Interesting Dilemna I'd Love Some Advice On...

[HebrewHammer]

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Hey guys,
New to the forums!
Anyways, I just wanted to see what you guys thought about an interesting problem I have right now. I am accepted to the Ohio State c/o 2015, and I just received an interview with UPenn. Neither of these schools require the Animal Nutrition online course I am taking at Rutgers. This course, while interesting, is seriously sucking up a lot of my time, and along with my 20 credits here at University of Miami, is making my last semester rather horrible.

Here is my problem- I am very interested in exotic and zoo medicine, and for that reason I applied to Oregon State (the only school left that requires Nutrition). But with the acceptance at Ohio, and the interview at Penn, I don't know if I would even go there if accepted. My question is, is there sufficient opportunities for zoo and exotic medicine at both of these schools for me to drop Nutrition and scrap my Oregon State application? I hate to do it, but it really seems silly if I think I would still pick Ohio over Oregon anyway, and I could still be rejected from Oregon of course. Interested to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
- Ross

 

[nyanko]

Your institution doesn't really matter for a specialty. What will matter is if you can get a good residency. As long as the school has opportunities to do externships and away rotations in zoo med, it'd be fine to get your DVM (or VMD) from. So go wherever fits you best/would be cheapest.

 

[Niteangel]

Hey. Something to think about with the nutrition class...

I just interviewed at Penn this past Friday. I have a Master's degree so I asked about classes that we would have the option to "opt-out" of. They said Nutrition was one of the classes that had this option. The student I spoke to about this pretty much said "If you are 100% sure you do not ever intend to feed a cow during your career, try to opt out of Nutrition." You do not need to test out of it, just prove that you have taken a course in nutrition, have done well, and you are comfortable opting out with your previous exposure to the topic. I plan to do this if I get in 🙂xf:!) ( I am still enrolled in my animal nutrition course @ Purdue, even though the only school that required it rejected me!)

Penn is about 10 minutes about from the Philadelphia Zoo, and there is a very large veterinary facility in the city that sees all kinds of animals.

Good luck!

 

[BlacKAT33]

Hey. Something to think about with the nutrition class...

I just interviewed at Penn this past Friday. I have a Master's degree so I asked about classes that we would have the option to "opt-out" of. They said Nutrition was one of the classes that had this option. The student I spoke to about this pretty much said "If you are 100% sure you do not ever intend to feed a cow during your career, try to opt out of Nutrition." You do not need to test out of it, just prove that you have taken a course in nutrition, have done well, and you are comfortable opting out with your previous exposure to the topic. I plan to do this if I get in 🙂xf:!) ( I am still enrolled in my animal nutrition course @ Purdue, even though the only school that required it rejected me!)

Penn is about 10 minutes about from the Philadelphia Zoo, and there is a very large veterinary facility in the city that sees all kinds of animals.

Good luck!

yup, this is true. I heard nutrition is an easy one to opt out of too.

 

[sumstorm]

I'm sure I will get flack for this, but I'm in zoo med focus area (at a school that requires a nutrition pre-req and still requires nutrition second year.) I don't know about Ohio and Penn's programs.

Nyanko is correct if you want to go into academia, research, or big name zoos (san diego, national, bonn) but the majority of zoos in the US, including state and regional, do not require specialization. Some prefer to hire vets that are in private practice to reduce costs (and costs are an issue in every zoo.)

I don't plan to pursue zoo med specialization which requires a residency. I will end up, eventually, doing an avian, exotic mammal, reptile/amphibian practice specialization, none of which require residency, but do have other requirements like mentoring and suitable case load. My ideal situation will include owning a multiple DVM practice and working as a consulting vet at a regional zoo (I have a couple of zoos in mind and am already talking with their current vets and directors, I also have 3 externships set up with potential mentors.)

Before someone gets upset, I am not suggesting the specialities I am willing to obtain are better than zoo med specialty, just pointing out that zoo med has some variations for entry, and some of the current zoo med experts (consultants to zoo vets) in the field are actualy canine/feline practice specialists who have built on their own interests and passions.

I have heard, from the research I have done on entry to zoo med, that this kind of entry does require a lot of networking, and is very dependent on extensive experience during vet school, so going to a school with a lot of documentable oppurtunities can be beneficial. I have already had the great fun of waiting for folks to retire or die for zoo positions, so I'm not interested in doing that again through zoo specialty.

Additionally, often zoo med residencies are on rotating cycles. IE our residency this year is for an aquatics position. When that occurs, residency boards will pass over excellent candidates without a track record in that specific interest. IE if you have a massive amount of mammal experience, but only token aquatics, they aren't going to consider your residency application because they are investing in the position and want the candidate who will be both the best fit and the best going into the field after graduation.

Having said all that, if you are willing to track down the oppurtunities for yourself, I'm not sure it would really matter where you go. That extra leg work can be hard during vet school (I have spent a lot of time driving to zoos, the coast, private exotics owners/breeders, research facilities, etc to have significant hands on time...and we have a good program here.) What I personally wouldn't have had as much success obtaining on my own is the current research going on in vet med, which we are presented with in our electives courses. Our residents have to review literature, research, and communicate with other vets to give weekly presentations of what is occuring. This is partially for board review (so our first years start learning about board procedures from first semester on) and partially to keep everyone current.