International Pre-Vet trips

[krmj98]

Hi Everyone!
I'm a first-year sophomore in undergrad, planning to apply for the c/o 2023. Since I will be only doing 3 years at undergrad, I'm trying to think of ways to strengthen my future application since I will simply have less time at my university. I've heard a lot about international pre-vet trips, like CELA Belize and atleast 1 to Africa. These programs make it sound like you get a ton of hands-on experience with exotic animals, which sounds great. Has anyone participated in these trips, or something along the same lines? Would you say it was worth it (I'm concerned about tuition costs for these programs), and did you feel like it really helped your application? Also, I want to do mixed-animal, and I don't have a particular interest in going the exotics route in practice. Do vet schools still like to see varied experiences even if I don't plan on pursuing them? I guess my main concern is that I know I'm not going to be a 4.0 student (probably more in 3.5 ish range) and I know the applicant pool gets more competitive every year, so I'd really like to do everything I can to make my application as strong as possible from the beginning. wow, sorry for the long, drawn-out explanation!
Thank you!!

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[Florida_Future_DVM]

While I have not gone on one of these trips, I can imagine the experience will be something great to talk about in interviews/personal statement as well as being great varied experience for your application (many schools place a high importance on varied hours). A few important things to note, does the experience only count as animal experience? If you are crunched on time, it may be worth it more to get veterinary hours during this time because many schools have a minimum requirement on vet experience. If you don't meet the requirement, you can't apply or would not be considered competitive, no matter how much animal experience you have.

While someone who has been on one of these trips can probably clue you in if it made them more competitive, some other ways to be a stand out applicant include legitimate research (this impressed my interviewers at every interview) and taking initiative for leadership positions (this will help you nail behavioral interviews because you will have tons of valuable experiences to talk about). Also a rockin' GRE score can easily make up for an average GPA at most schools.

I am pretty sure there are a bunch of threads that talk about this, you can probably find them if you search a little.

 

[Pugsforlove2014]

You're usually paying for an experience with one of these trips which is a activity that basically anyone with the right amount of money can do. It won't hurt your chances and perhaps might get you some experience and exposure to things you're interested in but it won't count as more than volunteering/shadowing at a local clinic. My best advice would be to get a job at a clinic over the summer, that demonstrates that people consider you valuable enough to pay to be there. Best of luck though, all of the above recommendations are great too!