like, rather than saying you were trained to be a really pretty dressage rider or how to care for your saddle, make sure you talk about getting a feel for the psychology of animal training, learning about basic husbandry, etc. And if you've taken lessons at several different places but the experiences were all similar, maybe roll them all into one entry so it doesn't look like you're really stretching to fill space.

 

[sofficat]

I listed the description in comma form.
ex- barn experience: Cleaned stalls, bathed horses, fed animals, trained mini horses, exercised horses, etc
I really had to abbreviate and condense to fit it all in.

ADVICE (from a vet school to my vet who didn't get in the first year)-
put ALL animal experiences on paper!
-When I was 7 I pet sat for my neightbors cats for a week.
-I had a dog and 2 cats growing up that I would care for.
-I helped church members with their pets when they needed care
-My family found a racoon and I nursed it overnight until we could bring it to a vet....

Things like that. Really, put it ALL down somewhere on your vmcas.

good luck!

 

[luckyduck517]

Another question relating to the VMCAS: does research experience go under the veterinary section? My experience is working with a phD studying nematodes, and I'm not really sure where this belongs! Also, should we really list all of our experience pet sitting, riding lessons, caring for our own pets?? Is it better to be overly thorough, and let them decide which experience "counts"?

 

[Serendipity4]

As far as whether your research should go under the veterinary section, it's my understanding that you should only put stuff in the vet section if it's overseen by a practicing veterinarian. Soooo, even if you do research with, say, dogs and cats, if it's a Ph.D. who oversees it and not a DVM, then it still shouldn't go under vet experience. Are you getting paid for this research experience?

As far as the adding in EVERYTHING you've ever done with animals, I really don't know for sure, but I would be careful. You want to show your wide variety of experiences but, then again, I think if you put every little experience down it might look as if you're trying to inflate your hours. That said, you could take some of the "smaller" things you've done and put them in your personal statement to show how you've been passionate about animals your whole life, and how now that passion has developed into greater responsibility. E.g. From the time I was seven, when my job was the neighborhood pet-sitter and I would save baby birds in my back yard, I have been passionate about animals. While my job has changed from pet-sitter to vet tech, and now I save a wide variety of wildlife as my volunteer position of wildlife rehabilitator, my desire to become a vet has never wavered.

Okay, those are some really crappy sentences, but I hope they get my point across a bit. Sorry I couldn't be more help!

 

[Rebeki]

Anybody have any advice regarding animal experience gained in class labs? For example, I took several animal science courses and in the labs we learned how to handle animals, AI for different species and IVF.

I seen other people say that they've added this to the animal experience section.

Right now I'm leaning towards adding the animal science labs (VMCAS does say to include "academic" animal experience), but leaving off the riding lessons. What do you guys think?

 

[pressmom]

I did add my class experience under animal experience. It was the only food animal experience I had and I did want to show that I had a level of comfort around them.

Once again I used the same format and rolled all the classes into one entry.

Techniques of Livestock Management, Nutrition of Domestic Animals, etc.

Neutered and processed piglets. Trimmed goat and sheep hooves. Dewormed cattle. Freeze-branded cattle. Drew blood on cattle. Docked sheep and piglet tails. Ran digestibility study on sheep. Ultrasounded sows to determine pregnancy. etc.

Remember they can see the classes on your transcript as well. If you have two much to fit in one entry, I'd use two. Mine barely fit.

 

[rexosaurus]

Another question relating to the VMCAS: does research experience go under the veterinary section? My experience is working with a phD studying nematodes, and I'm not really sure where this belongs! Also, should we really list all of our experience pet sitting, riding lessons, caring for our own pets?? Is it better to be overly thorough, and let them decide which experience "counts"?

I called once and asked them about this because I work for a large research facility, but not directly under a specific veterinarian. They said that it does, in fact, go under veterinary experience because you work under a principle investigator/study director. And if you have any other questions about it, just call the VMCAS hotline they will be very happy to help you out (and definately have a better explanation than I!)

This comes straight from the directions under the veterinary section of the VMCAS app:

Veterinary Experience:

This section requests information about city, state, description, dates and hours of any clinical/agribusiness/health science/research experiece.

Hope this helps!

 

[kate_g]

As far as whether your research should go under the veterinary section, it's my understanding that you should only put stuff in the vet section if it's overseen by a practicing veterinarian. Soooo, even if you do research with, say, dogs and cats, if it's a Ph.D. who oversees it and not a DVM, then it still shouldn't go under vet experience.

The VMCAS instructions say, in no uncertain terms, that *all* research should be listed as veterinary experience even if you worked under a PhD and not a vet.

That said, I did not include my undergraduate research - which was on plants - as veterinary experience.

I think they're making a fairly reasonable assumption that whatever research you do, it's probably generally animal-related. You're applying to vet school, after all. Even if you're studying genetics in bacteria, the ultimate goal of application is probably human disease. But if you've got some way-out-there background that means you did research in a non-animal or even non-living-thing field (I believe there are some ex-engineers in the group), you'll have to make a judgement call. I just couldn't see listing my plant research as veterinary, so I think I put it under employment.

 

[Spartanvet4cows]

To answer the questions (a little bit redundant at this point though) Yes, research experience under a P/I goes in veterinary experience, that's where I put mine. I listed all my class labs working with animals as animal experience UNLESS the lab was supervised by a veterinarian of which there were a few. We actually learned to float teeth in horses from a vet in one of my classes.

 

[JIKJen124]

I'll chime in about riding lessons/competative equestrian activities. I was unsure and putting in a conservative estimate of 10,000 hours over 15 years seemed a bit absurd to put under animal experience. So, I listed it as an extracurricular and highlighted accomplishments in the awards section with one summary blurb. When I later met with the admissions person at CSU and in my interviews, I learned that was a HUGE mistake and should have put it under animal experience. They assumed it was more casual and hobby-like (i.e. no big deal) than the huge time committment/learning experience it really was, even though those points were highlighted in my PS. So... my advice is, stick it under animal experience!

 

[Rebeki]

Thanks so much for the advice on the riding lessons. I'm applying to CSU and will now definitely put my riding/competitions under animal experience along with my classes.

I also appreciate the advice on animal science courses as that is my only real experience with food animals and I'm glad I'll be able to include it on my app.

 

[msmrtrthnyllb]

I was just about to make a thread about how to fill out these VMCAS sections, as I was told by an adcom specifically NOT to list specific jobs, but rather broad, encompassing aspects of what you've done. That's the bull**** about the whole application process; following the advice of one adcom might be going directly in the face of another. It's too damn hard to make anyone happy.

 

[pressmom]

I think if you're honest about your hours (as in don't over-inflate), you don't write a novella about each experience, and you put them in the order you want them read (ie most important or longest first in case they do get tired of reading), then you'll be fine at all the schools you apply to. If they're going to like you, they are. If you're not the right candidate for them, then an extra sentence or the fact you took riding lessons at 7, probably isn't going to change that. Take a deep breath and don't sweat the small stuff.

I mean my personal statement was little more than a paragraph and things worked out fine for me. (Although when I found out how long some of the other people's were, I did sweat bullets.)