Hello everyone! I am an incoming first year veterinary student. I am currently more interested about doing a residency(might change my mind during vet school tho), and I am wondering if anyone don't mind providing some advice on things that I can do during vet school to better prepare myself to apply for and survive during residency? FYI: I will go to NCSU and we do S/U grades. Thank you!!
Incoming first year vet student- things to do during vet school to be competitive for applying residency
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Simply put, do well, study hard, and most of all, make time for you go out and have fun. Don't drown yourself in studying; we all have to come up for air at some point! Join clubs in the specialty you want, network with specialists, and extern at the place where you want to do your internship since that is the FIRST step to residency.
Really helpful advice! Thank you so much!
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Show engagement / interest at lectures and clinics when you start, I ended up doing my rotating internship at my university and some of my letters of recommendation for both my internships and residency came from my old lecturers who were specialists in the discipline I am doing my residency.
Bit far away for you but when on clinics in final year it’s not all about knowing everything but showing that you have put the effort in to look up answers to improve your knowledge and seemingly simple stuff like offering to help and being friendly especially to nurses and ancillary staff really makes you stand out and will help with making connections you need for recommendations. The worst students for me are the ones who come across like they lack interest and are counting the clock until when they can leave, whereas the ones who show genuine interest and are always willing to lend a hand, they stand out even if their knowledge isn’t the best (in my opinion).
My university gave an option to get credits for a research project so if yours has something like that it will give you the chance of publishing. Definitely not the be all and end all but it does make your cv stand out a bit if you already have experience with research and publication and shows interest too.
Bit far away for you but when on clinics in final year it’s not all about knowing everything but showing that you have put the effort in to look up answers to improve your knowledge and seemingly simple stuff like offering to help and being friendly especially to nurses and ancillary staff really makes you stand out and will help with making connections you need for recommendations. The worst students for me are the ones who come across like they lack interest and are counting the clock until when they can leave, whereas the ones who show genuine interest and are always willing to lend a hand, they stand out even if their knowledge isn’t the best (in my opinion).
My university gave an option to get credits for a research project so if yours has something like that it will give you the chance of publishing. Definitely not the be all and end all but it does make your cv stand out a bit if you already have experience with research and publication and shows interest too.
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Final year students rotate through our department every other week, and absolutely this. The ones that we go "ahh I hope they apply to clin path!" are the ones who are excited to be there and do the things. One important example is the difference between students who review their course notes from 2nd year, versus the ones who show up having forgotten basically all of it, not bothering to rectify that on their end, and needing to be re-taught basics. Frankly, just being actually interested in a subject is a huge plus, and not showing up like, "Oh, another rotation I have to survive." IDK about other specialties, but 50% of clin path is texting other clin paths pictures of cool cells, so when students appreciate our gushing, we appreciate their appreciation
Pre clinical year, my advice is just worry about doing well. Learn the foundational material. Then in clinical year is when you spend a lot more time with the faculty and clinicians that will be your references or, if you go the same place, your advisors in residency. That's the time for best behaviour and extra reading. If you really, really want to stand out, there might be some small research projects your favourite faculty could have you work on, but I'd hesitate to recommend that kind of above-and-beyond stuff unless you have the mental health stability of Excalibur's sword. Standing out is less important than doing well in your actual classes and retaining the important foundational info.
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