Interview Topics

[GellaBella]

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Soooo some of us have started hearing about interview dates and some of us (raises hand) are still waiting to hear .

Since this is my first time applying and I have no experience with vet school interviews I was thinking that maybe we could start a thread and list topics that might be good to go over for the interview process.

Hot Topics in VetMed essentially and anything else we might think of.

So for example:

Veterinary Related Topics
Zoonotic diseases
*swine/avian influenza
*West Nile Virus
*rabies
*BSE

Personal Topics
*strengths/weaknesses
*involvement in any research

School Related Topics
*Questions that you want answered
*Why this school?
*Likes/dislikes of the school

I'm sure there are millions more. Let's give ourselves the best shot possible at getting in!

 

[twelvetigers]

Don't forget to look here!

http://more.studentdoctor.net/schoollist.php?type=8

 

[GellaBella]

haha yes thank you! You know I did a search and didn't think to look in the interview feedback section even though I have read it over a million times. 😳

 

[BlacKAT33]

i could have sworn there was another thread about this same thing a couple months ago and ppl added in diff topics but i cant find it newhere!! sighhh maybe it was in a random thread instead of having its own

 

[BlacKAT33]

Veterinary Related Topics
Zoonotic diseases
*swine/avian influenza
*West Nile Virus
*rabies
*BSE

Ethical questions
*euthanasia
*animal abuse

Personal Topics
*strengths/weaknesses
*involvement in any research
*hobbies
*multicultural background
*disadvantages

School Related Topics
*Questions that you want answered
*Why this school?
*Likes/dislikes of the school
*what makes you a good fit for this school/what would you bring to it

 

[twelvetigers]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=433507

Not much time to look for anything else, have to go grocery shopping... last minute things, y'know.

 

[shelterURIgirl]

A good zoonotic disease to bring up is plague. Its very under appreciated. Most people don't realize that plague is endemic in many parts of this country. Usually, its a pretty nice pathogen and kinda just hangs around in squirrels. But every once in a while it accidently evolves and gets naughty, killing off an entire (local) population of squirrels. This leaves the fleas sitting in the bushes veerrryyy hungry. So they jump on anything that walks by. Like, for instance a cat, which is susceptible to getting the pneumonic version of plague. How does this present? As your common URI symptoms, except that unlike your typical sneezing/wheezing URI it's extremely contagious and can be passed from cat to person and then from person to person. The symptoms in a person are very flu-like, intense, and by the time the person realizes they need help it's usually too late.

Anyways, I was asked in my interview to give an example of a zoonotic disease, and I completely impressed my panel with this. It was the 2nd question, and when I answered all 3 of my interviewers sat up straighter and totally became interested in me. I can imagine they were sick and tired of hearing about boring bartonella...

 

[bunnity]

Why should we pick you over the other applicants? What makes you better than them?

 

[racccjlm]

A vet told me: Be positive in the interview, stay true to who you are, and don't choose this 30 minute stretch of time in you life to get on a soap box 😀

 

[david594]

Plague seems to be a big california thing as its only the cali students in my class I ever hear talking about it.

For a zoonotic disease I talked about MRSA mostly because its different and I didn't anticipate anyone else would.

Some Career Awareness stuff:
What non-clinical jobs do vets commonly perform>
How much does it cost to attend veterinary school? How will you pay for it?
What kind of starting salary can a vet expect to make? What if they do an internship?

 

[bruinvetman]

Veterinary Related Topics
Zoonotic diseases
*swine/avian influenza
*West Nile Virus
*rabies
*BSE
*MRSA
*plague
*Bartonella
*parasitic roundworms
*leptospirosis

Ethical questions
*euthanasia
*animal abuse
*cosmetic procedures (tail/ear cropping)
*Cat declaws
*Devocalization

Current Events
*Prop 2, Issue 2 and other similar propositions in Michigan and New York
*Unwanted horse issues

Personal Topics
*strengths/weaknesses
*involvement in any research
*hobbies
*multicultural background
*disadvantages

School Related Topics
*Questions that you want answered
*Why this school?
*Likes/dislikes of the school
*what makes you a good fit for this school/what would you bring to it
*Ohio asks about other schools you applied to

 

[cowgirla]

Other zoonotic diseases that I've heard a bit about lately:

Giardia
Mange
Toxoplasmosis
Anthrax
Brucellosis
Lymes/Babesiosis/West Nile


Is heartworm considered zoonotic? I've heard of humans developing lung cysts from the heart worms, but I'm not familiar with the methods of transmission to humans. Something to look into...

 

[DVMDream]

Is heartworm considered zoonotic? I've heard of humans developing lung cysts from the heart worms, but I'm not familiar with the methods of transmission to humans. Something to look into...

Humans can get heartworm cysts but it is very rare and it is not spread from the dog to the human. It is spread from the mosquito to the human or the mosquito to the dog. Usually the human immune system is efficient in eliminating the parasite before it causes problems. Not zoonotic, unless you want to suck blood from your dog, but I still do not think that would give a heartworm infection.

 

[cowgirla]

Humans can get heartworm cysts but it is very rare and it is not spread from the dog to the human. It is spread from the mosquito to the human or the mosquito to the dog. Usually the human immune system is efficient in eliminating the parasite before it causes problems. Not zoonotic, unless you want to suck blood from your dog, but I still do not think that would give a heartworm infection.

Interesting article:
http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/data/articlestandard//dvm/392002/32691/article.pdf

It's from 2002, but lists heartworm as an emerging zoonosis, with something like 120 reported cases, most of those in the 1990s, but "under-reported" due to being asymptomic or misdiagnosed as cancer.


Also, I was always taught the a zoonotic disease doesn't have to be passed directly from animal to human, or human to animal-- vector borne diseases (ticks/skeeters) are also considered to be zoonotic.

 

[DVMDream]

Also, I was always taught the a zoonotic disease doesn't have to be passed directly from animal to human, or human to animal-- vector borne diseases (ticks/skeeters) are also considered to be zoonotic.

I guess it depends on how you look at a zoonotic disease. My point is that it HAS to go through the mosquito (has to develop within the mosquito) to infect any other animal whether that be another canid or a feline. Also human infections are very, very rare and humans do not develop adult worms. Instead disease occurs as a response of the human immune system, causing cysts on organs, most commonly the lungs (HPD; human pulmonary dirofilariasis). Heartworm parasites tend to die in hosts that are not their “normal definitive host”. The parasite usually is not able to mature into its 4th and 5th juvenile stages within the human so it dies. Only on rare occasions can a few worms develop and cause an immune reaction that results in disease. So, again it depends on how you look at it. Currently, the CDC does not see heartworm disease as zoonotic. But, it could potentially mutate and be effective within a human and cause Heartworm Disease, but currently it does not have the ability to cause the same Heartworm Disease in humans that it causes in dogs or cats. And it has not caused any deaths in humans.

 

[Highlsnds3]

Can't forget the recent cases of people giving animals H1N1. A pig and a cat are the two that come to mind. Which leads to some very uninformed people FREAKING out and taking their pets to the shelter because the are afraid they'll catch H1N1 from them🙁

 

[david594]

Don't forget that for all of these zoonotic diseases, just listing them off is pretty useless unless you can discuss why they are of significance.